Corporations should be judged only upon the quality and value of the service or product they sell, and how they treat thier employees. A corporation does a great deal of social good by fulfilling just these attributes. Regulate the factors that the corporation is not naturally incentivized to provide (e.g., pollution, financial "fairness" like interest rates).
Don't expect or ask more from the corporation, it is not what they exist to do. This is what has made our society work so well.
Great post! Another example to add to your list of Woke Corporation is the infamous BP aka in more honest days as British Petroleum. Rather than concentrating on doing their job they rebranded in 2001 as "BP Beyond Petroleum" while simultaneously ignoring their own safety requirements across operations. In March 2005, the Texas City Refinery, one of the largest refineries owned then by BP, exploded causing 15 deaths, injuring 180 people. That was followed by the March 2006 Pruhoe Bay oil spill on Alaska's north coast and dozens of other safety and environmental violations and accidents, culminating in the Deep Water Horizon catastrophe which killed 11 people and injured 16 others, leaked about 4.9 million barrels into the Gulf of Mexico. But isn't it 'nice' that BP claims "Our purpose is reimagining energy for people and our planet. We want to help the world reach net zero and improve people’s lives."
Jennifer I fear you may be throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Corporations can do a tremendous amount of good - by being good at the actual jobs they have to do!
Companies can and sometimes do really tell the truth to the best of their ability.
Companies can make a huge difference in the lives of their employees by actually treating people with respect, giving them responsibility, and expecting great results.
And companies can make a real difference in the lives of their customers by providing great products and services at a fair price.
So I disagree with “you cannot simultaneously dedicate yourself to making untold fortunes for a giant corporation and to championing a social good.” Promoting honesty, treating people respectfully, and delivering great products are in fact social goods of great importance. And they are very much doable and sometimes done by great companies.
Back in the middle 2000's I wrote, for a relatively widely-read libertarian website. One of my favorite articles, and the one that got the most push-back from the libertarian intelligentsia, was a piece I wrote where I showed (or attempted to show) that altruism is just some B.S. invented by observers to explain behavior they did not have the information to evaluate. In short, yes, a scam, pretty much!
Great article. I have worked with some leaders who give quotes that always seemed so 'outlandish.' Glad you had some too. I never understood/understand Crypto so I didn't lose anything. Lost a lot lately, but none in the Crypto market. Looking forward to your audible book coming out, please keep writing! It's always an enjoyable read.
When I was in college, definitely hungry and striving, I had 2 pair of Levis--the looser ones to accommodate long underwear in winter, the tighter ones for the warm months. I don't think any clothing companies made money off of me, as my wardrobe was so small. I sewed my dresses myself. Later, as a public school teacher, I had money for a modestly expanded wardrobe. The "made in USA" labels I looked for disappeared as corporations moved production abroad. Pharma corporations continue their profit schedules through the marketing of "56 genders" and the drugs to match them, invented "dysphoria" claiming body parts of our internet-addicted youth. Walt Whitman is turning in his grave. Bob Dylan will find a way to profit from it, knowing him.
Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods, True Tales from a Grass Widow (iuniverse, 2022)
FTX used to present itself this way: "FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange, built by traders, for traders. Buy and sell BTC, ETH, SOL tokens and futures with up to 20x leverage."
Traders who use up to 20x leverage tend to go bankrupt. FTX sounds like a tale of wildly overconfident financiers, including the company, the people who funded FTX, and FTX's customers.
my personal rule was to never work for anyone who wasn't physically there on the premises, never work for a company that had a lot of initialed people (CEO, CFO), never work for anyone who had an HR department, never work for anyone who had to advertise to convince people to want what you were selling, never work for a publicly traded company, never join a labor union. never work for a company that is immortal; when the founder dies, retires or merely gets tired, the company should die a natural death.
this elimiates a lot of crap. by necessity, the business is small enough to be managed by the founder who, since he or she is hands on, knows every aspect of the work and is accessible to talk to you directly if you are having a problem.
