Most MBAs & Business People Have Incorrect Political Views
Having graduated from an M7 MBA program a few years ago, I’m turned off by how out of sync my peers are with what’s best for America.
The vast majority of MBAs, including at the T15/M7 level, seem to prioritize their own financial self-interest over the greater good. This seems to be mirrored by business undergrad folks too.
While they might be often socially liberal and big on DEI, they often lack the courage to support necessary economic policies like single-payer healthcare, powerful labor unions, high progressive taxes, strong minimum wages, robust antitrust, the Green New Deal, and free public colleges. In short, they’re focused on maximizing personal gain rather than advocating for policies that would genuinely benefit society, especially the working class.
On the other hand, a lot of lawyers, even those in big law, and MPP/MPA grads tend to align with the correct path for America: social democracy akin to what we see in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. These countries have a capitalist structure - sometimes even more laissez-faire than the US in certain areas like fewer red tape for small businesses and free trade agreements. But they also have a massive welfare state funded by high taxes, including on the wealthy. They get that Bernie Sanders is right: true progress requires not just being liberal on social issues but economic progressivism.
Yes I'm aware that Scandinavia has VAT and consumption taxes that hit the middle and lower class. But even then, the social welfare benefits the working class gets vastly outweighs the taxes they pay in these Scandinavian countries.
I'm not shying away from higher taxes on working people - for Medicare for All, you'll need to do that. But working people despite higher taxes will save money because of no copays, deductibles, and premiums.
Most MBAs and business grads across consulting, banking, CPG brand management, tech, PE/VC/HF, etc. that I’ve encountered are what I’d call "limousine liberals." They’re socially liberal because it’s trendy, but when it comes to economic issues, they shy away from advocating for real, systemic change. They don’t have the guts to push for policies that might affect their wallets. Many are outwardly "fiscally conservative" and discuss strategies of minimizing their tax burden. I used to be that way until I became more informed a few years ago on the extent of income and wealth inequality in the US.
Lots of T14 law grads pursue social impact work, whether pro bono through their biglaw employer or directly by being a public interest lawyer at a place like the ACLU or BigFed work like SEC, DOJ, FTC, etc. I'm currently in a business role in tech, but I'm looking to pivot into nonprofit consulting like at Bridgespan. Looking back, I wish I added an MPP degree - that would not only give me the right skill set but also put me in a community of people who actually care about making America better for everyone, not just the wealthy few.
If you’re considering an MBA but share similar concerns, it might be worth reevaluating whether the typical MBA path is the right path for you, or if a MPP, MPA, or law degree addresses your goals better. I don't regret my MBA however - while I think 90% of my peers have wrong political views, it's helping me pivot into nonprofit/social impact consulting.
I just applied for an MBA this week, but I don't hope to push political issues. I'll vote, but I have other interests outside of politics. I'll make America better in my own industry.
Go back to Reddit.
I vote conservatively, work in healthcare yet I'm ngl - I do agree with some of the liberal views on how to fix healthcare more so than conservative. In some ways, all MBAs including myself are hypocrites.
I admittedly vote solely on how I'm taxed. Conservatives tax less, I have more in my pocket. I don't care about anything else when it comes down to getting my vote. As a result, I vote red across the board every time.
If you look at opinion polling for which countries are the happiest in the world, you almost universally arrive to the conclusion that the Scandinavian and Northern European countries are the leaders in the world. They tend to have high human development indices. As a group, they are affluent, well educated, peaceful, healthy and among the happiest people in the world. Much of this is likely due to the some of the factors you outline, which is the high percentage of taxation relative to GDP, which is redistributed across society, leading to lower Gini coefficients, more investment in the general welfare, and less jealousy and dissatisfaction which plagues less equal societies (take South Africa for an example). There is a low amount of immigration into these countries, and the populations are far more homogenized than other societies, which probably contributes to overall social harmony due to the inherent similarities of the citizens. I think we can both agree that these are successful societies.
As an American functioning in the American geopolitical, political, and economic ecosystem, I appreciate all of the things which I outlined in the preceding paragraph, but I ask myself, what is the true purpose of America? Over time, I've come to decide that our purpose is very different from what many other people think or ever talk about. To me, America is a public good which belongs to the world entire and not itself. America is home to the teeming masses of immigrants who come the world round to live here, and we take on far more immigrants than any other country. Is this always conducive to social harmony and orderliness? No. Come and stand outside the Roosevelt Hotel. And yet we take them anyway, because America belongs to the world and is a bastion of hope for people around the world. America tends to have business-friendly and sometimes outright regulatory-captured laws and taxation policies which favor businesses over the people. For this reason, do we have the best social welfare infrastructure in the world? No. Look at the lobbyists. But we are home to the lobbyists and the megacorporations anyway because they innovate and develop the technologies and creature comforts that the rest of the world depends upon. Our healthcare system rewards pharmaceutical profiteers. Do we have the cheapest or most accessible healthcare system in the world? No. We are home to the drugs and therapies which heal the nations.
In all of these things, America is the sacrificial lamb which at times personally suffers and wails in torment, but we do it anyway because it accrues to the benefit of the world, and there's a certain righteousness in that. Our technologies power the world we live in, and our military-industrial complex, bloated as it may be, is the aegis to the democratic world. In all things, we shield, protect, harbor, subsidize, spend, command, conquer and destroy, all at the same time, but it accrues to the benefit of the very countries you extol. Without America's protection, the lifestyle which is lived in the Nordics would not be able to be realized in its fullness, with all the safety that that life currently entails.
America is not the most egalitarian place in the world, but it is a place where ambitious and talented people can further themselves more than in any other place on the planet. Do we take the best care of marginalized people in society? No, regrettably, I can't say that we do. What I can say is that America labors and sacrifices for the sake of promoting human civilization, and that is consolation enough for me.
If you expand your thinking to the systemic interactions between countries, perhaps you will be able to see the grander good which America brings to the equation, even if it sometimes comes at the expense of its own people.
You are the enemy of myself, my family, and my ancestors.
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
-
Richer
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