Have our business schools failed us?

[underpants]

Poll question: Have our business schools failed us?

[jody]

1. IMO not nearly as much as schools of education. n/t

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

9. +50 there.

Good god those things are a hot mess.

[Runcible Spoon]

2. most business degrees are nothing but glorified proof that one has been..

satisfactorily brainwashed into defending and expanding neoliberal economic hegemony.

[Democrats_win]

3. Obama said 40% of new jobs over the past few years have been in finance.

(It was in the Leno interview.) Business people got great jobs, the schools didn't fail their students. But the schools failed America. At some point (like this year!) a country that has no real economic growth, will have serious economic problems.

[defendandprotect]

4. No -- they've done what they're intended to do ...push corporatism...!!!

In fact, many of our major universities/colleges have been turned into corporations!!!

[OhioChick]

7. Bingo! n/t

[MADem]

5. Most people learn things like "morals" and "ethics" and "decency" at their momma's knee.

They learn about not stealing from others, not cheating people, that something that sounds too good to be true often is, way before they get out of grammar school.

If we're leaving it to the BUSINESS SCHOOLS to teach these little life lessons, well, we're fucked.

You could say our law schools are failing us, too. After all, Harvard produced Alberto Gonzales...and a number of other crooks.

[Jeep789]

10. I think the point is to reach the kids of the parents that lack

ethics. Don't forget also that kids this age are in their rebellious years and often think their parents are just plain stupid.

[sinkingfeeling]

6. Yes, yes, and yes. When John Snow was Bush's Treasurer, I sat in on his lecture to the Walton School...

of Business and was appalled when he said that they (students) could make no greater contribution to the country than becoming 'capitalists'.

[floridablue]

12. Former head of CSX and now the fund

that owns 80% of Chrysler, along with Dan Quayle.

[defendandprotect]

17. ...'cause capitalism and democracy are snynonymous . .. . NOT--!!!

[Jeep789]

8. They certainly didn't focus enough on ethics nt

[Locrian]

11. school of HISTORY failed us

For 1000's of years people have known that interest (ie USURY) has been the downfall of civilizations. In the late 1970's banks successfully sued for the right to charge higher interest. This is the result.

We dont DO manufacturing anymore, because the rate of return is tiny (and gee, its HARD to make stuff and be productive) - vs the "finance" industry where 30-40% and higher on pushing money around.


There is a GREAT article in Harpers (on-line requires subscription or its in the April Magazine

April 2009

Infinite debt:
How unlimited interest rates destroyed the economy
By Thomas Geoghegan

Basic summary is that in the late 1970's banking laws changed to allow higher interest rates. That drove (stampeded) money out of mfg into takeovers, banking, finance, etc. It has destroyed the workers ability to have any leverage. It has created the "easy money" and a whole new industry that is parasitic by definition.

It has lead to the whole "industry" of banking, finance - which makes a HUGE (compared to mfg) return on investment. We are now a nation of finance, with addiction to the gambling returns etc.



It is much more subtle than "ethics" and "evil" bankers (not that there is plenty to be appalled at). It is the entire SYSTEM that we have - the system that rewards UNPRODUCTIVE activity vs actual PRODUCTIVE labor. It has gradually been built up over the last 30 YEARS. Dem and Rep are part of this new structure, and I have no idea how we can take it back.

[underpants]

20. Usury

I could post a definition but we both know what we are talking about.

From before the General Assembly here in Virginia there were usury laws. The soft side of this is that the powers that be were trying to protect "the people" -aaaahhh isn't that sweet- the cynical side is that the powers that be were trying to make sure "the people" had money to pay taxes as well as preventing desperate hungry folks from rioting.

Skip to the 1970's
What happened in the 70's? The masses had risen up and got the black folks voting, ended a war, and were way too powerful. So gone was the "working class hero" stuff and the end of manufacturing as we knew it (steel and cars) in came the blingbling of paper, ties, and German autos. AND the business schools became the traininggrounds for the top feeder-yesmen that we have today. Mostly to fend off the perceived threat of the "socialists" in academia and who they might turn out.

