this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2024
1275 points (96.5% liked)
Comic Strips
12729 readers
2431 users here now
Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.
The rules are simple:
- The post can be a single image, an image gallery, or a link to a specific comic hosted on another site (the author's website, for instance).
- The comic must be a complete story.
- If it is an external link, it must be to a specific story, not to the root of the site.
- You may post comics from others or your own.
- If you are posting a comic of your own, a maximum of one per week is allowed (I know, your comics are great, but this rule helps avoid spam).
- The comic can be in any language, but if it's not in English, OP must include an English translation in the post's 'body' field (note: you don't need to select a specific language when posting a comic).
- Politeness.
- Adult content is not allowed. This community aims to be fun for people of all ages.
Web of links
- [email protected]: "I use Arch btw"
- [email protected]: memes (you don't say!)
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
In this comic, the owner is acting greedily to the point of heavily antagonizing their workers. Draconian exploitation of the workforce, reneging on previous agreements, and not adequately compensating them is irrational.
One of the fallacies with Rand's "moral objectivism" is the assumption that business owners will act rationally in their logical self interest in negotiations with their labor force and not out of spite, malice, sadism, racism, etc.
One of the problems with economic theory in general is assuming rational actors.
I was told by my first economics professor that if I could solve that problem, and eliminate the assumption of rationality, I'd be the richest man on earth over night.
It's a problem, they know it's a problem, they just don't have a better answer.
You can't even assume everyone can agree on the same definition of rational. If a business owner is a sadist they might value treating their employees like dirt more than the money they'd make if the business ran more efficiently. For a dickhead, rational self interest could mean forgoing profit to cause misery.
Rational in the economics sense just means that people do things for a reason. We're not acting randomly, we believe that when we put money towards a thing that we are receiving something of value for it.
Any more specific than that and we're not talking about rationality in the economics sense any more. Rationality does not mean correct. Just with cause.
This sounds like the metric for hiring middle-management if anything.
It would certainly help explain middle management's obsession with return-to-office policies in the face of all the evidence that WFH increases productivity.
Add greed and self-interest to that list. Those leaders and owners like CEOs are beholden to investors and shareholders, and if they demand a return on their investment or the C-suite wants a raise, the workforce will be one of the places the value is extracted from.