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This is what happens when we let accountants run companies rather than engineers and company directors bow to shareholder demands to squeeze out every last cent

This is what happens when we let accountants run companies rather than engineers and company directors bow to shareholder demands to squeeze out every last cent of profit. In practice, modern economics is more about money than people—and that has to end badly. This story is more than just a bad decision by Stanley, it's of strategic national importance, moreover it's not just the US but also a problem for most Western countries. If it's not reversed soon then it'll be irreversible and the West will be fucked. A reminder of the know-how that we've lost: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_production_during_World_War_II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_production_during_Wor... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_aircraft_production_during_World_War_II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_aircraft_product...

scrollaway 3y ago
> This is what happens when we let accountants run companies rather than engineers While I agree with you in the essence of what you’re saying, you should replace “accountants” with “MBAs” or “CFOs”. Most accountants don’t care about how the final balance sheet looks, they care about the flow of money itself. I have gained a lot of respect for that, as I’ve understood it more over the years. Accountancy is nothing but “financial engineering”, really. They don’t decide on the budgets, they just code it in.
- etempleton 3y ago
  If a finance person is put in charge of a company it is time to leave that company. Finance people inevitably optimize for short-term gains and tend to lack any instinct for the long term. It is not their fault. It is all they know. They are hammers in search of a nail.
  - scrollaway 3y ago
    You completely missed my point. An accountant may be dealing with finances but they are a very different role from that of a CFO. In general you also don’t put an accountant “in charge”, period, just as you don’t put a sysadmin “in charge”. It doesn’t make sense. It’s also untrue that financial people “inevitably” optimise for short term gains. Of all people they’re often the ones best placed to optimise for long term. But they don’t necessarily understand the heart of the business, so they shouldn’t be in charge either if it’s the case.
- hilbert42 3y ago
  Agreed, correction accepted. (Using 'acountants' in a loose pejorative sense is a 'disease' many of us have caught, it's good to be corrected.)
kazen44 3y ago
> moreover it's not just the US but also a problem for most Western countries. If it's not reversed soon then it'll be irreversible and the West will be fucked. A reminder of the know-how that we've lost. This became very apparent in europe after the start of the war in ukraine. The west needs it's own manufacturing to keep its global significance. The short term greed of globalization has resulted in a massive geopolitical blunder.
- hilbert42 3y ago
  "The short term greed of globalization has resulted in a massive geopolitical blunder." Agreed, but this 'thinking' has been so ingrained as the norm since the early 1980s—the Reagan-Thatcherite era—it's almost set in concrete. Seems to me it's not going to change anytime soon, unfortunately.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

scrollaway 3y ago

> This is what happens when we let accountants run companies rather than engineers While I agree with you in the essence of what you’re saying, you should replace “accountants” with “MBAs” or “CFOs”. Most accountants don’t care about how the final balance sheet looks, they care about the flow of money itself. I have gained a lot of respect for that, as I’ve understood it more over the years. Accountancy is nothing but “financial engineering”, really. They don’t decide on the budgets, they just code it in.

etempleton 3y ago
If a finance person is put in charge of a company it is time to leave that company. Finance people inevitably optimize for short-term gains and tend to lack any instinct for the long term. It is not their fault. It is all they know. They are hammers in search of a nail.
- scrollaway 3y ago
  You completely missed my point. An accountant may be dealing with finances but they are a very different role from that of a CFO. In general you also don’t put an accountant “in charge”, period, just as you don’t put a sysadmin “in charge”. It doesn’t make sense. It’s also untrue that financial people “inevitably” optimise for short term gains. Of all people they’re often the ones best placed to optimise for long term. But they don’t necessarily understand the heart of the business, so they shouldn’t be in charge either if it’s the case.
hilbert42 3y ago
Agreed, correction accepted. (Using 'acountants' in a loose pejorative sense is a 'disease' many of us have caught, it's good to be corrected.)

kazen44 3y ago

> moreover it's not just the US but also a problem for most Western countries. If it's not reversed soon then it'll be irreversible and the West will be fucked. A reminder of the know-how that we've lost. This became very apparent in europe after the start of the war in ukraine. The west needs it's own manufacturing to keep its global significance. The short term greed of globalization has resulted in a massive geopolitical blunder.

hilbert42 3y ago
"The short term greed of globalization has resulted in a massive geopolitical blunder." Agreed, but this 'thinking' has been so ingrained as the norm since the early 1980s—the Reagan-Thatcherite era—it's almost set in concrete. Seems to me it's not going to change anytime soon, unfortunately.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]