- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
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cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/830212
The absolutely beautiful reason that I can tell that they still aren’t agreeing to Fords concessions is because they in solidarity with new workers that don’t even exist yet, are demanding that Fords new battery plants they are building be placed under the same labor agreement they are fighting for.
“The UAW, according to Ford officials, has taken a hard line on requiring the company’s four new battery plants be placed under the terms of the labor agreement.”
Let me start by saying i agree with you. I’d like to add that nowhere in my academic journey through a state accredited business college did they teach us that the goal of business is to screw workers. That shit is taught by sociopaths to other sociopaths in the corporate world. Fuck em all.
I dunno man, I had a management professor raise an argument that a publicly traded business had only one function, and that was to provide value to its shareholders. Anything else, such as charitable donations, could be considered stealing from its shareholders - unless it provided a return on investment (e.g. a charitable donation provided good PR which caused more people to buy your product).
I don’t think the professor truly believed the argument he was making, but more presenting it as a “this is how many successful businesses operate and how they justify it”.
It’s actually Supreme Court precedent that will allow shareholders to sue if a public company doesn’t choose the most profitable way of doing business.
So in a public corporation, they have to choose the most evil way of doing business.
That’s not the case and it’s definitely not so simple; here’s a short read on why:
https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/04/16/what-are-corporations-obligations-to-shareholders/corporations-dont-have-to-maximize-profits
Interesting read, I definitely held the opposite opinion previously. No idea where I first heard it, but it’s one of these “easy to grasp, difficult to let go” ideas.
See also “alpha males”, which is also total BS, but often repeated.
Seems like an idea that these corps would love to spread. “Oh sorry, we just have to be evil because of those dang shareholders and regulations and such, you know we’d love to be completely benevolent but our hands are tied.”
Thank you for sharing this, I heard that justification so many times I had taken it for fact.
I’ll second this, from someone with a MBA as well. While it’s technically the end goal is to provide a return on investment to shareholders, if you’re a publicly traded company. There are also B corps as well nowadays, which seek to give back to the greater world. The problem with capitalism, is that, in theory, it acts like a parasite, when it SHOULD be acting like a symbiotic entity. Short term gains are never sustainable, big picture should be the top priority. Part of the reason why I love small business and non profits, they try and live in harmony with their neighbors, in theory.