“The corporate mentality was one he had never fully understood, had never signed up to and he would never have sold himself for.”  Murray McDonald  America’s Trust

“Too big to fail” was a cry from our political, fiscal and corporate leaders that we heard constantly between 2007 and 2011.  It was a lie then and a lie still.  There is nothing that is too big to fail. The bigger something grows the closer it gets to failure and the sooner failure is accepted the better off society will become.  The big payoffs and bailouts to the BIG banks and BIG corporations by the Bush and Obama administrations only kicked the can down the road a little further and dumped on the American taxpayer (present and future) a debt that enslaves us all.  Who made out on the deal?  The corporate heads and managers of Goldman Sacks made millions of dollars in bonuses with the bailouts.  I mention GS because they have going for them something that taxpayers and regular Americans do not have – representatives in the government that work actively for them.  The Fed is filled with  former and (by their actions) I would even say current employees.  The same was true for the Bush administration and is currently true for the Obama administration and when these people leave government service where do they go?  We all know the answer to that.  General Motors is another mishandled company that should have been allowed to fold.  The bad decisions that led them to that point were only reinforced by the bailouts.  This time in addition to the top management the union received millions.  Who lost out?  Of course it was the taxpayers but also those who financed GM through bond holdings were left holding the bag.  It was emptied.

Another phrase we heard and still hear is “Crony Capitalism”.  Again, a lie.  Our nation grew out of a capitalistic system.  It is the only economic system that freedom and liberty can grow unfettered.  Is it a perfect system?  Of course not, we live in a world of imperfection so anything devised by man will be imperfect.  What we had here in America was a system that gave everyone a chance to succeed.  The times when it did not as in the South with slavery and afterwards with Jim Crow were times when the capitalist system was ignored and the more socialist system of government made laws that not only enslaved a people but also kept the smaller, poorer farmer from attaining any success.  Where capitalism is allowed to flourish you will have a more prosperous, free and happy people.  What we are experiencing in America now is “Crony Corporatism”.  And that is nothing but a form of socialism passed down through the ages.  More on that later.

All businesses are in it to make a profit.  Even the so called “non profits” have to make money or they soon fall by the wayside.  When an entity incorporates it is for legal and organizational purposes.  The majority of corporations in America are small businesses and not the to quote a commercial, “…giant, blood sucking, soul stealing” leviathans.  It isn’t how the company is organized but it is the size of it that matters.  So why are the super sized corporations so protected and pampered at the expense of all the rest?  Is it because they employ thousands? That is one explanation given along with “what they bring into the community”.   They are protected from free market forces because they are able to “support” their local sheriff with fiscal contributions.  The bailouts were nothing more then a large public financing scam of the two political parties.  So intertwined has these three big entities become that it is impossible to speak of one and ignore the other two.

As a business grows the “corporate culture” begins to imbed itself into the psyche of the leaders of the company.   Their view is narrowed to the bottom line and how to improve it now so they can justify their own existence to the person above them so they can take their position.  The further they climb their ladder the heavier the load of their ego grows.  They believe that they are there because of their own special quality but their ego blinds them to the fact that it was the corporate organization who has molded them and they are there because they have been groomed for that position.  The higher they climb the more disconnected they become to the ranks below to the point that the ranks become just digits.  When that occurs it is easy to shave a few more dollars from other areas such as safety and product quality.  The larger the organization the easier it is to get away with these things as it will be the person behind you that will have to deal with the fallout.  In this “corporate” mindset the higher they rise the more “corporate” means “me”.  The only thing that matters is maximizing profits at whatever costs and if they are publically traded then maximizing the share price and short term stockholder satisfaction is the priority.  Profits and stock prices are the primary concerns of business as they should be but there is a balance that is imperative and extremely difficult to keep but not impossible.

As most Americans post Second World War I have experienced different work environments.  I have been self employed (by far the most difficult), worked for a small business that grew and two large corporations (retail and transportation).  The time  spent with the small business was the most satisfying for the first 12 years.  The owner, Arnold, was an engineer who came to America after the war with his family and only a few bucks in his pocket.  He was a creative mind and worked in his field until he was able to start his own company.  I was fortunate to join it about four or five years after it started and the small crew, three to four for the first couple of years then the business took off.  During one stretch there were three of us working at least 12 hour days for 30+ straight days.  There was a purpose and we did enjoy the work.  From that experience with Arnold I learned the difference between a “boss” and a leader.  He treated us all very well and was generous in sharing the profits with a nice yearly bonus and you could sense his concern for us and our families.  What I appreciated the most was how he treated customers.  I don’t mean yucking it up with them but in his honesty and service and how he expected his employees to give to the customer the same.  Being employed by a man who appreciated good work, who was empathetic to his employees and customers alike was a blessing and a learning experience that few people ever know during their working life.

An attitude and approach to business as Arnold displayed is impossible to attain in a large ‘corporate’ setting.  Companies and organizations that grow become more centralized and lose their focus on what has made them a success to that point.  It stops being about customer service, quality of product, employee care and morphs to a top down oriented self serving organization.  Grossly overpaid CEO’s who are far removed from the founder (s) of the company believe that it is their talent that has made the company a success when in fact they attain such heights because of their ability to kiss the right asses and be someone’s whore. Many, maybe most, then feel it is necessary to make their mark and descend from their lofty position like Moses with the Ten Commandments with edicts that usually have more to do with making them feel good about themselves than with the business.  Like locust they feed off what makes the business successful and after enriching themselves they move on where their contacts get them situated in another company.  There are always exceptions, people who work up through the ranks and use what they have learned by doing (in the military they are called Mustangs) and some natural leaders who eschew the corporate culture.  But these exceptions are becoming fewer.

If I sound somewhat bitter it is because I am.  This “corporatism” is not capitalism.  It is misconstrued and sold as capitalism in order to further blacken capitalism in the eyes of the unknowing public.  In fact it is more in line with the socialist economic model.  Capitalism has it’s drawbacks but it is the only economic system that is not only compatible with liberty it encourages it!  As a society we would have been much better off without the taxpayers, present and future, bailing out billion dollar corporations and allowing nature take it’s course.  Instead we were told that we were facing another Great Depression and it would make the 1930’s look like a vacation.  We believed it and the criminal class laughed all the way to the bank.