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Short-Termism Is Hurting Companies And Costing Lives (and costing communities their culture?)
It's a common theme we talk about here in Doowopolis - the idea that "short-termism" (or the belief that our best days are probably behind us, so might as well just borrow today whatever's left from a darker tomorrow, and take the money and run - hoping tomorrow never gets here) has seemingly taken over "long-termism"...

It's a common theme we talk about here in Doowopolis - the idea that "short-termism" (or the belief that our best days are probably behind us, so might as well just borrow today whatever's left from a darker tomorrow, and take the money and run - hoping tomorrow never gets here) has seemingly taken over "long-termism" (or the idea that the best is yet to come, hence the incentive to work hard, save money, and invest in that better, brighter future...)

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We happen to think at least some of this may have to do with the way our money supply (as in, the supply of dollars created & circulated by central banks) has expanded so rapidly (read: "money printer go brrr") in America ever since the early 2000s (and maybe even the early 1970s???) thereby devaluing the long-term-oriented hard work & big dreams of working & middle-class citizens, while short-term speculative "binges" by a reckless few instead become the driving force shaping the destiny of companies, communities, and culture alike.

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Prioritizing debt & credit over savings & capital; trading & flipping over investing & income; gambling & grifting over planning & productivity; money supply growth & asset price inflation over real economic growth & rising wages; "short-termism" over "long-termism";  pessimism (or worse, nihilism) over optimism, and ultimately, fly-by-night speculators over creative, hard-working entrepreneurs? Not a recipe for a brighter future, as we see it. Not in the Wildwoods. And not anywhere else.

The Doowopolis Manifesto, doowopolis.com

Some examples of the consequences of "short-termism"? Well, in the New Jersey shore town of the Wildwoods, it meant the sudden loss of over two-thirds of the community's historic "Doo Wop" architecture in a span of just a few short years back in the early & mid 2000s due to an artificially-inflated real estate bubble and temporary distortion of financial markets (that would eventually be bailed out with more printed money - i.e. stealing the savings of hard-working taxpayers) - and with it, the loss of a dream to restore, redevelop, and reinvent an entire community on the basis of it's original, authentic spirit - that is, the spirit of "belief in a better tomorrow" as built by hard-working small business owners & entrepreneurs with big dreams - not to mention an entire era of pop-culture-inspired design & architecture, and also an entire job-creating local tourism industry.

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As it turns out, there are other consequences beyond just the shores of New Jersey.

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In a recent article by Mark Murphy for Forbes Magazine, it's described that "In its simplest form, short-termism means prioritizing short-term results to the detriment of long-term interests." And some of those interests include not just economic benefits...

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"long-term-oriented investors deliver superior performance, and long-term-oriented companies outperform in terms of revenue, earnings, and job creation"

Mark Murphy, Forbes.com

...but also health benefits too, including the ability to cure deadly diseases...

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"While the Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute is working on a hepatitis C vaccine, presently, there already exists a cure. Why on earth aren't we testing and treating the 58 million people currently infected?
This is where short-termism reenters the story. "The existing cures are under patent protection and cost at least $20,000 per patient," Dr. Houghton told me. One doesn't need to be an expert in pharmacoeconomics to start doing a bit of math."

Mark Murphy, Forbes.com

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Read full article on Forbes.com:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/markmurphy/2022/09/12/short-termism-is-hurting-companies-and-costing-lives/

so might as well just borrow today whatever's left from a darker tomorrow, and take the money and run - hoping tomorrow never comes