Looking at Boeing today, it’s so incredible to see how far it’s fallen. What was once a great company is clearly struggling to continue to survive. If anything, Boeing appears to be a zombie of its old self holding on to life through stored fat energy. The way in which capitalist incentives have completely destroyed Boeing – tearing it down from a once great engineering focused plane manufacturer – should be a lesson in the failures of capitalism for all to see.
Boeing was once great because it was a company that prided itself on engineering excellence. But eventually it lost its way. Now, modern Boeing appears very clearly to be willing to do anything it can to maximize the value going to its shareholders and executives. This of course, being through the pure exploitation not just of its workers, but also through the endangerment of the people who have to fly on Boeing built aircraft.
But here’s the thing. It’s very obvious that Boeing isn’t going to be allowed to fail. Just like the too-big-to-fail banks were not allowed to fail – even when they had made terrible mistakes. The government already *has* bailed Boeing out – repeatedly. And the bailing out will only continue as Boeing continues to fail. There is no future where Boeing becomes a stable and successful company again. Not without massive change being forced upon the company by an outside force. Nationalization is a far better choice than hope.
If you look at Boeing today, there are very few forces acting on it to actually control the terrible behavior of its leadership. Even when the leadership’s wanton decisions lead to the deaths of hundreds – do you expect to see any suits in handcuffs? No, instead they will walk away rich. The only real contender it would seem today to controlling Boeing comes from within, from the seemingly powerful and stubborn workers unions. Forces which Boeing has done everything they can to curtail and destroy.
But the workers unions are fighting against Boeing for their futures – and to limit the businesses exploitation of themselves. There is effectively nobody fighting to protect the everyday American – or global citizen – from the danger of Boeing’s aircraft.
In a “free market” we’re always told that our choice is to “vote with our feet”. But it’s rarely actually true that you can do this in any meaningful sense. There are many times where if you need to fly – for whatever reason, you may not be able to reasonably choose to fly exclusively Airbus. Is Boeing accountable if the decisions made by their executives lead to a crash? Clearly not, looking at their most recent plea deal in which they agreed to pay $244 million dollars. Now to any regular person $244 million sure sounds like a lot. But consider that the company generated 77.8 billion (with a B) dollars in revenue in 2023.
So to scale the impact here, they are paying as a fine one third, of one percent of their revenue to defer prosecution on a federal charge of fraud in relation to the deaths of 346 people. This is equivalent to the average American being able to defer a fraud charge in relation to a negligent death for the measly sum of $178 (that is one third of one percent of the gross income of the average American). For the average American a similar situation would be to be found grossly negligent in relation to a vehicular manslaughter charge. Likely from texting while driving or driving under the influence. That is a good analogy for what Boeing has done here in the deaths of hundreds of people.
Except, in reality, Boeing’s shareholders and executives aren’t just “accidentally” crashing a car into someone while a little tipsy. They’re purposely enriching themselves.
Every time a Boeing aircraft leaves the assembly line half built – ready to literally fall apart in the air – Boeing rakes in cash. Every time Boeing spends less money on employee time to ensure quality in their production – Boeing executives buy a new yacht. When Boeing hastily redesigns the 737 – embedding half built software into it – they save money both on software engineering spend – and aircraft design spend. But when the 737 falls out of the sky due to that software being poorly written – they have to spend the equivalent of less than %1 of their income to settle the charge.
Boeing as a company is disgusting.
But the problem isn’t really Boeing. It’s a combination of the incentive structure of capitalism in modern America, coupled with the power structures permitted to exist under American capitalism, finally completed by the governmental insulation which protects companies like Boeing from the consequences of their actions.
Proponents of free market capitalism love to insist that the worker and the consumer have power in this system through “choice”. But do you really have choice as a worker? Not in a system which permits things like non-competes. Not when you’re struggling to make ends meet – and can barely sustain a work stoppage. Not when a machinist looking for similar work has to uproot their family and move to find a job.
And do consumers have choice? Maybe in some strict sense that you can simply “choose” not to fly ever again if you want to ensure your own safety. Though this locks you as a person out from many employment options, as well as options for living a fulfilling life under the capitalist system.
But forget arguing that these things should be necessary. You shouldn’t have to defend the consumer’s choice, or the worker’s empowerment. The people who should be defending their justification for their continued security under our system are the executives and shareholders who today hold all of the cards. Why in the hell should a rich executive need more money to spend on yet another yacht? How does this remotely compare against the needs of the worker to be able to raise their family – and pay their rent?
The choice is obvious. Boeing must be nationalized.
The US government should immediately take control over Boeing in the national interest. The alternative is to let the company fail – and since they’ve made it clear through their continued permissiveness towards Boeing that this isn’t going to happen – “because Boeing is a national treasure” – then nationalization is all that remains.
Boeing must be steered back onto the right track by the government in this case. No simple “bail outs”. The needs of the company’s leeching monetary interests should be balanced against the needs of the workers and the consumers by an outside impartial force. At this point – I fear that only government intervention can do this.
The nationalization of Boeing can lead to a successful company in the long run. One which returns to it’s engineering roots – once the sickness of “capital” has left the company for good. The desire to exploit the business to maximize profits must never be allowed back into Aerospace. The destruction it has caused in this case is quite literal, with burning fields filled with broken dreams and shattered spines.
