There has been a trend in industry towards maximizing profits over the past few decades. I view it as a change from a spirit of collaboration and a spirit of competition. Will you work with others to achieve greater things, or will you choose to help yourself at the expense of others?
I believe those who choose competition over collaboration fail to understand how much they depend on others around them as workers, suppliers or customers.
A leader can choose to do either. Opportunities arise which requires balancing questions of profit and other aspects of life from employees to environments. Some believe they are required by law to care about profit above all else. Others follow what they believe is “right”, which depends on personal values.
Trump cares about his personal bottom line, and he cares about being adored. Those are his values.
“Predator Trump” by timebombvintage is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
In business he structures his companies such that he can cut his losses if things turn south, resulting in job loss and failure to pay invoices to contractors.
He takes bets that are either risky or ignorant with the knowledge that he’s insulated in case of failure.
He does not demonstrate an obligation to investors or workers, just red ink versus black.
In a purely profit/loss statement view of trade, the United States has made terrible trade deals. Jobs have been moved overseas. Cheaper foreign goods are being imported. While the top is richer than ever, less than 50% of Americans have a positive net worth. Home ownership is down.
To him, this is the evil of Globalism, which he talked about in front of the UN General Council yesterday.
The “Globalism” he’s talking about is exploitation by us. When a factory job moves to Asia it is to lower costs and improve profit margins. Investors demand eternal growth, which is impossible in a contained system, but there’s often ways to reduce labor costs.
China filled a demand in accordance with the trade deals our government and industry supported negotiated and supported. It was our choices that destroyed the American workforce.
Work brings opportunity. Those with Trump’s focus on short term personal gain chose to take that opportunity away from Americans, because it was more profitable.
Trump blames China for the actions of American Industry *and* Trump put American Industry in a position of power, with tax law from Goldman Sachs and diplomacy by Exxon.
Trump’s solution to the trade imbalance is to tax American importers who will pass the costs onto American consumers. That will hurt China by leaving Americans unable to buy their products. China responds by not buying our products either.
He will escalate until China capitulates, but China can’t control the actions of Americans. It makes no sense for them to buy more of our products and raw material in an attempt to make the numbers match up.
His strategy cannot work, because he views the world precisely backwards.
What we need is reciprocal altruism. Trust and cooperation with low tolerance for exploitative behavior.
The type of exploitative behavior that made Trump a man rich enough to get away with walking in on beauty contestants undressed.
