pany, GE operates in more than 100 countries and employs more than 315,000 people worldwide ("Facts"). GE revenues during 2003 accounted for $134.2 billion, and its earnings accounted for $15.6 billion or $1.55 per share ("Facts").
             In a financial sense and in the sense of pleasing Wall Street, General Electric has been a great company. However, in "Point of View: the Despoiler of Human Resources," Coates argues that "corporate power is heavily biased towards management and stockholders while the conditions of workers and society are ignored" (19). The social cost of General Electric needs to be examined in terms of what Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric, has done to society, whether it was the persistence of layoffs, harsh management methods, or other manifestations including unfair retirement benefits.
             With the arrival of Welch, in 1981, mass layoffs were suddenly the trend and the concept of loyalty had to be eliminated. While it is hard to get a fix on the number of General Electric layoffs over the last two decades because of the constant changing of its businesses, General Electric has dismissed well over 100,000 well-paid workers in the United States (O'Boyle 74). According to Coates, "Jack Welch has bought and sold business units as though they were remaindered books" (20). Years or even decades of loyal commitment and hard work to the organization suddenly became irrelevant. The concept of loyalty had no place at General Electric because all the employees had to perform well each and every day or else be eliminated. General Electric also undermined union power in the United States by shifting operations to non-union subcontractor, for example, Mexico. General Electric had eliminated additional jobs in the United States by pressuring its suppliers to migrate along with it (O'Boyle 74). The cruel downsizing of General Electric inspired a tremendous hate towards...