Saturday, March 13, 2021

Update and Various Musings

I finally got back to reading The Enlightened Capitalists. So far I read about Robert Owens (who helped found Indiana's failed commune New Harmony. Not really relevant, but as a Hoosier of sorts it was interesting to see the connection) and JC Penney.

Its interesting how the challenges they face mirror some of the comments I've seen on Twitter from Dan Price, who drew attention when he insisted on paying his employees a minimum of 70K a year (and, btw, apparently home ownership and parenthood are up among his employees. Which seems like a 'Well duh' comment, but there was a recent news tizzy about declining birth rates so apparently the rather obvious impact of low, wages and other social ills isn't as obvious to the ones worried about that. I can't speak for others, but I actually kinda want a child. Getting old enough I'm not sure it'll happen, but I can honestly say financial stability or lack thereof is one of the reasons I haven't yet.)

Anyways. It also reminds me of the pushback Costco got for paying their workers better. 

Its like, it doesn't matter how many enlightened capitalists prove that there's another way. 

And it's not just the shareholder class. Even the average workers who really benefited from their policies were suspicious. 

Still, it's worth noting that a lot of the practices Robert Owens used did eventually become normal. It's just that it came from various battles between the classes over the years. 

Truthfully, widespread disbelief that treating your employees well is profitable is harder to deal with than simple greed. 




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