The Dartmouth Observer |
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Commentary on politics, history, culture, and literature by two Dartmouth graduates and their buddies
WHO WE ARE Chien Wen Kung graduated from Dartmouth College in 2004 and majored in History and English. He is currently a civil servant in Singapore. Someday, he hopes to pursue a PhD in History. John Stevenson graduated from Dartmouth College in 2005 with a BA in Government and War and Peace Studies. He is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He hopes to pursue a career in teaching and research. Kwame A. Holmes did not graduate from Dartmouth. However, after graduating from Florida A+M University in 2003, he began a doctorate in history at the University of Illinois--Urbana Champaign. Having moved to Chicago to write a dissertation on Black-Gay-Urban life in Washington D.C., he attached himself to the leg of John Stevenson and is thrilled to sporadically blog on the Dartmouth Observer. Feel free to email him comments, criticisms, spelling/grammar suggestions. BLOGS/WEBSITES WE READ The American Scene Arts & Letters Daily Agenda Gap Stephen Bainbridge Jack Balkin Becker and Posner Belgravia Dispatch Black Prof The Corner Demosthenes Daniel Drezner Five Rupees Free Dartmouth Galley Slaves Instapundit Mickey Kaus The Little Green Blog Left2Right Joe Malchow Josh Marshall OxBlog Bradford Plumer Political Theory Daily Info Andrew Samwick Right Reason Andrew Seal Andrew Sullivan Supreme Court Blog Tapped Tech Central Station UChicago Law Faculty Blog Volokh Conspiracy Washington Monthly Winds of Change Matthew Yglesias ARCHIVES BOOKS WE'RE READING CW's Books John's Books STUFF Site Feed    |
Monday, September 16, 2002
Re: The Emporer has no clothes on Summary of Article and Response The wonderful article to which I am responding contends that the greedy capitalist CEO was a better humanitarian because his business eventually succeeded and thereby created more wealth and jobs, while the socially-conscious CEO was a lesser humanitarian because his business eventually failed, presumably because of his good-will. What the article fails to consider is that these corporations did not operate in a vacuum, but instead competed against other companies, and their effect on other companies must also be considered in assessing how humanitarian each is. Example To see how competition plays a role, consider two companies in the same market, one greedy and the other worker-friendly. If each are otherwise identical, the greedy company may be able to cut costs by treating workers poorly and undercut its worker-friendly rival. In the article's rhetoric, the greedy company has "created" 100 jobs (for example), while the worker-friendly company has "lost" 1000 jobs. What has in fact happened, is that quality positions at one company have been shifted in the economy to low quality positions at its greedy rival. Disclaimer Obviously, I do not care to nor have the background to go into detail about the companies analyzed by the article, nor do I have any evidence that 1000 good jobs will translate into an equal number of bad jobs. I am simply saying that the article's logic is completely wrong, as the example demonstrates. Cheesy Side-Note As a brief side-note, I would say that greed is not the primary force driving our economy, but a strong work ethic, taking pride in one's work, and other cheesy motivations. Of course, that's just my personal opinion, but then again the article I am responding to is much more an opinion piece than the in-depth case study it would like to be. My opinion, PV |