QuoteProject
Can we please agree that in the real world, corporations exist for one purpose and one purpose only - to make as much money as possible, which means cutting costs as much as possible?
Robert Reich
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote emphasizes that the primary goal of corporations is profit maximization, often leading to cost-cutting measures.

In this quote, Robert Reich highlights the fundamental nature of corporations in the real world, suggesting that their main objective is to generate profit. This profit-driven mentality frequently results in cost-reduction strategies that can impact various stakeholders, including employees, consumers, and the environment, thereby questioning the ethical implications of prioritizing profit over broader social responsibilities.

Themes

CorporationsProfitCost-CuttingBusinessEthics

In practice

Example use cases

During a corporate conference discussing business strategies.

More from Robert Reich

As we segregate by income into different communities, schools in lower-income areas have fewer resources than ever.
Robert ReichRead
What are called 'public schools' in many of America's wealthy communities aren't really 'public' at all. In effect, they're private schools, whose tuition is hidden away in the purchase price of upscale homes there, and in the corresponding property taxes.
Robert ReichRead
What someone is paid has little or no relationship to what their work is worth to society.
Robert ReichRead
Tax laws favor capital over labor, giving capital gains a lower rate than ordinary income. The rich get humongous mortgage interest deductions while renters get no deduction at all.
Robert ReichRead
The dirty little secret is that both houses of Congress are irrelevant. ... America's domestic policy is now being run by Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve, and America's foreign policy is now being run by the International Monetary Fund [IMF]. ...when the president decides to go to war, he no longer needs a declaration of war from Congress.
Robert ReichRead
You can't inspire people if you are going to be uninspiring.
Robert ReichRead

Similar quotes

The Federal Reserve, like other central banks, wields powerful tools; democratic accountability requires that the public be able to see how and for what purposes those tools are being used.
Ben BernankeRead
The widely accepted assertion that, only if you let markets be will everyone be paid correctly and thus fairly, according to his worth, is a myth. Only when we part with this myth and grasp the political nature of the market and the collective nature of individual productivity will we be able to build a more just society in which historical legacies and collective actions, and not just individual talents and efforts, are properly taken into account in deciding how to reward people.
Ha-Joon ChangRead
The accepted ideas of any period are singularly those that serve the dominant economic interest...What economists believe and teach, whether in the United States or in the Soviet Union, is rarely hostile to the institutions - the private business enterprise, the Communist Party - that reflect the dominant economic power. Not to notice this takes effort, although many succeed.
John Kenneth GalbraithRead
The powers of financial capitalism had a far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences.
Carroll QuigleyRead
It is a [disputed] question, whether the circulation of paper, rather than of specie [gold and silver coin], is a good or an evil I believe it to be one of those cases where mercantile clamor will bear down reason, until it is corrected by ruin.
Thomas JeffersonRead
I will not let anyone tell me we must spend more money. This crisis did not come about because we issued too little money but because we created economic growth with too much money and it was not sustainable growth.
Angela MerkelRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Robert Reich | QuoteProject