I am constantly faced with perplexed people regarding my views. I am a firm believer in helping our fellow mankind, cry at the atrocities of the world, believe in the impetus behind the Occupy Wall Street movement, but am also a fan of free enterprise, a lover of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, a business person, and a scholar/professor of International Business. What is perplexing to most is that these would seem to be ideals that are diametrically opposed to one another, but that is exactly what I feel is wrong with our society. We have taken sides.

There was a time when corporate America wasn’t a dirty word. When companies took care of their people, paid a fair wage, and provided life’s necessities like health care and pensions. In return, as a people, we were productive. We strove to do our very best, we were loyal to our employers, and WE created the greatest economic super power of the 20th century. Somewhere along this path greed took over, and that is when we started taking sides.

In Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, the catch phrase was “who is John Gault?” This confuses many, but it is simple really. It is a euphemism for “I just don’t care anymore.” “I am so beaten down so why bother.” The anti- business side of the country sees the Rand philosophies as anti-people, anti-worker. The pro-business side of the country sees it as hailing big business and castigating the lazy worker, unions, and all of the entities “they” feel have destroyed our way of life.

My answer to this argument is why people are perplexed by me. Everyone is missing the point!! The point the book is making is that it is not government that will save us, and it is not corporate greed either! What will save us holds even more true today than when the book was written. The book itself was prophetic in what it foretold of the decline in American society AND business. It’s message is clear. It is up to all of us to work together on this. Stop pointing fingers at one another and get it done. The American way!!

So, with this in mind I want to highlight one of my favorite companies; Starbucks. Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, has this to say:

” I believe life is a series of near misses. A lot of what we ascribe to luck is not luck at all. It’s seizing the day and accepting responsibility for your future. It’s seeing what other people don’t see And pursuing that vision.”

More importantly he has backed up his words. A few months ago he began producing and selling $5 bracelets in his stores, and online, with the idea that it is the responsibility of corporate America to help bring this country back. What a novel idea? Someone taking responsibility? How un-American???!!! NO. That is exactly what we are made of. THAT is MY America. The one I was always so proud of. Mr. Schultz is following the same principles as corporate giants Dagny Taggart and Hank Reardon from Atlas Shrugged.

The moral to this story is that we need to stop running around saying “who is John Gault?”, and get out there and change things. So, YES I support the Occupy Wall Street movement, and YES I support corporate giants like Howard Schultz. There is no confusion or dichotomy in my thinking. I am not all “left” or all “right.” I am for America, and our people, and hard work, and productivity, and working together, and helping one another. OUT with the corporate greed of the 80s and 90s and first decade of the 21st century. Let’s get back to working together. Time for corporations to treat their people right, and for loyalty to be given in return. It is a two way street.

What is the meaning of the title Atlas Shrugged? Atlas was us, America during and post WWII, and at some point we threw our hands up in the air and said “I just don’t care anymore.” Start caring or fail.

Anybody read the short story in the news from Monday night about a little girl on Facebook that posted about knowing she might die that night? You probably missed it or if you did read it you shook your head, sighed, and moved on to the next story before your coffee got cold. She hasn’t died…yet, but here is the short version.

Her mother, unemployed and destitute, with two young children tried in vain to get food stamps. She wasn’t asking for billions of dollars in financial bailouts or free money to support a drug habit. She was asking for food stamps, to which she was legally entitled to feed her children. The system, in four states, let her down. She had moved to Texas, and in one final attempt had found rejection once again so she took her children, barefoot and hungry down to Health and Human Services. This time, however, she brought backup. A loaded gun.

Rachelle Grimmer, 38, and her two children stood in the office while she pointed a gun after being refused one more time because of red tape. A spokeswoman for the department stated that Grimmer hadn’t been rejected. “She had just received a notice that her case was closed, since she did not provide all of the necessary documentation during the department’s 30-day time frame and that she absolutely could have applied again.”  After a five hour standoff Rachelle shot her two children and then herself. She died at the scene, and her children are in critical condition. Earlier in the standoff little Ramie Marie, 12, had posted to Facebook at an office computer “may die 2day.”

