That's business.

[leftofthedial]

:shrug:

We have to lay people off to increase our profits. That's business. :shrug:

We have to outsource jobs to countries where labor is cheaper. That's business. :shrug:

We have to move entire factories and product lines overseas. That's business. :shrug:

We have to give our CEO's multi-million-dollar salaries and HUGE bonuses and golden parachutes. That's business. :shrug:

We have to lobby Washington for deregulation so we can start mainstream formerly criminal behavior. That's business. :shrug:

We have to shift our focus away from the business we're in and increasingly into using capital to make more paper capital. That's business. :shrug:

We have to dump toxic sludge in rivers and spray poison into the air and resist all efforts to curb our murderous behavior. That's business. :shrug:

We have to lay more people off so our executives can get larger bonuses this year. That's business. :shrug:

We have to go to our friends in the White House and on the hill to beg for trillions of dollars because we're about to go completely under. That's business. :shrug:

[kayakjohnny]

1. We have to kill untold thousands in many foreign lands, year after year. And maim them.

And displace them. And ruin their environment. That's business.

[HughBeaumont]

2. Eventually, we're going to need CUSTOMERS with MONEY to buy our products. THAT'S business.

At least, in logical terms, it is.

Problem is, with all of these mass firings, the potential customers aren't buying ANYthing. Not that they couldn't, it's because they WON'T because they're SCARED. Layoffs only lead to more layoffs. Layoffs are unproductive, destroy productivity and morale, create more anger and unhappiness and stress among workers and represent yet another drain to the IOU Treasury.