Is Matel Stalinist?

[Tim May]

On Dec 9, 2003, at 9:39 AM, Tyler Durden wrote:

> Well, I wouldn't apply the word "oppressive" across the board to the 
> cultures of big companies, but the fact is that modern American 
> coporate culture more often than not imitates a top-down, 'statist' 
> culture that is so universal we rarely recognize it.

Yes, a company/corporation/enterprise is owned by its owner(s). 
Sometimes that owner is a single person, sometimes the owners are a 
family, sometimes the original owners sold pieces of ownership to other 
people. Sometimes the net result is that millions of individuals own 
small pieces of the company.

In any case, either the single owner or the small group of owners or 
the large group of owners then chooses some method by which decisions 
are reached on what products to sell, how to make them, and so on.

The difference with government is that we do not have "polycentric" 
governments. We have a single entity, a single "corporation," which 
brooks no competition, which brooks little or no "shareholder dissent."

Many here miss this point and focus on the superficial aspect that 
corporations typically have a hierarchy and that this hierarchy 
supposedly makes them like governments. Yes, in this respect. But the 
tens of thousands of corporations, the ability to form new 
partnerships, new companies, new corporations, and for some of these 
entities to become as large as past corporate giants, is what makes all 
the difference.

>
> For instance, high-level strategic decisions are made almost entirely 
> in the vacuum of power. And often, that's appropriate. But many times, 
> the actual people who do the work and know the most about the subject 
> are completely out of the loop. Silicon Valley at its best operates in 
> a very different way...companies are far more driven from the 
> product/technology/service perspective, instead of imagining that 
> balance sheets can make a Lucent into a Cisco. (And at its best, if 
> some hot engineers along with a couple of useful management types feel 
> strongly enough about a missed opportunity, they just split off and 
> start doing it.)

Having worked at the largest Silicon Valley company, I can assure you 
that its management methods and its corporate set up is not nearly as 
different from the Rest of Business as you fantasize that it is.

And being a shareholder in a bunch of non-Silicon Valley companies, I 
can also assure you that their 'high-level strategic decisons" are NOT 
"made almost entirely in the vacuum of power."

Sure, some non-SV companies make colossal mistakes. So do a lot of SV 
companies--I could launch into a list of the Big Errors of the past 20 
years, but why bother?

History gets written by the winners. So people know about Intel, but 
not about AMI or Monolithic Memories or Intersil. So people know about 
Apple, but not about Convergent or Fortune Systems or Processor 
Technology. So people know about Sun, but not about Apollo or Daisy or 
MAD Computer.

>
>
> Retail is the absolute worst. FOr whatever reason (and I don't believe 
> it has anything to do with competitiveness), big CD or Book chains 
> never empower or reward employees on their ability to purchase books 
> for their store that sell well. In fact, almost zero real purchasing 
> decisions are done locally.

This is silly, socialist nonsense. I know some of the book buyers at 
the "Borders" store in Santa Cruz (the very one that the "anti-bigness" 
lefties tried to ban from opening in Santa Cruz). Not only do they have 
a "local authors" section which is larger than the similar section at 
the "local" bookstore, but they have a sophisticated system for 
re-ordering books based on sales. If a title sells, they know it. And 
can order replacements.

So, what's missing? Local authors?--check. Books that sell?--check. A 
wider selection of books than the 'locally-owned" store?--check. The 
selection of books at the Borders in Santa Cruz is wider than the 
selection at the other bookstore. For example, history, or the Greek 
and Roman classics. I was looking for a book on the pre-Socratic 
philosophers recently (Heraclitus and that cohort). The locally-owned 
bookstore (which I like a lot, by the way) had a small selection of 
classsics, less than a shelf or two. No pre-Socratic philosophy that I 
could find.

So I went down the street to Borders. A floor to ceiling (well, top of 
their shelves, which are tall) selection of books on the Greeks and 
Romans, including two of the standards on the pre-Socratics, plus a 
couple of books just on Heraclitus.

An experience I've had many times. Borders usually has it, the smaller 
bookstores (in Aptos, Watsonville, Capitola, and S. Cruz) tell me "No, 
but we can order it for you." Gee, I can order it myself, too.

Now tell me that Borders is deficient in selection?

And the Barnes and Noble stores I sometimes go to over in the Valley 
are vast collections of books as well.

This is the real reason why the smaller stores are complaining. Exactly 
what was heard 60 years ago when "supermarkets" came to town and the 
small grocery stores faced competition. Exactly what was heard 30 years 
ago when Wal-Mart and their type came to town and the small "five and 
dime" stores faced competition.

Corporations have sales tracking software out the wazoo. If it sells, 
they buy more and sell them. Sounds like they're doing precisely what 
their owners want them to do.

>
> But nobody seems to notice...we're completely used to being passive 
> cogs in a big, fat machine-state. So in a sense, it's gone way beyond 
> 'repression'...no need for that rat-cage around our heads anymore.
>

You silly Bolshies are obviously on the wrong list if you think strong 
crypto is going to help your cause.

Feh.

--Tim May


--Tim May
"The State is the great fiction by which everyone seeks to live at the 
expense of everyone else." --Frederic Bastiat