Monday, January 18, 2016

OVER 95 YEARS AGO...

R. H. Tawney in The Acquisitive Society (pp. 278-79) pointed out that the obsession with finance was harming production and not much heed has been paid to his warning:
"The higher officers of the corporation," writes Mr. H. L. Gantt of a Public Utility Company established in America during the war, "have all without exception been men of the 'business' type of mind, who have made their success through financiering, buying, selling, etc.... As a matter of fact it is well known that our industrial system has not measured up as we had expected....The reason for its falling short is undoubtedly that the men directing it had been trained in a business system operated for profits, and did not understand one operated solely for production. This is no criticism of the men as individuals; they simply did not know the job, and, what is worse, they did not know that they did not know it."

That a considerable degree of efficiency will result incidentally from the pursuit of business profits is not, of course, denied. What seems to be true, however, is that the main interest of those directing an industry which has reached this stage of development is given to financial strategy and the control of markets, because the gains which these activities offer are normally so much larger than those accruing from the mere improvement of the processes of production.
Decades later, the careers of people like Mitt Romney and the banksters has shown how destructive the concentration on finance had become for capitalist economies.

4 comments:

Ken Hoop said...

You mention Romney but you leave out Hillary Clinton? Obama? Wall Street owns them.
If all this bothers you so much you should have endorsed Sanders months ago.

http://robertreich.org/post/137631700920

Of course I believe liberal endorsement of affirmative action and hiring quotas displays another kind of bigotry Reich elects to ignore. Other than this area, he's got the goods on
the Dems.

Steve J. said...

If all this bothers you so much you should have endorsed Sanders months ago. (ahem) I've been behind Bernie since he announced he was running. :-)

Ken Hoop said...

PM Carpenter posted very recently his worries about a purist "left populism" risking sacrificing the gains by increments wonderful Hillary could give the US, at least that's how I interpreted his terminology which I found one part unconvincing and one part cowardly and several parts unmentionable.

Anonymous said...

I would tell you traitors prefer a corrupt Gentile to do their bidding rather than a question mark who might not have more than one loyalty.
But that would be rude and Trumpish.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/s/567825/groundbreaking-jewish-candidate-who-may-not-get-much-jewish-support?mref=home_top_side_1