Forum Post: How business should be run
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 13, 2011, 7:05 a.m. EST by randart
(498)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I'm sitting here trying to wake up, drinking my coffee, and thinking about the OWS movement. A memory came to me about a company that burned to the ground somewhere in the US. It has been a long time ago so I don't recall the company but maybe some of you do.
After the manufacturing plant burned to the ground the owner did the right and moral thing. He continued to pay his employees while the plant was being rebuilt because he felt a moral sense of responsibility to those who helped him attain wealth. Once the plant was rebuilt all the employees went back to work. If all the 1% folks had such ethics and morals then this country wouldn't be in the problem it is now.
Corporations are legally bound to the investors. If the laws were changed so that corporations had a fiduciary duty to the employees and community before the stock holders then most people wouldn't mind some of us getting wealthy. Fair, living, wages and a sense of obligation to the community where they are located would go a long way to solve the problems we face.
It all seems to come down to morals and ethics, right and wrong.
"A memory came to me about a company that burned to the ground somewhere in the US. It has been a long time ago so I don't recall the company but maybe some of you do."
That was Malden Mills, maker of Polartec polar fleece. It was in 1995. Unfortuately the company has since gone bankrupt. Their underfunded pension plan was taken over by the PBGC.
"If the laws were changed so that corporations had a fiduciary duty to the employees and community before the stock holders."
That is an interesting idea, but you always have to think about the unintended consequences. The behavior of potential investors, and the people doing the hiring, would likely be significantly influenced.
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This was not an employee based business. It was a privately owned business, owned by a person who had a good moral compass and sense of responsibility to others beside himself.
This wasn't an employee co-op.
You want to change the laws...they are already in place..
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