We Moved Away From the American Meritocracy

Key Points:

• Shareholder Priority: Companies are focusing more on shareholder value.
• Merit-Based Decisions: There’s a return to hiring based on merit over quotas.
• Cycle Change: The DEI rollback is also evident in universities.
• As good as Costco is, it’s not as good as “the Next Nvidia.” Click here now to see what the hype is all about.

Doug and Lee delve into the longstanding debate on whether corporations should be run solely for the benefit of shareholders or consider other stakeholders such as employees and customers. They emphasize that the current environment heavily prioritizes shareholder value, often at the expense of other considerations. Lee argues that companies should focus on meritocracy, hiring the best person for the job regardless of background, rather than adhering to quotas or restrictions. Doug adds that even universities, where many of these progressive ideals began, are beginning to walk back on these practices, signaling a significant shift in the cycle of corporate and institutional priorities.

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Edited Video Transcript:

Back. And it brings up an interesting subject.

And this is an old subject.

Should corporations be run for anything other than their shareholders?

And there’s anything.

Their employees don’t count.

Their customers don’t count.

There’s this long list of things that these things move together as a way that balance shareholder value.

My impression is that in our environment right now, it’s just shareholder value.

If you’re not helping the stock, forget it.

I don’t want you to do anything other than help the stock.

Well, yeah.

And I think all good companies have good intentions.

But the mere fact that people have moved away from what is a truly American value, which is a meritocracy.

We’re a meritocracy.

And it doesn’t matter whether you’re black, white, yellow, green, blue, you know, Hispanic, you know, Hindu, whatever.

It doesn’t matter.

Let’s hire the best person for the job period and not have all these quotas and restrictions that help, you know, guide a company.

And I think you’re exactly right.

Let’s focus on the shareholders.

And of course, you want to be good for your employees, of course, and good for your customers.

But I mean, ultimately, the shareholder owns part of the company.

Yeah.

And listen, I mean, I would sort of as we leave this subject, I would say you’re even in universities, you’re starting to see this walked back.

I think that’s where a lot of it actually started.

I think you’re right is on major campuses and colleges.

I think where a lot of it started was there.

Yeah.

And it looks to me like it’s going to end there.

So likely so.

Big change in the cycle.

Yep.