"Companies are not charitable enterprises: They hire workers to make profits. In the United States, this logic still works. In Europe, it hardly does"
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Samuelson’s line has the clean, clipped confidence of postwar American economics: firms exist to turn labor into profit, and any system that forgets that basic engine will pay in sluggish growth and timid hiring. The first sentence is a deliberate splash of cold water. By stripping the company of moral aspirations - no halo, no benevolence - he forces the reader to confront capitalism as a mechanism, not a community center. It’s a rhetorical reset aimed at politicians and publics tempted to treat payrolls as a social right rather than a negotiated cost.
The transatlantic contrast does the real work. “In the United States, this logic still works” flatters the American model as flexible: easier firing, weaker unions, less regulation, deeper capital markets. The implication is that profit incentives translate more directly into job creation when firms can adjust quickly and keep more of the upside. “In Europe, it hardly does” isn’t just a dig at bureaucracy; it’s a critique of institutions that make labor expensive to hire and politically hard to shed, turning employment into a quasi-permanent obligation. If a worker is difficult to let go, a firm becomes cautious about bringing one on.
The subtext is a warning about good intentions producing perverse outcomes. Europe’s stronger welfare state and worker protections may reduce insecurity for insiders, Samuelson suggests, but can also freeze out outsiders - the young, immigrants, the long-term unemployed. It’s a provocation meant to reframe compassion as a design problem: if you want jobs, you can’t pretend firms are charities.
The transatlantic contrast does the real work. “In the United States, this logic still works” flatters the American model as flexible: easier firing, weaker unions, less regulation, deeper capital markets. The implication is that profit incentives translate more directly into job creation when firms can adjust quickly and keep more of the upside. “In Europe, it hardly does” isn’t just a dig at bureaucracy; it’s a critique of institutions that make labor expensive to hire and politically hard to shed, turning employment into a quasi-permanent obligation. If a worker is difficult to let go, a firm becomes cautious about bringing one on.
The subtext is a warning about good intentions producing perverse outcomes. Europe’s stronger welfare state and worker protections may reduce insecurity for insiders, Samuelson suggests, but can also freeze out outsiders - the young, immigrants, the long-term unemployed. It’s a provocation meant to reframe compassion as a design problem: if you want jobs, you can’t pretend firms are charities.
Quote Details
| Topic | Business |
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