“Look at the stock price charts over the past few years and you’ll see how IBM has been greatly outperforming the market in general, based primarily on its bottom line strategy. That’s what a publicly held private corporation is there to do! “
Granted, this style of management does create wealth for stock holders, but America is being reduced to a relatively small “investor class” and a shrinking skilled worker middle class. And where do these displaced American skilled workers go when their jobs are eliminated or “dumbed down” so a non-English speaker can take it over?
Maybe the stock holders will pay our salaries? No?
I am still a few years away from retirement, I hope I can hold out until then.
Obama would like to think so; it makes his class warfare politics more successful, at least in his way of thinking.
During the Bush years, financial commentators were saying that there had never been a higher percentage of Americans with investments - directly or indirectly - in the financial markets. The current recession has lowered that somewhat, but it's still high by historical standards.
I feel for the people being laid off by IBM. That being said, I have my doubts about Cringely's numbers. As a mitigating factor, at least some of these former IBMers are IBM shareholders too, thanks to IBM's stock purchase plan for its employees.
Tellingly, Cringely said nothing in his piece regarding the contribution of the Obama Administration's anti-growth economic policies to the IBM lay-offs.