A neighbour of mine works in the call centre for a well known insurance company. The Principle was keen for staff to do their bit in the community and encouraged them to support charitable activities, such as donating blood during office hours.
When he sold out to a large corporation this practice was discontinued by the new owners. On Remembrance Day members of the switchboard were told to ignore the two minutes silence as it would cost too much in lost revenue. The staff ignored the instruction and I believe the matter was not mentioned again.
My youngest son is exuding the early symptoms of a stomach ulcer at the age of 24. He used to work for a company that does a lot of its account work over the telephone, with the accompanying daily pressure to attain targets. To ignore health symptoms of this nature in the unremitting pressure to achieve profits is akin to a state of addictive denial, which results in irresponsible actions of the type experienced by my son.
I cite these examples out of many to illustrate my belief that modern business is displaying all of the symptoms of addiction. If you accept that addiction is a human condition and business is run by humans, I believe profit is an addictive side effect of money. After all, the poppy is a beautiful flower but has less attractive derivatives in opium and heroin. Grain and grape are harmless foods until distilled.
The symptoms of addiction I allude to include:
a) Irrational behaviour - A total focus on profit, to the exclusion of all else
b) Obsessive behaviour - Justifying all actions without regard for human dignity.
c) Attainment of the “profit high” at all costs, irrespective of the impact upon others (Staff, Suppliers, the Environment)
d) Denial -That a) b) and c) above, are not the case
In the pursuit of profit a couple of hundred years ago Britain became “Great” on the back of the slave trade. Is it the tantalising myth of “something for nothing” that profit proffers which produces scant regard for the human misery its attainment often causes? And why is it that often it induces us to fall seriously short of the higher ideals we try to operate and pursue in most other areas of our lives?
We may possibly find justification for our actions because we are hunter/gatherers and need to fulfil this basic human drive. I have no problem with this and the excitement it brings. I enjoyed that excitement for many years and it does seem to fill a requirement within us to experience achievement.
However, the excitement that came from hunting for food was tempered by the fact that if we took too much it did not benefit us proportionately, because it rotted back into the ground when not eaten. We can hoard profit and this subtle difference is something we have not devoted any time to in better understanding how we operate as a species with this aspect of our activity.
Perhaps the challenge is to understand better our reactions to profit and try to evolve to a point where we are its master and not the opposite, which has been the case throughout history. To this end, in subtly changing our belief in the emphasis of financial disciplines by introducing other equally important rewards, might we achieve a more diversely satisfying method of exciting and stimulating our instincts, with broader benefits to society?
I know, corporations and business in general do a lot for charity and fulfill an important need. However, the manner in which this activity is conducted does not seem to temper the aggressive approach to profits that modern business has adopted. In part this is down to the sheer size of modern business, which means it becomes increasingly detached from the community in a way that could never happen when small businesses dominated the high street.
In an environment where a bank that makes hundreds of millions of pounds of profit then declares like Bill Gates, that it is putting a fair percentage back, creates a different outlook to its activities.
An action of this type generates a closer connection with the communities that support it, rather than the increasing separateness from customers that modern business practices induces through of shareholder priority.
At a time when this planet and its inhabitants do not appear to be working in synergy, causing serious imbalances and Global Warming, I offer a personal view of our current plight in a combination of personal experiences, science, religion and psychology.
If your questions are not getting answers from a single belief system, as previously mine did not, I hope my perspectives on life may stimulate further thought for you. I am a member of the human race and it is in this context that I offer my own observations on life as a possible contribution to our development – a right available to us all.
Born and bred in London, in addition to Wendy my partner of 10 years, and my children - Rob, Mike and Sue, I love Rugby, Motor Racing, Scuba Diving, Furniture Restoration, Books, Wine and Cooking Good Food.
Good points. Go to WRITERS ARCHIVES "B" then to Professor Emeritus Peter Bagnolo check out dozens of artilces about AVARICE and how we can stop it.
Keep on plugging and maybe more folks will realize that God, All the Prophets and Jesus selected hypocritical AVARICE as the worst crime against hu mankind. Jesus spent more time and space decrying AVARICE, THAN ALL OTHER evils.
Ther is,as we both know, no need for CEOs to make 550-3,00 times the average salary of their rank and file employeees The prewar average here of 25 times the average was sufficiently generous then and remains so now and is the standard in most European nations.
Doing so is stealing from stockholders, investors and employees./ Boards of Directors are all Executives at other companies and they scratch-each-others-backs and all pull together to manipulate their compensation packages in a multi-billion dollar scheme of corruption which makes the old Mafia look like penny anti-pikers.
Bravo Merlin! Glad to have you aborad the anti-Avarice boat. I say in several article, cap CEO compensation at $2.5 million a year and heavily tax outsourcing corporations to fund Hospitalization plans for 325 million Americans. Study after study showed that the greaest minds are in higher education and the most greedy, hostiles minds are in corporations.
I heard Mccain use the negative "Socialized Medicine" the cluse wordfor most single brain-celled humans,who never stop to think that we have "socialized" schools police,fire,army, air force, marines, navy and national guard, drinking water, traffic signals, water filtration and distribution as well as most businesses like the $700 TRILLION NO-BID-CONTRACTS GIVEN to Haliburton and others.
The entirety of the 5% richest people on the planet arer the recipients of "Socialized Pork Barrel " Contracts"
There is no great skill needed to run a multi-national corporation, research and class action law suits have proven that corporations run smoothly with mid-to lower management skills mounting the strategies. The average IQ of a Corporate CEO is less than the average IQ of Faculty members by about 20-30 points./ Most men and women want a happy,peacful life,while corporations want todrain everyone to make a handful of hostile greedy people a new royalty.
