[Issue 104] "Is capitalism okay?" 🤔
The short answer is no.
The long answer is hell no. (In my not so humble opinion, of course)
I bring you this topic today for two reasons:
FIRST: I'm going to be joining a friend, Kashia Dunner, in an Instagram Live conversation at 7pm ET today on the topic, and I want to shamelessly ask you all to follow along here: instagram.com/abovethebottomline
SECOND: This seems to be a trendy discussion lately, with the average person believing that capitalism isn't working for everyone while executives are shockingly convinced that everything is fine.
Only 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs think that capitalism is in crisis and in need of an overhault to better serve society. 25% of Fortune 500 CEOs even say that capitalism works just fine.
HOW?!
This month's issue of Fast Company is ALL about the topic, and I would definitely recommend picking it up if you haven't yet. Many of them are available online if you prefer that option.
I especially recommend these articles:
Ford Foundation’s Darren Walker: How to save capitalism from itself [link]
This man is disrupting the cult of the billionaire [link]
New Belgium Brewery’s employees think like owners. Because they are [link]
Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard talks about the sustainability myth, the problem with Amazon—and why it’s not too late to save the planet [link]
There are several things about this conversation that bother me, the first of which is the idea that capitalism was ever okay.
There is this point of view about capitalism that is completely romanticized and ignores the foundation of capitalism: the use of enslaved people to build this country's economy. The New York Times' 1619 project does a beautiful job covering this.
Even more, the very metrics we use to measure our economy is based on our consumption, which we oddly seem to assume can continue infinitely. (This Planet Money podcast episode does a good job of covering this discussion of GDP.)
Something has to give, no?
Now, I want to be clear. I paid a lot of money for an MBA, and I don't label myself as anti-capitalist (yet, at least), but I think it's impossible to "fix" a system if we're not being honest about the ways in which it has always been broken.
The second thing that concerns me about this conversation is that it's the people with the most power (CEOs, billionaires, etc) who seem to be the least likely to want to admit the system is broken - not shocking of course - but who have the most resources to invest in changing the system.
I don't have any answers or solutions, which often makes me feel hopeless. But It's also the reason I spend my time consuming books like The Enlightened Capitalist, Winners Take All and From Generosity to Justice: A New Gospel of Wealth.
I'm always looking for answers and ways we can destroy the inequities inherent in our current system. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Even more, I would love for you to join the discussion at 7pm ET via Instagram!
One last shameless plug: instagram.com/abovethebottomline
- Nikita
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Lyft will be offering up to 3 weeks of free rides to job seekers:
The ride-hailing company says it’s working with services organizations such as Goodwill and United Way, in roughly 35 markets in the US and Canada, to provide free or discounted Lyft rides to and from job training programs, job interviews, and the first three weeks of employment (or until individuals receive their first paycheck).
Spread the word, and read more about the initiative here! And h/t to Kashia for sharing this article on IG.
Women At Ernst & Young Instructed On How To Dress, Act Nicely Around Men. In June of 2018, 30 female executives at Ernst and Young went through a training program that instructed them to not be shrill, have their clothing flatter them, have a good haircut and manicured nails and that "sexuality scrambles the mind". They were also told that women had a harder time focusing. The information on the seminar was given to HuffPost by an employee who was appalled by the training. // HUFFPOST
Facebook Is Still Figuring Out How To Police Deepfakes. Deepfakes are videos that use artificial technology on the subject of the video to make it appear as though they said or did something they never did, and are posted commonly on Facebook. However, Facebook is having a hard time finding technology to remove the videos, or even creating a policy for the removal of the videos. Facebook has previously struggled with policing misinformation on their platform. // FORTUNE
Gender Inequity Costs The United States $2 Trillion In Lost GDP. Since 2017, the number of female CEOS in the Fortune 500 has dropped by 14%, and an approximate 47 years has been added to the expected time to reach gender equality globally. This is all happening while women attain 57% of bachelors degrees, which is important to closing the gender gap. This article by Fast Company explores why this gap is widening, like women being overrepresented in low-income earners and underrepresented in high income earners, and how it is costing the American economy. // FAST COMPANY
Disney Seeks To Throw Out Gender Pay Gap Lawsuit. 10 female plaintiffs who worked for Disney are now filing a suit that alleges that Disney paid their male counterparts tens of thousands of dollars more for the same work. However, Disney is trying to throw this lawsuit out by alleging that the discrimination it is too "sprawling and unwielding" to be a class action lawsuit, and that the experience of these women do not represent all female employees at Disney. The plaintiffs' attorney has argued back that Disney's massive scale is not a defense, and that the argument is akin to "too big to fail". // VARIETY
Always Denies Selling Lower-Quality Pads In Kenya. Always has denied claims on social media that they sell a lower-quality product in Kenya that allegedly are made with toxic dioxins, however Kenyan women are sharing their experiences with the sanitary pads causing rashes, burns, and discomfort with the hashtag, #MyAlwaysExperience. // BBC
G.M. Workers Begin To Size Up The Deal Their Union Is Selling. After weeks of striking, a tentative contract has been hammered out by the UAW and General Motors. In the contract, the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant will be retooled to make battery modules and electric trucks, ensuring that it will employ workers for at least several more years, and there are new provisions for higher wages and a direct process for temporary workers to become full-time employees. Furthermore, each full-time hourly employee will also be paid a bonus of $11,000. Voting on the contract will take place this week. // NY TIMES
Why JPMorgan Chase Wants To Give More Former Criminals A Second Chance. In 2018, JPMorgan Chase hired 20,000 people, and roughly 10%, or 2,100 of them had a criminal history, and the CEO Jamie Dimon plans on hiring more. JPMorgan has since announced plans to remove all questions about criminal records from their job applications and will give $7M to organizations that provide job and life skills training to formerly incarcerated people. // FORTUNE
How Unpredictable Work Hours Turn Families Upside Down. This article discusses how unpredictable schedules that many hourly workers have disrupt their lives and their families in major ways. Furthermore, research has shown that African-Americans, Hispanics, Women, and other minorities are more overrepresented in hourly positions and are also much more likely to be assigned irregular schedules. // NY TIMES
This week's headlines were curated by ABL's intern, Lora.
"What got us here won't get us there. The future of business depends on a holistic approach to business as defined by a triple bottom line—people, planet, profits"
- Gregg Renfrew, Founder and CEO of Beautycounter