Here is a prognosis for the evils of business in society.....and here is a partial antidote from me. Sorry, but a full treatise on this issue is only justified by a litany of books which are currently under preparation. Incidentally, they will all be released around the same time.
I find this article punctuated by a litany of misconceptions....let me elaborate.
1. Meritocratic: He considers businesses to be run on the basis of meritocracy? What is your standard of value when you make that assertion? Sustainable profits. I would suggest that the way business owners act has nothing to do with profitability, but their delusions, their self-serving material interests at the expense of others. Businesses are a democratic structure, not a meritocratic one. Just because you didn't get a vote, or your vote did not have an effective contribution does not make it any less democratic. If you were right, and rewarded for it, that would be meritocratic.
2. Control: Most people are raised with the belief that coercion is practical. Its how most parents run their families, how govt and schools function, i.e. Obedience and compliance. Businesses have to do it as much as you. Sadly they comply like you do....so why are you solely identifying them?
3. System - Businesses are systems, as are you, a human system. Not all systems are growth systems. Not all systems sustain themselves indefinitely. Systems don't dehumanise people, the structure of them fails to achieve values for all players because of government tyranny. People denied values are more pernicious in their retention and pursuit of them.
4. Warfare - Well, people might use the world 'warfare' to describe business 'metaphorically'. The reality is that competition is not the primary consideration of business; its really a secondary consequence of freedom, and the right to pursue your own interests, and the context of scarcity in which we exist.
5. Employees as children - Well, that is the way coercive systems function. Business sadly does not take moral positions, and follows govt for the sake of profits. The saddest aspect of business is their moral indifference. So you are indirectly right here.
6. Fear as motivator - you ignore the role of carrots, ie. incentives, subsidies, which are all elements by govt, since it has the sole discretion to use force. You might argue that business has the power to sack workers, but that is a voluntary relationship. The fact that its a harsh decision is because of centralised, democratic govt, which intervenes in the market, i.e. Restricts growth, artificially holds up wages, distorts markets with debt and immigration stimulus, as a secondary measure to allay the impact of its 'centralised control'.
That is why business and Rand blamed business....so you miss the point...but I agree with you....business is not without contempt for its moral indifference....but its not the source of the problem. They are complying with authoritarian govt like you, and your solution? Not to vote for smaller government. Thanks, but no thanks.
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Author
Andrew Sheldon
