Corporations in Germany have governing boards with equal representation for shareholders and employees. It's a much better system and should be adopted by the US, i.e. encoded legally.
While I also think it is a good system, it should be noted that the capital side has a majority in any vote. So if the representatives of the capital side agree on an issue they can always ensure they get their way. Furthermore, at times employee representatives are targets of direct or indirect corruption. So there is definitely room for improvement.
And yet, looking at a list of the top 10 tech companies in the world (by market cap), not one comes from Germany. The top seven are all from the US. Only one from Germany in the top 20 - SAP at #17, with a market cap of less than half of the #10 company.
Who said this is the right metric to use? Maybe you should be looming at productivity or innovation.
I gave my own metric, biggest parasites.
Looking at the top 10 tax avoiding, etm, sorry, minimising organisations, the top ones are also from the US.
Why should I support the biggest and fattest freeloaders?
I pay for roads and police, Starbucks just uses them and pays zero tax. And the coffee is shit.
They don't even have excuse of 'innovation' like google does. If Starbucks HQ gets nuked from orbit tomorrow, the world would just lose a parasite. They would be replaced by mom&pop coffee shops overnight, and they would pay tax and make better coffee
Pretty sure Starbucks, its franchisees, and affiliates all pay state and federal fuel and payroll taxes, and state/local sales taxes. When they own a location they will also pay state property tax; if not, their landlord will pay that tax with their rent.
The fuel tax is especially relevant insofar as it’s explicitly meant to be a direct fee on the users of the roads to pay for the roads. Their drivers and those who contract for them in logistics will also pay for licensing, registration, and tolls.
There’s a variety of meaningful discourse to have on the proper tax structure for Starbucks… but representing them as freeloaders on the roads and the police does not belong as part of it.
Well, the US outperforms Germany on productivity, innovation, and GDP / capita as well.
Pretty sure that if there were no businesses, there'd be a lot less tax revenue as well.
And given that Germany spends way, way, way less on defense than the US, and has been protected by the US from the Soviet Union & Russia for many decades, I think "freeloaders" is an interesting term to choose.
You are missing the point entirely. I am not comparing entire countries, just the companies and skill of their management.
To make my point clearer, lets replace Germany with Kazahstan.
Lets say we are examining if Starbucks management is more or less skilled than some random coffee company in Kazahstan.
Revenue per customer in USA will be higher. Sometimes workers in Kazahstan could be sick because there is outbreak of the literal plague and that will hit revenues.
Could you replace management in Kazah coffee company with American management and achieve the same results as in US?
Does the great skill of American management prevent outbreaks of the plague, or stops mafia from raiding your corporate office? No, in Us management doesn't even have to think about these kind of issues.
If not, then lets not assign the entire success of American society to corporate upper management?
