"A Start-up Or Re-start" [Reflections on Book Theory of Business Enterprise Thorstein Veblin, Chap. 5-6]

To start a Co. (restart once it has crashed)
Look to “Goodwill” – though that’s not what was passed
To me as how one generates a Co.
From those gurus of business that I know.

I doubt they think in those terms – “It’s a plug
To make the banks, accountants chug-a-lug
Their cocktails knowing all in balance is –
A sign of health – the essence of good biz –

Not “Goodwill” – heavens no! A balanced life
Is what to strive for – no disruptive strife;
So myth about the goodwill plug survives,
While obfuscating truth is what now thrives.

For goodwill is the engine of a Co.
It’s health and welfare owners seek to know;
“Presumed capacity to make a buck
In future” – common shares from that teat suck.

Debentures, loans, preferred shares, all relate
To assets fixed – their value has to wait
’Till enterprise wraps up – they take their place
In line for their residual – each case –

Dictated by their pecking-order ways
But that’s not business – common share’s what pays
Rich dividend in payouts, value’s rise
And fall is mind-game fed by tales of spies.

So common-shares relate to goodwill part,
Defined at start up by elusive mark
That’s given to the integrated whole
For how folks feel re: odds they’ll reach some goal.

It’s not about the goods or service part;
It’s not about affairs of tender heart;
It’s all about tomorrow’s chance today
That enterprise will generate some pay.

So auctioned-value of each enterprise
Can change each moment right before our eyes;
With shifting odds as places come and go
Folks leap from ice to ice in bay of flows.

Thanks Lord for this.

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