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A Billionaire’s Sears Fiasco Is Finally Nearing Its End

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Re: A Billionaire’s Sears Fiasco Is Finally Nearing Its End

#41
post #33
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting.. can you elaborate?

He's the CEO of a failing company, but in it failing, he still makes a ton of money because his hedge fund is in a position to make gains from the company failing.

That would explain why my local Sears location seems to have suffered a perpetual tornado-strike ... empty shelves and product strewn everywhere. Every time I go in. Nothing interesting is ever in stock. How that place is still open amazes me...

Re: A Billionaire’s Sears Fiasco Is Finally Nearing Its End

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rand's legacy fits how she died: penniless and dependent on the institutions she viewed as failures of the human spirit. What a misguided wreak. Too bad she was influential, because much of the idiots stinking up the planet are her ideological children.

Fountainhead was about glorifying a designer, to the ignorance of all else. I found the book incoherent and boring in high school, and today I'm still unable to find utility in its themes.

I'm not especially in the anti-Rand brigade. But the thing that especially annoyed me about The Fountainhead was that it put on a pedestal all the annoying features of egotistical architects. Guess what, it's not actually about your vision. There's a client paying the bills.

Now, if you persuade a client to come along for the ride with your vision, good for you. But the idea that a building is all about the architect's vision and no other consideration is egomaniac territory.

Re: A Billionaire’s Sears Fiasco Is Finally Nearing Its End

#43
post #9

How is it a fiasco? He wanted to gut the place and get the real estate. He gutted the place and got the real estate. It's a heist, not a fiasco

If he wanted to gut the place to get the real estate he wouldn't have taken nearly 15 years to do it.

Re: A Billionaire’s Sears Fiasco Is Finally Nearing Its End

#44
post #36

Theodore Houser, a former CEO of Sears wrote a book, "Big Business and Human Values". The book is really worth reading because the contrast between Houser and Lambert (and most all CEOs now) is striking. I think just the title of his book demonstrates how different capitalism is now in comparison to Houser's day. "Human Values" is not something we hear CEOs or financial talking heads speak of much anymore. (Has Jim C…

Jim Cramer was self-admittedly very left-leaning while he was editor of the Crimson in college. His current philosophy is that whatever increases commercial activity is good - so he does comment on company values in terms of how it affects the company's brand and success.

Re: A Billionaire’s Sears Fiasco Is Finally Nearing Its End

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rand's legacy fits how she died: penniless and dependent on the institutions she viewed as failures of the human spirit. What a misguided wreak. Too bad she was influential, because much of the idiots stinking up the planet are her ideological children.

> penniless and dependent on the institutions she viewed as failures of the human spirit. Link? She died in her Manhattan apartment [1], not some government funded facility. And colleague Leonard Peikoff [2] was heir to her estate, including the copyrights and royalties on her works. [1] http://www.literarymanhattan.org/place/ayn-rands-apartment-2... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Peikoff

>She died in her Manhattan apartment [1], not some government funded facility.

I believe the parent was referring to government institutions such as social security, which Ayn Rand wound up using after being signed up by a social worker. She spoke out against such programs her whole life. However, she needed it, it was different. A common refrain with such people.

Re: A Billionaire’s Sears Fiasco Is Finally Nearing Its End

#46
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fundamental problem with Rand's ideology is her cartoonish categorization of everyone that isn't Galt-esque or an enthusiastic, hypercompetent support person as evil looters/parasites. Iirc, Galt is basically trying to collapse society for everyone but the former. When you realize that you can't just write off people because they didn't turn out to be brilliant entrepreneurs or perky worker bees, and that the wor…

I disagree. In the book society was already collapsing. Plenty of regular people in the novel realized something was wrong and removed themselves from the looters' economy to roam the country. Galt simply refused to be the one to prop up the looters failing economy. Interesting that you see Galt as the one collapsing society. Rand's point was that the looters collapsed society and that they were too ignorant to under…

This.

