This morning listening to the NPR (National Public Radio) I caught an interview Image may be NSFW.
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that the Morning Edition host did with an American venture capitalist Bill Frezza. The conversation centered around job creation and the age-old debate that rages regularly between liberals and conservatives on whether or not taxing the rich affects job creation in a negative way.
What struck me was not the tax question, but rather the view that Bill Frezza held on jobs and on how jobs are actually not beneficial to business. Jobs is an expense, he said, and creating jobs isn’t the goal of any business. The goal of a business is making money for the owner and the shareholders as well as satisfying customer demand. In other words, business owners aren’t supposed to be concerned about the American economy and the state of the country in particular – but simply about how much money they’ll make and how much profit they’ll take in.
Perhaps not quite the view I would relate to, but that’s beside the point. His pragmatic approach seemed very ego-centric, very “as-long-as-I-make-money-nothing-else-matters”, and very … individualistic, if we want to put a culture dimension on it. What about the world, I wanted to ask? What about making sure that your money-making is contributing good to the world and to the society you live in?
It seems that Bill and many like him don’t care very much for that (at least that’s what came through in this interview). And that makes me wonder – do individualistic societies where “I” is a lot more important than “We” create more ego-centrism and more greed? Does the US with its very individualistic orientation lead the world in the number of greedy and I-don’t-give-a-f$#@% individuals?
Has this attitude been exported elsewhere? And how is this export thriving in your country?
Tagged: Banks, Business, Cross-Cultural, Entrepreneur, international, International Business, money, USA Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