the business makes tangible things of high value that both founder and workers can take pride in. the income of the company depends on making fewer high ticket unique items rather than a high volume of low priced sales. better to have a small group of highly skilled artisans making one $5000 item than an army of virtual slaves in a third world country making 5000 items for $1 apiece.
since there are no shareholders, there is no need to chase quarterly increases; growth of the company can proceed organically and is never presumed to be unlimited.
since there is no union, mediocre employees are not rewarded and the people who work there are driven by satisfaction; they are not so miserable at work that they must constantly be protesting for more.
clients come by word of mouth. no money is ever spent on marketing. all customers are voluntary and haven't had to be convinced by clever advertising to purchase something they neither want nor need.
the founder and the employees know all of the clients personally.
right out of the gate, a business such as this has minimal opportunities for criminal, unethical or harmful activities.
those principals have served me well throughout my working life.
I shared this with both my wife and daughter and at least my wife loved it, and reflected on her experiences with Execs spouting "virtue" while acting in the opposite way. I really enjoy your perspective even when I don't agree with everything. I like different perspectives that challenge my thinking, because it always makes me reassess my perspective. Sometimes this comes with a change, often it just makes me more confident in my own position. Either way, DISCUSSION IS GOOD! Disagreement in a topic does not mean I am good or bad.
"you cannot simultaneously dedicate yourself to making untold fortunes for a giant corporation and to championing a social good.”
Seems that, contrary to the great n\majority of capitalists, it is possible for a few motivated businessmen to do both in theory and fact. As an example, my reading a good deal about Warren Buffett and the many businesses that willingly joined his conglomerate (he has done no takeovers), indicates that they were ethical to employees and customers. I welcome contrary evidence.
Corporations should be judged only upon the quality and value of the service or product they sell, and how they treat thier employees. A corporation does a great deal of social good by fulfilling just these attributes. Regulate the factors that the corporation is not naturally incentivized to provide (e.g., pollution, financial "fairness" like interest rates).
Don't expect or ask more from the corporation, it is not what they exist to do. This is what has made our society work so well.
Great post! Another example to add to your list of Woke Corporation is the infamous BP aka in more honest days as British Petroleum. Rather than concentrating on doing their job they rebranded in 2001 as "BP Beyond Petroleum" while simultaneously ignoring their own safety requirements across operations. In March 2005, the Texas City Refinery, one of the largest refineries owned then by BP, exploded causing 15 deaths, injuring 180 people. That was followed by the March 2006 Pruhoe Bay oil spill on Alaska's north coast and dozens of other safety and environmental violations and accidents, culminating in the Deep Water Horizon catastrophe which killed 11 people and injured 16 others, leaked about 4.9 million barrels into the Gulf of Mexico. But isn't it 'nice' that BP claims "Our purpose is reimagining energy for people and our planet. We want to help the world reach net zero and improve people’s lives."
Jennifer I fear you may be throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Corporations can do a tremendous amount of good - by being good at the actual jobs they have to do!
Companies can and sometimes do really tell the truth to the best of their ability.
Companies can make a huge difference in the lives of their employees by actually treating people with respect, giving them responsibility, and expecting great results.
And companies can make a real difference in the lives of their customers by providing great products and services at a fair price.
So I disagree with “you cannot simultaneously dedicate yourself to making untold fortunes for a giant corporation and to championing a social good.” Promoting honesty, treating people respectfully, and delivering great products are in fact social goods of great importance. And they are very much doable and sometimes done by great companies.
Back in the middle 2000's I wrote, for a relatively widely-read libertarian website. One of my favorite articles, and the one that got the most push-back from the libertarian intelligentsia, was a piece I wrote where I showed (or attempted to show) that altruism is just some B.S. invented by observers to explain behavior they did not have the information to evaluate. In short, yes, a scam, pretty much!
