We all want to contribute. It is frustrating to watch so few do the heavy lifting of rehabilitation and recovery. We watch also as our national optimism vanishes and economic despair grows like a cancer.
We can do something about this. Shareholders can tolerate short-term economic losses. Management can cut or freeze its own salaries and, with the tolerance of shareholders, can declare a moratorium on the massive layoffs that sap our national confidence and trigger the meltdown in consumer confidence.
I know that this flies in the face of conventional capitalistic wisdom. These are now different times, though, and corporate America can lead with its optimism about the future and its commitment to supporting the country during this crisis by keeping people employed.
Some World Trade Center businesses lost almost all of their human resources, their greatest asset. They must rebuild on the shoulders of new employees.
Before others launch the euphemistic downsizing that they have already announced, why don’t they place a call to one of these battered and bereaved businesses? Why don’t they offer to furlough some of their “surplus” human resources to those in need?
In addition to contributing money or equipment to the recovery process, donate people who might otherwise be crushed in an economic downturn exacerbated by the fallout of the attacks.
Corporate America needs to lead differently during this crisis. The economy will not experience a war-induced rebound; this war will not be waged by heavy equipment and large-scale conscription. This war will require a strong national psyche, stroked by optimism about the future.
Avoiding recession and steering clear of high unemployment will be crucial as we move forward with the serious endeavor of restoring a sense of well-being and safety.
We can all sustain losses measured in earnings per share. They seem so trivial in the current context. Shareholders can tolerate paper losses in their stock portfolios if corporate America leverages that tolerance into sustaining as many jobs as possible. This would be serious cheerleading, and a moratorium on layoffs would be a substantial contribution to the recovery efforts.
