Chapter 14
Trains, mines, and coffee makers.........
“It’s difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” -Upton Sinclair
“We make everything from trains to circuit breakers, to coffee makers. The firm has been in business for nearly 400 years. It is good German engineering that has kept us ahead of all competition! Nothing makes up for poor design, and excellent design? Well, it pays and pays!”
The words were music to Tom’s ears. This was a company that had staying power, looked to the long term rather than quarterly stock dividends, and made investments in basic industries and people.
“Most of our employees have been with us for thirty or forty years. We pride ourselves on our ‘family’ at work. For its at work that we spend the majority of our waking hours, is it not?”
Tom looked up at his interviewer, and realized that he had just been asked a question, but he hadn’t been paying attention.
“Nice way to lose the job before you get it, idjit!” he admonished himself, roughly. “You like the company and the people, so wake up and stay in the office when he’s asking questions! Now what did he ask me? Something about majority of time at work, and happy family. An ambiguous, but positive, response will work,” he decided. “Besides, he likes to hear himself talk. So, let him talk and he’ll be happy with you anyway. He’s looking for an audience. Be that, and get the job,” Tom instructed himself before answering.
“I think you’re right. I like your approach to work, and family values.”
“Good, good! Then we are in agreement, eh? Would you like a cigar?” he asked Tom as he rose, walking to the large wooden cabinet in his spacious office.
“You smoke at work?” Tom asked incredulously, but then recovered from sounding too judgmental. “The company I work for is based in
“Yes, I heard about that. Pity. Here we are in 1984, the year that George Orwell predicted so many things, and they dog us with inconsequential things like smoking! There is nothing like a fine cigar. Well, other than a fine woman! Then, there is a good liquor. What would you like to drink? I have most every fine liqueur here in my cupboard.”
Stumped again, Tom wasn’t sure if he was being setup to find out his reaction, or being offered a kindly cocktail. It was an interviewing first for him.
“Well, I don’t usually drink during work hours. But, you do have a tempting array of nice liquors. Wherever did you find this kind of cognac?” Tom said, as he boldly picked up an ancient bottle full of thick, amber colored, fluid.
Proud that Tom noticed, he answered happily: “Only the finest! We bring it back directly from
"Ok then, I’ll have a little of the cognac. I like cognac generally, and I bet this one is really smooth.”
“That it is, only the best from
“Now that’s an odd picture!” Tom joked.
“And, a sense of humor, as well.......”
Walking around the perimeter of the office, Tom looked intently at the pictures on the walls. Partially, he did this to avoid too much conversation; but the art was also very curious. He knew that he was doing well on the interview, and he didn’t want to mess it up with some stupid off-hand remark. So, he kept his thoughts to himself, and responded to questions only. Tom was terrified of making a faux pas, and thereby looking too provincial. Finally, he found himself in front of a rather dreary black and white etching, and he stared at it for a long time. Talking to himself he thought: “No, it can’t be. Do I dare ask? I might offend him. Oh well, it might just show that I know something too.”
As he completed his internal discussion, he heard Gerhardt walk up behind him.
“Do you like this one?” he asked, in a subtle appraising tone.
“Yes, actually I do. I think its your best one here. Well, in my opinion. I tend to like the more stark black and white etchings. This one seems dreary, but it has details to it that are fantastic; and when you take your time with it, it turns from bleak to hopeful winter. Its a very subtle piece. It can’t be a Dürer, can it?”
“Actually, it is. And, yes, it is my best piece here at the office. I am very proud of this one.”
“I’ve only seen his work in books, museums, and a large one at the Vanderbilt mansion in
“Yes, painstaking work, that. Don’t know how he had the patience to do such details. His every piece is this way!”
“He was a mathematician, wasn’t he?”
“ No, I don’t think so. Maybe you were thinking of M.C. Escher?”
“Probably. Pardon me for asking, but how.......?”
