Americans are very nice people…
Americans are very nice people, but one thing is sure their CEOs run their companies for profits! Many of us think this is wrong. Double standards!
Warren Buffet lobbies for S&P’s monopoly to continue…and then also keeps selling his stake.
Make no mistake I used to be a big fan of WB not very long ago…I remember the Goldman Sachs bail out which happened on just his word! However things have changed, have they not?
Similarly Obama is not here to ‘please’ us or open American doors for us. As CEO of USA he is here to ‘speak’ the corporate spiel that his PR guys have drafted…
Now we blame the Americans for everything that goes wrong? Not fair. After all Jairam Ramesh who was pushing BT brinjal on us is not an American is he?
How come Sharad Pawar say No? Hmmm no clue..however read on..this is interesting
http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/leaked-cable-bubble-gmo-eu/
Dr. Vijayendra
Dont talk of Sharad Pawal and the likes……Bad ppl eating India to the Core
Food inflation (inc sugars) is mostly because of wrong polocies of such short-sighted ppl!!!
GOD save India from Politicians….
B> Obama came to India 4 his USA companies ,4 their profit n not $ iNdia…..but our poloticians make a beeline as if He is GOD……
Alas…..what can a common man do….
Maaran
I would be shocked if CEOs anywhere in the world run their companies for anything other than to maximise profits. That should be their only social responsibility if at all there is any!
Prasad
Mr. Maaran,
Companies are purportedly run for profits! It is actually run for the CEOs ego, increasing ‘market capitalization’, make losses so that one partner can buy out the other, for the CEO to stand in a forum and say “we are a family of 5000 employees’, to generate jobs for people back in a village, to prove to the world ‘I can also run a business’ – and believe me all this can happen over long periods of time. And some of these ‘ego-satisfying’ goals are supported by smart ‘venture capitalists’ (some of whom invest in Citibank too!)
Maaran
Mr.Prasad, Don’t be such a cynic. Private sector CEOs are paid to maximise profit. A lot of them may fail but thats for the shareholders to judge if the CEO is doing a good job or not. CEOs get fired too. A lot.
There are exceptions to this rule though – PUBLIC sector companies – Indian Railways, Air India, etc – bureaucrats who run these companies are paid only to burn hard earned taxpayer money.
subra
there are some die hard Ayn Rand fans who believe that the private sector is full of angels and the public sector is full of devils.
How I wish it were true! Then there would be no lobbying, bribing, nepotism, ….blah, blah..in the private sector. L O L.
Sorry Maaran I am on Prasad’s side, and I have met enough devils from the private sector and enough angels from the public sector 🙂
Smart Singh
Americans are really nice people now BECAUSE they had always tried to maximize profits. It’s their right balance of capitalism and social efforts which has made them a rich nation.
There is one great thing about Americans, they are not hesitant when it comes to doing their bit of charity. And only when you are rich and secure, you feel like taking up charitable causes. There is a saying in Hindi – “bookhe pet na bhaje gopala”.
I’m glad that finally Indian business leaders like Azim Premji are setting up examples for others. It’s time to feel rich and secure I guess 🙂
Maaran
“Americans are very nice people, but one thing is sure their CEOs run their companies for profits! Many of us think this is wrong” – I I hope you do realize how ridiculous this sounds at-least in retrospect. I mean, how could someone who advises people on investments think running companies for profit is wrong !. Thats why my initial comment.
I wouldn’t want to generalize people broadly as you mentioned as angels or devils. That wasn’t my point at all.
My premise is simple & is one of basic economics : Private sector is several orders of magnitude more profitable/efficient than public sector. Public sector simply has no incentive to be efficient. We just tend to spend more wisely if it was our own money as opposed to someone else’s. Nothing to do with character of people.
