General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsStakeholders, not shareholders.
Why do we have so very many workers who can barely make ends meet?
Because right now, and since the MI Supreme Court ruling against Henry Ford in 1919, we have done corporate business under a doctrine called 'primacy of the shareholder.'
This means that profits are king. Period.
Profits are more important than workers, than safety, than consumers, than the community, than the environment. It's all about shareholder profits. Tax loopholes allowing executive compensation to be deducted have contributed to stratospheric 'salaries' for CEOs.
And, hey, if you are a CEO of a publicly held company, and you are doing your job well, you will do the following:
For Workers
1. Bust the union, if there is one, first thing.
2. Participate in systematic wage theft, if you can.
3. Cut hours so you won't have to give your workforce benefits.
4. Steal back the pensions, if the workers have them.
5. Compromise safety on the workplace floor.
For Consumers
1. Cut cost of sales by using inferior parts.
2. Cut the size of packaging and charge the same amount or more.
3. Compromise product safety until paying out claims exceeds the cost of fixing the problem.
For the Community and Environment
1. Foul the environment whenever you can get away with it, and if caught try to pass the cost of cleanup to taxpayers.
2. Contribute to politicians who will 'owe you' and vote against regulation and for tax cuts.
This is why we have what we have right now. The doctrine of shareholder primacy. Replace that with a stakeholder system where the interests of workers, consumers, communities and the environment are held EQUAL to the interests of shareholders, cap C-Suite pay to no more than 10 times that of the worker on the floor, and impose a fairer corporate tax so that corporations are paying in more like 35% of the federal government's tax revenue instead of the current 6.8% (while individual taxpayers, like the workers, are currently paying in 86% - reduce that down to about 45%), beef up regulations that ensure quality, worker and consumer safety, and limit environmental polluting, and impose a wealth tax to eliminate billionaires and...
VIOLA!!!!
We have enough money for Medicare for all Americans including dental care, vision care and prescription drugs, expanded Social Security, affordable debt-free college, infrastructure improvements, improving our K-12 system, and even a guaranteed minimum income.
Theres PLENTY of money. It is just in too few hands.
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,045 posts)pecosbob
(7,544 posts)leftstreet
(36,116 posts)ProfessorGAC
(65,212 posts)You said
you are doing your job well,.
The company from which I retired saw a stock increase from $22 to $145, plus a split.
So, a 13x improvement in value over 28 years and they did EXACTLY NONE of the items on your list.
So, a ceo can be good & successful without shafting everybody else.
Alas, theres far more that meet your description than those that do not.
moondust
(20,006 posts)somebody's been paying attention.
SOSHALIZUM!!!! COMMYUNIZUM!!!! HALP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PatrickforB
(14,592 posts)PatrickforB
(14,592 posts)when I was an undergrad and took economics coursework, as well as classes like 'social change.' Once you have read your Zinn, Chomsky, Klein, Keynes, Piketty, Reich and others, you know.
And when you know, there's no going back.
moondust
(20,006 posts)may in some cases be incompetents (like TFG) running things who may have a lot of money but may not know much more than those "profitability tricks" you mentioned in the OP--possibly leading to widespread social and economic dysfunction.
A thread last week looked like an example of incompetent Wall Streeters being responsible for the Boeing 737 Max problems.
Question: To what extent is insider trading making some people very rich? It's WHO you know--not WHAT you know.