Cash Rules
Everything…
If you have been following the Republican Party over the
last 10 years, you would have noticed their affinity for excommunicating
gays, creating an amendment to govern a woman’s vagina, demonizing all poor
people and sending all Mexicans back to Puerto Rico and the free market. It’s actually one of the few things
that I have in common with the GOP.
But, unlike them (more on this later), I do have limits to my love of
Capitalism. The idea of being able
to come up with and execute an idea with blood, sweat and tears and make as
much money as possible is most certainly a tenet of the American Dream. However if your only goal or measure of
success is a higher profit margin, it can create an interesting conflict of
interest with the people and the world around you.
The insurance industry is a great example of this
point. We all know that sh*t
happens. It’s why we get
insurance… for everything.
Sometimes we are even forced to purchase it. If you own a car or try to buy a home with a mortgage, you
will need a policy to drive it legally or move into that house. Now, the government is mandating health
insurance. This is called
inelastic demand and it’s such a rare gold mine that it begs people to clamor
for a piece of that pie. On the
surface, the arrangement is rather harmless – you pay a monthly premium and you
are covered based on the terms of your policy if something were to go wrong. But your insurance company is a
for-profit entity, which means its primary responsibility is to its
shareholders and not its policyholders.
This semantic distinction is huge.
It basically means that they do better when they collect your premiums
and pay out on as few claims as possible.
They hire people, whose sole job is to poke holes in your policy and create
enough reasonable doubt so that they can legally deny your claim. In short, they do better financially by
NOT serving their customers.
Because its (mostly) legal and its not as if we can all stop purchasing
insurance, its one step above a scam.
This is one place where profit driven companies can go wrong.
While a denied claim can be devastating, there are far more dire
consequences when companies or individuals put money before the greater good -
it can literally kill you. The
term “Defense Contractor” sounds incredibly noble; a private, more efficient
organization providing the government with the necessary resources to conduct
military and diplomatic efforts around the world does make sense. But there is a catch; what’s good for
the people isn’t exactly in the best interests of these companies. Most people would prefer to live in a
world with out war. And although
history tells us that some conflict is inevitable, there are many precautions
and options that can be used to reduce the chances of conflicts becoming violent. But peace is not profitable - tanks,
M-4’s and drones are. Resolving
the issue with Islamic fundamentalists or cooperating with Communist China
won’t make that stock price tick up as much as putting 30,000 troops on the
ground or lobbying enough politicians to scare us into believing that we still
need an over inflated defense budget.
Frankly speaking, people either need to die or fear being killed to
maximize profits and that’s no good.
Similarly, you would think that the greater good would be to
have a society where crime is marginalized and that there are less people
incarcerated. However that
scenario would cost many companies a lot of money and would lead to people
losing their jobs. Like most
business models, the privatization of the prison industry did come out of a
legitimate need – saving cash strapped municipalities from having to maintain
our prison population. But when
more criminals having an extended stay leads to more profits, questionable
decisions aren’t too far behind. Unlike
the Hilton, who can provide better amenities and creative advertising, a
private correctional facility will favor laws like harsher sentences for first
time non-violent criminals or the de-funding of social programs that could help
deter future crimes from happening.
Public prisons operate of tax dollars so whether there are 100 crimes or
5, operations don’t cease, there’s no board meetings to discuss profitability
and the rest of us can focus on what’s truly important.
The single largest example of the impediment of
profitability is the United States government. During the 2012 Presidential election, you would have
thought the job was for the head position at ExxonMobil the way that the
economy was discussed. Sure fiscal
responsibility is important but in a country of over 300 million and an
international financial system, surpluses and deficits are bound to
happen. The primary goal of our government
isn’t a clean balance sheet; it’s upholding the laws of the land while
providing equal opportunities to everyone so that they can take advantage of
our capitalist system. Ironically,
the path to capitalism is a little bit of socialism. You might have bootstrapped your way to that Fortune 500
company but that free education from K-12 was provided by the “have’s” paying
for the “have not’s”.
Providing health care to our poor and most vulnerable citizens isn’t
supposed to turn a profit and food stamp programs aren’t designed to show up on
the Dow Jones – it’s to help a single parent when working two jobs isn’t
enough. You may have lived a
privileged life and never needed government but I promise that your lifestyle
is possible because people use those “freebies” to be able to afford to buy
your products.
(Note: We wouldn’t be
in the debt-sink hole that we we’re in if paragraph 3 wasn’t so relevant)
Let me be clear, this is not a cover letter to apply for the
Occupy Wall Street team – I love big business and all of its $1 burgers,
supermarkets and iPods but to quote a cliché, “all money ain’t good money.” The free market has provided me with
plenty of wonderful opportunities and the potential to build wealth makes me
excited and helps to fuel my ambition.
But the one thing more important to me than how much I make, is how I
made it and if I can’t look myself in the mirror every night, then it’s just
not worth it. There are countless
examples of how you make untold millions AND operate for the greater good. I promise, you can pay your employees a
living wage, provide health insurance and give adequate schedule flexibility
and make money. For industries
where profitability would be a clear-cut conflict of interest, creating
non-profit entities to run these operations could be an option. And just in case the word “non-profit”
kills all of your American spirit, just check the salary for the CEO of the
Boys & Girls Club (yes, the one that helps out the poor kids).
No comments:
Post a Comment