(no subject)
I wish I could post along with this information about persuasion thery, but no time: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-certainty-bias
Instead, I would like to introduce some Henry Ford quotes:
“There is one rule for industrialists and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible”
“Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.”
See also: http://thinkexist.com/quotation/there_is_one_rule_for_industrialists_and_that_is/174546.html
Now, I want to take the first quote and compare it with Ayn Rand's view on the profit motive. Now, when we, today, hear profit motive, I know that many people think of making a profit at all costs. However, I would submit that Rand did not see it that way. Instead, I believe her books contain a mandate to act in line with the Henry Ford quote above.
See, to earn a high profit from a bad product would be a denial of reality: you must be fooling someone, or someone must not have an understanding of value.
See, for Rand, things have an inherent value: they are good or bad (Nietzsche would say good or low) based on attributes of the products as compared to their purposes. A good chair is good for sitting. A good hammer is good for hammering. A good wrench is not necessarily good for hammering or sitting. A good building is good not for following styles but conforming to the flow of a person's life (to take from Rand's own work). A good railroad runs on time.
What about "highest wage possible"? Many businesses have made their fame by outsourcing, by cutting wages, by cutting costs. I cannot explain this, because if one were attendin to reality, one would realize that the people you are trying to sell to are not making as much money then. Also, you are not recognizing the value of their labor. By drivin after profits only, one can also deny the value of human beings. This is what Marx was concerned about/ recognized: that when "capitalists" (Marx's person who owns the means of production) make it so that individuals do not see the fruits of their labor, they no longer enjoy working, they become alienated from th cooperative effort. Here's where I put a prin on it: the cooperative effort of creating value. If it's just cooperative effort, it still lacks the attention to man's mind that drives innovation, invention, and any successful management strategy.
Why does this matter? Why am I talking about Ford as compared to Rand and Marx? Well, I always do. It's what I do.
But I'm trying to say that Rand's values are not profit-at-all-costs values.
And I'm trying to say that many heads of American business have forgotten this. Economies of scale and similar ideas have poisoned them so that they do not recognize the value in products or the value in labor. Instead, they create cheap products, advertise to pursuade us to buy them at the expense of other items, and us labor in other places because it is less expensive.
The problem, as I see it, is not a profit motive. The profit motive is one of man's highest. It makes us thrive. The problem is a loss in value. We have ceased to value value in many cases. Ou value in value makes us survive. Without value, we are eating dirt and thinking we can live like worms instead of reaching to a tree to find ripe fruit; eating shit instead of hunting the animals that produced it.
Value in value.
Stop trying to make a quick buck. In a quick buck, someone always gets cheated. A quick buck assumes a denial of reality. (and yes, I will admit that I am also sometimes guilty of forgetting this, of not attending to it at all times.)
Instead, I would like to introduce some Henry Ford quotes:
“There is one rule for industrialists and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible”
“Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.”
See also: http://thinkexist.com/quotation/there_is_one_rule_for_industrialists_and_that_is/174546.html
Now, I want to take the first quote and compare it with Ayn Rand's view on the profit motive. Now, when we, today, hear profit motive, I know that many people think of making a profit at all costs. However, I would submit that Rand did not see it that way. Instead, I believe her books contain a mandate to act in line with the Henry Ford quote above.
See, to earn a high profit from a bad product would be a denial of reality: you must be fooling someone, or someone must not have an understanding of value.
See, for Rand, things have an inherent value: they are good or bad (Nietzsche would say good or low) based on attributes of the products as compared to their purposes. A good chair is good for sitting. A good hammer is good for hammering. A good wrench is not necessarily good for hammering or sitting. A good building is good not for following styles but conforming to the flow of a person's life (to take from Rand's own work). A good railroad runs on time.
What about "highest wage possible"? Many businesses have made their fame by outsourcing, by cutting wages, by cutting costs. I cannot explain this, because if one were attendin to reality, one would realize that the people you are trying to sell to are not making as much money then. Also, you are not recognizing the value of their labor. By drivin after profits only, one can also deny the value of human beings. This is what Marx was concerned about/ recognized: that when "capitalists" (Marx's person who owns the means of production) make it so that individuals do not see the fruits of their labor, they no longer enjoy working, they become alienated from th cooperative effort. Here's where I put a prin on it: the cooperative effort of creating value. If it's just cooperative effort, it still lacks the attention to man's mind that drives innovation, invention, and any successful management strategy.
Why does this matter? Why am I talking about Ford as compared to Rand and Marx? Well, I always do. It's what I do.
But I'm trying to say that Rand's values are not profit-at-all-costs values.
And I'm trying to say that many heads of American business have forgotten this. Economies of scale and similar ideas have poisoned them so that they do not recognize the value in products or the value in labor. Instead, they create cheap products, advertise to pursuade us to buy them at the expense of other items, and us labor in other places because it is less expensive.
The problem, as I see it, is not a profit motive. The profit motive is one of man's highest. It makes us thrive. The problem is a loss in value. We have ceased to value value in many cases. Ou value in value makes us survive. Without value, we are eating dirt and thinking we can live like worms instead of reaching to a tree to find ripe fruit; eating shit instead of hunting the animals that produced it.
Value in value.
Stop trying to make a quick buck. In a quick buck, someone always gets cheated. A quick buck assumes a denial of reality. (and yes, I will admit that I am also sometimes guilty of forgetting this, of not attending to it at all times.)