@allie__voss This misunderstands the entire dynamic of big companies. Large companies are (generally) not profit maximizers at all. They are designed to maximize the utility of their managers, the classic principal-agent problem. That utility can be maximized by some combination of paying

@TheWorthyHouse @allie__voss This is why DOGE was so badly needly and so energetically fought against. Surely there is no principal-agent problem worse than in the public service?

@Dept_Of_War @allie__voss Similar, but worse, because politicians can ally with government workers in order to screw a third party that is not represented at all in practice, taxpayers. It is therefore a different principal-agent problem and worse. This is why until very recently everyone recognized

@TheWorthyHouse @allie__voss Add'l: Young, cute(ish) girls in the office are very frequently, if not majority of the time, there to be attractive. Both for the company and their own interests: Flirt with engineers/nerds to keep them motivated and working or sleep w/or marry successful salesmen/finance.

@jack226RE @allie__voss This may have been true when I was young. I doubt very much it's true now, and any action would be extremely risky for a man (and zero risk for a woman).

@TheWorthyHouse @allie__voss It’s Microsoft. Why do you think office is so expensive for a software that’s 30 years old?

@TheWorthyHouse @allie__voss very well-said.

@TheWorthyHouse @allie__voss You may be overcomplicating things. If Blackrock says "hire women or else we'll lower your ESG scores and crank up your interest rates by a material amount", what are you realistically going to do?

@TheWorthyHouse @allie__voss Savage truth

@TheWorthyHouse @allie__voss This is so true! Working as an internal consultant in a finance Fortune 500 company I can attest this is very very accurate.

@TheWorthyHouse @allie__voss The real tragedy is that many professional foids ARE working diligently on tasks that are largely superfluous. Entire departments created to maintain the illusion, fingers typing into the night, eggs silently shriveling. All those Powerpoints lost in time, like tears in rain.

@TheWorthyHouse @allie__voss People will make "but the market isn't doing X" based arguments as if we have the economic system of the 19th century instead of the Soviet Union-lite.

@TheWorthyHouse @allie__voss Seems interesting that Musk had less success addressing this at DOGE. Are government agencies just more efficient? Or were they just more effective at resisting?

@TheWorthyHouse @allie__voss The principal-agent problem is indeed a good explanation of this dynamic, when the principal is constantly externally pressured over a specific agent subcategory. Got any explanation for Alissa Heinerscheid "falling upwards" into Saudi turf, though? I can't figure that one out

@TheWorthyHouse @allie__voss It doesn’t even have to be a diffuse principal/agent problem. The WNBA exists, having never made a nickel, solely to make women feel special.