Well I’m definitely not as rich as Sundar Pichai, but the US economic model is beneficial to a lot more than the “top 1-4%,” as you put it. And as someone else said, Google employs the people they need. They shouldn’t be pressured to hire or retain unneeded employees just because the company has a lot of money lying around.
I am not suggesting government tells a company how to run their business or how many employees to hire…
I am suggesting, since the government sets the rules of commerce…we go back to a Keynesian type of economy, vs the current Friedman/Neo-Liberal type of economy.
Break up monopolies, ban stock buy backs, raise taxes on the morbidly wealthy…would be a good start.
Their product is getting ■■■■■■■■ and ■■■■■■■■■ but they don’t have to change because they own the market and any real competitor they can just stomp out of existence.
Last year they did a $70 Billion stock buyback… remained wildly profitable and instead of fixing their search engine or invest in new services they cut 12,000 jobs to boost profits even more.
It isn’t going to be sustainable for the overall workforce to be fired to boost profits.
It is amazing how well the cons have done with making this the new normal…and having people who will never be wealthy, defend these tactics that overall hurts far more than it helps.
I am still a toll collector. They have just given us a fat raise and a new 4 year contract here in NJ. Our situation is a bit different. It’s not a bridge, and they make extra money keeping a skeleton crew out here. The practice is kind of shady, but it benefits them.
You probably don’t want to hear it all, so I’ll keep it short. If there were no toll collectors, people would pay exactly what they are supposed to pay. Just keep a few toll collectors out here, and people are too stupid, or ignorant, I lean more towards stupid, to understand how things work. So they pay a ton of extra money through violations, not having cash, or not having a ticket. To the extent that it covers the collectors, plus a bunch.
Well no kidding!!! But they all do it. EZ-Pass, self checkout lanes, all created to replace the workforce and boost profit. What company currently gives people they don’t need a welfare check? None. Well, besides some government jobs.
Back in the 80s when I worked for New Jersey Bell (now Verizon) and they cut the workforce from 40-50 people down to about 18 with a new computer program. One lady not making the cut said, They don’t want to pay us, but they still want us to pay our phone bill. Of course it’s not sustainable.
Look at the example of Jack Welch and GE where he hollowed out the company to boost profits but made little effort in making good and durable products.
The same thing is now happening with Google. Their product sucks, but their market share and command of the sector is such that it is nearly impossible for an upstart to unseat them.
So they don’t have to put profits into R&D or making new things that people want… in fact they can abandon services that people like and cut employees to boost corporate profits that will be concentrated at the top.