What has happened to American business in the last hundred years? There was a time when an American would work for Mr. Automobile Maker, and after a few years, said American decided he didn't like Mr. Auto Maker or didn't enjoy working for Mr. Auto Maker or thought the cars that Mr. Auto Maker built were crap, so what would said American do? He would tell Mr. Auto Maker to go bleep off and then go and start his own automobile manufacturing company. He would try his hand at building cars and see if his ideas would pan out. Nothing was guaranteed, but with hard work, there would be a possibility of making it big.
The fact that this doesn't happen anymore is not unique to automakers, but let me ask another question about the auto industry. It seems to be a bad place to put your money as an investor although so many people need to buy a car. I don't believe that the unions or management are totally to blame for this problem. So what is the problem? The biggest factor here is that companies who really stink at the automobile business are propped up by grants and loans and kept in business. I am sorry, but if you can't make a profit, it is either an unprofitable industry you are in or you just are incapable of running a business, so sell out or close down. The need for cars won't go away, and when you close down, other little companies will pop up around the country to build cars. Yes, there are foreign automakers, but there will always be a demand for American automobiles and new companies will form. Innovations will be made and automobiles will be improved much more quickly than if a company who can't stay in business without propping stays in business.
So, there are not as many brave innovative industrialists as there once were, but here is another problem. A hundred years ago, when an American owned ABC light bulb company, what ABC light bulb company did was make light bulbs and engineer ways to make them better and less expensive. The founder of ABC light bulb company started in his basement or garage and knew all the aspects of his business, and when he went to the factory his fledgling company moved into after several years, he knew if he kept at making better and better light bulbs, it would be the ticket to prosperity, not only for himself, but for his employees and suppliers too.
Now, American companies are run by graduates of ------- School Of Business where it appears they are taught that the goal of business is NOT to build a better cheaper whatever they are making, but to push paper around and downsize and send American jobs overseas so that said ------- School Of Business graduates can make obscene bonuses and stock options off of the companies they are destroying from within like parasites. These CEOs are nothing similar to industrialists of old who could do any job along the assembly line on through the sales path to the final destination of the product, they are paper pushers making up BS to make it look like the companies they run are getting healthier and healthier so that people will buy more stock in the companies and make stock prices go up. So the real goal today is a high stock price and not a better, stronger, faster, less expensive American made product.
So what does this have to do with the water business? There is a gigantic name in my industry. This company actually built the water treatment industry even more so than Henry Ford built the automobile industry. You all know the name, but I will not mention it here. This company has been sold so many times in the last twenty years that it is hard to count. Fifty years ago, no one could compete with this company if they decided to open a branch in the same area. But they have been bought, pillaged, and sold, bought, pillaged, and sold until they are only a shell of what they once were. I service well built products that they made thirty years ago that are still working, but the new stuff they make doesn't hold up as well. It is sad to see this happen to a once admirable company. The water industry is not an easy industry, but it can be very rewarding financially and satisfying for the ego because you are helping people. So on the outside looking in it makes no sense that the company is faltering until you realize that the capital has been sucked out of the company and downsizing and overseas outsourcing have decimated the ability to bounce back.
So I propose a new era here in America. A new industrialist era. A closing of the capitalist era and a return to the time when Americans would put as much effort as their employees toward producing a great product or service. There are pockets of companies here and there that are industry driven and not Wall Street driven, and this attitude needs to increase while the paper pushers need to lose their jobs. It is time for brave Americans to stand up and own their companies and decide to never sell out to Vampire Capitalists ever again. ------- School Of Business graduates have destroyed our government and destroyed our businesses, but we can revolt in this way; we can start our own businesses and work our tails off to close down the Vampire Capitalists and their undeserved easy money machine. Who is with me?
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