Effective altruism is theft and fraud. FTX investors abandoned their fiduciary duties. Yet no one will be held accountable: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/how-to-lose-214-million-in-one-year
I was there and rolled my eyes too. You weren’t the only o e.
Great article. I have worked with some leaders who give quotes that always seemed so 'outlandish.' Glad you had some too. I never understood/understand Crypto so I didn't lose anything. Lost a lot lately, but none in the Crypto market. Looking forward to your audible book coming out, please keep writing! It's always an enjoyable read.
Mary Barra is moving GM a breakneck speed towards destruction, and all the execs are like lemmings, following her off that cliff.
When I was in college, definitely hungry and striving, I had 2 pair of Levis--the looser ones to accommodate long underwear in winter, the tighter ones for the warm months. I don't think any clothing companies made money off of me, as my wardrobe was so small. I sewed my dresses myself. Later, as a public school teacher, I had money for a modestly expanded wardrobe. The "made in USA" labels I looked for disappeared as corporations moved production abroad. Pharma corporations continue their profit schedules through the marketing of "56 genders" and the drugs to match them, invented "dysphoria" claiming body parts of our internet-addicted youth. Walt Whitman is turning in his grave. Bob Dylan will find a way to profit from it, knowing him.
Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods, True Tales from a Grass Widow (iuniverse, 2022)
uteheggengrasswidow.wordpress.com
FTX used to present itself this way: "FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange, built by traders, for traders. Buy and sell BTC, ETH, SOL tokens and futures with up to 20x leverage."
Traders who use up to 20x leverage tend to go bankrupt. FTX sounds like a tale of wildly overconfident financiers, including the company, the people who funded FTX, and FTX's customers.
my personal rule was to never work for anyone who wasn't physically there on the premises, never work for a company that had a lot of initialed people (CEO, CFO), never work for anyone who had an HR department, never work for anyone who had to advertise to convince people to want what you were selling, never work for a publicly traded company, never join a labor union. never work for a company that is immortal; when the founder dies, retires or merely gets tired, the company should die a natural death.
this elimiates a lot of crap. by necessity, the business is small enough to be managed by the founder who, since he or she is hands on, knows every aspect of the work and is accessible to talk to you directly if you are having a problem.
the business makes tangible things of high value that both founder and workers can take pride in. the income of the company depends on making fewer high ticket unique items rather than a high volume of low priced sales. better to have a small group of highly skilled artisans making one $5000 item than an army of virtual slaves in a third world country making 5000 items for $1 apiece.
since there are no shareholders, there is no need to chase quarterly increases; growth of the company can proceed organically and is never presumed to be unlimited.
since there is no union, mediocre employees are not rewarded and the people who work there are driven by satisfaction; they are not so miserable at work that they must constantly be protesting for more.
clients come by word of mouth. no money is ever spent on marketing. all customers are voluntary and haven't had to be convinced by clever advertising to purchase something they neither want nor need.
the founder and the employees know all of the clients personally.
right out of the gate, a business such as this has minimal opportunities for criminal, unethical or harmful activities.
those principals have served me well throughout my working life.
I shared this with both my wife and daughter and at least my wife loved it, and reflected on her experiences with Execs spouting "virtue" while acting in the opposite way. I really enjoy your perspective even when I don't agree with everything. I like different perspectives that challenge my thinking, because it always makes me reassess my perspective. Sometimes this comes with a change, often it just makes me more confident in my own position. Either way, DISCUSSION IS GOOD! Disagreement in a topic does not mean I am good or bad.
"you cannot simultaneously dedicate yourself to making untold fortunes for a giant corporation and to championing a social good.”
Seems that, contrary to the great n\majority of capitalists, it is possible for a few motivated businessmen to do both in theory and fact. As an example, my reading a good deal about Warren Buffett and the many businesses that willingly joined his conglomerate (he has done no takeovers), indicates that they were ethical to employees and customers. I welcome contrary evidence.