Falmouth Citizen

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THE 5 BIG LIES ABOUT AMERICAN BUSINESS: Combating Smears Against the Free-Market Economy

Corporate America has been labeled as a vast wasteland of bureaucracy, red tape and micromanagement; led by pompous CEOs who have little or no regard for their employees; who forsake long term success for short term profitability. And that’s on a good day.

I witnessed much of those things, after spending 26 years in the often hostile environment of corporate America; however, the free-market system that so many have criticized in recent years, is still the best system for creating economic prosperity for civilization, and you can take that to the bank with you; assuming you can find one that’s still open for business in these troubled times.

Seriously, our recent financial troubles—from the real estate crash of ’08 and the subsequent global economic meltdown, to the failures of many of Wall Street’s biggest names—have been chronicled in many books; but the underlying causes had nothing to do with the system, per se; it’s more a failure of incompetent and misguided individuals, from all sectors of business and government, who did too little to prevent the meltdown; and much to prolong the agony. Hopefully, the lessons learned from the many fiascos that took place over the past couple of years, will help us avert a similar fate in the future.

American business is flawed, but is still capable of rebounding; indeed, the recovery appears well under way; with good management in place, the system provides value for the consumer and a healthy work environment for its employees; and it works best with minimal government interference. History has proven that time and time again.

This particular book, written by Michael Medved, helps clear the air on some (five) of the “big lies” about American business. Some of the misconceptions may be applicable to poorly run enterprises; for the vast majority of businesses attempting to thrive in a free-market economy, it’s a bunch of hogwash.