We need the values of the average man on the street not those of Averistic hypocrites. Join me in writing more about this cloud of greedy evil encompassing the world.
by
Professor Emeritus Peter Bagnolo (144 articles, 1 quicklinks, 95 diaries, 1311 comments)
on Friday, January 18, 2008 at 7:29:21 PM
I just wanted to add my two cents worth so here goes it. I believe this addiction to profit has been fueled by the corporate written propaganda praising free trade and globalization and the virtues of business operating free of any moral conscious or government interference, except for subsidies. Words like socialism and protectionism are used by the business interests to demonize any attempt at helping anyone but the wealthy elite.
Our government, by allowing corporations to control them and diminish the rights and bargaining power of workers, is depriving Americans of liberty and freedom. Employers now possess the authority of fascist dictators. Americans must exist in a country were there is no job security or compassion for workers. Workers are just human capital, an instrument no better than a machine or piece of equipment use to make profit. We have went backwards to a time much like it was over 100 years ago when sweatshops were the norm and workers had no rights or recourse, if injured or killed on the job so what, try to sue and you will find we own the courts and local law enforcement.
Corporate fascism is, in my opinion, causing a tremendous increase of stress related illness for Americans who have to endure their ruthless business model. Preventive health care should be the first step in reigning in soaring health care costs and reigning in greedy corporations should be the first step.
by
Gary Denson (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 214 comments)
on Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 9:48:31 AM
Hunter- gathers will soon become a familiar term as U.S. Corporations continue to merge and fail in an effort to remain globally profitable while complying with U.S. work rules.
Reigning in corporations will soon no longer be the call in America as we watch the last one pack up and leave our shores. The call at this point is for jobs for Americans as we watch our country slide into recession.
I sat on the board of a large corp. for years and have complete and total disdain for their hierarchy and excess, much the same as it exists in our government.
Yet, those in America who do have paid vacations, 401 Ks, work under OSHA rules, have health insurance, maternity leave, and all of the other perks that we desire, most likely work for government or a large corp. But not for long.
Small business rarely provides these benefits and certainly does not provide any type of certainty or longevity for their employees.
The U.S. is in the final throes of an exponential consumption based economic model that was never sustainable nor mathematically possible in a finite environment.
I do not contend that your analysis is incorrect regarding the profit driven mania that we have experienced in America. I have a chapter in my book titled People or Profits?, which goes to the same end.
What I do contend is that American Corporations are not our saviors from the standpoint of a taxing entity from which we can extract the necessary funds to provide the services that we desire government to provide; but are more akin to the American Bison and will soon disappear from the U.S. landscape all together. At that point, we will once more become hunter-gathers and reflect back on the good ol' days when G.M. provided high wages and solid retirement.
by
Mike Folkerth (120 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 566 comments)
on Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 11:22:09 AM
...well, it's really quite depressing... click here and play a fast game of "They Rule."
Years ago in an "economics" class, to students parroting the dogma, learning the catechisms of "market equilibrium" and "supply and demand," the professor posed a question:
there's a shoe factory. Does it exist to "provide jobs for the community," or to "return a profit for the owners?" A few idealists answered, "provide jobs," and were shouted down by the overwhelming majority in the "profit" camp. Finally, an old "returning adult" student slammed his hand on the desk and the erstwhile young MBAs fell silent.
"MAKE SHOES," he shouted. "The shoe factory is there to make fookin SHOES. No shoes... no "profit." No shoes... no "jobs." What the hell is wrong with you people?" The professor gave the old student a sad smile. That year the professor retired and the old student left to study Literature.
Both knew... the addiction was terminal.
by
waldopaper (11 articles, 3 quicklinks, 24 diaries, 426 comments)
on Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 11:50:24 AM
"Even though the founding fathers of the United States of America did their best to create and ensure freedom, equality and democracy, they were still British-Americans and they were influenced by European traditions. In fact, the U.S. Government has its roots in European Empires, particularly the British Empire and the earlier Roman Empire, and that is particularly evident in its legal and economic systems."
"After all, when a significant dispute arose early on between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson about economics, Hamilton won because he touted the existing British-American system. Hamilton liked it because it was built around corporate and private capitalism, while Jefferson advocated for a more equitable and democratic economic system. But Hamilton prevailed because his views appealed more to the relative few who had become wealthy and powerful due to the economic traditions that had been carried over from Europe. Consequently, corporate and private capital wealth remained the ruling factor and the essential source of power, as it was in Europe."
Those are the first two paragraphs in the article that can be viewed at:
It is obvious the problem facing the world is a lack of open competition. What we need is more greedy capitalists - in fact, we need everyone to be a greedy capitalist! When I see tens of millions of starving Africans, billions of souls slaving away in Second, Third and Fourth world nations, when I see poor Americans, I want to call my brokers and incorporate the masses.
You argue that owners of corporations make profits while the workers slave. I couldn't agree more. Let us make everyone a corporation. I
It would certainly go a long ways towards eliminating poverty and misery.
I want everyone to be free, happy and wealthy.
by
Barker (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 118 comments)
on Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 8:39:26 PM
8 comments
How would you rate this?
You must be logged in (if signed up) to do ratings.
It's free to signup! And easy. And takes just a minute or two....
Must Read (
Well Said (
News (
Touching (
Funny (
Supported (
Interesting (
Inspiring (
Valuable (
