Meet The Avatar For The Worst Of Corporate Capitalism | David Gelles | TMR

[@apolloforabetterfuture4814]

I never knew stock buybacks were only made legal under Reagen. It's insane how literally everything bad goes back to Reagan.

[@Spock_Rogers]

The Powell Memo and privatization of healthcare started with Nixon.

[@DD-xw6uw]

Stock buybacks should be banned, or at a minimum highly taxed so there’s incentive for businesses to spend that money on employees or reinvesting in operations.

[@bb1televator]

This one guy didn’t “Break” capitalism. He innovated it, he helped advance capital to its next cultural stage. Everything he did was permissible in a system where accumulation of private property and rent seeking is the highest virtue The problem is capitalism itself, not one individual “cheating” the system

[@sakomanlee]

But what about the pure soul of Corporate America before 1981???? It's a real shame Jack Walsh betrayed the benevolent and humanistic ideals of mid nineteenth century Capitalism.

[@8088I]

"Jack Welch" was the 'Dick' Cheney of our last turn of the Century's "Clepto- -Capitalism." An all-around 'Jack' Off!

[@8088I]

Clepto-Capitalism is a far cry from the Sustainable, truly, Free Market Capitalism described by Adam Smith in his "Wealth of Nations."

[@primafacie9721]

Yes. By corporations' very founding charters they are interested in profits above all other issues. Now perverted even further to next quarter profits or stock valuation. Humanity needs a generational vision, not a quarterly vision.

[@Lumi_Lumi13]

@@sakomanlee Workers had unions to fight back against the capitalists before Reagan. Unions & worker power kept corporations in check. So did federal regulations which Reagan spent his entire 8 years as president dismantling along with gutting the power of workers & unions. Pre-1980 corporations didn't have "pure souls". Workers had real power & regulation kept the corporations in check.

[@shaneswiss]

I used to work for GE Digital between 2012 and 2017. I can attest that everything this guy is saying is true… They loved pitting people against each other, and there were layoffs all the time.

[@darksideofthemoon488]

I can tell you who was paying close attention to this. The Japanese businesses. For example Honda. They knew that it wasn't the laborers who made the products that was defective, it was the executives like Jack Welch who made American products inferior through their nickel and diming tactics. That's how Japanese car companies were able to open up plants in the US and became a staple of American consumerism.

[@justr6982]

At Any Cost is also a great book on the subject of Welch and GE

[@andywomack3414]

24:00 Sam asks if we should go back to a pre-Reagan version of regulation and taxation, listing numerous examples of those versions. The only answer to that policy question from Gellles? "You can't turn back the clock." Instead, Gelles resorts to a gradualist litany of changes in corporate behavior, not answering the question at all other than "no." I don't think the answer to the question that Sam posed requires a "snapping of fingers and going back to a golden age of capitalism." I must admit to being confused by that exchange.

[@phillylifer]

Kudo to David Gelles for this.

[@ts109]

When I saw the title I knew it would be about welch.

[@OrangeStrayCat]

Being evil is more profitable than not being evil. More profitable companies crush less profitable ones, and not just through the econ 101 way of being able to offer better prices. If we let people do whatever they want, then we end up with a relentless victory of evil over good, and that's before the corporations start to run the government.

[@LMLewis]

Gelles should have mentioned that GE has for many years been a major manufacturer of Boiling Water Reactors for the nuclear power industry. Also worth noting: GE made $27.5 billion in profits from 2008-2012 but got a total of $3.1 billion in federal tax refunds and paid an effective tax rate of negative 11.1 percent", per Citizens for Tax Justice.

[@petergiaschi35]

An excellent piece. Thanks to all of you.

[@idontlikeit.7822]

Capitalism is the greatest driver of the climate crisis. Egocentrism is the greatest block to dealing with it.

[@07Flash11MRC]

Exactly! It's capitalism, no matter how many excuses people want to come up with.

[@ts109]

Not to mention the vast amounts of waste capitalism generates. It would be hard to conceive of a more wasteful system.

