shoplifting from american apparel
is online; the comments section has a lot of shit-talking
they had me write an introduction, the introduction doesn't contain rhetoric maybe but it seems like it does, i'm not sure, i feel confused, and it makes me feel uncomfortable and i don't like it, it seemed okay when i typed it maybe or else i wouldn't have emailed it to them, or probably i just typed something and thought, 'i feel uncomfortable with that, oh well'; now i have learned again that doing that will cause discomfort later on; i want to be more careful from now on, i feel like i am always thinking that ('i want to be more careful from now on'); for a quick explanation what a publicly-owned company is i will paste below a section of my next poetry book
they had me write an introduction, the introduction doesn't contain rhetoric maybe but it seems like it does, i'm not sure, i feel confused, and it makes me feel uncomfortable and i don't like it, it seemed okay when i typed it maybe or else i wouldn't have emailed it to them, or probably i just typed something and thought, 'i feel uncomfortable with that, oh well'; now i have learned again that doing that will cause discomfort later on; i want to be more careful from now on, i feel like i am always thinking that ('i want to be more careful from now on'); for a quick explanation what a publicly-owned company is i will paste below a section of my next poetry book
i don't want to fight anyone, i shouldn't have typed that introduction to that story, i should have just talked about how the story was about lemur families that live inside american apparelThe function of a publicly-traded company is to increase its worth so that stockholders will have more money now than before. A publicly-traded company must increase profits or convince the hamster population that profits will increase soon or else it will exist less, then not exist.
When one publicly-traded company loses business another publicly-traded company gains business, except when an independently-owned company gains the business.
An independently-owned company is not existentially required to increase profits but can use profits to increase wages, improve quality, lower prices, fund charities, or institute money-losing but socially-beneficial programs as ends in themselves rather than means for increasing profits.
29 Comments:
I like this story in Vice. I like when you read it at Bowery. I like what was written this morrning about the Lemur. I like the shit-talking on vice about the story. It is good shit-talking.
i don't understand the stigma that some people attach to publicly-owned/traded companies. i think the misconception that exists is that public companies are more interested in profits than private companies, and are, therefore, greedy and bad. although i agree that private companies are not existentially required to increase profits, i think that most of them strive to increase their profits just the same. i also do not subscribe to the notion that independently-owned companies are any more philanthropic than public companies.
personage,
yes, but people are required to make choices, if someone feels guilty or wants to be their idea of 'good' or wants to make their actions match their words they will choose to spend money at private companies even if all you typed is true, even if there is just a 1% chance that the private company will do something that isn't a means for higher profits
also most people who think this much about where their money goes will have found a lot of places that they know for sure the owners aren't existentially wanting to increase profits
there are many factors though
i do not want to try to articulate all the factors right here
for a publicly-owned company if they have an oil spill or badly made products (potential for 'recall') there will be calculations as to what actions will make them lose the least amount of money, that is the action that will happen, it isn't a choice, it is a calculation
for an independent company there is at least 'the chance' that the owner will factor other considerations besides what will cause him/her to lose the least amount of money, it is an individual choosing, whereas with the publicly-owned company it is a calculation choosing
even if it is a 'tiny' difference for someone who is consciously making choices using a certain philosophy it is 'easy' for them to know where their money 'should' go based on what they think
no more talking about this here from me
also you can't pressure a CEO into actions that are 'not means to more profits' because the stockholders will vote for a new CEO if they see that the CEO is making choices 'not means to more profits' unless the stockholders are not investing to make more money but to lose money in service of other things
i don't know if that exists, a stockholder who has invested money in a corporation to influence the corporation to do things 'not means to more profits'
the stockholder would need to own more than 50% of the stock or it would be impossible for them to do that completely
and that kind of stockholder would be better able to influence the world maybe if they used their money independently, so even in this case it does not justify someone spending money on a corporation
a publicly-owned company is an abstraction, you can't in concrete reality influence it out of being existentially profit-making, if you killed the CEO, the COO, and like the next ten people the main stockholders will just get new CEO's and COO's
no more for real
tao,
i agree with some of your points. people who care where their money goes have certainly found the places they feel confident about and want to support. it is true that corporations strive to make their shareholders happy by raking in higher profits, and it's true that CEOs have to do their best to keep the stock price up if they are interested in keeping their jobs. and yes, decisions are routinely made on purely economic basis.
my concern is that people seem to think of independent/privately-held companies as mom-and-pop stores. they never think that private companies can be just as large/powerful/ruthless/economically-oriented as public companies. and that these private companies do have CEOs and armies of lawyers, businessmen, marketing- and PR-people who are paid to ensure that the company continues to make money. CEOs and other higher-ups of private companies, just as CEOs of public companies have a personal interest in increasing the profits because their compensation is usually tied to company's performance.
i just don't understand the use of labels "independent" and "public" to define "good" and "evil." people seem to forget that most public companies have started out as independent/private companies. does a company automatically become evil after it decides to raise some funds by selling its stock to the public? what if a company announces an IPO but then backs out of it?
