You’d sooner squeeze blood from a stone than shame from a capitalist.
They’re incapable of shame.
He’s not an idiot because he’s a capitalist. It’s that capitalism encourages the idiotic type to try shit out, because those are the ones with most self-confidence. They’re mostly also the least likely to really consider the responsibilities such as: your employees depend on you now, if you fuck up majorly, you’ll screw over all your employees’ lives, potentially their families too, potentially irreversibly
So yea, the function of “CEO” naturally attracts cretins.
And God forbid such a moron’s business becomes even slightly successful, because guess who suddenly feels smarter, less accountable for his terrible character flaws and toxic behavior? That’s right. Usually, businesses which make it are mostly just lucky. But you can’t explain this to cpt douchebag, he thinks he’s magically smarter and better at life than anyone.
And the better the company does, the more the Boss will indulge in his dysfunction and craziness.
That’s why, statistically bosses are highly probable to be the scourge of humanity. It’s not just capitalism. it’s just the toxic mix of luck, power and stupidity - all three combined with whichever the boss’ character flaws and weaknesses are. Only in capitalism, power usually takes the form of money, that’s all. But the issue is even deeper with people.
(i hate capitalism too, but I think blaming it all on capitalism and calling it a day isn’t gonna address such a fundamental issue with people. I come from an ex communist country and that shit is just equally toxic if brought to it’s extreme version - and for the same reasons to do with the human psyche too.)
It’s basic game theory and a race to the bottom. They either come together to set a bottom, do it by threat of violence or by law.
| Game theory | pay workers less | pay workers more |
|---|---|---|
| Go easy on workers | outcompeted | outcompeted |
| Squeeze workers | profit | outcompeted |
Right, people miss this but its literally one of the basic ideas of capitalist production. Mom and Pop might be nice people but the market WILL destroy them if they don’t participate in the most cutthroat practices to stay competitive. Forces are at play that supercede the morality of any actor.
Bosses everywhere: So you’re saying we should get rid of the pizza party? Good idea, that’ll save the company money!
What I find interesting is that reigning in abuse at the behest of bosses / management / leadership would solve a gigantic number of problems in today’s society. ‘Nobody wants to work anymore’ is actually ‘nobody wants to be treated like shit by power-hungry psychopaths’. BUT, it is so difficult / impossible to change the intrinsic human assholification of anyone with power (see Stanford prison experiment), that companies will try anything else.
This is utterly fascinating. Thank you for providing this link. Funnily enough, my thoughts immediately went to “is Milgram any better?”. Seems like he might be, somewhat. The question for me then becomes:
- can people be trusted with authority, on a general level? Are there studies to prove / disprove the adage that power corrupts / that people with personality disorders such as psychopathy or narcissism seek out (or thrive in, or are promoted to) positions of power?
Thank you again, I shall revise my opinion from now on and seek out more studies on the matter.