Galt and the others that removed themselves from the collapsing society were not the ones that were collapsing society, nor was the collapse their end-goal.

In the story, the looters were causing the collapse, and were taking everything not nailed down in the process. Galt and the others simply decided to leave them to it.

Re: A Billionaire’s Sears Fiasco Is Finally Nearing Its End

#47
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fountainhead was about glorifying a designer, to the ignorance of all else. I found the book incoherent and boring in high school, and today I'm still unable to find utility in its themes.

I'm not especially in the anti-Rand brigade. But the thing that especially annoyed me about The Fountainhead was that it put on a pedestal all the annoying features of egotistical architects. Guess what, it's not actually about your vision. There's a client paying the bills. Now, if you persuade a client to come along for the ride with your vision, good for you. But the idea that a building is all about the architect…

Exactly - clients and customers aren't just an evil of capitalism - they're other humans who share the world with us. And they also have a vision of the world they want to live in.

It's fine to go off and do our own thing. But that doesn't mean we'll have any leverage to gain the concern or help of other people. Subsequently calling them out is just rude.

Re: A Billionaire’s Sears Fiasco Is Finally Nearing Its End

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they can think of themselves as John Galt-esque ubermenschen. Of all the heroes we could encourage people to have, is John Galt really so awful? He's described as bright, hard-working, self-reliant, but also collaborative and supportive of the work of those around him. He's driven and entrepreneurial, but not anti-social. He doesn't come across as anti-government so much as desiring government that isn't kleptocrat…

The fundamental problem with Rand's ideology is her cartoonish categorization of everyone that isn't Galt-esque or an enthusiastic, hypercompetent support person as evil looters/parasites. Iirc, Galt is basically trying to collapse society for everyone but the former. When you realize that you can't just write off people because they didn't turn out to be brilliant entrepreneurs or perky worker bees, and that the wor…

It's hard to get more cartoonish than Star Trek's Ferengi, a left-wing caricature of capitalists, going so far as having pointed teeth.

Re: A Billionaire’s Sears Fiasco Is Finally Nearing Its End

#49
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> penniless and dependent on the institutions she viewed as failures of the human spirit. Link? She died in her Manhattan apartment [1], not some government funded facility. And colleague Leonard Peikoff [2] was heir to her estate, including the copyrights and royalties on her works. [1] http://www.literarymanhattan.org/place/ayn-rands-apartment-2... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Peikoff

>She died in her Manhattan apartment [1], not some government funded facility. I believe the parent was referring to government institutions such as social security, which Ayn Rand wound up using after being signed up by a social worker. She spoke out against such programs her whole life. However, she needed it, it was different. A common refrain with such people.

You insinuate contradiction where none exists.

Disliking being "excessively taxed" your whole life doesn't preclude you from trying to get some of it back. In fact, I dare say you'll try even harder to get it back.

Just because you didn't want to blow the budget on the Christmas party doesn't mean you can't show up.

Re: A Billionaire’s Sears Fiasco Is Finally Nearing Its End

#50
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> penniless and dependent on the institutions she viewed as failures of the human spirit. Link? She died in her Manhattan apartment [1], not some government funded facility. And colleague Leonard Peikoff [2] was heir to her estate, including the copyrights and royalties on her works. [1] http://www.literarymanhattan.org/place/ayn-rands-apartment-2... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Peikoff

>She died in her Manhattan apartment [1], not some government funded facility. I believe the parent was referring to government institutions such as social security, which Ayn Rand wound up using after being signed up by a social worker. She spoke out against such programs her whole life. However, she needed it, it was different. A common refrain with such people.

If someone opposes collective farms in the Soviet Union, must they starve in order to avoid being moral hypocrites?

The thing with Social Security is we're all forced to pay into the system. It's not immoral to accept the paycheck. I'll be accepting those checks, too, despite opposing SS and consistently voting against it.

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