She missed the 30 day deadline. Rules are rules. That is departmental policy. Of course she could have applied again the spokeswoman compassionately reminded reporters, and she was right. Those are the rules. We are a capitalist society. Suck it up. Follow the rules. Every man for himself, and that applies to all of us. Oh, wait. Not ALL of us. Only the poor, the troubled, the weak.  When the weak animals are captured and killed in Africa it is called culling the herd because it has gotten so big and out of control. I suppose that is just what we are doing too.

FOOD! A basic necessity. A loaf of bread, and cup of water. Shoes on their little feet. Are we not better than this?! What has become of our society that people from HEALTH and HUMAN SERVICES refuse to provide the very service they are tasked with giving. To drive a desperate mother to murder/suicide all because rules were not followed to the letter? Perhaps she was too hungry or had no way to get to the office or a myriad of other issues. These were starving children, and NO ONE cared! She could have applied again the spokeswoman cried. Really?! Seriously?! And what were her starving children supposed to do until the paperwork got put through and her food stamps were issued?

What have we become?! Where did we go wrong?! Our founding father’s are turning in their graves at the state of the state. My brother, who fought for our freedom and way of life is turning in his grave. Where is our “hope” Mr. President? I voted for you. I believed in you. Where is our “compassion” for fellow man Congress? WHY are people falling through the cracks, children starving, people desperate with fear?

The banks are fat and happy, and America is dying. My America. The one I have cherished all my life. I am disgusted! I am angry! I am sick and tired of being sick and tired of the way things are done here! I am sick of the top 1% of my America deciding what the rest of us have to “live” with. THIS is NOT MY America, and I don’t want her anymore if she is like this. We either stand up and fight or we die trying.

The long wait is over. The headlines read..”Obama gets Osama,” but what does it all really mean? For many Americans it means vindication, validation, closure, or even justice. In fact, the President himself declared that justice was done. For many more, living in far reaching lands like the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Middle East, it means something quite different. In fact, it means little.

We feel good because the head of the cockroach called Al Qaeda has been cut off, but as any entomologist will confirm, a cockroach can thrive for weeks without it’s own head. And so it goes with this growing organism of hate and terror. Yes…Osama bin Laden is dead, but Al Qaeda is not, and there are millions in the wings waiting to avenge his death. The truth is, no single human being can be blamed or held accountable for all the evil happening in the name of some misguided set of beliefs any more than we can credit President Obama with single handedly ending the war on terror.

Good versus evil will exist as long as mankind inhabits this planet. There will be times of apparent peace, but conflict will always exist. The death of bin Laden will not end Islamic fundamentalism and terror any more than the death of Hitler ended attacks against Jews across the globe or the death of Habyarimana stopped Hutus and Tutsis from slaughtering each other in Rwanda.  These are figure heads that get the crowd going with their charisma, but it is the festering hate within us all that leads us to believe right versus wrong is always on our own side. Perhaps the celebrating going on across the country over the killing of bin Laden is justified, but let us remember that as we celebrate, those that despise us mourn much as we did on that fateful warm September day in 2001.

At times in life we are faced with insurmountable ethical dilemmas, and it is a test of our character as to how we proceed. There are many varieties of quandary, but all come with a question, a choice of solutions, and a consequence. Whatever road we take, we must decide on the course individually for no one can make that call for us, and in the end we will have to live with our actions. Ethics, in and of itself, can be a question of legal or illegal behavior, but most often it is a judgement call on values. Unfortunately values are also not universal. What one may see  as the right thing to do others will see as a flaw in one’s character.

