6 ms·

Interesting fact: The three largest investors in Ethos Capital are the investment vehicles of three families of billionaires: the Romneys, the Perots and the Jo

by jb775 6y ago

Interesting fact: The three largest investors in Ethos Capital are the investment vehicles of three families of billionaires: the Romneys, the Perots and the Johnsons.

hnarn 6y ago
'So long as we have monarchy in the factory, we cannot have the republic in society' —Marc Sangnier
- ak39 6y ago
  Love it, thanks!
- heavenlyblue 6y ago
  It reminds me of a thought why you can’t bring democracy into a country by invading it - because democracy doesn’t exist in a vacuum and therefore voting is done not only during elections, but also with you wallet and ability to switch jobs easily.
  - ndarwincorn 6y ago
    > ability to switch jobs easily that's a funny way to write 'willingness to act collectively with fellow workers'
    - mcny 6y ago
      A little off topic but what boggles my mind is seemingly everybody supports "equal pay for equal work" but nobody seems to support the idea that all salary/bonus/non-monetary compensation for everyone within a company should be freely accessible to everyone including contractors and seasonal workers within the company. This is so obvious to me as a first step in actual pay equity. How can we have pay equity without transparency?
      - corndoge 6y ago
        I believe it's the "equal work" bit that makes that a problem. I think I work harder than some of my coworkers and should therefore make more. Who decides what equal work is? I'm happier not knowing
        nothal 6y ago
        Not to be daft, but I can't imagine a single reason this is better for you career or labor organization-wise. If anything, it strikes me like that old quote: Benjamin Franklin said: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Not knowing the wages of those around you makes collective organization and bartering harder which is bad for workers in aggregate.
        ballenf 6y ago
        I agree but because I don't think those at the top would ever let the transparency be complete. Unless the company was started that way and managed to keep it while growing. Which experience seems to show is hard or unlikely.
      - fluffernutter 6y ago
        It is a fallacy to believe that public information about a non corporal entity would help establish fairness. All corporations operate under the act of blame and judgement to increase profits, or they simply cease to be.
        mycall 6y ago
        Is that fallacy also true for cooperatives?
      - couchridr 6y ago
        An alternative to the total transparency you call for might be that an auditor examines everyone’s compensation, and provides statistics for each job role. Lots of employees prefer not to have their exact compensation revealed. Sometimes you may work well with someone (a lawyer, say) and think him a good team player, until you realize he is making tons more than you and envy becomes a factor. Your attitude might go from positive to negative. Would salary transparency be good in that case?
    - heavenlyblue 6y ago
      What do you mean? I mean that if your employer is for example, a monopoly in a relatively stable-yet-poor-country, the rational vote is to always vote for the preservation of your existence (ie the preservation of your job rather than de-monopolisation of the market) and thus it’s really hard to transform the country even if the voting is inherently fair. Are there any examples of people voting strategically and getting what they want? Because the way I see it - strategic voting is almost always a populist vote and thus is rarely rational.
      - Lammy 6y ago
        I think the parent poster is poking fun at the common "libertarian"/"meritocracy" techbro-speak about why we supposedly don't need tech unions.
- blargmaster33 6y ago
  Communism killed 150.000.000 people during the 1900. We will let you commie bastard's do it again!
beervirus 6y ago
Do you mean like a family office, or like they all invest in Blackrock index funds?
TheRealPomax 6y ago
How much are you willing to bet they don't even know that's one of their thousands of investment vehicles?
- jb775 6y ago
  This one involved strategic executive shuffling, secretive organization policy changes, shell companies, and over a billion dollars initial investment. They were probably right in the middle of it. Especially considering the thing they were buying for $1B is likely actually worth $2B+. The crazy thing is that this is probably all within the confines of the law.
  - TheRealPomax 6y ago
    Unfortunately, a three tiered government means the law is written by congress, not by the people who see the injustice of the law and want to fix it =(
carapace 6y ago
Citation?
- jb775 6y ago
  https://medium.com/savedotorg/whos-going-to-run-org-in-a-word-the-gop-8809ef6f9679 https://medium.com/savedotorg/whos-going-to-run-org-in-a-wor...?
  - carapace 6y ago
    I'm sorry but a blog post about "a screenshot of an email" doesn't do it for me. Can you do better? (I can't even see the screenshot because I don't enable JS so it's just a blurry thumbnail image. Oh how I wish people didn't use JS to serve static content!)

