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Is there a single company anywhere that doesn't intermittently layoff employees? Like, I think its good, of course, to analyze and criticize, but why particular
by beepbooptheory 4y ago
Is there a single company anywhere that doesn't intermittently layoff employees? Like, I think its good, of course, to analyze and criticize, but why particularize it so case by case in all these threads? It just feels like a lot of missing the forest for the trees.
If you were studying an animal that has been shown in all prior research to intermittently eat its offspring, you wouldn't then stop at each animal and ask "why is this animal doing this?" You would start to generalize as a good scientist and understand that this is just how these animals sustain themselves. You wouldn't moralize the animals, you would understand they are apart of a deterministic system which requires this.
If you have a problem with layoffs and workers being chronically undermined for the sake of the bosses, then you have problem with our current economic order, not this or that company.
- Apocryphon 4y ago> this is just how these animals sustain themselves. Because in economics not everyone is a Keynesian who just ascribes behavior to animal spirits.
- beepbooptheory 4y agoHehe I think you might be reading that too literally :). I was just using an analogy to make my point.
- Apocryphon 4y agoBut as amusing as it is to riff off of your analogy, your point is still wrong. When studying the behavior of human beings, and corporations are people, friend, it is important to try to fathom the motivations of their decisions. You can’t simply look at the behavior of companies, even in aggregate, and pretend it’s scientific to say, “ah, that is simply how they sustain themselves.” And in this case perhaps what people are upset about isn’t simply moralism, but the potential irrationality that drives the behavior we are all witnessing.
- beepbooptheory 4y agoIf it is irrationality, it seems like a huge case of mass-hysteria is happening! When would it be time for you to consider adjusting your framework here? Is there really enough variation in the obervables here to justify seeing each company as its own fully-personed snowflake?
- Apocryphon 4y agoIt does seem like a case of manic activity not unlike the overhiring that brought us to this point in the first place. As far as the economic validity of anything happening, who knows. I know better than to bet against the irrationality of the market.
- occamsrazorwit 4y agoBehavioral economists have ascribed economic bubbles to the same root causes as mass hysteria. Humans may become more sophisticated, but the tendency to believe in collective delusions are rooted deep in our psychology.