In the corporate world, growth is everything. Growth is imperative. Greed, fear, insecurity, paranoia, and herd behavior permeate the corporation in its frenetic pursuit of continuous growth. Institutional investors and wall street financial institutions continually demand one thing: Growth. Short-term, quarter-by-quarter growth.
The obvious problem is that continuous growth is not possible in a finite world. Sooner or later, resources will be exhausted and growth will come to a grinding halt. Of course, this doesn't happen all at once. As resources get used up and the end game approaches, companies engage in cannibalism, gobbling each other up as growth becomes harder and harder to achieve. In addition, other tricks to simulate or stimulate growth are employed. In the name of efficiency, companies engage in "legal" tax avoidance, outsourcing and offshoring to "low cost geographies" (the company I work for now calls this "best-shoring"), downsizing (also called "workforce management"), and financial chicanery of various kinds.
Paradoxically, every rational individual in the system is smart enough to know - if they stop to think about it - that rapid growth is an illusion and it can't be maintained forever. But, as Charles Prince, former CEO of CitiGroup said in July, 2007: "As long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance. We’re still dancing.” So the whole herd runs headlong toward disaster together because no one wants to stop dancing. Like pigs at a trough, they grunt, squeal, and compete madly for every last morsel, never pausing to contemplate the fact that the supply of slop is limited.
Eventually, the game IS up, and the bubble bursts. Panic ensues. Political and business insiders from Washington and Wall street huddle and desperately conspire to keep the music playing, against all odds. They manage to coax a few more halting notes out of the global music playing machine, but over time it becomes obvious that it is impossible to continue dancing to the old tune of leverage, growth, and financial derivatives that has filled the bellies of the pigs at the trough while the bubble was inflating.
You would think that we could do better than this. You would think that market makers and politicians could devise a system that would focus on sustainability and recognize the cyclical realities of business to maintain a thriving, healthy economy for the long term. You would think that people who are offered easy credit would consider the wisdom of accepting it, mindful of the fact that it has to be paid back, with interest, over time. You would think that we would have second thoughts about blindly embracing an economic system which is solely focused on feeding individual self-interest and building individual wealth of a few at the expense of the many. You would think we could collectively lift our eyes a little and take a longer term view of things.
So what is the relevance of all this to an old man in a cubicle? I'm not sure, but it's something I spend time thinking about. I guess I'm attracted to the drama of it all. Also, I'm secretly pleased that the pigs are running out of slop to gobble up. I'm relieved that the great slurping sounds of the golden boys (and precious few girls) of Wall street are now muted. I'm pleased that there are signs that we are collectively re-thinking our definition of success on a personal and business level. We are re-considering what is important in life.
I am concerned about what the future holds, and what the fallout will be over the next few years in this new postgrowth era. I used to think I needed to learn how to dance; to compete at the trough with the other pigs; to get my share quickly, before it was too late. I'm still participating to some degree - still trying to dance a little - but my heart's not in it any more. What I really want to do is leave work early, go home, play with the grandkids, take a siesta with my wife, then enjoy dinner and maybe a glass of wine. I'm going to learn to speak some French and maybe take guitar lessons. Maybe I'll make some new friends and re-kindle some old friendships. I'll also work a little, but not too much.
I will now leave you with a well-known story that illustrates my point, along with some quotes on the subject from my recent readings.
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From: http://postgrowth.org/an-aesops-fable-for-postgrowth/
An American investment banker was taking a much-needed vacation in a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. The boat had several large, fresh fish in it.
The investment banker was impressed by the quality of the fish and asked the Mexican how long it took to catch them.
The fisherman replied, “Only a little while.”
The banker then asked why he didn’t stay out longer and catch more fish?
The fisherman replied he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.
The banker then asked “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”
The fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life, senor.”
The banker scoffed, “I am an Ivy League MBA, and I could help you. You should spend more time fishing; and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats.
“Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor; eventually opening your own cannery.
“You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would of course need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles and eventually New York where you could run your ever-expanding enterprise.”
The fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”
The banker replied, “15 to 20 years.”
“But what then?” asked the fisherman.
The banker laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.”
“Millions?…Then what, senor?”
The American said:
“Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos…”
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From: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/27/magazine/in-defense-of-the-boom.html
As the brilliant Michael Lewis has written: "It's more than a little nuts for a man who has a
billion dollars to devote his life to making another billion, but that's what some of our most
exalted citizens do, over and over again."
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From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zach-carter/conservatives-want-to-liv_b_689521.html
A Monopoly player wins by pushing everyone else into total poverty in order to control all resources and establish complete economic domination over his peers. People in the real world who are fueled by such motivations are not ordinary, model citizens--they are completely insane. Life is not a quest to get our hands on as much stuff as we can so our neighbors don't get to it first. A society that allows a few people to establish supreme economic dominion over all others is not a society at all--it's just a bunch of nasty brutes trying to destroy each other.
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From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jessica-catto/greed-and-growth-new-prio_b_137572.html
October 24, 2008
The French President, Sarkozy, is quoted as saying, "Together we need to rebuild a capitalism that is more respectful to man, more respectful to the planet, more respectful to future generations and be finished with a capitalism obsessed by the frantic search for short term profit."
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From: http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/adin_steinsaltz/2008/09/the_growth_of_greed.html
September 19, 2008 - Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
Being rich is not proof of moral superiority, greater religious value or righteousness. And debt and poverty do not signify any moral or religious weakness or shortcoming. One has to remember that in many religious creeds, there is a notion that the poor are much closer than the rich are to God.
Indoor plumbing, ipods, and water filtration plants are great examples of how society has created wealth. It is sad that most recent "wealth" creation has come from cheating at math too complicated for the undereducated masses to understand.
ReplyDeleteCountries that focus on actual wealth creation rather than number shuffling will get ahead. Maybe Germany? USA needs to get back in the fight and push the American dream--not the idea of the dream, but the thing itself.
I am reminded of an argument a discussion I once had with my older sister and brother. My sister insisted that the leaders of corporations cared for nothing but making a profit. Their number one daily goal was to make money, and this, for my sister, was just unacceptable. In response, my brother offered this perspective: someone has to want to make money in a business or it does not work. People don't get paid, we don't in turn consume, and the system ceases to function.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'm inclined to think the real problem is us: the consumers. After all, there are millions of us and only a few of these so-called pigs. We feed our dollars blindly into this system buying crap (excuse my French) that no one anywhere can justify the need for (such as humongous inflatable Santa Claus'). We throw away anything with a scratch on it to buy new, and take the time to appreciate how cheap everything is in the process supporting the exploitation of our natural resources at an exponential rate.
If we had been a little more careful with what we spent (and borrowed as you mention), we might not have eliminated the slop altogether, but we might have rationed it out more progressively and the pigs, who have certainly done their fair share in this mess we're in, would have just had to live with less. That's how it was before all this technology and globalization, wasn't it? Status came with how educated you were not whether you had an IPad.