Heartland Jack Quotes

The empty factories, hollowed-out cities, and unemployed workers—all lorded over by a wealthy ruling class—have contributed to the broad sense of disenfranchisement afflicting so much of the country, a combustible mix that helped lay the groundwork for the political rise of Welch’s friend, Donald J. Trump.

Welchism has made America poorer, less equal, and more insecure. It has hollowed out factory towns while filling Wall Street’s coffers. It has left corporations unaccountable for their failings, while leaving more of the population vulnerable to the whims of highly paid executives. And it has created an economy where once proud industrial companies lose their way, with sometimes fatal consequences.

In my experience conservatives hate reporters mainly because they see us as phonies. We reject the idea that we belong to a class, or that we have our own tribal beliefs. Sometimes the hypocrisy is something they’ve seen—upper-class liberals, railing about racism in the heartland from the comfort of an all-white suburban town, where they occasionally tip a Puerto Rican gardener or hire a Republican plumber. But a lot of it has to do with approach and tone, the way we openly write for and celebrate professional-sect audiences, unlike the columnists of the past, the Mike Roykos or Jack Newfields, who were unembarrassed to write in the language of the working person.

I wonder if Jack and Diane ever made it After the drums and the guitars all faded Was the best they could do good enough Or did the heartland just swallow 'em up How did my mom and my dad ever do it If there were troubles then we never knew it I guess they had each other and that was enough You know you can't keep the ground from shaking, no matter how hard you try, You can't keep the sunsets from fading, you gotta treat you love like You're jumping off a rope swing maybe 'cause the whole thing is really just a shot in the dark You gotta love like there's no such thing as a broken heart You gotta love like there's no such thing as a broken heart What am I gonna tell my kids when they see All of this bull that goes down on TV When the whole world is down on its luck I gotta make sure they keep that chin up Cry when it hurts, laugh when it's funny Chase after the dream, don't chase after the money And know we got each other, that's what's up 'Cause you can't keep the ground from shaking, no matter how hard you try You can't keep the sunsets from fading, you gotta treat you love like You're jumping off a rope swing maybe cause the whole thing is really just a shot in the dark You gotta love like there's no such thing as a broken heart You gotta love like there's no such thing as a broken heart You gotta love like there's no such thing as a broken heart 'Cause you can't keep the ground from shaking, no matter how hard you try You can't keep the sunsets from fading, you gotta treat you love like You're jumping off a rope swing maybe 'cause the whole thing is really just a shot in the dark You gotta love like there's no such thing as a broken heart You gotta love, love, love, love You gotta love, love, love, love You gotta love like there's no such thing as a broken heart

Financial deregulation, easy credit and regulatory neglect combined with the degradation of our value system to create a religion of money and of power. The achievement of infinite wealth and fame became the ultimate standard, to be achieved at any price. The junk-bond peddlers and the raiders, the speculators and the savings-and-loan hustlers with their legions of consultants, their lobbyists and their friendly politicians, turned this country into a vast casino. Crimes were committed, crimes against the entire nation. These crimes will cost hundreds of billions of dollars. They have also undermined confidence in a system that was built up over generations. The nation will need a lengthy recovery from this madness.

religion

Only when businesses were allowed to compete unencumbered by regulation would the best ideas rise to the top, their thinking went. The profit motive, they believed, was the perfect sorting mechanism, capable of distinguishing the good ideas from the bad, and giving rise to the products, services, and systems that would benefit society at large. Competition was the paramount way to organize human activity, they stressed, and it was imperative that people stopped relying on the government—or worse, their employers—to ensure their well-being. Welfare,

Our faith in bosses is so absolute that we even elected a failed businessman who played a successful one on television as president of the United States.

Then in the 1970s, the established order came under attack. A cadre of economists including Milton Friedman reimagined the purpose of the corporation and its role in society, laying the philosophical groundwork for an upending of the economic order.

Wealth grew more concentrated during his reign. Before Welch, corporate profits were largely reinvested in the company or paid out to workers rather than sent back to stock owners. In 1980, American companies spent less than $50 billion on buybacks and dividends. By the time of Welch’s retirement, a much greater share of corporate profits was going to investors and management, with American companies spending $350 billion on buybacks and dividends in 2000.

CEO compensation has grown by 940 percent since 1978. During the same time, the average worker’s wage has increased by 12 percent.

CEOs are talking about themselves as part of an interconnected whole—just as they had done a half century ago, before Welch came on the scene.

Stamping out Welchism will be a formidable challenge. The great hero of late-twentieth-century American capitalism, Welch occupies an exalted place in the business world’s collective imagination. Even today, with the ruinousness of his methods clear to see, he is revered as a master strategist, peerless in the art of maximizing shareholder value and empire building. Tactics he pioneered are still commonplace, values he embodied are still championed, and in many instances, disciples he groomed are still in charge. Twenty years after he surrendered his office to one of his loyal acolytes, we are all still very much living in Jack Welch’s world.

The Modern Corporation and Private Property, by Adolf A. Berle Jr. and Gardiner C. Means, argued that companies were inextricably intertwined with their communities and ought to act with a sense of shared responsibility. Those views would shape what came to be known as the Golden Age of Capitalism, a period that lasted from the postwar boom to the stagflation of the 1970s, a stretch when many of the great American employers were at their best.

Nonetheless, the pattern seemed to repeat itself endlessly. A GE executive was named CEO of another company. News of the appointment would send the stock of that company soaring. The men were lavished with riches when they took their new jobs, signing multimillion-dollar contracts that ensured them a gilded retirement, no matter how well they performed. A period of downsizing usually ensued, and profits often ticked up for a few quarters, or even a few years. But inevitably, Welchism exacted its price. There was little focus on long-term strategy, and a slavish devotion to meeting quarterly results. “They wouldn’t know strategy if it hit them in the head,” said Roger Martin, the former Rotman School dean. “All they know how to do is take what they’ve got and refine it, make it operationally more effective.

Unbridled capitalism,” he said, was “a problem for human beings. It’s a problem for the realm of values and human relationships because it distorts things.

Increasingly, I have become concerned that the motivation to meet Wall Street earnings expectations may be overriding common sense business practices,” he said. “Too many corporate managers, auditors, and analysts are participants in a game of nods and winks. In the zeal to satisfy consensus earnings estimates and project a smooth earnings path, wishful thinking may be winning the day over faithful representation. As a result, I fear that we are witnessing an erosion in the quality of earnings, and therefore, the quality of financial reporting. Managing may be giving way to manipulation. Integrity may be losing out to illusion.” It was a remarkable speech.

Finally, Jensen and Meckling laid the foundation for the coming era of excessive executive compensation, positing that CEOs should be richly rewarded with stock to align their own incentives with their company’s financial performance.

Less than a decade later, in another paper, Jensen and Meckling would go further, arguing that the only metric by which companies should be measured—more important than even profits—was their share

To use today’s corporate parlance, it was a moment when all stakeholders could expect to benefit. The company wasn’t being run just for investors, but for employees, customers, and communities, too. And it worked. The middle class grew, consumer spending ballooned, and new companies were founded, creating yet more jobs.

Maximizing employment security is a prime company goal,” GE’s head of employee benefits, Earl Willis, wrote in 1962. “The employee who can plan his economic future with reasonable certainty is an employer’s most productive asset.” What was good for the corporation was good for the country, and vice versa.

Employers took care of their employees, understanding that by doing so they were taking care of the country, and ultimately, their own interests.