politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
view the rest of the comments
This cannot be emphasized or repeated enough. Before the acquisition, Boeing was led and run by engineers. After the acquisition, MBAs and Finance people were put in charge.
This happens at all large companies, eventually, and it's why they all inevitably shit the bed. It's just in this case, it's killing a lot of people in the process.
It's the basis of Terry Pratchett's Going Postal novel, a biting send-up of modern corporate kleptocracy.
Also a BBC miniseries.
Loved that novel; it was one of the first Discworld books I read. And Pratchett had a great way of representing the fundamental truths of governments of whatever structure, except that we should be so lucky to have as brilliant (and, perhaps ironically, benevolent in that he mainly just wants things to function smoothly, despite his Machiavellian ethics) a statesman as The Patrician in charge.
Gods I love Going Postal. I remember reading it when I was much younger (almost two decades ago) and loving it, but had forgotten enough of it that it almost felt new during my current reread of the Discworld series. Now I’m on Making Money and it’s just as good.
GNU Terry Pratchett
May you live as long as your name scintillates in the ether. GNU, brother.
People seem to hate the concept of enshittification for some reason, but it's a perfect encapsulation of the modern economy. Things that were once good are abused to extract wealth for shareholders. That is their only purpose. As far as the board of directors at Boeing are concerned, if they narrowly miss an accident they don't have to report and it nets them an additional $1 million, then all the better. High quality engineering, the collaboration of engineers and machinists, and especially safety are only valuable insofar as they make more money. And they'll be damned if they leave any money on the table to avoid a plane breaking up mid-air, killing everybody.
Probably because it makes everything more shitty for everyone but the shareholders. I don't believe that CEO's like knowing that that everybody hates what they're doing: their customers hate them, their employees hate them, and they know it. But I'd they don't satisfy the shareholders, they get fired - just as you say.
The infuriating thing is that it isn't about profit; it's about maximizing profit. Companies can be profitable without enshittification. It's the sin of gluttony that drives profit maximization, and the best thing these people can hope for is that the atheists are right and there is no heaven, because they're for sure going to hell for bald-faced greed.