His achievements certainly stand tall.  Even we who advocate for capitalism tend to undervalue the importance of good managment. Other people, even among Objectivists and certainly with the conservative spectrum, undervalue investment banking. We all look at the entrepreneurship of Noyce and Moore, Job and Wozniak, and think too easily that just "making things" is automatically productivity. That is a kind of error that Ayn Rand called "muscle mysticism." As Intel's most general manager, he was responsible for bringing to realization the plans of the engineers.

So, we have to put him into context.

The triumph of free-market principles over planned economies in the 20th century, he said, did not make those principles infallible or immutable. There was room for improvement, he argued, for what he called “job-centric” economics and politics. In a job-centric system, job creation would be the nation’s No. 1 objective, with the government setting priorities and arraying the forces necessary to achieve the goal, and with businesses operating not only in their immediate profit interest but also in the interests of “employees, and employees yet to be hired.” -- http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/26/opinion/andy-groves-warning-to-silicon-valley.html?_r=0

 

It is kind of unrequited love that Objectivism has so few adherants among the most productive. T. J. Rodgers and Fred Smith are in thin company.  (Smith spoke at the 50th Anniversary of Atlas Shrugged celebration.  His biography, however, includes close affiliations with the Skull and Bones and John Kerry.)  We villify George Soros who made his money buying and selling money.  What is more capitalist than that?  Yet, his political views certainly are not ours.

Apparently, neither were Andy Grove's.  Do we just take the good with the bad?  We do not like to do that, because it whitewashes moral failures, and reduces true virtures to pragmatic exceptions to altruism.  However, we often do identify the intellectual errors as distinct from the productive virtues.  We do that for Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller easily enough. Why not for Bill Gates?  

I agree with Ed Hudgins's assessment of Andy Grove. If we recognize his genius for production engineering, should we not give more credence to his views on political economy, especially the American economy within global capitalism?

Back in the early 90s I had the chance to attend one of the first of the major conferences on the Internet and hear some of the real titans of that new industry speak.  Andy Grove was one of them.  He was asked a question - something about what he thought of Microsoft initially thinking that the Internet was nothing significant.  I can still hear that admiration and a bit of envy in his voice when he described how fast and how completely Microsoft corrected their course.  He talked about the way a company the size of Microsoft was able to change course 180 degrees in an astonishingly short period of time.  I was impressed with Andy Grove.

Yeah, well, I could wish that everyone in the world were as smart as I am, too, Steve, but that would really be limiting. You must think well of yourself that you cannot learn any more than you knew when you read Ayn Rand in 1967.

I know how marginal utility works, and I know the common narrative about sheep from England and wine from France.  Moreover, I know a bit more, from a lost work, "Jerry Emanuelson's Algebraic Proof of Ricardo's Law of Association."  Even if Ms. X is better at both tasks than Ms. A, it is in their best interests to divide the work into discrete units, forcus each on one, and let them trade their labor -- even if Ms X does the work less well than would Ms. A, as compared to each doing both on their own.

So, yes, we argue easily that by setting up call centers in India, American companies make all of us richer... even as we are unemployed...  But we are, indeed, unemployed...

Here in Austin, as a technical writer, the median wage is $38 per hour.  I can get my lawn mowed for ten bucks.  Is that a clear choice?  No.  Even as I spend $165 on a lawn mower, I am ahead by mowing my own lawn.  I get outdoor exercise, for one thing.  The lawn mower is available whenever I want it, not when the neighbor kid is out and willing to work. When I move, I take the machine with me to the new place, with no time lost looking for a new service.  I can sell the machine used at a garage sale, which I cannot do with the labor of the neighbor kid after he mows my lawn. In case of total economic collapse, I have a cute little Briggs and Stratton engine that can be repurposed.  Repurposing the neighbor kid could be problematic. When I do the work, I do it my own satisfaction, not his. I take all the time I need, not the least to get the job (apparently) done.  

All of those micro values are reflected in Andy Grove's warning about America having exported is productive capacity on the cheap.

We might come back to the sheep and the wine, but it is worth thinking about.

We see the same thing in information resources.  My wife is a security professional.  Her job was outsourced to an Indian firm.  Now, someone who is not invested in Being an American is in charge of the computer security of an American firm.  Do you not see a problem with that?  Remember when Toohey asked Scarett if he was loyal to the Banner? And Alvah said that everyone is loyal to their paycheck. That told Toohey everything he needed to know about Scarett's position once Toohey put the cards on the table.  

Where are your loyalties?  To America... or to your paycheck?  (And, yes, being a situational and contextal person, I accept that "paycheck equals America" might be the highest expression of patriotism for a capitalist.)

For years - decades - Japan fought the import of American rice.  We would sell it to them cheaper than they could grow it themselves.  However, Japan did not want to be dependent on another nation - even a new "ally"- for its food.  The extra cost was well worth the security.  Where is your economic security today?  Are you turning work away because you have more than you can do right now?  I am not. Maybe the failing is mine ...

(Edited by Michael E. Marotta on 4/03, 11:01am)