7. Increasingly, university presidents were turning over their business schools to millionaire equity investment executives. Consider Kenneth Freeman who was offered the deanship of Boston University's B-School. He is from KKR, and his job was to oversee all of the firm's private equity investments around the world, including serving as director of hospital operator HCA, medical device maker Accellent, and building products manufacturer Masonite. In addition to his deanship Freeman will continue his affiliation with KKR as a senior advisor. Speaking of Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts, in October 2010 Henry Kravis, called the Buy-Out king, pledged $100 million to his alma mater the Columbia Business School to help construct new facilities in Harlem and the building will be named after him. B-schools seek these celebrity finance moguls to increase the school's visibility and of course bring in "big bucks," like David Booth with his $300 million gift in 2008 creating the Chicago Booth School of Business or Philip Knight (of Nike) who gave who gave $105 million to Stanford creating the Knight Management Center. They want produce a David Tepper, who made $4 billion in 2009, or equity multimillionaire celebrity politician like Mitt Romney. Among all executives who have played havoc with employees by reducing the workforce and demanding longer hours are the equity investors who are praised by B-school deans. Of course this sends a message to students that they too can become sinfully wealthy by getting an employee to do the jobs of two employees.
Think about what would happen if America adopted the European 35 hour work week. It would lead to a significant reduction in the numbers of millions unemployed. But this would lead to one unpopular side effect it would dramatically increase labor costs and lower the wealth of CEOs and their stockholders.
References
Bauerlein, M. and Jaffery, C. (2011) All Work and No Pay: The Great Speedup. Mother Jones July/August 2011 issue Retrieved from: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/speed-up-american-workers-long-hours?page=2
Goldin, C. and Katz, L. (1999). Human Capital and Social Capital. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Spring, 29, 4, 683-724.
HR.BIR.com (2006) 1/3 of U.S. workers leave"and lose"vacation time. Retrieved from: http://hr.blr.com/news.aspx?id=18429
Saulny, S. and Brown, R. (2009) On a Furlough, but Never Leaving the Cubicle. New York Times, June 15, P.1
Schor, J.B. (1991) The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure, N.Y.: Basic Books
Uchitelle, L., (2006) The disposable American: layoffs and their consequences. NY: Knopf
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