this post was submitted on 02 May 2024
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Sure, it can, because I'm going to blow your mind: businesses aren't about maximizing profits. It is ultimately about power, and money is a path to power. There are sometimes conflicts between power and money, though, and when there are, you can tell what they actually care about.
None of the recent layoffs at Tesla make any sense what so ever. The Supercharger network may be the company's best long term asset--they just got most of the industry to adopt their plug, and they have the largest existing network to support all those new EVs--yet they just canned the entire Supercharger team. The Cybertuck may be a dumb vehicle, but it's still sold out for the next year, and shrinking the production line isn't going to help anything. Nor would it help sell more of any other models. A $25k Tesla would be a game changer in a market that the rest of the industry hasn't really entered yet, but they just canned development on new models.
All while the company is still churning some kind of profit, even if it's not as high as it was. These layoffs will absolutely have a long term impact on Tesla's ability to compete at exactly the time when the rest of the industry is catching up with them.
Does it even improve stock price? Maybe a one day jump or one week jump, but TSLA has been mostly flat for the last year and doesn't look like it's going to return to growth. Only bright side is that its P/E ratio now looks almost reasonable.
None of this makes sense in terms of money. Barely does anything in the short term, and the long term damage is huge. This might be the beginning of the end of Tesla.
If it doesn't make sense in terms of money, then what else would work in that slot? Power.
Wealth (whether it be "money", resources, or anything else) and power are one and the same. Two sides of the same coin. Either one provides access to the other. I don't think of them as separate or distinct at all... which is why it's problematic for the aristocratic hoarders when plebes start to pool either and work collectively.
Oh, no, they're not exactly the same. They wouldn't come into conflict if they were the same.
As another example, unions. Employees often see issues early on; perhaps a machine needing maintenance. A union can bring this up to management and put the pressure on to get it done. The business will save money in the long run with machines in proper maintenance.
If it doesn't get done, best case scenario is that it fails and the whole production line is shot until it's fixed. Worst case, it fails more catastrophically and damages other equipment, or injures workers.
Despite plenty of stories like this, companies will fight unionization efforts every time. Why? Because money doesn't always align with power.
Maybe something is getting lost in translation, but none of the things you mentioned seem to have anything to do with the point I'm making... so your ending claim that "money doesn't always align with power" doesn't seem related to anything I said or the scenario you posed...?
"Wealth and power are exactly the same". This is the claim I'm disputing. If there are places where money and power are in conflict, then they can't be the same. Your analysis of a situation will be have holes in it if this is not considered.
If you’d care to dive deeper I’d like to be challenged on this; but your previous example of “maintaining things can avoid unnecessary costs later” (as I understand it) doesn’t have anything to do with “money and power can be in conflict”.
Shortsightedness driven by greed does not, in any way, negate money equaling power.
Then let me attack it from a different direction: can you have power in a society that does not have money?
Within that isolated society? Sure.
If your goal was to argue semantics then I don't know why I'm entertaining this. Yes, in an imaginary society that is 1) somehow not influenced by modern society and 2) somehow also avoids currency - power dynamics will obviously take different shapes.
Do you realize how meaningless that example is?
I'm working outword to find a path in.
If a society can have power without money, then can the two overlap perfectly in any society?
To use a more concrete example, how do unions ever have power in our society? They tend not to have money, or at least very little in proportion to the business owners.