Lobbying, bribing & all sorts of scams you see today exist only when taxpayer money is involved & where govt interferes with any economic activity. Free market capitalists abhor such govt interference & precisely because it leads to corruption. Contrary to what you may think, big businesses are the biggest threats to free market. I only have bigger contempt for govt interference. Be it to protect interests of big businesses or any special interest groups.
pravin
i agree with maaran hundred percent.spoken like a true free market guy! people keep assuming that businessmen love free markets. they do,only as long as they are beneficiaries.once they become the entrenched player,they want to shut down others using patents,trademarks and trade barriers.
somehow people misunderstand that being anti public sector means being pro big businessmen. bad ceo’s can exist.and they will keep existing as long as shareholders derelict their duties and depend on ‘regulators’.atleast they are fooling only those who willingly agreed to be robbed.
as for govt workers? they rob us taxpayers at gunpoint.
Dr Mohammed Ali Khan
Subra
Read Ayn Rand again..
She never said the people from private companies are angels..
In fact there are many characters in her novel “Atlas Shrugged” who behave like corrupt lords.. Eg Orren Boyle is the head of Associated Steel, James Taggart, The President of Taggart Transcontinental..
But, they are corrupt BECAUSE OF government interference..
Maaran
All humans have characters that are fallible if not flawed. (or to put it crudely all humans are greedy & lust for power). The only way to make everyone’s lives better is through the institution of free Market and not through arbitrary regulations & govt interventions.
Well. You may ask if it were such an obviously good thing, why isn’t it widely adopted in the strictest sense. That’s such a compex qn people have written books to explain it. One thing for sure the most prosperous nations in the world are those that are freer than the others. I believe in the long run better ideas will triumph. or bad ideas will be discarded like the soviet union.
The only guys who understood this early and built their nation around Free market were the Americans in 1776. Till the subsequent generations of american entrepreneurs instead of competing in the free Market place, started to seek govt help to protect their interests & market share.Thats how lobbying came into being. There is always an ongoing tug of war in america.
In india though, a majority of people assume private sector as evil without ever pausing to think& ask how come they get to afford more satellite/cable tv, mobile, cars ,etc than they did just 20 yrs back. It’s not because of the govt or a group of people. It’s th iinstitution of Market place. And to think we have just started to take baby steps towards a free economy!
pravin
um not entirely correct maaran. india was pretty free market in the past.trade barriers were unheard of and money lenders were not the evil sahukars shown in the movies.the americans were not even the first whites to try it out. they just were probably the first guys to be put it on paper.
india had competing currencies even inside a single kingdom and the ruler was not necessarily the sole issuer of currencies.i am not saying that it was libertopia,ofcourse.india imported the worst of western traditions after independence.
pravin
oh,btw, many indians think that Chacha MM singh has given us all this so called prosperity.forgetting that at the core of his heart,he is anti free markets.he taught how price controls and forex control were good things.he went to an award ceremony last week at infosys and blamed the fact that education is today becoming more privatized!. he wants to shutdown little private hole in the wall schools in slums because they cant provide a playground.he is the soft face of cruel state planning.
Maaran
You are right. When there were kingdoms, I believe people in our regions were much freer and more prosperous compared to their contemporaries. The only way a king maximised his wealth was through taxation and to allow businesses to flourish. People happily paid taxes & the kings offered protection to his subjects in return.
Americans were one of the first to do it after the invention of the modern “nation states”.
subra
Maaran,
see i have said ‘double standards’…so read fully please..I am a capitalist – all my money is in the stock exchange…
thanks
Maaran
Subra, sorry. My mistake then. It wasn’t clear to me.
Dr Mohammed Ali Khan
@ Maaran @ Pravin
Good to see people with ideas like you..
There is still hope our country then..
Maaran
I managed to unearthed an absolute gem that explains why&how human “evolutionary psychology” could be the reason for our intuitive “anti-market” bias and tendency to equate “rich” to “evil” & “markets” to “unfairness”. you don’t want to miss this.
http://mises.org/daily/4700
This supposes we are all “born socialists” but through education & experiences, we find the “ultimate truth” of “free markets”.