A Neutral Socio-Economic Theory · 10:33pm Jul 10th, 2020
So, after my recent anti-anti-corporate post, I've done some thinking.
I've been working at a supermarket for just over half-a-year now and I've been working through lockdown. And I've been on this site recently and seen this anti-corporate craze and am not impressed by it.
But I have a theory.
There are problems nowadays with corporations having too much power which they misuse or mishandle and capitalism having a bad reputation due to income inequality and workplace mismanagement. We've all heard the stories. I don't believe everything I hear but I don't deny there is a big problem, if not a very new problem.
But I don't think the root of the problem is down to something as superficial as 'greed' or 'laziness' or 'censorship' or 'un-creativity' and some other buzzword I hear passed around these days.
I think it's actually quite a complex and yet mundane issue.
I think the problem is...lack of clear communication between the classes of a self-imposed system.
My experiences working as part of a retail company has already made that very apparent. It's easy to get things done but very hard to actually find the right person to inform and the right person who can act upon it. Because everyone needs to be somewhere at once and not everyone knows where.
It’s very hard for worker and employer to communicate on the same level in person and emails just slow everything down.
And when social media gets involved, the whole thing derails into flame war so those who can afford to ignore it do so while those that can’t get instilled with a paranoid sense of victimisation.
It’s really all just about finding a good time to get the full story. But in the workplace, finding a time for everyone to be free to talk about one thing is rare and difficult.
So it’s a slow process, unfortunately. While social crazes and conspiracy theories are fast and wild. That’s where all this pseudo-anarchic, anticorporate mania comes from. People can’t find the time to properly explain each problem so it just appears as a big invisible problem with a big invisible enemy behind it.
They deliberately distance themselves from those that can help.
And when there is a genuine case of corruption or incompetence, those affected don't know who to talk to or choose not to out of suspicion that those who can help are somehow part of the problem.
So ironically, those most unsatisfied with the gaps in the system are those most responsible for keeping it active, at least in terms of apathy.
Give and take is what's called for, getting involved in something bigger and meeting each other halfway.
I've said this before. If you are unhappy, let someone know in as sincere a tone as one can manage. Politeness can go a long way.
That's my theory.
A good Theory
It's definitely a good theory, is what I say.
ok, so if I understand correctly, you think the higher classes don't know or understand the problems lower classes have?
5305528
Not quite.
It’s more along the lines of things having to take too much time for one part of the class to get the other informed and involved, facts becoming distorted along the way and people outside of the problem getting involved in a way that is deconstructive.
It’s not so much a matter of the ‘higher classes’ don’t know there’s a problem but that they can’t separate and individualise the problem in the face of all the other problems. Production and efficiency is as important to those at the bottom as it is to those at the top and there’s rarely a good time to get everyone available to help solve the problem in a way that doesn’t slow the whole process down.
Basically, work needs to go into finding a way to communicate issues in a way that is in itself fluid to the workplace cycle rather than slowing or halting it.
Not easy but not impossible.
5305881
yeah, i read something about this. The solution seems to be unions for the workforce when talking about bigger corporations.
You should also consider that different actors through every classes have different motives that may be conflictuals. Even if everybody had the best information to work with. People would still undermine each other to a certain extent and not necessarily by greed but also to keep what they have even if it's not in the best interest of everyone else.
5306024
Yeah, In think the difficulty there is that bigger companies have lots of branches that each require separate unions that can't keep in contact easily.
So when there's a problem with one branch, people hear about it and assume it's a problem for the company as a whole.
And yeah, I don't see anything wrong with ambition or even competition in the workplace. It's useful for pushing people forward and trying new ideas.
5306263
I'm not necessarily talking about competition though. For example, Elon musk pushed against covid-19 restrictions to get his 750 million $ bonus. He endangered his employees health for his own profits. It wasn't a communication problem.
5306480
That's a more complex problem than you think.
Let me start by saying 'Are you sure? Have you got the full story?'
And if it is true, and this is going to sound apologist but...you can't stop at the shock. Questions need to be asked.
What measures were taken, what were they working on, were they compensated, did anyone talk to Musk and what about, what's he using the money for, did he technically break the law or not, has any body of authority been consulted properly?
It strikes me as far-fetched how something like this escapes authority figures and yet is common knowledge to the internet crowd. And if it's legal, maybe that's the issue. Maybe it's something people collectively need to move forward with politically. It strikes me as a problem that can't just be solved by ranting.
Part of clear communication is built on understanding a problem and its various parties.
Elon Musk doesn't strike me as someone who's outright avaricious. He certainly seems to have taken an opportunity here at the expense of others but does he realise that, or at least the full weight of that? He's certainly quite the eccentric and he has a reputation of his ambition overriding his sense of reason but his work is going into environmental aid and climate action which I wholeheartedly support although I don't want people suffering for them.
I should point out that I'm on various green groups and part of their policy was using the lockdown, with all the industries shut or slowed, to jump ahead with cleaner fuels and vehicle projects (And progress has been made). This could be Elon Musk's goal. So in a way, that is a certain sense of competition.
That doesn't make it okay but it makes it understandable.
I feel that's the big issue. If people are going to talk so strongly about corporate mismanagement, they need to find where it comes from and why. The worst thing that can happen in a workplace (I speak from experience) is something going wrong and no-one knowing what to do or who's responsible. And it seems that's what's happening with the anticorporate crowd. It's all argument without any solution or even, again, communication with both parties involved.
Look at history class. We don't say 'In WWI, Germany invaded Belgium 'coz they were bastards.' There are a range of factors people need to consider to get the full story and, better yet, find a solution.
And that's a rule that carries with the present as well as the past.
I don't know. Maybe I'm assuming. Maybe I'm being too optimistic.
I don't get a lot of the anti-corporate rage. But then I am British and in the UK, it's a lot harder to hire and fire. Companies don't have as much pull, the bureaucracy of the British Government baffles even the most titanic economic body.
But I just try to find a way for people to look closer and find light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak.
God knows someone on the Internet has to.