Republicans have a long history of gutting regulation on business. Not that Democrats are anti-business, despite the endless Republican screams of “socialism” — which typically have nothing to do with socialism, it’s just a scare word they throw around like “woke” and “DEI.” For example some cities in Florida want to require businesses provide water breaks for workers outside. Business doesn’t want to do that so Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans say no mandating water breaks. Likewise, Southern business is anti-union and so are Southern Republican governors.
In practice, they care about the free market only when it’s in their interest. The Florida farm industry hates the idea of lab-grown meat; Florida therefore bans lab-grown meat. The oil industry doesn’t like renewable energy so Trump’s talking about stopping wind farms (he’s always had an odd obsession with wind power).
The tech industry cozied up to Trump in 2016 because they wanted to avoid regulation. Now we’re seeing Republicans talk all kinds of regulation and increased liability to break Big Tech and make it docile. Despite Trump’s team touting ideas that will trash the economy, a lot of tech entrepreneurs and CEOs can’t seem to imagine the Face Eating Leopard Party, under the control of an incompetent egomaniac, might eat their faces.
I suspect some Republican support by business leaders is driven by the same things that fuel ordinary Republican voters: they hate diversity and equality. They’re anti-anti racist (see here).Or they have a distorted idea of the causes of crime.
Now, some bad, bad business links:
Midwives are a valuable resource for expectant mothers. One of the nation’s largest hospital chains is gutting their midwife services. Another hospital hounds patients even when they’re broke and entitled to free care. When private equity buys up hospitals the results are unsurprisingly bad.
The pharmaceutical industry hates the idea of Medicare negotiating drug costs down.
Louisiana State Rep. Roger Wilder hates that state law gives kids working at his Smoothie King franchises mandatory lunch breaks. So he repealed them.
There are plenty of questions to raise about dieting and the diet industry. Now the food industry is pretending that identifying unhealthy food or suggesting how to eat healthier is food shaming. See also the book Unsavory Truth.
A major assisted living chain sets its staffing levels by algorithms. It goes as well as you’d expect.
The price-gouging private-equity companies extract from prisoners — the perfect captive customer base — shows how they’d treat the rest of us if they could.
Is paying college athletes for a cut of their future income bad business or smart business?
Definitely bad business: taking big bets on sports then using technicalities to stiff the winners. And will legalized gambling in North Carolina lead to bullying athletes on social media?
MLM marketing and loaded tea.
Boeing’s door-plug problem is a very bad sign for aviation’s future. It’s also a reminder that prioritizing profits over all works out badly.
Flexible scheduling is great for businesses, lousy for employees.
Veggie burgers and other plant-based meats may soon come with animal fat. I’ll be disappointed if that kills off genuinely veggie meats but as long as it’s clearly labeled it’s not bad business.
Trump Media’s stock tanked after it went public. Issuing more shares won’t improve it though I’m sure TFG will come out ahead.
To end on various bright notes:
Adam Neumann’s management of WeWork was a mess. The current board has no interest in him repurchasing the company.
Elon Musk’s compensation package at Tesla was so extreme and outrageous a judge struck it down.
The Biden Administration is capping credit-card late fees at $8.
The Supreme Court made it easier to sue for workplace discrimination.
