We can thank MBAs for all the world's problems!

[NAB]

http://www.theprovince.com/business/Gor ... story.html

""One of the titles of the many books I've threatened to write over the years but likely never will, is this: How MBAs destroyed our lives, the world and every thing in it. Granted, it's a working title.

My dad is an MBA, so I don't want to come across as too critical, but my basic opinion is that pretty much all MBAs are soulless lizard people who'd sell the family dog if the price were right. By that, of course, I mean they are lovely folks who are far too busy improving our lives on a daily basis manipulating stock markets and mortgage rates and destabilizing the economies of small, developing nations to either retain lawyers and/or write blistering letters to the editor.

According to a short history of the MBA degree prepared by Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (in the country of the United States, they really should add for total clarity), the MBA is, with one exception, a 20th-century phenomenon, like genocide or telemarketing. Harvard business school was launched in 1909 while the first MBA program in Canada, at the University of Western Ontario, didn't start churning out glorified bookkeepers until 1950. In the U.S. alone, 100,000 new MBA hatchlings emerge from their eggs at university breeding facilities each year — thousands more in Canada — so, you know, hide the silverware.

Don't believe MBAs aren't a little evil? Check out the Top 10 U.S. employers of Masters of Business Administration.

1) Google, which tracks our behaviour and spending habits and sells it to corporations — and sometimes to the CIA.

2) McKinsey & Company, a global management firm that claims to know everything about everything. Its home page right now brags that the company is "Reimagining India." Not sure what the Indians think about that.

3) Bain and Company. Two words, Mitt and Romney.

4) Goldman Sachs. Remember that little financial event in 2008, when you couldn't afford a Christmas turkey and had to settle for carved Spam? It wasn't an accident. Goldman boss Lloyd Blankfein pocketed more than $100 million in the two years before the crash while his traders sold complex, mortgage-backed securities to unsuspecting client suckers that the Wall Street bank knew were bogus.

5) Apple ... hmm, I'm cuckoo for their wicked products, but only a wicked company full of MBAs could figure out how to build a near monopoly selling every song in the world for top dollar without providing album covers and paying the musicians peanuts.

The rest of the Top 10 include the Boston Consulting Group (charges high fees to tell companies to kill peoples' jobs), Walt Disney (freaky talking mouse and long history of union-busting), Nike (overpriced shoes made for peanuts in Third World sweatshops), JP Morgan (duh, it's a bank ...) and Johnson & Johnson (carcinogens in the baby powder.) See what I mean? One of the worst things MBAs have inflicted on the world is their toadying devotion to bottom-line thinking. Like most people, I believe in free enterprise, but I also believe in the Buddhist concept of the Middle Way or Middle Path, the philosophy that taking extreme position on any issue leads to trouble.

Bottom-line thinking is extremist. It leads to raw-log exports, taking shortcuts on health and safety and environmental standards and moving once goodpaying manufacturing jobs to slavewage regimes. It leads to CEOs getting obscenely high compensation — tens of millions of dollars a year — while workers get less or are let go. It leads to companies ruining themselves to boost their short-term share prices at the expense of long-term investment and planning.

If there's one group that can be blamed for the destruction of the middle class in North America it's the roaming hordes of MBAs and their bottom-line thinking. Yeah, we may have cheaper appliances, but what's the point if no one can afford them or if communities become ghost towns due to lack of employment? When this happens in the private sector it's bad enough. At least consumers can demand change (toxins in plastic milk bottles) or refuse to buy crappy goods from offshore. Instead of that $10 T-shirt from Bangladesh in the big-chain store, you can buy an interesting handmade $25 shirt from a local artisan. But I really gnash my teeth when I see governments using bottom-line thinking to treat people not as citizens, but as clients. Examples include things like bridge tolls, fees for service (usually for reduced service) or, as with B.C. Hydro or B.C. Ferries, pretending that they are just companies and not public utilities.

Now there is a push to impose a road tax in Vancouver, which is MBA thinking of the worst kind. First of all, taxpayers already paid for those roads. They own the roads. Second, it's simply wrong for government through fees to constantly keep creating two levels of service for citizens.

It's fine for the private sector to put a high price on a Mercedes so only the rich can drive one; it's totally wrong for government to effectively say that only people who can afford a Mercedes get to drive on public roads. Like I said, it's MBA thinking - and it's evil.""

[maple leaf]

Wonder how many Liberals MLA's have MBA's

[Captain Awesome]

I sense a certain anti-intellectualism in the story...

[LoneWolf_53]

Wonder how many Liberals MLA's have MBA's

Probably not as many as there are Liberal haters with BS degrees.



And no the "S" doesn't stand for "Science".

[kgcayenne]

I blame the extroverts.

[Rwede]

Wonder how many Liberals MLA's have MBA's

If any NDP MLAs want MBAs, Dix can forge up an authentic looking diploma just like that. And he can back date it too, for a small fee.

Of course, NDP MLAs can just make up their credentials and hope they don't get caught, too.