[@GabrielNicho]

@@ts109 You should look at the enormous amount of waste (and environmental damage) the Soviet Union did.

[@ts109]

@@GabrielNicho is that the system the world runs on?

[@GabrielNicho]

@@ts109 No, but people seem to believe that socialist systems are environmental lol, when they release as much waste as any other modern system.

[@jacquolen1952]

They used to call him “Neutron Jack”- after he got a hold of a company there was nothing left but the office buildings!

[@8088I]

"Jack Welch" was the 'Dick' Cheney of our last turn of the Century's "Clepto- -Capitalism." An all-around 'Jack' Off!

[@8088I]

Clepto-Capitalism is a far cry from the Sustainable, truly, Free Market Capitalism described by Adam Smith in his "Wealth of Nations."

[@rsr789]

@@8088I Which won't work the same way Communism as described by Marx in his manifesto won't work: because neither take into account the reality of human nature. Like Carlin said "it's a cute idea, cute, but that's all it is, 'an idea'".

[@jessd4048]

Six sigma has ruined healthcare. Even in regions with socialized health systems like Canada.

[@LMLewis]

Very disappointed in the spineless response Gelles provided to your final question (although not really surprised). This country began with a phenomenal abundance of resources and a steady influx of people, desperate to succeed, who could make use of the resources. But capitalism gets all of the credit from Gelles, who doesn't even strain at his New York Times leash.

[@Ianpact]

Thank you, David and TMR.

[@benzell4]

I lived through the stuff in the ‘80’s and we saw it coming then. Dios mio, how far we have fallen… For those interested, two films immediately came to mind; WALL STREET (1987-Oliver Stone) OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY (88 or 89, De Vito, I think?).

[@atticstattic]

"Broke capitalism"? The guy's the patron saint of capitalism!

[@JamesThomasJeans]

A capitalism apologist writing a book about how capitalism is broken but still thinks capitalism is the way... that's wild to me. Capitalism isn't broken. It's functioning as intended.

[@rsr789]

Correct. It's not broken, but it does however need to be replaced.

[@mikearchibald744]

I would have sworn when they started they were talking about Enron, but it seems Enron was simply doing what EVERYBODY was doing. The only thing I had a problem with was this guys pollyanna view of american capitalism that apparantly corporations just LOVED their workers and coudln't wait to shower them with benefits. I'm not sure there is actual evidence of THAT.

[@apolloforabetterfuture4814]

Totally true. It's hilarious to me anyone could ever take a capitalist economy and the financial industry seriously after Madoff and Enron.

[@TheMercilessEye]

Another entry for my bookshelves. Excellent.

[@FoxSt3v3]

good shit guys

[@tomshady3530]

And wow, look at how well GE is doing now! Good thing every company is doing same thing... Hey, where did GE go?

[@8088I]

Clepto-Capitalism is a far cry from the Sustainable, truly, Free Market Capitalism described by Adam Smith in his "Wealth of Nations."

[@tonywilson4713]

I'm an engineer who's been informally studying economics for a couple of years and YOU'RE RIGHT. The economics we are living with right now isn't capitalism as its been described or what people think its supposed to be. Clepto-Capitalism is a great description. Look at the very title of Adam Smiths book. Its _"Wealth of Nations"_ *NOT* _Wealth of the few and screw the rest._ The interesting thing is that the work of Smith, Ricard, Marx and others were all in the vein of how do we (humanity) not go backwards into feudalism or mercantilism and yet what we have right now is a weird hybrid of feudalistic mercantilism. I've listened to a lot of the book talks Mark Blyth (Brown U.) has done. One was with a Eric Helleiner who's described what he calls neo-mercantilism and he's given the best explanation of what China is up to. At its core mercantilism is not simply about controlling wealth but also about political control at the nation versus nation level. What we now have are people who have no allegiance towards any nation or even society itself but their means of control is through economics. I recently watched a series of 4 talks by Damon Silvers for the UCL IIPP that Mariana Mazucatto runs and yeah I watched all 6 hours. The first of those talks is titled _"Understanding Neoliberalism as a System of Power"_ Another great thing I saw recently was a video by Simon Clark titled _"Global Warming: The Decade We Lost Earth"_ and he highlights that the whole denial campaigns that started in the first Bush Whitehouse had NOTHING to do with fossil fuels or solar or wind. Its was a political move by *American Libertarians* who are 100% of the mindset that NO Government should ever do anything except leave them to do whatever they like. What you call Clepto-Capitalism (which is an awesome label) is all about this small group of people getting what they want without any consideration of the rest of society, humanity or the planet. Their ideology is basically *_"We demand the liberty to strip the rest of you of your liberty!"_*