“Did I get such a wonderful piece?”
“Why, yes..”
“Thomas, there is a thing you must learn to accept. Our world constantly changes. And today’s fortunes can be tomorrow’s dust. So, therefore, we must focus on the important things in life. Your children; whom I can tell you love very much, are your greatest investment and biggest treasure. You should meet my son and daughter. Well, you will someday. Anyway, once you live through a world war, where your country and your whole life is torn apart, you begin to look at the world differently.”
“I didn’t know you lived in
“As a child, only. But, I was old enough to learn some very hard lessons. The world is not an easy place. There are a lot of harsh things, and people, in the world. Again, this makes family..... and work family....... that much more important, no?”
“Yes, I’ve always felt that way,” answered Tom, sincerely.
“The lesson I learned in my childhood Thomas, was that the only things that endure and retain their real value is art, antiques, and jewels. Art and antiques more so, because they are truly of a limited supply. And once the artist is dead, then there is no more! If they find a new gold or diamond mine, then the values of your investments in them can change significantly. Greater supplies means lower prices.”
“Funny, I’ve always felt the same. I’ve been restoring antiques since I was in high school. I think its the solid nature of them, their age brings a one sense of continuity; and the quality always seems higher than new furniture.”
“Quite. Quite right, you are my boy! You must learn, paper money can devalue in minutes. Even coinage can diminish in value if the economy of a country fails. Newer coins have very little valuable metal in them. My family was very well off before the depression, and war. We owned a bakery, and it was a good business. But when people were hungry? They had to bring piles of money for a loaf of bread.”
“I’ve seen those things in books, where they say that the German currency was so devalued that people literally brought wheel barrows of money in for bread and food.”
“Unfortunately, silly as it sounds, it was very true. I saw it happen. Then, after a while we couldn’t even make bread. There were shortages in flour and basic ingredients. Then, we were simply cleaned out of all saleable breads. It was horrible. Anyway, no one who had jewelry or art ever went hungry. Why? Because there is only a limited supply of them, and they always retain relative value, even if everything else has lost its value. So remember Thomas, whatever the economic climate keep your assets in art, antiques, and jewels; and your family will always be safe.”
“Good advice,” Tom responded, and set his glass on the large walnut desk. As soon as he set it down, however, Gerhardt refilled it.
“So,” Tom continued. “In order for me to earn enough money to buy art and antiques, I guess I ‘ll have to have a job, hey?” he said boldly.
“Well said, Thomas,” the man replied, pandering to his virulent young male ego. “Yes, you have a job with us. You are young. The youngest we have ever hired into a management position, but that is ok. I can see that you can solve our accounting and system conversion issues.”
“Yes, I think I can. And I look forward to working on a large database like a System 38. Its IBM’s first relational database, isn’t it?”
“Yes, its the first real commercial implementation of a relational database anywhere. It’s something that we need to properly maintain two sets of records, in a timely manner. One set will be according to American GAAP; and the other, will match our internal and government reporting in German accounting systems. You see Thomas, we look at things differently than the Americans. We are much more focused on the long term asset growth. Which usually means significant capital investment. Now capital assets always go down in value on American financial statements because the tax code encourages the expensing off of them through depreciation. You and I both know that plant and equipment assets usually increase in value over time, and yes sometimes they decrease; but they don’t follow an arbitrary method of bookkeeping by depreciation. So, while Americans are expensing off factories, we are looking at the net increase, or decrease, in their values. Therefore, our financial statements include net changes in asset values as ‘income,’ or ‘losses.’ It is a more inclusive way to look at assets and income. It’s impossible to present these variances in asset values in a standard general ledger that only looks at money earned and money spent. Right now, every month, we have a significant amount of hand calculations that have to be done to comply with our reporting requirements at home.”
“But this is an American corporation,” said Tom naively. “Who cares about German accounting here?”
