re: The board room is killing America. And themselves.

Great post. The past is always the best predictor of the future. The rise and fall of the Roman empire is a great example of this.

I feel like the title of this thread should be “free markets are killing America” - which I do not agree with

MBAs are killing America.

I'll show some restraint and I'll leave the c-word out of this post.

quote:

---

we need to find a way to switch it to the primary priority.

---

Here's the problem, corporations are people with the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. And it turns out that the one thing that corporations are required to generate, wealth, is now considered speech.

Generally, competitive interests even out power of corporations except in one case, where their interests coincide.

All corporations will use all of their influence (money) to petition the government against those things that threaten to restrict them as a whole. It would take an enormous amount of money for the actual People to buy the politicians away from the corps.

We've created a monster that we really have no control over.

quote:

---

Corporate America optimized so aggressively for short-term margins that it slowly dismantled the source of long-term demand

---

Thats because our economy operates on a quarterly schedule where you get irrationally shredded over 3 months of performance. When you are talking about trillion dollar companies, there is very little that should be causing big valuation swings on a routine 3 month basis.

quote:

---

People love to invoke the invisible hand. They say the market will allocate resources efficiently.

---

Publicly traded companies should only be required to release form 10ks instead of the quarterly seesaw. The market is not allocating resources efficiently because modern society is built on short term gratification.

Who here is going to argue that meme stock traders are allocating resources efficiently?

quote:

---

The idea that corporations exist solely to make money

---

They do. What are the legal obligations of a corporation?

quote:

---

nothing else can even be considered

---

Nobody ever said that. It's up to the shareholders.

A fiduciary is a person that makes financial decisions for another party who is legally obligated to act in the client's best interests.

quote:

---

It's up to the shareholders.

---

No its not

Most stocks are owned by average joe either through 401k, IRA, or pension fund. However they rarely have voting rights, which are either granted to the fund managing their money, or to the board of their pension fund. For people who buy stocks independently of retirement accounts, they rarely register to vote because their vote holds so little weight. Thats assuming there arent multi classes of stock where their common stock even holds any power

It wouldn’t cost Americans more money

Have fun with your Chinese washing machine that makes you watch ads and dies after 2 years



I’ll keep using my 30 year old American washing machine

Uhhh the first boomers would’ve been 13 in 1967


You’re thinking of the silent generation

quote:

---

Also, what government policies do you think caused manufacturing to decline? What did "boomers" vote for exactly?

---

NAFTA and illegals

I appreciate your sharing this, but the problem and solution are much simpler. The government needs to stay the hell out of every business and industry (which it never will). The government needs to stop picking winners and losers.

It starts with a SIMPLE tax system (the fair plan, flat rate, whatever). No one gets preferential accelerated depreciation over another industry, etc. We sadly are a nation which likes our cheap shite (thank you WalMart and now Amazon) regardless of the simple fact that buying local and USA is better when available . We have been brainwashed that cheaper is better since the mid 1980s. In doing so, the local businesses in most town have been gutted and abandoned.