"Freedom" thread or something

Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic

 dtguitarfan wrote:

Hey, how funny, this is exactly what I've been trying to get across to the Libertarians in this thread.

Is there a fact or a point anywhere in that article which should be keeping me awake in thought tonight? It seems awfully short 

 dtguitarfan wrote:

Also found out today that Ayn Rand collected Medicare and Social Security.  Interesting.

I see. So what, Ayn Rand was a hypocrite so Libertarianism is bad? Got it. 

 dtguitarfan wrote:

Oooh, also, here's how Ayn Rand's philosophy may have killed Sears.
FTA:

First, Lampert broke the company into over 30 individual units, each 
with its own management, and each measured separately for profit and 
loss. Acting in their individual self-interest, they would be forced to 
compete with each other and thereby generate higher profits.
What actually happened is that units began to behave something like 
the cutthroat city-states of Italy around the time Machiavelli was 
penning his guide to rule-by-selfishness. As Mina Kimes has reported in Bloomberg Businessweek, they went to war with each other.
It got crazy. Executives started undermining other units because they
 knew their bonuses were tied to individual unit performance. They began
 to focus solely on the economic performance of their unit at the 
expense of the overall Sears brand.  One unit, Kenmore, started selling 
the products of other companies and placed them more prominently that 
Sears’ own products. Units competed for ad space in Sears’ circulars, 
and since the unit with the most money got the most ad space, one 
Mother’s Day circular ended up being released featuring a mini bike for 
boys on its cover. Units were no longer incentivized to make sacrifices,
 like offering discounts, to get shoppers into the store.
Sears became a miserable place to work, rife with infighting and 
screaming matches. Employees focused solely on making money in their own
 unit ceased to have any loyalty the company or stake in its survival. 
Eddie Lampert taunted employees by posting under a fake name on the company’s internal social network.
What Lampert failed to see is that humans actually have a natural 
inclination to work for the mutual benefit of an organization. They like
 to cooperate and collaborate, and they often work more productively 
when they have shared goals.  Take all of that away and you create a 
company that will destroy itself.

Queue the "he's not really a Libertarian" response in 3...2...

I'm sorry. But this is just stupid. First off, it seems like Lampert was just a dick and that has nothing to do with Libertarianism. Secondly, Libertarianism is political philosophy, not a suggestion for how to organize every human endeavor. But that doesn't even matter, because what's being criticized here is a general method that's been very successful for other businesses. I mean just a vague google search will turn up an article like this. Pro-sports teams operate under the same exact premise. It's ridiculous that you take this article as proof of anything. It's a data point, a very vague and unspecific data point. in a rather vast sea. I've admittedly done no sort of meta-analysis on this, but I would think that the results are at least inconclusive as to its efficiency. Then again, the proliferation of commission based jobs would have me think it's skewed towards the opposite side, for example. It seems like the CEO just bumbled in his implementation of the program. 

And finally, the article argues that free market principles ruined Sears and forced them to stop using a beneficial business practice which is a result of a free market. This is just a contradiction sitting in light umbrage. 