“We do, and so does the parent company that owns us. We report to the Vorstand of the firm. That is like a board of directors in an American corporation, but ours is a nonprofit foundation. The last Krupp descendant died without any heirs; and due to the history of the company’s trade in munitions, he set it up so that all of the profits would go into social programs in Germany via a foundation. A form of reparation.”
“So making a quick buck, through the buying and selling of productive manufacturing capacity, isn’t an objective of your company?”
“No, it isn’t an objective of our company, Thomas! Welcome aboard!” he said with a flourish, and with a clink of their glasses.
Tom realized now, that the drink was a congratulatory drink. A ‘welcome to our family,’ drink. And, it felt good to be in a place with long term vision, and real social responsibility ......written right into the charter.
***************
“In the long run, we are all dead....”
-Baron John Maynard Keynes, economist and profiteer
The years went by fast at his new work, and Tom even added another child to his real family. He now had three wonderful boys, and a full and busy life. The computer work was cutting edge, challenging, and allowed him to travel overseas to help other divisions accomplish their system conversions. But, he began to have nagging doubts. He realized that the more he bought into the business ‘family,’ the more he would become dependant upon ‘dad.’ And he wasn’t so sure that he fully trusted ‘dad’s’ judgments. He and his immediate supervisor, John, talked many hours about the state of affairs.
“I’m really looking forward to visiting our division in Egypt. I’ve always wanted to go to
“Now why would you want to go there? All that sand, and camels! Me, I’d rather be on the lake fishing!” said Robert laconically.
“You are so full of crap, John!”
“And you are still full of piss and vinegar! When are you ever going to learn?”
“Learn what?”
“You, or I, are never stepping foot in
“But, we have to. The Arthur Young affiliate auditors will be there, and we need to count all of the cash in the vault, don’t we? You can’t have the same office people who take in the cash count the cash, can you? That wouldn’t be very smart.”
“Let me see, I’ve been here how many years? And I ain’t never gone there! Anyway, whose not to trust?”
“I’m not saying you can’t trust them, its just not good business to leave that much money without checks and balances.”
“Its black market money, from sales of scrap steel on the black market. Its just piles of Egyptian Pounds, that you can’t trade on the open market. Who cares?”
“Well, if you haven’t noticed, we have a ton of cash in that safe; and I’m supposed to validate to the outside auditors that everything is on the up and up. How can I put that much cash in our ledger, without a credit entry?”
“I told you that new fangled system of yours wouldn’t work. We used to have a great one sided account for those kind of things.”
“A black hole, you mean.”
“Whatever. No one really cares, anyway. This place will run the way it runs, whether we look at something or not.”
“I don’t know why you’re so bitter, John.”
“Oh, you’ll find out soon enough when I leave and they replace me.”
“If you leave, they’ll give me your job. After all I know everything about the system, the financials, and I’ve hired and trained all of the people in the department. Who could come in and know more? Who would be more qualified?”
“Well, there was a guy here years ago, his name is Gerald. He left here and went to Seimens. Maybe he’d come back......”
“Again, he wouldn’t know as much as me, and why would they hire someone over me? I’ve done everything they’ve asked, and done better than anyone at the job. No offense John, but you understand what I mean.”
“Yeah, I understand. That’s the problem, you don’t. Think about it, you answered your own question in the same statement.”
“What? I know more than......”
“Yep, you don’t make enough mistakes. He’s happy if you make enough mistakes that he can always look better than everyone else. Its the very fact that the president calls you first, and that you know the system inside out, that makes him nervous.”
“Nervous? Why would he be nervous, this is a German firm? They won’t ever replace him with an American, he has the safest job here!”
“Nervous, Tom, because he’ll always be here, and he doesn’t want anyone looking smarter than him!”
“Then what do I do? Look stupid, so that he feels good?”
