Posted on 04/06/2010 5:47:52 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Imagine you're legendary business guru Jim Collins. Decade ago "Good to Great" and "Built to Last" made him the new Peter Drucker. He's a guy USA Today says would rather be rock climbing than helping companies learn the secrets of making "the leap to greatness."
*SNIP*
Stage 1 kicks in when people become arrogant...
...insiders see "success virtually as an entitlement" ... like Wall Street banks today ... they "lose sight of the true underlying factors that created success in the first place" ... they "overestimate their own merit and capabilities ... The best leaders we've studied never presume they've reached ultimate understanding of all the factors that brought them success."
Stage 2: Undisciplined pursuit of 'More'
The belief "we're so great, we can do anything" ... drives many to "more scale, more growth, more acclaim, more of whatever those in power see as success" and justifies mega-bonuses ... they make "leaps into areas where they cannot be great or growing faster than they can achieve with excellence ... investing heavily in new arenas where you cannot attain distinctive capability ... launching headlong into activities that do not fit with your economic or resource engine ... use the organization primarily as a vehicle to increase your own personal success -- more wealth, more fame, more power -- at the expense of its long-term success" ... and you'll "compromise your values or lose sight of your core purpose in pursuit of growth and expansion."
Sounds like Wall Street 2010, a community of addicts whose pledge of allegiance begins, "Greed is Good" ... amoral robots driven by a relentless commitment to the pseudo-capitalism of Reaganomics, blind to the impact on America's democracy.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
a study of the U.K. 1946-1980 would be very enlightening here
The free market (Laissez-faire Capitalism) did not cause this crisis, the government (CRONY Capitalism/Socialism/Communism) did.
The free market did not take us off the gold standard, the government did.
The free market did not dump trillions of dollars of cheap money into the system causing the largest asset bubble in history, the government did.
The free market did not create Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae and Sallie Mae, the government did.
The free market did not pass laws that force banks to lend to those who do not qualify for a loan, the government did.
The free market did not create multiple multi-trillion-dollar unfunded entitlement programs, the government did.
The free market did not write a 60,000+ page tax code that punishes work, rewards sloth and buys the votes of special interest groups, the government did.
The free market did not destroy our public school system and graduate (or fail to graduate) generations of civically and financially illiterate citizens, the government did.
The free market did not drive our jobs overseas and kill our entrepreneurial spirit with over-taxation, over-regulation and frivolous lawsuits, the government did.
The free market did not ban drilling for oil, vilify coal and block the building of nuclear power plants in the United States, thereby transferring hundred of billions of dollars of American wealth and many thousands of energy-industry jobs to foreign countries, the government did.
This crisis is the result of a giant social engineering experiment and vote-buying scheme gone tragically wrong.
The free market does not try to engineer society or buy votes, the government does.
The government caused this crisis, the free market did not.
The government cannot fix the crisis, the free market can.
“The government cannot fix the crisis, the free market can.”
But the gov’t must make the first step.
That is to get out of the way.
Great summary. Why more american people cannot see this is just so beyond me. But then again I am a dense, dull, RWNJ.
They can’t see it because they did not get one drop of civic or economic education while they were institutionalized from a young age in dumbed-down public schools.
It has never been explained to them how Capitalism creates opportunity and wealth and how Socialism kills incentive and jobs.
If they had heard that message from kindergarten on, we would have a totally different country.
Instead, they heard the opposite, and look at what we’ve got!
But you already know that... it is SO depressing, isn’t it?
Maybe, just maybe, people are waking up.
We’ll see.
Stopped right there.
Spare me the blather, please.
Well put.
Yep. I thought an MSM summary of where to hang the blame would turn out to be the opposite of the truth, LOL!
First, most people do not know what wealth is. Second, most people do not understand the purpose of money. Third, most people don’t understand the benefits gained from the divisions of labor and free trade. Last, people are often risk averse, and they too often develop anti-competition attitudes. It takes many steps of understanding complex concepts and contrarian thinking for the average person to see the world the same way we do.
The concepts are fairly simple to understand, once they get the big picture, but it’s getting there that’s hard.
Couldn’t agree with you more.
It all starts with a basic understanding of things that are pretty straight forward and easy to understand.
Unfortunately, because of our public school system, the Commies get their hands on American kids at a very young age and never give them the chance to be exposed to those basic free-market concepts.
The lucky few learn it on their own once they are older and out of the system.
For the rest, they never get it.
That’s how you get an anti-capitalist in the highest office in the United States of America.
Tragic.
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