[@ResurgentVoice]

@@tonywilson4713 I loved your reply! Thanks for citing your sources in this comment! You’ve just given me a syllabus of material to look into! Truly appreciate it!

[@tonywilson4713]

@@ResurgentVoice no probs The other super person to listen to on economics is Gary Stevenson who's not a college professor, but was Citibank's top trader in the world by his mid 20s. He's what I call a rebel economist and has a great KZbin channel *Garys Economics.* He's also done a number of podcasts with Peter Komolafe which are pretty good.

[@ResurgentVoice]

@@tonywilson4713 Perfect! Thanks so much! 👍

[@tonywilson4713]

@@ResurgentVoice Best to ya. Take your time processing and its not a crime to back over stuff and check what was said.

[@renardleblanc5556]

Really, the best thing you can say about Capitalism is that it's better than feudalism, which is no small thing. Particularly: capitalism has to at least maintain a pretence of being equitable&prosperous (eg; FDR understood that his reforms were necessary to *save* capitalism), and when it collapses in on itself under its own weight, it's possible to call it out for failing to deliver on its promises.

[@tanneraustin7436]

This guy sounds almost exactly like Dave Rubin

[@joshmccollen700]

It's hard to deny the incredible productive capacity of capitalism.

[@rsr789]

Sure it is. See: history of the near east Bronze Age. Any other questions?

[@laskji]

Take better care of workers? How about quit taxing the hell out of us? In Canada I lose 40% off of every pay check!! Let’s start with just letting us blue collars keep most of what we earn! There is no mystery here! If tax money is needed get it from the millionaires and billionaires, not the working poor and middle class. No excuse for taking 40% of a laborers pay!

[@JumpinJoe]

4:09 this is because there was a collectivist sense and government intervention from the 30s to the 50s

[@stewartjones2173]

'Tis Avarice all Ambition is no more. John Dryden

[@marbury2403]

The author said it would take decades to unravel what tooks decades to create.

[@JemLeavitt]

This.

[@doctorbigsmiles]

This guy has Dave Rubin's voice 😂

[@MrDiggityaus]

Geez i thought that was Adam “Avatar of Corporate Capitalism” Schiff in the thumbnail for a second.

[@tylerhackner9731]

Crapitalism

[@SmilingIbis]

One more L: crapitallism. It turns everything into crap and tries to sell it back to you.

[@Marcotube-j3x]

If it wasnt jack welch it would have been someone else

[@SisypheanRoller]

Exactly. This is not a one man issue. What kind of culture produces such a man? He certainly didn't think of these ideas in a vacuum. No investor had issues with his strategy. This interview was a little disappointing in how much focus they put on one person rather than the broader culture that led to it.

[@justr6982]

That's the point though. The author admits it

[@Karamazov9]

Weird interview, he pretends like capitalism wasn’t oppressive in the post war era

[@johnwilson8309]

Quit playing with your mic

[@doctorbigsmiles]

Or you'll go blind, they say

[@mfflscotty2095]

Capitalism remains the best economic system in existence

[@toerklintv4185]

Good joke.

[@noble7461]

Guy in 1885-Horses remain the best mode of transportation.

[@mfflscotty2095]

@@toerklintv4185 Not a joke just historical fact and reality

[@Junksaint]

Lol

[@toerklintv4185]

@@mfflscotty2095 Whatever makes you sleep at night, lol.