To wrench this back on topic, because it is after 1 AM and I should be asleep but would apparently rather be typing deliriously, there are many, many businesses running into the same short-term profit cycle that is currently gutting our infrastructure. The worst thing a business can do right now isn't to ignore their long-term goals. It isn't to lose the confidence of their customers. It isn't even to lose their most valuable employees. It's to miss a quarterly projection.
When stocks drop significantly on a warning that the coming quarter may be less profitable than the previous year's quarter, executives listen. After all, they get gigantic bonuses when they make their number every quarter. In this world, outsourcing an entire product team to India is a great move, because you get to get rid of all of those pesky domestic salaries and replace them with a nice cheap bill from an outside consultant firm. If the product's shit, it'll still be profitable and you can terminate that contract without any of those silly severance packages that you had to use last time. Besides, that shit product won't come to market until you've made 8 more quarterly bonuses.
Companies that live by the quarter defer maintenance. They ship early. They freeze salaries or hiring. They underfund or close down their research and development. They lean on perma-temps. They don't look at what makes the best product, they look at what can make more profit. They time launches for the best window and biggest impact, not by when they think the product will be ready. They announce mandates via press release before they inform their employees. They subcontract their HR services.
Health insurance companies that live by the quarter give bonuses to employees that can find the most claims to deny. Construction conglomerates that live by the quarter cut back on inspections because if they find something wrong it will hurt their profits. Pharmaceutical companies that live by the quarter don't work on new antibiotics because there isn't enough profit in them if they come to market too early. Those same companies don't look for cures any more, they look for treatments that can be extended indefinitely. Electric companies that live by the quarter stop building plants at their needed rate because they will be able to sell their existing power for more once the power supply falls behind demand. Oil companies that live by the quarter slow down their refinery building rate for the same reasons. Automobile manufacturers that live by the quarter stop researching efficiency and start researching new headrest-mounted DVD players that they can sell for more profit than 2 MPG will ever fetch.
The election cycle is vicious, but let's not kid ourselves that private enterprise as a whole does it any better. There are good government programs and there are profitable companies that don't mortgage their future, but they're far between. We hold our politicians and our corporations to the same immediate requirements and we get the same myopic leadership from them. Just as more taxes won't do anything if the non-essential spending isn't cut, higher profits don't make companies treat their workers better or produce better products if they don't have the corporate culture to support that.
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Topic: This country is going to hell in a handbasket: Discuss (Read 10181 times)