Welch made his money by doing what needed to be done which, at the time, was cutting bloated payrolls. And of course that lead to a huge expansion in GE not just from a profit perspective, but to one in terms of number of employees and wages. Which is why GE has added over 100K jobs since Welch took over and while they are one of the largest companies by any measure. And why French supported companies like Bull have gone down the tubes. And why GE wages have grown, 20% AFTER inflation in the Commercial Finance group of GE. Because as history has shown, capitalism works and socialism is a failure.

And depreciation is not meant to measure the cost to replace an asset. It is meant to reflect the cost of an asset as it is actually used over time. It may not be accurate in all cases, but it is not artificial either.

__________________
All you need to know about the energy crisis:
ANWR Exploration Republicans: 91% Supported. Democrats: 86% Opposed.
Coal-to-liquid R's: 90% YES. D's: 78% NO.
Oil Shale Exploration R's: 90% YES. D's: 86% NO.
Outer Continental Shelf Exploration R's: 81% YES. D's: 83% NO.
Increased Refinery Capacity R's: 97% YES. D's: 96% NO

SUMMARY: 91% of House Republicans have historically voted to increase the production of America’s own oil and gas. 86% of House Democrats have historically voted against.