It's becoming more and more difficult to support capitalism, or at least the current flavor of capitalism existing in America today. I have never really been a fan of what I call "Corporate Capitalism", the idea that big business is always good for us and whatever they want or need is what we must give them. Perhaps if they were better corporate citizens I might take a more favorable stance towards them, but given recent news over CEO pay and executive pensions I simply am disgusted. Consider the following two pieces of information:
An article recently ran in our local paper (see Yahoo!News here) stating that on average, CEOs earn 262 times the average worker's salary (CEOs about $11 million, average worker about $42,000). And if you look at the various different articles on this same topic, you will find that it seems what they actually did at the company made no difference. You can drive your company into the ground and STILL make more in a day than the average worker makes in a year. Back in the 1960s the multiple was closer to 24 or 25... have CEOs improved ten-fold over that period in time? As hourly wages are frozen or barely keeping up with inflation, the top tier take home more and more. Now not all companies are like this (consider Whole Foods which caps CEO pay at 14 times the average employee's pay, plus stock options), but enough are that I am surprised stock holders do not rise up and in a fit of disgust sell out everything they have (and given the current market, bonds might be a better short-term deal). I dunno, perhaps it was a fact of growing up poor and believing that hard work will be valued that I find myself in disbelief when I see such reports on compensation.
The second article is from the Wall Street Journal (23-June-2006) titled "Hidden Burden: As Workers' Pensions Wither, Those for Executives Flourish" (you can find a summarized version here. All you hear today is how employee pensions are a drag to business and must be jettisoned for many companies to survive. One quote from GM: "Our extensive pension and [post-employment] obligations to retirees are a competitive disadvantage for us". But the Journal, after looking at the reported numbers, states "The pension plans for its rank-and-file U.S. workers are overstuffed with cash, containing about $9 billion more than is needed to meet their obligations for years to come." At the same time, the pension obligations for executives are a liability to the company of $1.4 billion! And Lucent's employee pension actually brings in money to the company (over half of its profit comes from revenue from the employee pension). Disgusting! If you have the time, track down a copy and read it... but take your blood pressure medicine first.
I'll write more about this later, but right now I am so angry I can't see straight.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Wisdom From Lord of the Rings
The skill of the Elves can reforge the sword of Elendil – but only you can wield it.
– Elrond, to Aragorn
It's difficult not to find things that make you stop and think in The Lord of the Rings but this morning that line hit me out of left field. I was fortunate enough to work from home today and when I do I like to put something in the VCR to help break the silence. I had intended to watch the second disk of The Two Tours but what got popped in was the second disk to Fellowship of the Ring and my random button pushing stopped it right on that line. Suddenly I was hit with implications of what Elrond was telling Aragorn, and not just in Professor Tolkien's wonderful world of Middle Earth! Just as that choice was put before Aragorn it is put in front of each and every one of us today. Consider the following: Society can help create opportunities, but they cannot really make us take those opportunities and make something of them. We have to be active. The elves could repair the sword (heck, they made the sword), but they could not fight the battles that were not theirs to fight. Government can allocate all the money it wants and create as many quotas it wants, but unless those qualified take the opportunities granted to them and make something of them it comes to naught. You cannot make people go to college, succeed at studies, take certain jobs, and be successful in life unless they actually have some desire to do so. If you try to force them, or create artifical environments in which they work (that is, make the wrong weapon... not the needed "sword of Elendil", but the "salad fork of Martha Stewart", both useful but not interchangable), they will fail at their task. Not only will they fail, but they will more likely than not screw it up for those coming behind them (after all, if you went into battle who would you want to follow, someone with a sword or someone with a salad fork?). People can do things to help me, social organizations and even occasionally government can help create situations for me, it is up to me (or you in your case) to grab the pommel, to take the sword and use it as it was meant to be used.
