04.25.12
Blessed are the job creators
They can always hire way more waiters. Except when they don’t, which is often.
Credit: Mark Smollin.
From the Financial Times, the bogroll standard ‘blessed are the job creators’ shtick:
This urge to punish business with hysterical campaigns is not always driven by pure intentions. The main facilitators are lawyers, often joined by anti-capitalists of one type or another – unions, Occupy activists, leftwing agitators. All tend to have dubious motives, cloaked in weasel words such as “holding the powerful to account???, “fairness??? and “preventing exploitation???.
The BP Gulf oil spill of two years ago cost the business perhaps $40bn in fines, clean-up expenses and payments to various sufferers. No doubt a high proportion of that cash will end up in the hands of law firms that specialise in getting money out of big companies in class action lawsuits. It was certainly a tragedy, with 11 deaths on the rig. Management clearly made serious mistakes. But the west needs oil and drilling for it is inherently dangerous. Are we not all at least partly complicit, by virtue of our addiction to cheap petrol to fuel our consumer lifestyles? (Yes, it’s a shame about all the deformed crabs and things.)
Diverting money from industry that would otherwise be invested to create jobs can only make nations such as the US and Britain less competitive
Companies are sometimes guilty of boasting too much in their advertising, and promising goods they cannot deliver. And occasionally rogues work within organisations, behaving badly in various ways. But if we persist in bashing and suing business like a competitive sport, then how can it grow, generate jobs and help maintain our standard of living? And who would want to be a business leader?
Cue the movie trailer for Atlas Shrugged.
“The writer runs Risk Capital Partners, a private equity firm …” reads the tagline at the FT.
“Anti-capitalists” and “left wing agitators.” I like that. Could be a title for
a song if there weren’t too many syllables. I can make it more groovy: “Hippies and Commies are Harshing My Day.”
On the other hand, from Business Insider, a concession that economic austerity measures, layoffs and paying people in gum hasn’t worked:
Companies like Starbucks could help stimulate the economy, too–by giving their low-wage employees a raise …
Our corporations are as profitable now as they have ever been. So I’d like to see a lot of them voluntarily decide to invest more and pay their low-wage employees more and hire more employees. They can afford it, and “cash flow” isn’t the sole objective or reward of running a business.
Starbucks paying its wait staff more. Yeah, that’ll happen. When Hell freezes over. On the other hand, Starbucks is a perfect company for the demographic of shoe-shiners to the 1 percent.