[AndrewBissell]

> I see major public corporations staying competitive for decade after decade.

Not sure what "competitive" means in this context, but there is no shortage of examples of large companies which have been run into the ground for the sake of short term payouts for executives and insider stakeholders: Lehman Brothers, AIG, PG&E, Boeing, likely IBM, any number of the drained husks left in the wake of private equity like Toys R Us and Payless, etc.

Corporations can be run well or badly, and governments can be run well or badly. It's just a question of the competence and moral character (or lack thereof) of decision-makers.

[BurningFrog]

By competitive I just mean that they keep performing well decade after decade. Many Fortune 500 companies have been on that list for decades.

> Lehman Brothers, AIG, PG&E, Boeing, likely IBM, any number of the drained husks left in the wake of private equity like Toys R Us and Payless, etc.

I doubt all of those were victims of shortsightedness. Sometimes, it's time for institutions to die and leave room for new things.

But of course you're right that this happens. I wasn't claiming that all private companies are run perfectly with epic time horizons and no executive ego involved etc. I was just arguing against the idea that they never think beyond the next quarterly result report.

> Corporations can be run well or badly, and governments can be run well or badly.

Sure!

> It's just a question of the competence and moral character (or lack thereof) of decision-makers.

I'd focus a lot more on what incentives the decision-makers are under. And I claim the politician who will be fired in 2 years unless he makes himself look awesome on Election Day has more short term focused incentives that a company CEO.

[avmich]

> And I claim the politician who will be fired in 2 years unless he makes himself look awesome on Election Day has more short term focused incentives that a company CEO.

Here's where the disagreement starts. We have insufficiently different facts on the table, but those unspoken are on the different sides. So you decide that governments are under more short-term pressure to demonstrate results, while I think modern corporations have shorter periods when shareholders can allow CEOs not to bring them tangible results. And for corporations existing for decades I have examples of governments existing at least as long.

I guess we have to keep disagreeing.

[BurningFrog]

Agreed. I don't mind disagreement at all.