Dear Mr. Buckley,
It has come to my attention that you recently blasted President Obama as “anti-business,” in the Financial Times, adding that his policies are “Robin Hood-esque” while threatening to move 3M manufacturing to either Canada or Mexico, which you deem to be “more pro-business” than America.
I thought you must have been referring to some powerful anti-business sentiment expressed in private conversation with President Obama, which would be strongly out of character for this President. Turns out, you were referring to the general business landscape that we are all aware of. That makes you a liar, a ham-fisted extortionist and--yes--a traitor.
This goes as much for like-minded executives elsewhere as it does for you: Leave.
When you do I pray we slam the door shut behind you. I will support this and every other President after if they enact some protectionist trade policy to prevent the sale of your goods in the United States. I will support them if they choose not to acknowledge any patents you hold. Good luck accessing the U.S. legal system to sort these kinds of misunderstandings out. Just ask the folks languishing to Guantánamo Bay how easy it is to participate in American jurisprudence when Americans believe you mean the U.S. harm.
You fool no one with this disingenuous effort to extract more concessions for both personal gain and the gain of your shareholders, not satisfied to be invested in a entity that has withstood the shock of a global market nearly annihilated by the desire for excessive profit—facts be damned.
We know you see in the United States a country badly weakened by having to cover for the gross misconduct of large banking institutions. We know you see that we are staggering backwards with 10% official unemployment while you and others extract every scintilla of productivity out of fewer American workers and flat line or gouge their compensation. We know you see Americans hamstringing progress and cannibalizing our common interests to look like a strong and sound investment. We know you know that our self-governing authority is severely undermined by Citizens United. And we know you see in those things a ripe opportunity to corner President Obama and demand utter fealty the cause of business executives and shareholders alone or you will let the U.S. have it--right between the eyes.
All things considered, I regard this as treason. The sooner you leave the better off America will be in the long run.
You are not manufacturing anything that American ingenuity cannot recreate or do an end-run around. Nobody is.
I hope we even nationalize the effort to replace your wares. It can serve as a reminder to future Americans: Here once stood presumptuous traitors, who for a few dollars more in their pockets would have destroyed a super-power democracy. Now, the products made in their place directly benefit every single American that didn’t see in our misery an opportunity to make it worse for the worst off, who instead stuck around to nurse wounds and help the U.S. to its feet to stand tall among her competitors and retain her dignity as a self-governed country.
So, go. Get out. Take everyone who thinks this is appropriate behavior for an American executive with you. Get on a plane today, fly away, and don’t ever come back.
Sincerely,
Kimberley
For a more civil and realistic criticism of this latest offense by fatuous, self-absorbed American CEOs, read Digby's Big Blubbering Babies, at Hullabaloo.
Updated by Kimberley at Tue Mar 1, 2011, 03:28:59 PM
Magnifico has provided us with important perspective on 3M in the comments, here and here, including this from a February 2008 StarTribune article on 3M's global growth:
Citing the growing importance of the rest of the world to 3M, CEO George Buckley said during last week's earnings conference call that "3M is, in fact, a broad-based international company that seems to be masquerading as a U.S. company."
...
3M is pumping millions into new factories, research and technology centers in Brazil, Russia, India, China and Poland and planting seeds for future growth in Turkey, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine…
Updated by Kimberley at Tue Mar 1, 2011, 07:22:34 PM
Please excuse my tardy acknowledgment of Erik the Red's correction: George Berkley is Scottish.
Thus, Berkley cannot be a traitor in the strictest sense.
But he is still a whiny creep--Scot or no.