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In the 1970’s companies shifted from appointing operating executives to senior roles to appointing financial managers and lawyers. This generation of executives viewed employees as an expense, not an asset.

This may be true, but the cost of doing business in the US, especially manufacturing, has left executives with few options.

>>>>>>In the 1970’s companies shifted from appointing operating executives to senior roles to appointing financial managers and lawyers. This generation of executives viewed employees as an expense, not an asset.

This may be true, but the cost of doing business in the US, especially manufacturing, has left executives with few options.

You may also want to consider the role of 401k's and fund managers in that mix. As an investor, chances are that you care about Black Rock Small Cap Growth's performance. The actions that the Jack-In-The-Box (one of the fund's investments) takes to maintain share price and quarterly dividends is not really much of concern to you. Fund managers know that and base their decisions on that fact.

If you, as a corporate manager for (as an example) Jack-In-The-Box, take an action that is best in the long term but might temporarily reduce returns for a quarter or two in order to achieve long-term growth, you will be called on the carpet like nothing you've ever seen because your shareholders (the majority of whom are institutional owners, such as Black Rock Small Cap Growth) won't tolerate a loss of returns for even a quarter.

That changes how corporate managers act and how they think. IMHO, not always for the positive.

This may be true, but the cost of doing business in the US, especially manufacturing, has left executives with few options.

What clap trap. Big cap manufactures LOVE regulations and taxes because it keeps the "little guy" start ups out of the market. The offshoring of manufacturing was simply to shave off a few pennies on the dollar by exploiting the huge wage difference between a first world country and a turd world country. The US consumer does not realize any savings and quality has suffered.