by jb775 6y ago

Interesting fact: The three largest investors in Ethos Capital are the investment vehicles of three families of billionaires: the Romneys, the Perots and the Johnsons.

hnarn 6y ago

'So long as we have monarchy in the factory, we cannot have the republic in society' —Marc Sangnier

ak39 6y ago
Love it, thanks!
heavenlyblue 6y ago
It reminds me of a thought why you can’t bring democracy into a country by invading it - because democracy doesn’t exist in a vacuum and therefore voting is done not only during elections, but also with you wallet and ability to switch jobs easily.
- ndarwincorn 6y ago
  > ability to switch jobs easily that's a funny way to write 'willingness to act collectively with fellow workers'
  - mcny 6y ago
    A little off topic but what boggles my mind is seemingly everybody supports "equal pay for equal work" but nobody seems to support the idea that all salary/bonus/non-monetary compensation for everyone within a company should be freely accessible to everyone including contractors and seasonal workers within the company. This is so obvious to me as a first step in actual pay equity. How can we have pay equity without transparency?
    - corndoge 6y ago
      I believe it's the "equal work" bit that makes that a problem. I think I work harder than some of my coworkers and should therefore make more. Who decides what equal work is? I'm happier not knowing
      - nothal 6y ago
        Not to be daft, but I can't imagine a single reason this is better for you career or labor organization-wise. If anything, it strikes me like that old quote: Benjamin Franklin said: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Not knowing the wages of those around you makes collective organization and bartering harder which is bad for workers in aggregate.
      - ballenf 6y ago
        I agree but because I don't think those at the top would ever let the transparency be complete. Unless the company was started that way and managed to keep it while growing. Which experience seems to show is hard or unlikely.
    - fluffernutter 6y ago
      It is a fallacy to believe that public information about a non corporal entity would help establish fairness. All corporations operate under the act of blame and judgement to increase profits, or they simply cease to be.
      - mycall 6y ago
        Is that fallacy also true for cooperatives?
    - couchridr 6y ago
      An alternative to the total transparency you call for might be that an auditor examines everyone’s compensation, and provides statistics for each job role. Lots of employees prefer not to have their exact compensation revealed. Sometimes you may work well with someone (a lawyer, say) and think him a good team player, until you realize he is making tons more than you and envy becomes a factor. Your attitude might go from positive to negative. Would salary transparency be good in that case?
  - heavenlyblue 6y ago
    What do you mean? I mean that if your employer is for example, a monopoly in a relatively stable-yet-poor-country, the rational vote is to always vote for the preservation of your existence (ie the preservation of your job rather than de-monopolisation of the market) and thus it’s really hard to transform the country even if the voting is inherently fair. Are there any examples of people voting strategically and getting what they want? Because the way I see it - strategic voting is almost always a populist vote and thus is rarely rational.
    - Lammy 6y ago
      I think the parent poster is poking fun at the common "libertarian"/"meritocracy" techbro-speak about why we supposedly don't need tech unions.
blargmaster33 6y ago
Communism killed 150.000.000 people during the 1900. We will let you commie bastard's do it again!

beervirus 6y ago

Do you mean like a family office, or like they all invest in Blackrock index funds?

TheRealPomax 6y ago

How much are you willing to bet they don't even know that's one of their thousands of investment vehicles?

jb775 6y ago
This one involved strategic executive shuffling, secretive organization policy changes, shell companies, and over a billion dollars initial investment. They were probably right in the middle of it. Especially considering the thing they were buying for $1B is likely actually worth $2B+. The crazy thing is that this is probably all within the confines of the law.
- TheRealPomax 6y ago
  Unfortunately, a three tiered government means the law is written by congress, not by the people who see the injustice of the law and want to fix it =(

carapace 6y ago

Citation?

jb775 6y ago
https://medium.com/savedotorg/whos-going-to-run-org-in-a-word-the-gop-8809ef6f9679 https://medium.com/savedotorg/whos-going-to-run-org-in-a-wor...?
- carapace 6y ago
  I'm sorry but a blog post about "a screenshot of an email" doesn't do it for me. Can you do better? (I can't even see the screenshot because I don't enable JS so it's just a blurry thumbnail image. Oh how I wish people didn't use JS to serve static content!)