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Why would any company with a monopoly make any effort to improve itself? Fines have zero effect, as they are just passed onto captured customers.
by TwoBit 8y ago
Why would any company with a monopoly make any effort to improve itself? Fines have zero effect, as they are just passed onto captured customers.
- Scoundreller 8y agoThe repair/upgrade costs are passed onto customers too...
- whatshisface 8y agoInternal politics at those kinds of organizations can rapidly turn the chain of reporting into a finely tuned irrationality factory. Over time, "minor sins" like making bad events seem as minor as possible and avoiding critique of your political allies will become organizational muscle memory. The people responsible will practice these distortions of reality over and over as they encounter and dispel smaller challenges that arise over the normal course of doing business. When something big happens, it becomes immaterial whether or not a great solution exists, because evaluating solutions and weighing them against the interests of the company is not even remotely near the day-to-day behaviors of the staff.
- im3w1l 8y agoBecause people care about doing a good job. Because they want to be popular in the community. Because the employees are afraid the law will go after them personally.
- Gibbon1 8y agoI feel like our society discounts these first two motivations in favor of money and punishment. And those are a very poor substitute a lot of the time.
- WalterGR 8y agoWhat do you mean? Could you expand on that?
- nicoburns 8y agoA good CEO of a company is considered to be one that provides the best return on investment for the companies shareholders (this is often defended as a morally upstanding attitude, especially in a US context). If someone is a CEO, and they care about society and about doing a good job, this will almost always mean passing up opportunities to maximise company profits. For example, in this case a diligent CEO would ensure that the company is paying for the maintenance of its equipment. However, this isn't necessary to maintain revenue given the monopoly position that the company is in. And thus a company board looking to maximise its return on investment may choose to replace this CEO with someone who will prioritise profit over things like societal good and doing a good job. It is these shareholders that our legal/economic system gives power to. And a majority of shareholders are amoral entities like pension funds who are not concerned with ethics, but are simply looking to maximise profit. Thus our society also takes on these values.
- phren0logy 8y agoPeople want to do a good job. Including the executives, who usually are pretty removed from the day-to-day operations. To some of them, squeezing every last nickel out of the business is “doing a good job.”
- brohoolio 8y agoIf the state is doing a good job with oversight there should be a framework to punish bad behavior beyond fines.
- gammateam 8y agointrastate level antitrust is as toothless, fragmented and unsettled as you might imagine
- anigbrowl 8y agoBecause managers want to stay out of prison? But I see your point. The problem with infrastructure is that if you're dissatisfied with one supplier you can't just switch to another. And even if I had another provider or lived off the grid that doesn't help me if I'm downwind from a utility-caused fire.
- rayiner 8y agoPG&E is regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission, which can and does tell the company what to do, what prices to charge, etc.