Dear Editor:

Re: Jane Shin issues apology to Korean community, Burnaby NOW, Aug. 16, 2013

All non-Korean-speaking citizens of B.C. have the right to know the proven facts. NDP MLA Jane Shin's tearful apology and attempt at clarifying all the confusion over her professional credentials turned out to be riddled with disingenuous and false statements.

Rather, Shin added new falsified statements to her list of false claims concerning her professional background.

According to an Aug. 16 article published by the local Korean media outlet "VanChosun," the report concluded that Shin's explanation to the Korean community that she is "able to practise medicine in the United States" is "proven to be false." The report cited the reason as Shin "never having done her residency."

It is common sense that completing one's residency is a basic requirement for any aspiring medical doctor to have completed to even be qualified to write a medical-license exam.

According to local Korean news reports, Shin had told the Korean community - in her attempt to salvage her trust from disheartened Korean-community members - that she passed her medical-license exam in the United States soon after receiving her MD in 2007.

She also confirmed through the Korean media that she is able to practise medicine as a medical doctor in the United States.

In another VanChosun article published on Aug. 16 on the Jane Shin controversy, Shin's response to the reporter's question about which part of the United States she had received her U.S. medical license was: "California, Chicago, this part is a bit hazy." Shin then quipped: "Do I need to even tell about something like this?"

Jane Shin must stop toying with the Korean-Canadian community and stop treating them with such unacceptable disrespect. Also, all B.C. citizens have the right to know how Shin is behaving and treating the people of different ethnic backgrounds.

The B.C. citizens are paying tax dollars and placing their trust on their politicians to serve in their best interest.

The truth needs to be known and all B.C. citizens have the right to the truth and should be treated with respect. The NDP should also be mindful about how they treat this serious matter - because this is not about politics.

This is about basic honesty, respect, and being a conscionable human being.

Now it is time for MLA Jane Shin to issue an apology to all of B.C., and provide an explanation about her latest false statements regarding her credentials to practise as a medical doctor in the United States.

For those interested, here is the link to the VanChosun article seeking to uncover the truth from Jane Shin about her credentials: click here.



B. Jung,

Via E-mail



© Copyright 2013
- See more at: http://www.burnabynow.com/opinion/your- ... NPNRj.dpuf

[danmartin]

[quote="Rwede"]


If any NDP MLAs want MBAs, Dix can forge up an authentic looking diploma just like that. And he can back date it too, for a small fee.

Of course, NDP MLAs can just make up their credentials and hope they don't get caught, too.


I have to kick myself again because I just read your latest post with hopes that you might have something to contribute besides another attack on the NDP, Mr. Dix, unions or whatever you believe is evil because they don't agree with you. What have your comments to do with the article?

[Rwede]

*removed/Jo*
Commentary that people of all stripes have their own interests in mind irrespective of educational credentials is, I think, as on topic as it gets.

[kgcayenne]

An article by Sarah Gordon on FT.com (The Financial Times) entitled Call in the nerds – finance is no place for extroverts discusses the role of extroverts in finances. The article can be found here, but there’s a stupid pop-up, so if you just google the article title, you’ll get to it without the stupid pop-up. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a917de18-abef ... z2mWwbyP7O
However, here is an excerpt from the 9th paragraph onward:

There is a compelling body of evidence suggesting that the people most likely to go into the riskier areas of financial services are precisely those least suited to judging risk. Susan Cain’s recently published book Quiet cites a series of studies that suggest that extroverts tend to be attracted to the high-reward environments of investment banking, deals and trading. And, troublingly, these outgoing people also tend to be less effective at balancing opportunity and risk than some of their more introverted peers.

Ms Cain tells the story of Vincent Kaminski to show what can happen to a business when aggressive risk-takers enjoy too high a status relative to more cautious introverts. Mr Kaminski served as managing director of research for Enron, the energy company that filed for bankruptcy in 2001. In that role, he repeatedly tried to sound the alarm about the company entering into business deals that, he thought, threatened its survival. When his superiors would not listen, he refused to sign off on these transactions. The consequence? He was stripped of his power to review company-wide deals.

As the financial crisis began to flower in 2007, Mr Kaminski was interviewed by the Washington Post. He warned that the “demons of Enron” had not been exorcised. In particular, he complained that many who understood the risks that the US banks were taking were ignored because of their personality style. He said: “The problem is that, on one side, you have a rainmaker who is making lots of money for the company and is treated like a superstar, and on the other side you have an introverted nerd. So who do you think wins?”

Recent research, according to Ms Cain, suggests that there may even be an “extrovert gene” – one that regulates production of the hormone dopamine – which is associated with a particularly thrill-seeking version of extroversion and is a strong predictor of financial risk-taking.

At the annual meeting of his Berkshire Hathaway investment vehicle 15 years ago, Warren Buffett said that success in business does not depend on IQ. “Once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing.”

It has often been suggested, since the crisis, that what financial markets need is less testosterone. In fact, perhaps it is less dopamine.

Susan Cain’s book is an excellent investment of time. All of our personality traits and temperaments are necessary, let’s just get people doing what they’re best at.

[hobbyguy]

I have often thought that MBA's have a common flaw. One school of thought and only one narrow view resulting in myopic and often self-defeating decisions.