Should Business Managers Consider Stakeholders?

Source: AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

Recently the Chicago Booth school of management asked leading economists to agree or disagree with this statement: Having companies run to maximize shareholder value creates significant negative externalities for workers and communities. The questionnaire was prompted by a statement from the Business Roundtable that businesses were bound by a “fundamental commitment” to all stakeholders, including shareholders but also customers, employees, suppliers, and the communities in which they operate. Most agreed or strongly agree, although the largest single group included the uncertain.

The New ‘Conservatism’ Is Leading Us To Socialism

Source: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

President Trump’s trade war with the rest of the world has energized new conservatives and inflated their egos. They see the future in an economy directed by Washington, D.C. And like their socialist counterparts, they must trash the science of economics in order to promote their goals.

Oren Cass’ article “Hayek’s Broken Promise” is the latest example. Cass, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, claims that Hayek promised a trade balance if we allowed the market to work. Because the US has experienced decades of imports larger than exports, Cass concludes that Hayek broke his promise. But Cass only advertises his ignorance of economics and Hayek by publishing such claims.

Should Bloomberg Exist?

Source: AP Photo/David Goldman

“Should you exist?” the moderator at the Nevada Democrat debate asked Michael Bloomberg. The question might have been dangerous had the audience assumed the moderator was referring to Bloomberg’s Jewish heritage. But he meant Bloomberg’s financial status as a billionaire. Other Democrat politicians have stated that billionaires shouldn’t exist in the US. Bloomberg responded that he deserved the money because he worked hard for it and was giving it all away. The crowd booed.

Whether or not billionaires should exist is a complex question. The answer from a Christian perspective depends on how he earned it. If he stole it, then he should be in jail and making restitution instead of running for president. From pre-history until the advent of capitalism in the Dutch Republic of the 17th century, people who didn’t inherit wealth got it through looting the enemy in war, kidnapping for ransom, taking bribes as a government official, bribing judges to steal from others or all the above. That behavior birthed the idea that people or groups cannot increase their wealth except by stealing it from others.