This is an interesting post. I’m torn between thinking “This is little too alarmist.” and “This is just about right.”
So, why don’t you read and watch, then let me know what you think. RT is a controversial network.
James Pilant
P.S. Thanks to These New Times.
I’ve added the same video to this posting.
I have seen this kind of talk from people who make much more than this. Frankly, I don’t understand how tone deaf you have to be to say these things. It’s very clear that most Americans make much less than half of his salary. But to hear him tell it, he’s working in a salt mine for pennies.
There is one line I hear most often and this is it from this article – I walked into this job 6 weeks ago..um that I worked incredibly hard for. There is always some version of it in the diatribe the person making large sums of money and it goes like this – “I work very hard for my money.” It has countless perambulations but it always boils down the same thing: “I work hard for my money and I deserve every penny of it.”And that would be okay, if it stopped right there, but it always has the implication usually directly stated “unlike you lazy freeloaders” or in this case, “unlike you lazy teachers, etc.”
I’ve seen it over and over again. These individuals making hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions, have it rough. That’s right. The world through their eyes is trying to tear them down. If you only knew the suffering they go through. My favorite suffering, heard not once but twice, is how difficult it is to get a good nanny. I almost cried for the poor guy.
They think they are some kind Randian heroes and if the world had to live without another half talented political doctrinaire hack, we would all cry and wonder what to do – finally begging them on our knees to only come back and we’ll be good boys, pay all their taxes and give them the love and respect their rich mummy forgot to lavish on them.
They bore me.
James Pilant
From ThinkProgress –
At a townhall meeting in Amery, Wisconsin last week, the “Real World’s” Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) exposed just how out of touch with ordinary Americans he is. According to progressive blog Rightguardia, one constituent — an underemployed construction worker — explained that his wife, a teacher, may have to take a cut in wages if Wisconsin’s draconian budget bill goes through. “I’m just wondering what your wage is and if you guys would be willing to take a cut,” he asked Duffy.
Displaying that delicate sense of empathy characteristic of conservatives, Duffy whined about his $174,000 congressional salary and his “used minivan.” When the man pointed out his salary was “three times what I make,” Duffy reassured him that “I have more debt than you.” “I’m not living high off the hog,” he added:
Constituent: But a hundred and seventy-four thousand, that’s three times — that’s three of my family’s — three times what I make.
Duffy: Well our budget…I moved to cut by 5 percent. I did. You know what, I have no problem..let’s have a movement afoot. I walked into this job 6 weeks ago..um that I worked incredibly hard for. And I can guarantee you or most of you, I guarantee that I have more debt than all of you.
With 6 kids, I still pay off my student loans. I still pay my mortgage. I drive a used minivan. If you think I’m living high off the hog, I’ve got one paycheck. So I..I struggle to meet my bills right now. Would it be easier for me if I get more paychecks? Maybe, but at this point I’m not living high off the hog.
If you want a book that swollen with ethical issues, you can’t go wrong with this pick. I have read about many of the issues in the book before but to have them all concentrated in one place is a big help when you are teaching (or thinking about) ethics.
The review is quite good. There are obviously skilled writers at this site.
James Pilant
That would be a full meltdown.
It probably happened more than a week ago.
If it is, and it probably is, we are about to see an enormous amount of money spent to limit the damage.
James Pilant
via To Your Health
From BBC –
More than 10,000 people have died in the Japanese tsunami and the survivors are cold and hungry. But the media concentrate on nuclear radiation from which no-one has died – and is unlikely to.
Nuclear radiation at very high levels is dangerous, but the scale of concern that it evokes is misplaced. Nuclear technology cures countless cancer patients every day – and a radiation dose given for radiotherapy in hospital is no different in principle to a similar dose received in the environment.
What of Three Mile Island? There were no known deaths there.
And Chernobyl? The latest UN report published on 28 February confirms the known death toll – 28 fatalities among emergency workers, plus 15 fatal cases of child thyroid cancer – which would have been avoided if iodine tablets had been taken (as they have now in Japan). And in each case the numbers are minute compared with the 3,800 at Bhopal in 1984, who died as a result of a leak of chemicals from the Union Carbide pesticide plant.
This is the hopeless nonsense I have to read day by day, hour by hour, trying to stay on top of the crisis.
It is utterly typical. Here you see a very, very careful parsing of the facts along with some cute phrasing – “Nuclear technology cures countless cancer patients every day – and a radiation dose given for radiotherapy in hospital is no different in principle to a similar dose received in the environment.” – meant to impress the yokels. The deaths in Chernobyl were artificially kept low by the Soviet Union. Deaths among the “liquidators” is now reported to be in the thousands.
Very carefully not mentioned are the 10,800 square miles of land no one can live on. That 10,800 square mile figure demonstrate simply and more eloquently than my poor skills the intellectual bankruptcy of this man’s ridiculous argument.
A portion of the surface of the earth cannot be safely lived on by mankind but since there are few reported deaths, it’s not that big a deal.
But let us cut through some more nonsense. The dangers of a situation cannot be intelligently measured by how many people have died so far. Six reactors came dangerously close and may yet meltdown destroying thousands of square miles that will be uninhabitable for generations.
The radiation levels in the area, measured in the thousands and in some places hundreds of thousands of times the recommended dose, are going to cause harm for generations.
This is also not that big a deal as far as our bold author is concerned.
Apparently, unless nuclear power takes the gloves off and whacks people left and right dropping them right here, right now, it’s not a big deal.
Well, I disagree.
James Pilant
Here’s another reblog from our friend, “flying cuttlefish picayune.” (If anybody knows if when referring to a web blog and the title isn’t capitalized, if I should capitalize it, let me know.)
It’s nice to know that other bloggers are working the problem.
James Pilant
The view from on the ground in Fukushima.
I will admit I don’t care much for the “fear mongering label.” Japan is likely hour to hour to experience a nuclear crisis more severe than what they have now. This is fact. An unfortunate fact but still a fact.
James Pilant
via Bolsoversion
There are hundreds, thousands of posts on business ethics. Only a few are thoughtful and only a very few directly deal with the philosophy of business. This is one of those.
I was very impressed. If you have any interest in business ethics philosophically, this is the best writing on the subject I have seen in many weeks.
James Pilant
I love maps. I wanted to do this on my web site, and while I have shown several maps of the fallout from Chernobyl, they weren’t as fancy as this.
I would like to say that this web site has many wonderful maps on it and if you enjoy maps as much as I do, please go and enjoy yourself.
James Pilant
Pilant's Business Ethics Blog 
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