Imagine for a moment that McDonald's decided to run their business like the government.
Buyers would award contracts for meat and potatoes based on which companies "donated" the most money to them. Quality of product and consistency of price would have no bearing on purchases.
Workers would be hired based on who they knew...a sort of hiring popularity contest. Honesty and ability would be irrelevent.
Product pricing would be on a "progressive" scale. For those who have little or no income, a cash bonus would be given with each order. Those of average means would pay, perhaps, $2.59 for a Big Mac, while the "rich" would be charged $47.95 for the same sandwich.
It doesn't take a genius to see that there would be lines out the door, packed with folks there to get their free food and cash bonus. Each of these people would order all the food they could carry, with no intention of actually consuming it, to get the associated free money. All the food that could be trucked in would be "sold out" in minutes each day. Those who could purchase a sandwich for $2.59 might visit occasionally, but the wait and inconvenience would prove to be too much for them and they would soon choose to spend their hard-earned dollars, and valuable time, elsewhere. And none of those $47.95 burgers would ever leave the kitchen, unless buyers were forced at the point of a gun.
The system would not last more than a few days before the company was out of business, likely taking its suppliers with it. Those favored employees would be out of work, those who had been subsidized would be left wondering how the company could have failed...they were always so busy! The average customer wouldn't miss the restaurant at all, and the rich guy would be tremendously relieved.
This is an incredibly simplistic analogy, of course, but I wonder sometimes if we don't need to make people think of things this way. It is so ridiculously obvious that a system like this could never work...why do so many think it's an appropriate way to run a country?
Monday, March 2, 2009
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How can someone who has never even worked in a business - much less run a business, possibly make correct decisions for the business community?
ReplyDeleteThe most junior employee at any McDonald's restaurant would immediately say the scenario you describe would not work.
Yet these politicians continue to proceed with this style of management for the country.
Back in the 1950s, I labored under the jurisdiction of the F.C.C. and flatly declared that those people were profoundly stupid about our business. No one I spoke with believed me.
Now everyone gets to see that the politicans & bureaucrats are stupid about the simple concept of business.