Corp Reform - Not Tort Reform

Ramblings and Reflections

Well, it's December 24th. Christmas is just hours away. And after watching television, listening to the radio, and reading my e-mails, I believe figured out the new meaning of Christmas: BUY! BUY! BUY! BUY!

Over the past year, I've become a bit more cynical about the world, and politics. I've come to believe that Deep Throat was right when he said, "Follow the money." After all, money seems to change everything. For example, we've had a Medicare bill pushed down our throats that does little more than put around $300 billion in profits in the pharmaceutical industry's pockets. I'm forced to wonder how many of those billions will go towards lobbying for immunity from liability when drugs cause heart problems, diabetes, impotence, death, and the many other side effects that some people have had to live with.

I've gotten to see Proposition 12 pass in Texas, which allows the Texas State Legislature to put caps on the amount of money an injured person can recover against any entity for any violation. Medical malpractice lawsuits are the first to feel the pain. This is because it's an easy sell: People like doctors, and people don't like lawyers. People especially don't like the thought of lawyers suing doctors so often that doctors are forced to leave the state. In actuality, of course, this isn't happening - but it sounds good. So, capping medical malpractice lawsuits is the beginning of the slippery slope to cap lawsuits against all of the major lobbying groups. My prediction is that bad faith lawsuits against insurance companies will be the next area to see legislative caps. This will probably be followed by capping lawsuits against the transportation industry; trucking companies, airlines, etc. Perhaps they'll trot out the disgusting example of one prominent Houston attorney who flew in his private jet to the scene of a plane crash and proceeded to try and sign up survivors and the families of those who were killed. Now, I believe people have a right to representation and all, but that lawyer did go over the line. But, the system works - he was disciplined by the state bar.

I've become more cynical about human nature not because I think the past few years have shown a decay in our moral fiber, but because the last few thousand years have. I'm a big fan of world history, and if there's one pattern I see repeating over and over again, it's this: A group comes into power. That group tries to enrich themselves and all of their friends, while simultaneously preventing a rival group from attaining any share of power, and any significant amount of wealth. Money, it seems, makes the world go around.

Casear was one of the first strategists to use a divide and conquer technique against his enemies. Modern day Republicans have picked up on this and have used it well. Notice how almost every rabid single-issue voter group is dominated by Republicans? The pro-life group is a good example: it seems patently obvious to me that many of the Republican candidates that prattle on about the evils of abortion don't really care about the cause, but care only about the votes that come with opposing it.

What amazes me is the sharp contrast between the organizational abilities of the Republicans compared with the Democrats. Republicans have aligned with, and gotten into the White House, a man who was probably not the most intellectually gifted Republican candidate. But, they got behind him and refrained from infighting that hurt the whole group. Democrats, on the other hand, fight with each other instead of taking on the Repuplicans. Take that as a Howard Dean reference if you want. For the record, I think John Edwards is a better candidate. And for the record, I think the sickness in American politics won't be healed until there's a viable third-party.

In closing, I'll leave you with a quote from Cicero. Cicero said, "Nihil tam munitum quod non expugnari pecunia possit."

That's Latin for, "No fortification is such that it cannot be subdued with money."

AOL Breaches the Social Contract, Too.

Sadly, this article doesn't surprise me. AOL is getting ready to ship jobs overseas, and media-darling Google is, too. Here's a disturbing excerpt:

Gartner predicted that one out of every 10 jobs at U.S. information technology companies will be shuttled abroad by the end of next year. IDC recently estimated that by 2007, 23 percent of all IT services jobs will be offshore, up from 5 percent this year. The figures refer to IT work done for U.S.-based companies.

Cost cutting is the most commonly cited reason for this practice. Hewlett-Packard has pegged the cost of a talented programmer in India at about $20,000 a year, well below the cost of a top U.S. tech worker. Companies also face facilities costs and the expense of managing offshore work, offsetting the impact on the bottom line. The total savings from hiring an IT service provider to perform foreign work may be as high as 40 percent to 50 percent, IDC analyst Ned May said.

Good to know that companies like AOL and HP will be laying off the workers that made them successful. I think Steve Case and Carly Fiorina should be replaced with CEO's in India who'll work for $20k a year.

I'm OK with banks.

I nearly had a heart attack when I checked my BofA account balance and saw they credited my account with the $150.00 in overdraft fees caused by FreeCreditReport.com's unauthorized charge to my account. I had a similar situation a few years ago, and my bank refused to credit my account with the unauthorized charge, and also refused to refund the overdraft charges.

Maybe it's because BofA got the Christmas spirit. Perhaps it's because I have a "Gold" account with them now. Whatever the case, all is well in my world with my bank. This is how it's supposed to be.

I feel lukewarm about banks

As an update to my "I hate banks" post, I checked online, and BofA has credited my account with the $79.95 that FreeCreditReport.com charged without authorization.

Last time I disputed anything about a debit charge, the bank basically told me there was nothing they could do, and didn't credit me. Maybe they've improved their customer service, or maybe I'm the umpteenth customer to complain about FreeCreditReport.com

So, I'm no longer seething with hatred for my bank. Yay.

