Re: So whats next

I picked this item out of the blue to reply to:

On Mon, 03 Oct 2005 13:11:35 -0500, Cyrille de Brébisson wrote:

What you forget is that corporations have a requirement
to maximize profits for the shareholders.


The phrase "maximize profits" is unfortunately
not a clearly defined term.

One obvious lack of definition is the absence of
a definite period of time over which to evaluate.

Many a corporation invests in such things as R&D,
quality assurance, customer relations, and so forth,
for which slashing those entire budgets could give
an immediate boost to current profits,
at the possible expense of future profits.

Since the future is a bit uncertain, however, the estimation
of future profit as affected by all such factors
is also uncertain, which opens the temptation
to pacify impatient investors by slashing all
elements of current investment and relationship building,
emphasizing only short-term revenue, which is unlikely
to be the best long-term strategy, any more than
dropping out of college to take a job to make more money today.

A corporation is also legally, in the USA,
an entity somewhat like a person.  Now it is known
that the complete picture of the satisfaction in life
achieved by human beings is not solely determined
by monetary income, which brings up the possibility
that some folks desire to invest in "socially responsible"
companies, and the very existence of certain investment funds oriented
to that goal testifies to the existence of this factor as well.

Thus we might think to incorporate into "profit" the complete
result to all of society (e.g. some corporate activities
destroy their environment, some promote ill health,
others destroy local economies, etc.)

When all the activities in all of society are summed up
to get the total quality of society, it tends to come to pass
that what society's organizations collectively do
is pretty much responsive to the character of the society at large.

If the collective consciousness of society at large degenerates
into one of lesser vision and shorter-term values,
so will its institutions collectively follow that path.

There remains a diversity, however, within the larger society;
various parts of the population have different values,
and they may invest in institutions whose values match their own,
much as they choose clothes, cars, places to live, political leaders,
and so forth, and by these choices the destiny of the society is formed.

Last night an episode of the "Nature" series
(Deep Jungle: The Beast Within) noted several places,
among them Anchor Wat in Cambodia, which had once developed
cites larger than modern day Manhattan, and came to speculate
as to why these came to an end.  The speculation voiced there
was that they did exactly what is occurring today around the globe,
that they expanded without considering how they were modifying their
own environment in a way which would finally bring their own destruction.

There's always plenty of profit, before the fall of an empire;
hope the next empire to fall won't take too much of the world down with it.

With best wishes from http://www.mum.edu
and http://www.maharishischooliowa.org
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: How many Superman heirs are there?
    ... of a 50% share of interim profits, and 50% of all future profits. ... Copyrights were supposed to expire. ... their investment bought them more years than they expected. ... And any other person wanting to produce a Superman story ...
    (rec.arts.comics.dc.universe)
  • Re: Economic and politics
    ... Such as sharing unpleasant work ... >> You have outlawed interest/rents in your society. ... > Because society wants the returns for their investment of labour ... >>> The source of this labour would come from banks similar to what ...
    (comp.lang.lisp)
  • Re: Tax Cuts Make Money For The Government
    ... Whether or not "social responsibility" is wise is a matter ... individual firm's profits in the short run. ... I saif society benefits - and I can show you the economics of social ... Corporations will tend to make investments based on a poor ...
    (soc.retirement)
  • NYT/Krugman: Another Economic Disconnect
    ... "Profits," he declared, "provide the incentive for physical capital ... and physical capital growth contributes to productivity ... In the Bush years high profits haven't led to high investment, ... allies whine that they aren't getting credit for a great economy, ...
    (alt.politics.bush)
  • Re: Clunkers
    ... in an old-fashioned income, profits, sense, less from having a foreign ... investment is one of the stronger drivers to a healthy economy. ...
    (rec.motorcycles)
Loading