A few days ago a good friend related how he refused, as a marine in the gulf war, to shoot another human being. Admirable to say the least, but perhaps an easier decision in light of the fact he was not being shot at himself.  Would he have felt the same way if a gun was pointed at him, or a fellow soldier? Yet another friend told me of a time when she was faced with doing the right thing or walking away. Walking away could mean letting someone else taking the blame and suffering a damaged concience, while doing the right thing could mean accepting responsibility and paying a hefty price, but keeping her integrity.

Again, the difficult part is that too often ethical decision making is inherently flawed at best. One person’s set of values may not connect with the majority and vice versa. Is it right to use an excuse of ethics when it suits one’s own agenda? Or is it permissible in our world of eat or be eaten? At times the right thing to do for one’s self preservation may destroy another, and while that person may deserve to be called out it is no less a difficult decision to make.

Perhaps Shakespeare said it best: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” ~MacBeth, Act1, Sc. 1. Hurt or be hurt.

One of my favorite places in the world is in deep turmoil. On the outside, for the last thirty years there has been stability in Egypt. There has been a successful encouragement of tourism, moderate religious behavior, a beacon of peace in the region, and for the most part safety. Of course, however, we are not looking from the inside.

The people have begun to revolt in what seemed to come out of left field for most experts and pundits. Crowds began filling Tharir Square in a peaceful protest against the Mubarak regime, and until pro government protesters appeared there was little violence. All said, the protests have gone very well, and even the hard-line Muslim Brotherhood has been a very small part of the scene. What are they asking for? Democracy. And as Americans we always get behind people protesting for Democracy. We want people to have what we have, but the warning is out to both Egyptians and Americans. Our form of Democracy was hard won and is long standing, but is also part of our basic make-up. We have been well steeped in democracy for over 230 years, and we know the ropes in keeping democracy strong. But, let the warnings now be heard for both Egyptians and Americans. Beware of what you wish for…

Fighting for democracy is what we as Americans value almost above all else for the people of the rest of the world, and we stand beside you in your fight for self rule. What people too often forget, however, is history. The rocky road of democracy in the world is something we should not forget. We must remember how many theocracies, dictators, and otherwise frightening regimes were elected via democratic processes. The list is long.

Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany. Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe was elected democratically. Hugo Chavez of Venezuela was elected democratically. And we all know what happened in Iran after an overthrowing of the Shah by pro democracy protesters. Yes, democracy is a good thing, but only when it operates in a lateral fashion and not in a typical top down fashion as most do. The history books are full of oppressed people demanding democracy only to end up with a dictator destroying their lives and the country they love.

So the lesson here for Egypt is to tread lightly. We applaud your desire for democracy, but be careful not to put all your faith in a single person to lead you into utopia. Democracy is not easy. By its very nature it is subject to the dangers of “electing” the devious, power hungry, and self serving. Let us not forget Lord Acton’s prophetic words from 1887 “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” So do not walk away from the fight thinking you have won and the party can begin. NOW is when the real work begins or you will send your historic nation into the abyss.

I have been fairly silent for a while. Watching and waiting to see how we would pull ourselves out of the financial mess we now find ourselves mired in. I am no closer to any great insight, but I find myself more and more astonished at just how low we have sunk as a society.

Toyota. A once powerful symbol of automotive quality. A beacon of corporate responsibility, and the go to vehicle for those looking for value, quality, longevity, and safety. That is… until now.

Every company makes mistakes, but it is how mistakes are handled that make a difference. So what makes Toyota’s debacle different? Well, there are a few things. first of all there is now evidence coming out that they were complicit in the deceit. “Documents released Sunday show Toyota officials basked in their success in lobbying federal safety officials in 2007 to limit a recall tied to sudden-acceleration complaints to just 55,000 vehicles, saving the company $100 million, according to an internal document obtained by a congressional committee” (WSJ, 2010). They even consistently blamed the floor mats, while allegedly being quite aware the problem was mechanical. According to the Wall Street Journal (2010) “the company blamed incidents on all-weather floor mats, instead of a potentially more costly defect with the car itself.”

This deceit in favor of profit is bad enough, but it goes much, much deeper.

In June of 2006 a man coming home from church with his family, driving a Toyota Camry, slammed into another car killing the family inside. He was going speeds somewhere between 70 and 90 miles per hour at the time of the accident. He was arrested and convicted by a jury of his peers of vehicular manslaughter despite not being under the influence of any substance whatsoever. His sentence? 8 years of which 4 have already been served. The family of the victims are in pain, and will never get their loved ones back. The driver, Mr. Lee, a Laotian refugee that came to this country for a better life and a system he believed to be just, never saw the birth of his child or spent an hour with this child in its first four years of impressionable life. Justice was served, and the American flag flew high. But this tragic story does not end here.

Mr. Lee consistently maintained that the accelerator pedal stuck and sped the car up while the brakes failed. Of course he was not to be believed. The jury of his peers had never heard of such a thing happening, and Toyota said nothing despite numerous complaints about the same 1996 Camry model Lee was driving . According to ABC News, the judge admonished the convicted man of not even showing an ounce of remorse.

The case is now being reopened, and even the victim’s family is fighting for Mr. Lee, but where is Toyota? Of course they are now concerned about lawsuits, and must have been similarly concerned in 2006. That is understandable, but let us open our eyes people! In favor of corporate profits Toyota “allegedly” stood by and watched an innocent man be sent to prison and countless other be killed or maimed.

So, how far does corporate greed go? As the truth comes out, it appears pretty far. I may not be able to do much more than spread the word via my blog and my classroom, but I want to set an example. Although I have never owned a Toyota, for the rest of my life I never will. That is how I can make a stand. How about you?

References

Linebaugh, K. & Mitchell, J. (Feb 22, 2010). Houese panel slams toyota. Wall Street Journal.   http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704454304575081363213478420.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories

Rhee, J. & Ross, B. (Feb 22, 2010). New evidence of runaway toyotas may help imprisoned camry owner. ABC News.                      http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/RunawayToyotas/toyota-acceleration-problems-new-evidence-                       imprisoned-minnesota-toyota-camry-owner/story?id=9903455&page=1

If you only read U.S. news sources you may have most likely missed the hard to find blurb on two executions that took place today. That is because they took place in China, and they were not child killers, serial killers or mass murderers of any kind; sort of. I do; however, want to make an example of these two gentlemen.

Their names are Zhang Yujun and Geng Jinping. No doubt you cannot pronounce the names, but I ask you to remember them. Now, before you get ready to stand on your moral high ground let’s take a look at what they did.

They were businessmen, and by fortune found themselves in the middle of China’s economic revolution running full steam ahead to a  mixed economy (market economy for those of you that only read western news sources). They each were involved in the milk trade; Jinping managed a milk production center while Yujun was a manufacturer. A lucrative business for an economically thriving society. So what went wrong?

These two businessmen, in a heightened sense of greed amidst a burgeoning “market”* economy, found a way to make their product appear more desirable to a consumer hungry nation. They manufactured, marketed, and sold what they called a protein powder, and they put this powder into the milk supply. This protein powder was actually made from melamine and maltodextrin. Melamine gives a false reading of high protein, but it is a toxic chemical that in higher doses can cause renal failure, and so it did. Six children died and almost 300,000 other people fell ill in varying degrees.

Wow, a bad business decision; an error in judgement; a greed driven parable that finds otherwise good people trying to keep up with the Jones’ or in this case the Li’s perhaps. It is nothing more than the antics U.S. business people find themselves doing, and we don’t execute people for that. Heck, if we did we would have to put half of Wall Street in front of a firing squad. Not to mention the leaders of places like Boeing, PG&E and hundreds of others. Medical insurance company heads alone would be quaking in their boots. Pharmaceutical CEOs would be heading for the border. Isn’t it great that we are so civilized?

Now let me knock you off your principled pedestal. The Chinese defense lawyers blamed the government for not paying attention. To quote one, “it’s the food supervision and inspection authorities that are responsible for this.” It was inferred that the greedy client was not to be blamed, despite knowing the harm it would cause, because it is someone else’s responsibility to catch them. This sounds a little familiar to me. Our own banking industry championed the same exact reasoning!! That’s strange.

Now, our Wall Street and former White House cronies didn’t kill six children, at least not directly. But, can we not indirectly blame them for hundreds of people that have taken their lives, thousands that are on the streets, and millions out of work? China makes an example of this type of crime.  An eye for an eye. Sure we could do this too, but don’t worry guys because we don’t execute our white collar criminals even if their actions are a catalyst. We are better than that. We reward them with bailouts and bonuses.

Don’t you just love capitalism?

*Although the west claims China is becoming a market economy, the most they can hope to achieve is a mixed economy. While maintaining a Communist government, a free market economy is not possible. China themselves only state their desire to be a mixed and not a market economy.

I am a week or so behind on  my comments regarding Wall Street’s  acquisition of N1H1 vaccines, but that is partially because I am so disgusted at the in our faces display of our society’s failings that I have been stumped for words. Earlier this month it was revealed that some Wall Street institutions like Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and others received doses of the vaccine to give to their employees. Now, all large companies request them, but they received them. As we all know, there are simply not enough vaccines to go around, and adding insult to injury people are dying of this flu that could reach pandemic levels.

Currently the vaccine is for those at the highest risk. So, what makes Goldman Sachs employees high risk? Nothing. What makes them more special than our hospitals? Nothing. Why should they have a better chance at health than others that are in immediate peril? They shouldn’t. In fact, they should be the lowest risk group in the country if we want to be fair, but a plutocracy is not fair. There is that word again. It just keeps popping up. First they stole from our economy, then our taxpayers, and now from our very well being and survival. You may even agree with me, but you are probably still saying to yourself “it doesn’t have anything to do with me.” May I remind you of a piece written by Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemolle for a speech he gave in 1946.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn’t a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

I am not equating Nazi Germany with what is happening here in any way, but we simply cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the destruction of America by out of control big business. This nation is rich in its history of innovation, corporate social responsibility, and the best there is when it comes to taking care of our fellow mankind. Ask yourselves what is happening, and how much more can we take before we demand something is done?

Anyone that doubts we are a plutocracy must look at this as another example. Please, I beg someone to take the opposing side to this argument and prove me wrong. Can’t, can you?

It is fairly plain to see that the $700 billion stimulus has not worked. At least not so far, and in light of the planned executive bonuses there is a fair chance we can take that statement to the bank. This is good in that at least we have something to take to the bank considering all they are taking from us, but I digress.

As an economist, I take this seriously. I realize the government is trying anything to get the economy back on track, but seriously folks in D.C. Did you really think that money would find its way down from Wall Street to Main street? A trickle down theory of economics is good, and has at times been successful; however, not when greed and corruption are rampant. This is where my common sense becomes inflamed. The government knew very well that corruption had caused the banks to crumble. Why then would they pour $700 BILLION into a corrupt institution?

Did we need a stimulus? Yes. Do we still need a stimulus? Yes, because main street is still suffering. Unemployment is quickly approaching 16% in places like Michigan, but even in California it is continuously creeping up. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics it rose again to over 12% in September. In fact, that is only “registered” unemployment and not actual figures. It does not account for those that are underemployed or are not eligible for unemployment compensation such as the formerly self employed. If we counted those workers the numbers would more than likely approach  at least the 20% – 25% level. As of the latest September statistics, long term unemployment (those unemployed more than 27 weeks) rose to 5.4 million people. Does this sound like a recovery? Does this resemble a successful stimulus?

