Just finished a decade long expedition of starting my business, growing it with love & tears to an exit to a venture funded giant in the space, being on their leash for a few years, & getting laid off just this week. AMA why capitalism will self consume. And since I have some time now I can try to articulate what I think will replace it.
Because in the current form of capitalism, the CEOs & leaders at the top cannot correctly prioritize for long term. Their incentive structures (all the way from Wall St analysts down to CEOs & regional directors) are aligned only for quarterly growth metrics, even if they hurt the business less than a year or two later. The CEO gets a bonus for laying off 1000 people thereby making the business leaner & profitable this quarter, who cares about even the next quarter. They are short sighted, which is also clear from the assumption of endless growth from finite resources. I will also say that folks at the top (typically MBAs) are too data obsessed without understanding nuance of their own business model.
That checks out - the short sightedness of capitalists causes our economy to implode every few years. What do you mean about MBAs being too data obsessed?
Where does your understanding on all of those systems affect your decision making to reconciliate for your own long term career/professional prospects with immediate needs for a roof over your head?
Asking because I have a mostly stable job on corporate world, and I have been wondering around that problem space quite a bit, preparing for when layoffs hit again.
Absolutely, we all need bread, so we all gotta do what we all gotta do. But that never stopped me from dreaming a few revolutions. Now I just have more time on me :)
I will give you more - I was a capitalist, in that I ran a business, but I might have been the worst capitalist ever, turns out I had too much empathy, I treated my customers & employees as not just humans, but as family, fuck me, am I right?
Speaking of understanding of those systems - I want to share this golden nugget with you and the world - even the most capitalistic of organizations run on the engine of cooperation & excellent teamwork under the hood. In short, cooperation runs the world, competition only ruins it.