See Lewis Powell's memo to the US Chamber of Commerce in 1971
http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate_accountability/powell_memo_lewis.html

We see this today directly in Pay Day Loans. A perfect illustration of how the interested parties ;-) have moved the ball over to an entirely different court.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

13. No (with caveat)

All higher education does (medical and law schools aside) is slap a seal of approval on you to certify that you're a good can of tuna.

What is done with that tuna is at the discretion of the cook (employer) and the results are not always edible. You can't blame the tuna factory for a shitty recipe.

Colleges and universities rarely teach any practical skills. They just give the student barely enough background information so that when they get their first job, they're not entirely clueless about the field they've entered. The employers then train the employees on the details of what needs to be done, and from their, the employees basically shape their own set of skills and world view. Those that can move up. Those that can't become middling employees. The schools themselves are only relevant because it's a way to measure whether or not someone could possible have an aptitude in the field and all they really do is weed out the bad tuna for employers. That's pretty much it.

[Bill McBlueState]

21. "Colleges and universities rarely teach any practical skills."

That's not really the point. If all you want are practical skills, there are cheaper and faster ways to meet your needs than paying university tuition for four years.

[Incitatus]

23. No, the government failed to regulate business.

The executives educated at the schools did a pretty good job of making themselves rich, which is why they went. The school are there for them. The government is supposed to be there for us.

[Incitatus]

24. .

[rrneck]

14. Yes. They

turned out technocrats instead of people.

[damntexdem]

15. No, of course not -- we got exactly what they taught!

;-)

[MissMarple]

16. No, our government has failed us. It lowered the gate and ushered in the barbarians.

This is what the Heritage Foundation, the American Spectator, the authoritarian neocons, et al have been working for since FDR. They worked for control of the government, duping the American people with their false dogma and ushered in an age of pillage and rape. They even believe their own propaganda since they have been hearing and speaking it for so long. The vultures are having a field day. There is much to be had in the carnage.

I suppose a case could be made that we have failed ourselves.

[Toucano]

26. But were the barbarians always at the gates, lurking? Or have we produced them

from whole cloth?

[MissMarple]

27. Controlling the barbarians is a bit like and gardening, it never really ends.

Agatha Christie mentions "evil in the garden" in one of her books. She is referring to the dreaded bindweed. It is pernicious and almost impossible to get rid of. If you think you have, it can always finds a way back in. And, truth be told, there is a bit of the barbarian in all of us. It is a curious part of human nature that may have aided our survival as a species, but it has a definite downside when not properly channeled in these more civilized times. These people need to have their toys taken away and then be placed in a time out until they can play nicely.

[mitchum]

18. One must be really stupid if it takes that many years to learn "buy low and sell high"

[ddeclue]

19. George W. Bush - Harvard MBA - need I say more? n/t

[create.peace]

22. don't get me started....

my dad, gi bill stanford biz school 1948, was from a family of honest and ethical retailers, first one to go to grad school. at that time, biz schools were different than now, but pretty much he said 'those who cannot run a business, teach at a biz school/ amongst his classmates some of the future scum of the earth....b**htel and others.

in recent history, he sold his wonderful business to the husband of a mot***la heiress, who ran it into the ground, screwed over my father, and is now teaching at U*C Mar***ll biz school....(actually he is DEAN of it)

according to my father, ethics used to be taught at biz school....

asterisks my addition, you figure them out...

[Toucano]

25. Only to the extent that schools produce the product that society wants them to produce.

The decline of morality has been chronicled for decades among every sector of American society.

Honesty, fairness, integrity have no value.

The very word "values" has been stolen by those with no true regard for it except as a contorted tool for discrimination.


We don't care if they business grads have integrity. We only care that they make money and produce more sweet eye candy to distract us.

Now that the house of cards has come falling down we scream "play fair".



*I am using WE in the collective sense. I realize there were many of us who could see what was happening and tried to stop it, but we were so few voices, we were virtually non-existent.