[Vision2020] I thought you might be interested in this article

[Jeff Harkins]

Hi Joe,

Thanks for weighing in.  You raise an interesting example - and I 
would probably concede to your point that trying to take over a 
political party would raise obstacles that would almost appear 
insurmountable.  Of course, there are always going to be those that 
push the envelope and break through (Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin et al 
come to mind). Their success was relatively short-lived.

But political parties are generally more convoluted than the 
corporate enterprise.  It was said that Rockefeller could not be 
reined in.  He was.  It was said that the American railroad cartel 
would not be constrained - it was.  It was said the IBM would never 
relinquish its hold on computers and computer technology - they did 
(by a college dropout no less).  It was said that Pan Am would never 
lose its hold on international travel - they lost (that was Hughes). 
It was said that Sears and Montgomery Ward would dominate retail 
forever - they didn't (beat by a relatively uneducated entrepreneur 
from Arkansas).  It was said that the major broadcast networks (ABC, 
CBS and NBC) would never relinquish their stranglehold on TV 
broadcasting - the did (Turner almost did it by himself - from 
playboy to tycoon).  Many argued that the US oil industry would 
control energy forever - they don't.

It was said that baseball would dominate American sports forever.  It 
doesn't.  It was said that the National Football Conference would 
never relinquish control of football to the American Football 
Conference.  They did.

And so it goes.  This is fundamentally our American heritage.  Want 
to have your shot at market dominance and world power - invent a 
better mousetrap.

A final point - there are rules of fairplay.  And it is incumbent 
upon those who play the game to stay within the rules, but the 
borders of the rules will always be tested - you must push to the 
limit (and deal with the risks of going over the limits) if you wish 
to play in the big pond.

Thanks again for the discussion.
At 07:00 AM 8/29/2006, you wrote:
>Jeff,
>
>Do you think you could enact the kind of change that you want by 
>taking over, say, the Democratic Party? More likely by the time you 
>took them over the Democratic Party would have remained more or less 
>the same and it would have been you that had changed. I don't see 
>how you could take over that party without compromising at least 
>some of your most fundamental values.
>
>But I do appreciate the point. I recently saw a documentary about 
>Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, original owners of Ben and Jerry's 
>Ice Cream. Afterwards I realized that a company could take advantage 
>of the recent popularity of some core progressive values: buying and 
>selling local, natural/animal-friendly products, etc. I think that 
>the name that Ben and Jerry used for this type of business was 
>"value centered."
>
>But Ben and Jerry never reached the status of the folks you mention 
>below. They were eventually forced to sell their business, earning 
>$65 million between the two of them, which is chump change compared 
>to the money earned by the CEOs of Wal-Mart, etc. In order to make 
>the big bucks you really have to push the legal/ethical envelope.
>
>--
>Joe Campbell
>
>---- Jeff Harkins <jeffh at moscow.com> wrote:
>
>=============
>Bill,
>
>Here is a simple thought for you to ponder ...
>
>The ultimate force that assures that competitive behavior and free
>choice will provide a check on greed is that there is nothing that
>can prevent you from becoming the next CEO earning $200 million - you
>simply have to be willing to commit to that agenda and be willing to
>make the sacrifices necessary to achieve your goal.
>
>Yes indeed - you could be the CEO of WalMart and you could then
>restructure that company or any other multinational firm as you see
>fit - as long as you satisfy the return on capital demands of the
>shareholders and the expectations of the capital markets.
>
>It really is that simple.
>
>You might consider reading the biographies of Dupont, Firestone,
>Ford, Hughes, Vanderbilt, Osborne - even Gates (to name a few) to
>gain a sense of how this is possible.
>
>At 11:03 AM 8/28/2006, you wrote:
> >P-
> >I read it and have a question or two...
> >In response to his sentence ---"I wish you could see that competitive
> >behavior and free choice are forces that operate in the market as a check
> >against greed." ---can you explain the existence of $200 million annual
> >compensation packages for major corporate CEO's?
> >what are the countering forces to the power of the multinational
> >corporations?
> >BL
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Pat Kraut" <pkraut at moscow.com>
> >To: "vision2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
> >Sent: Sunday, August 27, 2006 10:14 PM
> >Subject: [Vision2020] I thought you might be interested in this article
> >
> >
> > >
> > > I thought you might be interested in this article:
> > >
> > > Liberals Should Know Better
> > > By Arnold Kling on 17 Jan 2006
> > > You can view it at http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=011606A
> > >
> > >
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