I hate banks

So, I visit FreeCreditReport.com a few weeks back, and they aren't able to verify my identity, and I'm not given my credit report. I think that's the end of it. Instead, they hit my account for $79.95 for one year of their credit monitoring service. I, of course, didn't authorize this.

I ask Bank of America to "stop payment" on the debit. They say that they can only do so if its a recurring transaction for the same amount every month on the same date. I reply, explaining that it's a one-time charge I didn't authorize.

I then attempt to order something over the Internet, and my card is denied. It turns out BofA blocked my card and will be sending me a new one in ten business days.

I used to bank at SeaFirst bank in Seattle, before BofA bought them. I loved them. That was the last positive experience I've had with banks. BofA dings me every month for a $6.00 maintenance fee, puts holds on every check I deposit over $100.00, charged me $150.00 in overdraft fees because this unauthorized $79.95 transaction put me into the red, and then they cancel my damned check card. (sigh)

Lawsuits and the Flu Vaccine

I was running on a Precor at the gym a day or so ago, and they had on a news program that I suspect - due to the content - was a "fair and balanced" Fox News program.

On the show, they were discussing why the flu vaccine isn't available more widely. One of the men said that they only reason the flu vaccine isn't being made in large enough quantities is because the drug manufacturers are afraid of being sued, and we therefore need to eliminate their liability from injuries caused by the flu vaccine. Sadly, the man wasn't even smart enough to suggest that we "immunize" the manufacturers from lawsuits.

Anyway, liability has nothing to do with why more flu vaccines aren't being made. The big reason more vaccine isn't available is that it's a long, arduous, cumbersome process to manufacture the flu vaccine, and the vaccine has a very limited shelf life. Check out this article at Slate for more info.

Let's just assume for a moment that the lobbyist was correct, and manufacturers fear being sued. So what? Why should any manufacturer of any product be immune from liability if their product hurts or kills people? I could see giving limited immunity to recipients of vaccines that are donated by the pharmaceuticals, but as long as they want to make a buck, they should have the same liability of any other business in America.

Pharmaceuticals and Bioethicists

Slate published this article about how pharmaceuticals hire bioethicists to help push their products. I don't 100% oppose this, as long as there truly are "no strings attached" to the money. However, the article concludes with this quote:

So the next time you meet a bioethicist, pay close attention; he may look like a bioethicist, but when you peel back his mask, you just might see the adman smiling back.

Advertising is an enormously important part of the corporate machine. It's always interesting to see how it's used in nontraditional ways.

Corporate GOOD Deeds

This morning in the shower, I was planning on writing something about how I don't think that big corporations are inherently evil. I was going to write about how big corporations also have the power to use their wealth and power to do good. Then, I saw perhaps the perfect example: A shoe company that gave out nearly $200,000.00 in bonuses to its 200 employees for Christmas. One employee got $19,000.00 for working 19 years. Read about it here.

When profits are the only consideration, everyone suffers. SAS Pittsfield is to be commended for setting an example of how well corporations can behave.

Something Funny From PETA

First of all, I'm not a vegetarian. I'm practically a carnivore; I eat lots of red meat and very few vegetables. That said, check out The Meatrix at PETA's web site.

I love the agricorp machine. It's relevant to almost any industry, actually. Think about the pigs in pens in terms of workers in cubicles. And think about the small farms in terms of "mom and pop shops."

IBM Screws American Workers

I saw this article at Yahoo about IBM's plan to ship close to 5,000 "highly paid" computer programming jobs to India or China.

Here's the best part:

"Some workers are scheduled to be informed of the plan for their jobs by the end of January. After that they will be expected to train an overseas replacement worker in the U.S. for several weeks. The IBM workers marked for replacement have 60 days to find another job inside the company, likely to be a difficult task at a time when IBM is holding down hiring."

One of the major arguments of tort reformers is that big lawsuits injure big corporations, and those injuries cost Americans their jobs. Bullshit.

Corporations have one goal, and one goal only: To make money. If they can lay off their entire workforce and outsource it to India to save money, they'll do it. If they can cut corners on safety to fatten the bottom line, they'll do it. If they can get laws passed to prevent them from being held accountable for any of their actions, they'll not only do it, but then they'll go on to behave even more badly than they did before.

An even more telling part of the article is that IBM managers have concern that the jobs can't be done as well overseas. Translation: IBM doesn't care about getting the job done right, they care about getting it done cheap.

IBM will be taking $300+ million dollars out of the American economy and putting nearly 5,000 Americans out of work for no other reason than to save money. Not that they're hurting: IBM made around $30 billion in profit, and is sitting on roughly $6 billion in cash.

This is a message from John Kerry that sounds pretty good right about now:

"My friends we need a president who understands what's happening in our country. This president lives out a creed of greed for he and his friends. I'm tired of seeing chief executives permitted to take their millions or billions to Bermuda and leave the average American here at home stuck with the tax bill. You know what I call that? Unpatriotic.

.... And when I finish with that tax code, when we finish with that tax code there's not going to be one tax credit left for any company to encourage them to take jobs overseas and forget about the bill and the burden in America."