Greg Smith, the former Goldman Sachs executive who caused an uproar earlier this year with his opinion piece in the New York Times exposing the corruption and greed that’s rampant on Wall Street, is about to debut his new book: “Why I Left Goldman Sachs: A Wall Street Story.”
Surely Smith will regale us with more in depth explanations of the sickening stories he shared in his oped:
It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as “muppets,” sometimes over internal e-mail.
This disregard for others in the name of money isn’t only the domain of Wall Streeters.
If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately you’ve probably heard about the tainted steriod injections that have killed 19 and sickened many others.
The problems aren’t only an issue for a lone lax pharmacy that produced the injections. A story in the New York Times today points to rampant violations at drug factories around the country. The first paragraph of the story will make you sick to your stomach:
Weevils floating in vials of heparin. Morphine cartridges that contain up to twice the labeled dose. Manufacturing plants with rusty tools, mold in production areas and — in one memorable case — a barrel of urine.
How does this happen? Clearly, someone, or a group of someones, decides to cut corners all for the good of the bottom line, and it turns out we may be teaching the idea that “greed is good” to students studying economics.
A study conducted by researchers at Northwestern and Harvard found that:
…economics education is consistently associated with positive attitudes towards greed, even after controlling for gender effects…
They also found:
Although greed is one of the seven cardinal sins, and possibly the mother of them all, regarding the arguments that discuss the benefits of self-interest seems to encourage people to see it more positively.
And finally:
Our findings clarify and extend earlier findings by suggesting that the study of economics may not only promote self-interest, or behavior that is consistent with the predictions of standard economic models, but may also (unintentionally) encourage greed.
Given this reality, how can we expect executives and managers operating organizations to make sure their products are safe, and also, how can we expect them to pay workers a fair wage and treat them fairly when it comes to working conditions, or providing opportunities to have more flexibility in their jobs?
In my new job as communications director for the Families and Work Institute, I have seen many corporate managers passionate about employees and seriously wanting to help them have better work and family lives.
But lately it seems greed has intensified in a host of industries. Deadly injections. Wall Street corruption. iPad sweat shops.
Could it be we’re educating generations of business leaders to be greedier?
October 25th, 2012 at 10:50 am
Yes, I have seen this type of greed at my work place.
The owner has cut the employees hours, and also has one employee working alone a whole shift, waiting on customers, unloading the trucks at the same time and also closing alone.
The employees and stressed, the customers wait in line and sometimes leave and the food begins to go bad sitting out of refridgeration after coming off of the truck (i work at a bakery)
The owner says she can’t afford to have 2 employees working, but it is a matter of greed
She also recently cut back one bakers hours from 40 a week to 12 hours a week, and brought in an illegal worker so she could pay less. We have 4 undocumented workers there now.
She is too greedy to pay minimum wage if she doesn’t have to
November 12th, 2012 at 11:04 am
[IMO] It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where this focus on greed began. Even when I was in school, I remember being more concerned about finding a job that paid well than finding a career I’d love. Kids grow up seeing their parents shelling out money for everything. Families that produce for their own user or consumption (whether furniture, clothing, or food) are less and less common. Marketing campaigns work to make people want things, often by portraying them as “needs”. Then there’s the old “keeping up with the Jones” mantra.
Look at cell phones. New models every six months or a year, each designed to make the old ones seem inferior. Does anyone really need a new phone every year? I was just feeling this pressure this morning when two colleagues were oohing-and-ahhing over one of their new phones. Mine is only nine months old, but it’s not as large… or sleek… or exciting… I thought about contacting my carrier to see when I’d be eligible for an upgrade. Then I stopped myself. My phone does everything I need, and much more already.
Produce more… in less time… for less money. It’s been a mantra for business for many, many years now–rising out of the Industrial Revolution and remaining to this day. It’s not that people before the Industrial Revolution would never cut corners, but that the focus on reducing costs and increasing profits appaers to have become the primary goal in business in the years since then.
November 12th, 2012 at 4:28 pm
You are so right HikingStick, we are all part of the problem. I find myself falling into the consumption trap often. We have to do a better job teaching our children they don’t need all this stuff.
December 16th, 2012 at 8:10 am
Values are changing faster than time.