I've just finished watching Downfall and I couldn't help but be struck by how it could be the parable of the post 1979 “greed is good” neo-Liberal capitalist system.
The first and most obvious lesson from it is that modern capitalists will happily kill you to make a profit, and they'll charge you for the privilege. I'd like to think most of us here know this, at least on some level. But Boeing's consistent decisions to push forward on getting a plane into the air that they knew was dangerous, and their consistent efforts to avoid being forced into any mitigation of that risk (even after 2 of them had crashed, and the FAA had produced a report predicting 15 further crashes I've the lifetime of the aircraft without this issue being addressed) if there was any chance it would impact their bottom line is a particularly in your face example of this truth.
But it's also a prime example of how a company that was previously a shining example of doing things “the right way” was thrown to the vultures of Wall Street by greedy executive looking to maximise their own gains and rendered down into a husk that exists only to “maximise shareholder value”. It's an example of how good people are exploited and ignored.
It also got me thinking, what does a better system look like? When we tear down this absolute mess of a system, what do we replace it with to ensure the incentives tilt towards building for the future rather than maximising profits for shareholders this quarter to the detriment of everyone else? How do we build a world where people can take pride in what they do without being exploited and burned out?
For me there's some obvious places to start. First of all we make CEOs and other directors criminally accountable for the decisions made by them and those under them. No more paying off agencies by agreeing to accept massive fines to avoid criminal charges. If your actions or inaction leads to people being hurt or dying, you're going to be going to jail for a long time. We'll still fine the company too, but some serious individual accountability might just get some people thinking a little harder about what they choose to ignore.
I'd also cap the maximum total compensation package any company can offer and link that cap to the average wage the company pays. No more CEOs earning tens of millions whilst the majority of their employees minimum wage. Also if a majority of the employees don't get a benefit as part of their “compensation package”, the CEO doesn't either.
I'm curious as to what everyone else thinks. Did anyone else here think the same when they watched it?