Ameren

Ameren t1_j6ft8d3 wrote

>politics has nothing to do with these decisions, its just greed

Deciding how society should be structured, how resources should be allocated, and what rights people have and the circumstances under which they have them (in this case property rights) is the whole purpose of politics as I understand it.

As an example, let's look at a classic American company like IBM. IBM employs around 281,000 people and has numerous institutional shareholders. Figuring out who owns what, what rights as stakeholders those 281,000 employees have, the processes by which decisions are made, etc. requires an enormous amount of legal machinery — without which the company simply could not exist. The framework in which IBM operates is set down in laws, the laws are put in place by elected officials, and those officials are elected by voters.

The same holds true for abuse of power by corporate elite. Corrupt, greedy behavior is often completely legal; they are simply using the powers granted to them under the law. Thus, the limits on that power are ultimately determined by voters (at least in theory). In a very literal sense u/ASuarezMascareno is right: greed is a political decision. You can't be greedy without the power to take what you want, and for corporations that power ultimately stems from the social contract.

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Ameren t1_iwstqxj wrote

Really? I've never heard of stack ranking at FFRDCs or defense contactors, for instance. It seems really risky to push people out the door en masse like that given it'd invite recruitment from foreign adversaries.

Just to name one example, of course. I'm sure folks from other industries can weigh in.

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Ameren t1_iqrloxs wrote

>Wonder if they had PhD candidates back then.

They did! Since the early days of the European university system (since the 1100s or so), graduate students have worked under the tutelage/mentorship of one or more advisors as part of their education. As a STEM PhD myself, academic genealogy is fun to look into. For example, Sir Isaac Newton had a student, who had a student, and so on, who eventually had me.

Santorio became the chair of Theoretical Medicine at the University of Padua, which was a very well-known and respected institution (Galileo also taught there, for instance). I'd have to do some digging, but I'm sure he had plenty of PhD students whose lineage continues to the present day.

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