A personal note: This was a surprisingly difficult topic to write about. Its ubiquity means there are many examples to choose from — so many, in fact, that it becomes overwhelming.
I even considered abandoning it altogether. But ignoring reality doesn’t change reality. One of the principles of great leadership, as taught by former Ford CEO Alan Mulally is: “Expect the unexpected and expect to deal with it.”
The concern is that leaders are dumping empathy and humanity in exchange for riches. Principles are giving way to greed.
These are not new concepts to human nature, and in this essay, you’ll find the observations from the Old and New Testaments, Montaigne, Jefferson, Lincoln, Thoreau, Theodore Roosevelt, and a healthy dose of Lewis H. Lapham, whose crusade against the equestrian class of his upbringing was something of his life’s work.
The 1980s were something. Power ties and power lunches that gave way to power grabs, where corporate raiders and hostile takeovers dominated the headlines, with executives like “Neutron Jack” Welch celebrated for their ruthless cuts to employee headcount.
The bottom line was the bottom line, as Gordon Gekko’s smooth intonations implored us to accept that “Greed is good,” and Americans dutifully worshipped at the temple of Mammon.
Greed as a character trait is not something that was generated in the factories of the 1980s (especially since leadership then was hard at work declaring war on labor unions), nor something from the Gilded Age. Greed and power are vices that have been with us since humans first understood the concept of money.
And greed does seem to be good, given how richly its rewarded. The ROI of ethics and principles seems to be suffering from the law diminishing returns, slowly circling the drain toward obscurity.
Welcome Your Oligarch Overlords
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there seems to be an inordinate number of billionaires who are influencing life in America (and the world more broadly) at the moment.
I have nothing against capitalism; it is what has allowed the world to grow, prosper, and bring along the greatest number of people. But all too many people seem to have either chosen or resigned themselves to an oligarchy in what once was a proud democracy (okay, okay: a “democratic republic” for the pedants in the back).
While contemplating on this sad fact, I began to wonder just when we abandoned our principles for the promise of riches.
