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Business failures, not business failure, as in failure to upgrade systems as you mentioned, not wholesale business bankruptcy. The point is that there is no cau
by satvikpendem 2y ago
Business failures, not business failure, as in failure to upgrade systems as you mentioned, not wholesale business bankruptcy. The point is that there is no causal relationship between stock buybacks and not reinvesting into systems, as many companies who don't buy back stocks also don't necessarily reinvest and may still cause employee stress. That is specifically my point, that people talk about unrelated things that don't relate to the main point. Correlation does not equal causation.
- _DeadFred_ 2y agoYou win. There is zero way to PROVE my exact specific was caused by the over 3 billion dollars of stock buybacks SouthWest did during that period. I can't go back in time, prevent those buybacks, and see where SouthWest would have used that over 3 billion dollars. But I can know that with it going to useless stock buybacks when the company was unstable and have failing core systems the market provided a perverse incentive (stock buybacks) over sound business decisions (making sure core business systems were up to requirements and not needless placing stress on employees specifically flight crews). The market should have pressured the company to ensure it had a sound business. Instead it sucked up over 3 billions dollars. Is that the invisible hand at work?