rcd@opus.UUCP (04/07/84)
>Regarding the shortsightedness of US businesses: > The prime reason why businesses in the US insist on maximizing >short term gainsis that the GOVERNMENT is so determined to change >the rules every 5 years that the business has no reason to feel >that any long-term plans will come to fruition... Rabbit!jj has a good point. One of the most bizarre revelations of this (for me) was in finding out that there was a substantial segment of the mining industry which absolutely detested James Watt. Why, when Watt's policies seemed overall so favorable to them? Because the mining industry has VERRRY long lead times from locating a useful deposit to producing a profit with it. They know very well that Watt's radical policies (and radical they are, like them or not) will generate a tremendous backlash. It's likely to be ten years before things start to settle out from the mayhem Watt started, and they would rather not wait ten years to try to do some sensible business planning. The mining industry is one illustration - a somewhat extreme one - of the fact that our entire social and economic structure doesn't benefit from the quadrennial upheavals in the government. -- "Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile." {hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd