2024 has seen two mass layoffs at Microsoft, with 1900 staff laid off in January, before a further 650 Xbox employees were shown the door in September.
Regardless, Microsoft’s shares are up and the company’s market value is now higher than $3tn, as it works to capitalise on the rise of AI.
In case you missed it, in our broken model of civilization a CEO’s only responsibility is to increase value for shareholders. Not to clients, not to employees, not to the biosphere.
Market cap increased, job’s done successfully.
A) 1971, Economist Milton Friedman explicitly told the world the “only social responsibility” for businesses is to increase shareholder value. The Business Roundtable heartily endorsed this view, setting the stage for the next half century of villains to gleefully enrich themselves without compunction.
B) 2019, Business Roundtable reversed their 50 year position to include that businesses should be beholden to all Stakeholders, not just shareholders.
But of course the damage has been done, and continues onward. To compound this, the FED’s open-purse monetary policy for 14 YEARS ushered in the worst inflation in 40 years, while wages have stagnated for 4 decades, kicking off around the time Baby Boomers were birthing the first Millennial children.
These are just some of the reasons Millennials lay the bulk of culpability at the feet of Baby Boomers, who of course respond with something like: “Well, I don’t remember that.”