Salesforce CEO: Capitalism As We Know It Is Dead
Yes, Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff really did say this, but it doesn’t mean what it appears to at first glance.
The rich haven’t stopped getting richer; they haven’t somehow lost control of the U.S. law-making process and a break-away redistribution of wealth hasn’t ensued. The poor aren’t enjoying higher incomes and better social services, and they haven’t miraculously begun to live less miserable lives.
What he meant is that all this is unsustainable. He posits that the rubber band can stretch only so far before it breaks. Captains of industry who don’t value their employees, and continue to exploit them for all they’re worth will, at some point, realize that they would have done better to treat them more humanely. The Jeff Bezos’s of the world who put their employees under such great pressure that they urinate in bottles at their workstations rather than risk disciplinary action for taking the time to run to the rest room will, at some point, begin to see their empires start to shrink.
We can only hope. I don’t presume to compare my insights into the business world with those of Benioff, but I certainly haven’t seen evidence that any of this is true. Whether we’re talking about exploiting human capital or natural resources, we just seem to be getting more ferocious in the way we attack it.
Craig,
I attended Marc Benioff’s interesting presentation. I’m a long time shareholder and customer of Salesforce.
Marc Benioff spoke on a number of issues, in particular the impact of AI, digital technology and organizations like Facebook.
The digital revolution is affecting a social and economic transformation, even more profound than the industrial industrial revolution.
The nature of economics is changing so dramatically, that old fashioned terms like capitalism, socialism etc have lost relevance in a new world of virtual reality.
For years I’ve been writing and speaking about the changing nature of “wealth” and what “wealth” actually means.
Marc Benioff is asking the same questions and exploring how the future will be perceived.
Most wealth is illusory. I’m told one of our paintings has increased in value considerably. Since I’m not an art dealer or likely to sell the painting, It’s difficult to see how an inert object can increasing value.
Nor does it make me rich. One of my nephew’s college fiends pontificated earnestly, “IF all the rich sold all their painting, they could end homelessness!
When young, such simplicity seems logical. As you get older, you realize that if all the rich sold their paintings, who would buy them and due to the glut, the paintings would be valueless!
The nature of wealth in a world dominated by digital, crypto and other form of “perceptive” wealth is certainly hard to imagine but it’s upon us much faster than we have time to understand all the implications and changes.