– Elrond, to Aragorn
It's difficult not to find things that make you stop and think in The Lord of the Rings but this morning that line hit me out of left field. I was fortunate enough to work from home today and when I do I like to put something in the VCR to help break the silence. I had intended to watch the second disk of The Two Tours but what got popped in was the second disk to Fellowship of the Ring and my random button pushing stopped it right on that line. Suddenly I was hit with implications of what Elrond was telling Aragorn, and not just in Professor Tolkien's wonderful world of Middle Earth! Just as that choice was put before Aragorn it is put in front of each and every one of us today. Consider the following: Society can help create opportunities, but they cannot really make us take those opportunities and make something of them. We have to be active. The elves could repair the sword (heck, they made the sword), but they could not fight the battles that were not theirs to fight. Government can allocate all the money it wants and create as many quotas it wants, but unless those qualified take the opportunities granted to them and make something of them it comes to naught. You cannot make people go to college, succeed at studies, take certain jobs, and be successful in life unless they actually have some desire to do so. If you try to force them, or create artifical environments in which they work (that is, make the wrong weapon... not the needed "sword of Elendil", but the "salad fork of Martha Stewart", both useful but not interchangable), they will fail at their task. Not only will they fail, but they will more likely than not screw it up for those coming behind them (after all, if you went into battle who would you want to follow, someone with a sword or someone with a salad fork?). People can do things to help me, social organizations and even occasionally government can help create situations for me, it is up to me (or you in your case) to grab the pommel, to take the sword and use it as it was meant to be used.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Truth Hurts
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I'm a Christian and a conservative (and let's complete it, I am a conservative Christian), but I have gotten so disgusted with Republican pandering that I want to run out and join the ACLU in protest! The most difficult thing about this editorial cartoon is that it really is an accurate portrayal of what is happening today with our Republican "representation". Rather than deal with many of the hard issues of the day they would rather do things such as hold silly votes over the definition of marriage (which is a local issue last time I checked). Our students are being dumbed down by our educational system, we have government failures at all levels during emergencies such as what happened with Katrina, Our deficit is running out of control, people are worried about losing their jobs due to outsourcing, our infrastructure in crumbling, a sizeable percentage of our legal population is without adequate health care, a vast majority of Americans may never get to retire without living in fear, and what do we get? "Our country is threatened by homosexuals being able to marry!" and "Let's make English our national language, sort of, kinda, well, without actually doing anything to make it anything special!" "Let's proclaim smoking bad and slap a big nasty tax on cigarettes!"
I mean really, if you are going to waste our time and our (the taxpayers' monies), at least really DO something. You want to protect the sanctity of marriage? Make divorce illegal! You want English to be the established language, then make language classes required for citizenship and stop publishing documents in 140 different languages. If smoking (or fast food or whatever) is so bad, then make it illegal! Seriously, lawmakers are a joke anymore. There is no longer governance and leadership coming from our seats of power, only politics. But until we the voter population get serious as well, nothing will change. As they say in the re-enactments on television, "The names have been changed", but the stench of the policy remains.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
666 Silliness
What a cool marketing ploy, releasing The Omen on June 6, 2006. Great for movie marketing, but what makes me sad is how many Christians get caught up in such silly ideas as assigning any meaning whatsoever to today's date. And of course the press has just salivating over showing what ignornate rubes we are. While at the gym this morning each television in the aerobics area was showing a different morning "news" program and every single station (four in all) had a segment within minutes of each other talking about the significance Christians applied to 666 (or 06-06-06). Unfortunately they never spoke with me.
So where does this come from? In the book of Revelation we are told:
How much more plain does it have to get? Personally, I think stupidity is the mark of the beast, after all, what better allies can Satan have than people who proclaim the name of Christ yet can't even interpret the plain teachings of texts like this one, discrediting those of us who struggle against such popular perceptions.
So where does this come from? In the book of Revelation we are told:
- He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666" (Rev. 13:16-18)
How much more plain does it have to get? Personally, I think stupidity is the mark of the beast, after all, what better allies can Satan have than people who proclaim the name of Christ yet can't even interpret the plain teachings of texts like this one, discrediting those of us who struggle against such popular perceptions.
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