When it comes to reforming health care in the United States, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey says the "best solution" is for Americans to eat better and change their lifestyle.
My friend's been working at Whole Foods for years. When she started at cashier, she learned about the quota system, and the goal was to service about 30 patrons an hour. Of course, you have no control over who stands in your line, whether it's a jogger who popped in to buy one sports drink or the hermit out to stock his bunker with a 3-month surplus. One of her first days, she had a sweet old lady who was very conversational and needed a bit of help. Also wrote a check. The kindest, sweetest person we'd all love to care for. But in industry language, "nightmare fuel." Engaging with the older woman got her verbally reprimanded.
Ever been at a drive-thru and they ask you to "please drive forward and back up so it triggers the sensor, we get in trouble if an order takes longer than 3 mins"? It's happened to me at least twice.
I've worked in retail management, and the goal every day was to beat the "LYs" (Last Year's totals). If we were short, it was a game of roshambo over who would put a purchase on their credit card (to be refunded later) so we could jump the hurdle and avoid getting bitched out about what we did wrong and how we can do better. Every single day.
The entire conceit of capitalism is built on the foundation of competing, lying, narcing, and being dicks to each other. I fucking hate it.
I've never heard anyone talk about this, maybe it's well known, but it seems to me that comparison through competition is an incredibly dubious proposition. Outside of games, which are a whole different thing, establishing competitions based on real world outcomes, like productivity or profits, will quite obviously alter the behavior that's being compared. Meeting the criteria becomes the goal, not actually doing the thing the criteria was implemented to measure. So capitalists talk about how, in order to be competitive in the market, you'll need to constantly innovate to have the best product, and keep your prices low enough to not lose customers, but of course, since the comparative metric we use to determine the outcome of economic competition is profitability, finding a way around these obligations, which are a drain on profits, is where all of the innovative effort goes. Same for your experience, even competing with your own stores prior sales, the very act of implementing comparative metrics to establish a competitive structure, even with yourself, immediately has an effect on how people behave, which kills any possibility of comparing the thing you set out to compare. It would be like trying to study animals in there natural habitat by just moving in with them, you just being there would radically alter the thing you were trying to observe.
Yup, plays right into the trope of :capitalist: taking 95% of the pie and engineering society to fight each other for the last slice. :capitalist-laugh:
The British government was concerned about the number of venomous cobras in Delhi.[3] The government therefore offered a bounty for every dead cobra. Initially, this was a successful strategy; large numbers of snakes were killed for the reward. Eventually, however, enterprising people began to breed cobras for the income. When the government became aware of this, the reward program was scrapped. When cobra breeders set their now-worthless snakes free, the wild cobra population further increased.
establishing competitions based on real world outcomes, like productivity or profits, will quite obviously alter the behavior that’s being compared. Meeting the criteria becomes the goal, not actually doing the thing the criteria was implemented to measure.
The entire conceit of capitalism is built on the foundation of competing, lying, narcing, and being dicks to each other. I fucking hate it.
You know this man has written books and started a foundation saying the world will get better if we all do a capitalism on purpose rather than by accident, right?
My friend's been working at Whole Foods for years. When she started at cashier, she learned about the quota system, and the goal was to service about 30 patrons an hour. Of course, you have no control over who stands in your line, whether it's a jogger who popped in to buy one sports drink or the hermit out to stock his bunker with a 3-month surplus. One of her first days, she had a sweet old lady who was very conversational and needed a bit of help. Also wrote a check. The kindest, sweetest person we'd all love to care for. But in industry language, "nightmare fuel." Engaging with the older woman got her verbally reprimanded.
Ever been at a drive-thru and they ask you to "please drive forward and back up so it triggers the sensor, we get in trouble if an order takes longer than 3 mins"? It's happened to me at least twice.
I've worked in retail management, and the goal every day was to beat the "LYs" (Last Year's totals). If we were short, it was a game of roshambo over who would put a purchase on their credit card (to be refunded later) so we could jump the hurdle and avoid getting bitched out about what we did wrong and how we can do better. Every single day.
The entire conceit of capitalism is built on the foundation of competing, lying, narcing, and being dicks to each other. I fucking hate it.
I've never heard anyone talk about this, maybe it's well known, but it seems to me that comparison through competition is an incredibly dubious proposition. Outside of games, which are a whole different thing, establishing competitions based on real world outcomes, like productivity or profits, will quite obviously alter the behavior that's being compared. Meeting the criteria becomes the goal, not actually doing the thing the criteria was implemented to measure. So capitalists talk about how, in order to be competitive in the market, you'll need to constantly innovate to have the best product, and keep your prices low enough to not lose customers, but of course, since the comparative metric we use to determine the outcome of economic competition is profitability, finding a way around these obligations, which are a drain on profits, is where all of the innovative effort goes. Same for your experience, even competing with your own stores prior sales, the very act of implementing comparative metrics to establish a competitive structure, even with yourself, immediately has an effect on how people behave, which kills any possibility of comparing the thing you set out to compare. It would be like trying to study animals in there natural habitat by just moving in with them, you just being there would radically alter the thing you were trying to observe.
Does that make any sense?
Yup, plays right into the trope of :capitalist: taking 95% of the pie and engineering society to fight each other for the last slice. :capitalist-laugh:
Somewhat similar and humorous. Cobra Effect.
Yeah, profit is primary and purpose is ancillary
You mean Campbell's law or maybe Goodhart's law?
You know this man has written books and started a foundation saying the world will get better if we all do a capitalism on purpose rather than by accident, right?
Neolib nonprofit: "if only we had a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie"