Employees and workers were not able to develop a strong economic identity with their enterprises since the economic performance of the enterprise had little effect on the individual's economic gains or losses. This was one of the reasons for the general lack of work incentive in Chinese enterprises under Mao and to a large extent remains the case today.[17][page needed] Scholars argue that "The crux of the issue of workers' incentives lay with the state-oriented ethos rather than the practice of lifetime employment".[17]