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Boeing put Wall Street first, safety second ahead of Alaska Air blowout

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Re: Boeing put Wall Street first, safety second ahead of Alaska Air blowout

#31

Post by rhelz »

Curious how we assign moral blame. Sure, Boeing put Wall Street first ahead of safety.

But why isn't the headline "Wall Street put profits ahead of safety".

Or "The electorate chooses capitalism over safety."

During the oil crisis, highway speed limits were reduced to 55 mph, to ease the gas shortage. But an unexpected side effect was that about 4,000 less people died in car crashes each year. Would you be willing to drive slower to save lives?

Put it another way: how many people would you be willing to kill to be able to drive at 65mph?

Its so easy to sit there and put the blame on some amorphous, anonymous, abstraction like "Wall Street" because it exonerates you and you can feel all self-righteous. But if you were in the same position, are you so sure you'd give up your annual bonus? Or put your stock options underwater? When you knew full well that if you didn't they would just fire you and hire somebody who would?

Re: Boeing put Wall Street first, safety second ahead of Alaska Air blowout

#32

Post by cyclecount »

Capitalism killing people, nothing new or out of the ordinary here. Companies are innovative when growing and competing, but if they win they’ll reach the final form for a successful firm: monopoly. From then on, the only innovation will be in new ways to rebrand corruption and avoid regulation.

Re: Boeing put Wall Street first, safety second ahead of Alaska Air blowout

#33

Post by JumpCrisscross »

dv_dt wrote: post #28
graemep wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a short term view. The problem is that keeping investors happy, it is keeping investors with a short term outlook happy. If anything more than two years is too long term to care about, then the best strategy is to take risks and hope it does not catch up with you before then.

Amazon succeeded in large part because they ignored the complaints of short term investors for years. So while I think that the widespread short term outlook is definitely an issue, it is a choice of boards and CEOs. Ultimately if the company tanks on being blind to long term risks - short term investors will be the fastest to leave the stock.

> Amazon succeeded in large part because they ignored the complaints of short term investors for years

The market is ultimately made up of people. Some of them are short-term oriented. Some of them are not. Which cohort a company chases very much defines the relationship, and Boeing—unfortunately—chose wrong.

Re: Boeing put Wall Street first, safety second ahead of Alaska Air blowout

#35

Post by dv_dt »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #33
dv_dt wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon succeeded in large part because they ignored the complaints of short term investors for years. So while I think that the widespread short term outlook is definitely an issue, it is a choice of boards and CEOs. Ultimately if the company tanks on being blind to long term risks - short term investors will be the fastest to leave the stock.

> Amazon succeeded in large part because they ignored the complaints of short term investors for years The market is ultimately made up of people. Some of them are short-term oriented. Some of them are not. Which cohort a company chases very much defines the relationship, and Boeing—unfortunately—chose wrong.

Yes to be clear I very much agree that Boeing leadership chose wrong. I was aiming to speak to the impression that companies somehow had to respond to short term investors - they very much don’t and can justify financial outcomes on consistent long term objectives & decisions

Re: Boeing put Wall Street first, safety second ahead of Alaska Air blowout

#37

Post by spxneo »

haswell wrote: post #30
spxneo wrote: post #14

Boeing, once a symbol of American prestige and hegemony has fallen. Greed, hatred, delusion has poisoned the American psyche and its manifesting across all walks of life. Boeing is just one of the many examples. This is the end of the American era.

What comes next is a choice we will all collectively make. We can use these growing scandals as warnings and take corrective steps. We can take seriously the worsening trends and reorient our life’s work toward finding solutions for the next generation. The next chapter has not been written, and the current state of worsening points directly at the reality that things can indeed be better.

The fish rots from the head never from the tail.

Good luck.

Re: Boeing put Wall Street first, safety second ahead of Alaska Air blowout

#38

Post by mathgradthrow »

hackerlight wrote: post #22
Lendal wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what happens when monopolies are allowed to exist. In a competitive market if the CEO gives away market share to rivals due to reckless indifference to safety and becomes a liability, they will be fired or the company gets spun off to fend for themselves. When we as a society allow a monopoly to exist, then government assumes responsibility for whatever that monopoly does with its power. Government interventi…

Airplane manufacturing sounds like a natural monopoly.

What's your complaint? asteroid impacts are natural events too. I would like the government to try to avert those.

Re: Boeing put Wall Street first, safety second ahead of Alaska Air blowout

#39

Post by knowaveragejoe »

DarkNova6 wrote: post #21
spxneo wrote: post #14

Boeing, once a symbol of American prestige and hegemony has fallen. Greed, hatred, delusion has poisoned the American psyche and its manifesting across all walks of life. Boeing is just one of the many examples. This is the end of the American era.

It is not the end because it is still getting only worse.

The US has been through far worse, let's cool it with the histrionics.
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