Although I was not a fan of the previous administration, I am also one to give credit where credit is due. The decision to give a stimulus to the people, in the form  of a $600.00 check, was a step in the right direction. It was designed to “stimulate” consumer spending, but it did not do the trick and was therefore deemed a failure. That was also part of the design. The administration needed to be able to point to a failure of the trickle up theory of economics. The failure was in the fact that the amount was ridiculous. If anyone thought that $600 in a person’s hand was going to do anything but pay a bill or two they were sadly mistaken. Very few people ran out and went on a shopping spree with a paltry $600, and thus consumer spending continued to drop. See, trickle up doesn’t work so let’s try trickle down and give big business billions said the guys in charge. Whew, aren’t we glad they tried? Don’t we feel better now?

Why not try this President Obama? How about taking the beginning amount of $700 billion and divide it by the 250 million adults in the U.S.? MAYBE, even add another $700 billion to the mix, which is probably closer to the amount that will actually end up being poured into our failing economy. Divide all of that by 250 million adults and watch how they spend their $5,600 windfall. Yes, people will pay down a bit of their debt like they did with the $600, but they will definitely go out and spend some of that much larger check. How do I know this? Because it is human nature. Sociology 101 for a consumer nation, and especially with the holidays right around the corner.

Trickle down did not work. What do you say we give trickle up a “real” try, and watch our economy start to right itself with a genuine stimulus?!

BLS (Oct. 21, 2009), Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary. Retrieved Oct. 23 from

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm

The new film by Michael Moore, Capitalism, A Love Story, did not really say anything different from what I  have been talking about for many years now. While I am not necessarily always a fan of his tactics, he does have some very insightful things to say. Capitalism is failing.

For almost a year now we have been hearing Wall Street wail as loud as they can for help so we bailed them out despite the knowledge that they created the disaster themselves by virtue of unethical business practices and greed. The idea was such that pouring taxpayer money into badly managed, unethical, parasitic banking institutions would save the economy, our beloved free market system, and give them more money to loan. The trickle down theory of economics in practice, but it is not trickling down and never will. Therein lies obvious as well as less apparent problems.

By the very definition of capitalism and free market economy it is survival of the fittest. This is what Wall Street has been espousing far longer than I am alive.  But wait! Apparently that does not apply to Wall Street itself, and the rest of us never got the memo. If it did apply they would have insisted that inferior institutions be allowed to fall in order to make way for the stronger ones, but they didn’t. All of a sudden they had their hands out with fear mongering speeches decrying the end of America. The best part is that we the American public, and our government, all drank the Kool-Aid. We buy into fear. It unites us. It gets us to agree to things that we later scratch our collective heads in wonderment over. If the previous eight years can be pointed to as an example it is not surprising we find ourselves in a similar position today, and those that reap the rewards stand laughing.

Just a few days ago I ended up in a conversation with an otherwise intelligent man that begged me to understand that the United States financial system was hours away from “Armageddon.” Armageddon?! Does this not wreak of familiar pulpit driven tactics to control the masses from thoughts of upheaval? Of course, the moment he began spouting his vitriol I correctly guessed that he was an investment banker by trade.What was there to understand? Where is their free market, capitalist model now? I do not see small business being bailed out, and small business employs the bulk of Americans. Small businesses are failing at record rates because of the mess that Wall Street created.

I am not saying I disagree with a free market system, but left unchecked as it has been since WWII it is doomed to self destruct. The fact that our economy has been in free fall has not been remotely solved by the big bailout, but why? That is what they promised after all. The answer is simple. Our form of capitalism breeds greed. We can look back to Lord Acton’s famous quote; “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” This is why my recent debate opponent sees nothing wrong with the bailout or the huge sums being given out as bonuses to the very people that did a poor job to begin with. It is not that he is a “bad man” as Lord Acton would suggest, but he is employed by some. If the rest of us had driven our companies into the ground we would surely not be given bonuses.

This folks is capitalism, but it is not democracy. They are mutually exclusive from one another despite what we are too often told. It is not democracy it is plutocracy, which is the form of government rampant, unchecked capitalism is best suited for. By definition plutocracy is “government by the wealthy.” Sound familiar?