“No, you can’t do that either. But you can make a few little mistakes that you can have him correct. I’ve done it for years, and Gerald is the one who taught me how to do it. You need to do the financial statements perfectly well for all of the important things, and then leave a glaring mistake somewhere obvious so that when he reviews your work he can say ‘Ah, ha!’ and correct you. Trust me, it works.”
“I’m not sure I can do that, John. It goes against my grain to purposely make a mistake. Its demeaning to him too, if he figures it out.”
“Oh, he won’t. And, he’ll feel better if he knows more. It still won’t stop him from hiring someone in my place, but it’ll buy you time.”
“This is nuts.”
“Not anymore nuts than having a vault full of black market cash, that you can’t count, but have to prove to the auditors that its there - and legitimate!”
“Well, they have a branch of the public accounting firm in
“That poor bastard’s blind!”
“Blind! The auditor is blind? No way!”
“Yes, way. He’s legally blind!”
“I suppose that explains the joke the auditors made last week when they were here......”
“Listen, all you have to do to the auditors is give them a pile of papers to read, enough to stuff into their audit review books, and enough to confuse them. I’ve been here 10 years, and they have yet to send me an auditor who can understand the damn German financial statements. You’re the only one to really understand them. Even Gerald and myself always had to use that one-sided account, or have the computer person delete something from the database, so that the statements would balance. Your own success will hang you, Thomas. Be careful, that's all I am advising.”
"Ok, I’m listening!”
“Now, that's a good boy there!” John said in a sincere way.
“Let me explain a few things Tom. The reason
“I think I understand better now. Things are falling into place, John. The only reason that we’re in the
“Now you are getting it, me boy!” John said with a laugh.
“Basically, money flows where money flows,” Tom concluded. “Wars are almost entirely economic; and are often encouraged to happen to ‘stimulate’ business. There never really has been very tight border controls, where money has been concerned. We only have the perception of sovereignty.”
“Yep, and if a country wants to try to buck the flow......”
“They end up in a messy, expensive, war!”
“Bingo! And everyone said you weren’t so sharp! I’ve always known, Thomas,” John teased him good naturedly.
“Oh I get it, alright. I even get the fact that the last Krupp heir was gay, that's why there weren’t any heirs! His nephew tried to set things straight, pun intended; by making reparations through the foundation. The company sold munitions to both sides during WWII, and had a lot to atone for. But the foundation has become self perpetuating. Whoever is in, is in; and they get to stay in and participate. How else can you explain that Vice-resident who’s so incompetent?”
“His mother is on the Vorstand.”
“I knew it! And the nonprofit status means avoidance of taxes! No wonder they don‘t want lots of income showing up, and they plow everything back into obscure places.”
“Well, Tommy me boy, don’t over stress it. Just let things flow by, and enjoy yourself. Things will be better that way.”
“I’m not so sure I can live like that, John.”
“Those damn principles are going to get you into trouble some day, me boy! Better lose ‘em, before they get too heavy for you to carry.”
“I’ll think about it. Thanks for the advice though.”
“No problem, its my job to bring the young ‘uns along, eh?” John said, with a big grin.
“Yeah, right.... You know, John, they don’t seem like bad people....basically.”
“Well, yes and no. Depends on how you measure good and bad. Its just business, Thomas. Its just business. And the older the company, the deeper it goes. You just have to remember that business rules over just about everything in this world, and that governments bow to it - either openly, or behind the scenes. So what appears on the surface, wellll, is just the surface.”
“Then that means wars don’t have to happen!”
“There you go again, getting all idealistic and everything. Nothing has to happen, Thomas, it just does.”
***************
©Tibet, Lamplight Unto a Darkened World…the American Delusion, a Parody of life ( L'illusion Américaine, une Parodie de Vie); is copyright protected, by author, Patrick Mahoney. Online Internet Reproduction/Propagation/Quotation Encouraged, with this citation. Any Printed reproduction, other than for personal reading, requires written permission by author, patrickm at http://patrickm.gather.com/ or patrick1000000000@yahoo.com
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