Originally Posted by
Uplinker
@remi +1
There are still some very good companies, but some managers of other companies no longer concentrate on making a 'thing' and having pride in making the best 'thing' they can; instead they concentrate on making money.
In doing so, the 'thing' - be that an airliner or a lawnmower or a service - is made progressively cheaper and cheaper, and by cheaper and cheaper workers, (by which I mean the workers are treated and paid more cheaply).
In their millionaire's club, someone came up with this wheeze - why bother with all the effort and complication of research and design to improve the 'thing' and make a better 'thing', when you can take huge amounts of money out of the company and put it into your own bank account or pension ? Doing it that way, you will have a personal fortune in 5 or 10 years instead of 30 or 40 years.
.......
This is what happened, infamously, with Martin Skreli, "pharma bro." He and his fellow commercial pirates found unique assets (orphaned drugs with a sole manufacturer) and engaged in as much rent-seeking as possible and nothing else.
Boeing's management is now rent-seeking with the 737, as it seems unlikely/impossible that there will be any further significant improvements to the aircraft, nor any new midsize design. The goal is to milk the 737 until people are only buying Airbus, then do likewise with 777 and 787.