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Jack Welch helped murder the American Working Class (his toxic legacy)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/03/jack-welchs-toxic-legacy/
Welch popularized the concept known as “shareholder value,” the idea that the primary duty of a company’s management is to increase its stock price for the benefit of shareholders. In pursuit of this goal, he bought and sold companies, shedding huge numbers of employees along the way. GE’s share prices soared. For this, Welch was celebrated: imitated by competitors and lionized by the fawning business press.
Never mind the fact Welch routinely closed GE’s Rust Belt factories and moved the jobs to Third World locales, where workers labored for less — much, much less — than the former GE employees. Never mind the fact that he cut funding for research and development, something that can undermine a company’s long-term health. And never mind the fact that the humane postwar arrangement between corporations and their employees — give us your loyalty and we’ll take care of you as best we can — ended in part because of Welch. He made money for shareholders, and that was the important thing.
Sure, Newsweek came up with the moniker “Neutron Jack” for Welch’s fondness for mass job cuts (he, er, motivated workers by promoting a Hunger Games-like management style, including advocating culling the bottom-performing 10 percent on a regular basis), but places like CNBC, which GE owned during the dot-com boom years, promoted him as a business genius. Fortune deemed him the “the manager of the century.”
Welch, like many a corporate honcho, believed in accountability for everyone but himself. When it came to his perceived needs, cost was not a concern. His compensation was outsize — he earned millions and millions of dollars annually. (In 1997, he earned 1,400 times more than the typical American factory worker). The pattern continued even after he exited GE: It came out during his 2002 divorce that the company had continued to pay for everything in his life, from his use of the corporate jet to meals at four-star New York restaurant Jean Georges. GE even settled the bill for the flowers in his apartment.
By the time Welch exited his position in 2001, GE earned a large chunk of its profits not from its traditional industrial strengths but as a financial services company. This turned out to be a major cause of the company’s undoing — it all but blew up in 2008, and Welch’s successors are still trying to put the company back together again. A share of GE is worth an astonishing 80 percent less than it was valued 20 years ago. So much for shareholder value.
</snip>
Welch popularized the concept known as “shareholder value,” the idea that the primary duty of a company’s management is to increase its stock price for the benefit of shareholders. In pursuit of this goal, he bought and sold companies, shedding huge numbers of employees along the way. GE’s share prices soared. For this, Welch was celebrated: imitated by competitors and lionized by the fawning business press.
Never mind the fact Welch routinely closed GE’s Rust Belt factories and moved the jobs to Third World locales, where workers labored for less — much, much less — than the former GE employees. Never mind the fact that he cut funding for research and development, something that can undermine a company’s long-term health. And never mind the fact that the humane postwar arrangement between corporations and their employees — give us your loyalty and we’ll take care of you as best we can — ended in part because of Welch. He made money for shareholders, and that was the important thing.
Sure, Newsweek came up with the moniker “Neutron Jack” for Welch’s fondness for mass job cuts (he, er, motivated workers by promoting a Hunger Games-like management style, including advocating culling the bottom-performing 10 percent on a regular basis), but places like CNBC, which GE owned during the dot-com boom years, promoted him as a business genius. Fortune deemed him the “the manager of the century.”
Welch, like many a corporate honcho, believed in accountability for everyone but himself. When it came to his perceived needs, cost was not a concern. His compensation was outsize — he earned millions and millions of dollars annually. (In 1997, he earned 1,400 times more than the typical American factory worker). The pattern continued even after he exited GE: It came out during his 2002 divorce that the company had continued to pay for everything in his life, from his use of the corporate jet to meals at four-star New York restaurant Jean Georges. GE even settled the bill for the flowers in his apartment.
By the time Welch exited his position in 2001, GE earned a large chunk of its profits not from its traditional industrial strengths but as a financial services company. This turned out to be a major cause of the company’s undoing — it all but blew up in 2008, and Welch’s successors are still trying to put the company back together again. A share of GE is worth an astonishing 80 percent less than it was valued 20 years ago. So much for shareholder value.
</snip>
I think everyone over the age of 50 remembers when their town had at least one or two factories that employed scores of people. In my town, we had 4 big ones; Columbian Rope, American Locomotive, Singer and GE. All 4 closed by the mid-80's. Of course, not all involved Jack Welch directly, but the leaders of those companies looked to Jack Welch and saw that he was severing all compacts between GE and its loyal workforce - and followed suit.
Enjoy Hell, Jack, even though, ultimately, the joke was on us all along.
16 replies
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LOVE the updated avatar. Just hope it wasn't made in China! 
My avatar would be 180 years old if alive today, so definitely in the high-risk group. 
... but really, it needed to be said while the shit was going on. It needed to be out in the open during the 1970's and 80's when GE was closing factories and laying middle class Americans off all over the US. Meanwhile new factories were opening in Mexico, Central America, Pacific Islands and other low-wage & no regulation areas. Once Jack Welch showed the way, most major US manufacturers started doing the same thing.
Made in China: Trump re-election flags may get burned by his tariffs - Reuters, July 25, 2018
FUYANG, China (Reuters) - The red, white and blue banners for U.S. President Donald Trump’s second-term campaign are ready to ship, emblazoned with the words “Keep America Great!”
But they are made in eastern China and soon could be hit by punitive tariffs of Trump’s own making as he ratchets up a rancorous trade dispute with Beijing.
At the Jiahao Flag Co Ltd in Anhui province, women operate sewing machines to hem the edges of “Trump 2020” flags the size of beach towels, while others fold and bundle them for delivery.
The factory has turned out about 90,000 banners since March, said manager Yao Yuanyuan, an unusually large number for what is normally the low season, and Yao believed the China-U.S. trade war was the reason.
“It’s closely related,” she said. “They are preparing in advance, they are taking advantage of the fact that the tariffs haven’t gone up yet, with lower prices now.”
But they are made in eastern China and soon could be hit by punitive tariffs of Trump’s own making as he ratchets up a rancorous trade dispute with Beijing.
At the Jiahao Flag Co Ltd in Anhui province, women operate sewing machines to hem the edges of “Trump 2020” flags the size of beach towels, while others fold and bundle them for delivery.
The factory has turned out about 90,000 banners since March, said manager Yao Yuanyuan, an unusually large number for what is normally the low season, and Yao believed the China-U.S. trade war was the reason.
“It’s closely related,” she said. “They are preparing in advance, they are taking advantage of the fact that the tariffs haven’t gone up yet, with lower prices now.”
Thank’s, Obama!!1!
More at link: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china-flags/made-in-china-trump-re-election-flags-may-get-burned-by-his-tariffs-idUSKBN1KF1D6