**Excuse this momentary detour into American politics**
The April 23rd, 2021 edition of The Economist states in their leader headline that “business and politics are growing closer in America, with worrying consequences.” It is quite obvious they are referring to the growing political comments made by America’s CEOs. This has disturbed far left liberals, old guard republicans and paleo-conservatives to such a degree that recently in the State of Georgia elected officials have boycotted Coca-Cola products, completely overlooking history, and forgetting the time Coca-Cola effectively made white Atlanta elites honor Martin Luther King, Jr. after his Nobel Peace Prize. (see article NPR April 05, 2015). Mind you Coca-Cola is simply a soft drink.
Without going into further detail on the State of Georgia, which has its own problems politically, it is not surprising in the least bit that local politicians foolishly ignore history. It is however, surprising to hear the discontent from both liberals and conservatives regarding corporate concerns. What do you expect?
I have wondered for years when American corporate interests would separate from America’s two party lunkhead ideology. To look towards the future it is becoming increasingly clear that major corporate interests – particularly vast consumer goods empires providing services for everyday people – exist for the benefit of all involved. A company like Coca-Cola creates value by selling their products to consumers.
The changes taking place today touch every corner of consumer facing companies from ESG, voting rights, immigration, labor ethics and questions like “what large corps should do with their profits.” Equally as important is how public companies should view growth, market share and profitability. These companies stand to benefit from every person – in some way shape or form – buying their products.
Monoculturalism in America is stifling and it is shifting. From politics to religion and athletics, America is completely enamored with itself and its own local regionalism. This is the land of the free where citizens are allowed to be as successful or as unsuccessful as they want to be, smart or stupid, it does not matter. Truth be told America is basically a land of three hundred million identity and material obsessed philistines, some generations worse than others. Hopefully that will change, but for the time being the monoculture of the USA is all about money, consumption and materialistic possessions. The issue trickles down to corporations, and as demographics shift and people become more aware it’s no longer a small segment of the population that these corporations are targeting.
If you are puzzled by 2020 / 2021 corporate actions, don’t be. Why would public corporate concerns risk economic loss over something as fleeting as politics? They simply cannot afford to take the side of the oppressor or the oppressed; unless it benefits their customer base. Corporate America is terrified of being canceled by customers. Then again, maybe corporate America should just carry-on being corporate America.
chadwickhagan.com 