The Rot Economy

“At the center of everything I’ve written for the last few months (if not the last few years), sits a cancerous problem with the fabric of how capital is deployed in modern business”

“Public and private investors, along with the markets themselves, have become entirely decoupled from the concept of what ‘good’ business truly is, focusing on one metric—one truly noxious metric—over all else: growth”

“‘Growth’ in this case is not necessarily about being ‘bigger’ or ‘better,’ it is simply ‘more’”

“Businesses are expected to be—and rewarded for being—eternal burning engines of capital that create more and more shareholder value while, hopefully, providing a service to a customer in the process”

“the markets do not prioritize innovation, or sustainable growth, or stable, profitable enterprises. As a result, companies regularly do not function with the intent of making ‘good’ businesses—they want businesses that semiotically align with what investors—private and public—believe to be ‘good’”

Commentator’s Note: Graeber’s argument in The Utopia of Rules, “Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit.”

“This is why we see such vast oscillations of hiring and firing—because these companies are never, ever punished for failing to operate their businesses in a sustainable way, or even with a view for the future, particularly when it comes to macroeconomic trends that literally everyone else saw coming”

“the net result of all of this is that it kills innovation. If capital is not invested in providing a good service via a profitable business, it will never sustain things that are societally useful. Companies are not incentivized to provide better services or improve lives outside of ways in which they can drain more blood from consumers”