Throwbacks

From time to time I look back at something I wrote on this blog years ago. It sometimes feels like I’m reading the words of a completely different person whom I barely recognize. Other times it seems like past me knew exactly what he was talking about.

Back in June of 2003 I wrote a post in which I tried to explain something of a self-revelation that I had recently experienced. I had felt a moment of tangible… disgust I guess, regarding a cliched phrase that was then and remains today distressingly common.

Have you ever heard “if you’re not growing, you’re dying“? This innocent phrase, at least as interpreted by late stage capitalism, is a rallying cry for never-ending growth in revenue and profits. We are to believe that any business, or individual for that matter, that isn’t making more profit each year than they did before is a ‘failing’ enterprise.

This falls in line with the theory of shareholder value maximization for which Milton Friedman is famous. The ‘Friedman Doctrine’ basically says that any executive’s primary and only fiduciary duty is to increase shareholder value i.e.: raise the stock price. The only way to do this reliably is to perpetually increase profits.