It's works because major corporation company's like mcdonalds, burgerking, basically all fast food chains, All clothing companies etc. don't make their profit from what they sell, they make their profit from how they pay the people who manufacture the food, from the people who pick the cotton for making the jeans. For example they pay the people who work in the fields who pick that cotton 3 dollars a DAY. So basically they spend just $10 bucks to pay a single employee and to ship the cotton to manufacturers. Then when they make the jeans they sell them in malls and clothing stores at $100 -$150. Thats where the profits being made. So those people who work in the fields are living in poverty, so when they go on strike and demand a raise, they just fire them then hire the unemployed and pay them even less. From the unemployed's point of view thats better than starving to death. That's why if you go to certain areas in newyork low-income areas you will find sweatshops all over with illegal immigrants who have no where else to work legally, That means lots of money to be made off those people. They exploit everyone who works minimum wage. Congress recently declined a bill to raise the minimum wage, so you know the corporations are involved with it. You can actually break capitalism down into a formula, M- C= M1 basically what that means is you have Money - You buy a commodity. Then you sell the commodity which equals = Profit (M1) But the big flaw is where do you get the money to buy the commodity to sell to make the profit?? From the exploitation of minumun wage workers. And that's why capitalism needs the poverty and unemployed for a functioning economy.