i have not typed about independent companies and publicly-owned companies in terms of 'good' and 'evil' or 'ruthless' or 'powerful'
hi tao,
you haven't, and i was not saying you have. i am just saying that people tend to attach a stigma to public companies that is based on this misperception, and that i think it is irrational.
you are right, you didn't say i did
i didn't say you said i did though either
we are both okay
i am glad you liked those things ryan
personage,
thank you for saying 'hi tao' at the beginning of your comment, i felt that that was nice of you
tao
I wrote the following as a search in the google search-space, and decided i should post it hear. I will not discuss the reasoning behind either of those actions. There will probably be typos:
i thought tao lin was some kind of joke but when i realized he was an actual person/writer that people liked i figured i might be approaching his writings in a manner not conducive to an understanding of his intent, i now think the entity that is tao lin --writings, blog, pugnacious, protective and doppleganger fans-- is amusing. people are impressionable. unless his writing changes radically , i cannot conceive of a time and place within which i will be willing to spend money, mine or someone else's, on his work. i don't know if i would actually read his book from cover to cover even if it just fell out of the sky,however, though a disdain for his character is probably implicit in one or more of my higher order beliefs, i have no intense feelings about his work or persona, besides a consistent and grin inducing befuddlement at his popularity with the learned and idiotic alike and the proportionate rancor he inspires in the same contradictory types.
i read your story and the shit-talking. they were both interesting. thanks.
i bought 2 of your books from amazon a few minutes ago.
hey, ive published novels too! not as ignacio though. i think the next one will be as innocente777.
i used to review for the l.a. times and other places but i don't anymore. i apologize for this.
im listening to burial's song "untrue."
I left an amazon review for your "Next Potry Book:"
So powerfully did the whole grim act of puberty affect me, January 17, 2008
In this clever satire, tao lin, British radio and television broadcaster, satirises--in an often uproaringly and hillarious fashion--the feeling of puberty in young males based on the premise of the original book, "Why are my Balls Dropping, Daddy?," but deriving seriousness through euphemism and innuendo.
here is an excerpt:
cherish such emotions. For though the harpooneers, with the great body of the crew, were a far more barbaric, heathenish, and motley set than any of the tame merchant-ship companies which my previous experiences had made me acquainted with, still I ascribed this -- and rightly ascribed it -- to the fierce uniqueness of the very nature of that wild Scandinavian vocation in which I had so abandonedly embarked. But it was especially the aspect of the three chief officers of the ship, the mates, which was most forcibly calculated to allay these colorless misgivings, and induce confidence and cheerfulness in every presentment of the voyage. Three better, more likely sea-officers and men, each in his own different way, could not readily be found, and they were every one of them Americans; a Nantucketer, a Vineyarder, a Cape man. Now, it being Christmas when the ship shot from out her harbor, for a space we had biting Polar weather, though all the time running away from it to the southward; and by every degree and minute of latitude which we sailed, gradually leaving that merciless winter, and all its intolerable weather behind us. It was one of those less lowering, but still grey and gloomy enough mornings of the transition, when with a fair wind the ship was rushing through the water with a vindictive sort of leaping and melancholy rapidity, that as I mounted to the deck at the call of the forenoon watch, so soon as I levelled my glance towards the taffrail, foreboding shivers ran over me. Reality outran apprehension; Captain Ahab stood upon his quarter-deck.
cory, people like emo
thanks colin
thanks ignacio
thanks ryan
I like your napkin-drawing very much and I like that your blog has cute animal pictures. Sometimes I don't feel like reading and its good if I can look at cute pictures of animals and feel okay.
i talked shit in the comments section. i liked this story a lot.
do people only read raymond carver and hemingway now?
i thought people liked pseudo-stoicism and malingering. What is emo? does it have anything to do with wearing really small jeans, and listening to obscure rockbands and acting like a character from an s.e. hinton book.
brandi, good, i am glad
thank you gene, that was high-quality shit-talking, i feel inspired to go shit-talk the story now also
cory, no, people don't know what 'pseudo-stoicism' and 'malingering' are, what those words mean, i don't know what 'malingering' means, and i have like .01% of the readers of jonathan safran foer or someone, so you not understanding my popularity is like me not understanding why shit tastes so good
shit is delicious
Tao lin,you're being immature. Its easy to look up the meanings of words that you don't immediately recognize, you're being lazy and immature. Also, what you said about shit and popularity makes no sense to me, you're being lazy, immature, and incoherent.
you're immature
you're being lazy, incoherent,immature, and you're a charlatan. have i won yet?
I liked this story a lot. I was arrested in St. Louis once for shoplifting from...I don't know a Younkers or something? I took some really pretty underwear. And I had shoplifted other underwear from another department store and when I was arrested, I lied and said I'd paid for the underwear I shoplifted elsewhere. They didn't ask to see a receipt or anything and let me keep it.
"When one publicly-traded company loses business another publicly-traded company gains business, except when an independently-owned company gains the business."
All businesses can potentially lose money if the masses decide that they should stop buying so many clothes, fluorescent colored and otherwise.
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