Speaker 1: Last August, the members of the business roundtables signed a
Speaker 1: document promising to be kinder and gentler. The CEOs of
Speaker 1: one eighty one large corporations vowed to run their companies
Speaker 1: to benefit their employees and their communities, not just the shareholders. Now,
Speaker 1: the New York Times slamming those corporations for ditching their
Speaker 1: promises of a gentler capitalism during the coronavirus shutdown. According
Speaker 1: to the Times, key signatories of the pledge are laying
Speaker 1: off workers, and they aren't adequately protecting the employees with masks. Instead,
Speaker 1: they're paying dividends to their shareholders while our planet is
Speaker 1: under assault from a pandemic. The Times quotes a worker
Speaker 1: who was furloughed by big hotel chain. He complains that
Speaker 1: the hotel made billions and billions of dollars, but the
Speaker 1: money didn't go to the employees. Now he can't believe
Speaker 1: the company told him we don't need you. There are
Speaker 1: apparently a lot of people that don't understand that the
Speaker 1: first purpose of business is to make money. If a
Speaker 1: hotel chain doesn't have customers, the company can't afford to
Speaker 1: keep the staff employed to sit around and do nothing.
Speaker 1: The same thing goes for media companies. This New York
Speaker 1: Times article doesn't mention that The New York Times has
Speaker 1: laid off people many, many, many times for the same reasons.
Speaker 1: Capitalism is not gentle and it isn't welfare. It is
Speaker 1: viciously competitive, it's bloodthirsty, and it's what makes the world
Speaker 1: go round.