Author: southwerk

I am a 53 year old teacher. I have double major in Speech and Criminal Justice resulting in a Bachelor's degree from Northeastern State University in Oklahoma and a law degree.

The dynamics of employee dissent: whistleblowers and organizational jiu-jitsu (via FAA Whistleblowers Alliance)

On By southwerkIn Capitalism

In the modern age, whistleblowing is one of the most effective means of bringing corporate organizations to justice. It is hard to understand what is going on inside a giant organization from the outside. Modern corporations, have their own buildings, their own security systems, their own police forces (security), their own legal systems (company policy, administration and legal staff).

Corporations are hybrids, not quite businesses and not quite independent states. They are a monolithic stack of sole proprietorships and partnerships melded together.  In organization they are most like municipalities. They have a certain resemblance to the city states of Ancient Greece, each city loyal to Greece but fiercely guarding its own independence and its own prerogatives. 

Enforcing the law against these types of organizations is more a matter of espionage than criminal investigation. Detecting a corporation committing a crime is like trying to penetrate the security apparatus of a small foreign country.

Law enforcement can scan through newspapers and magazines, tap the rumor mill and watch the multiple civil suits filed for and against these organizations. But even then, what do they really know about an organization with thousands of members spread over three or four continents? Not much.

But take one individual inside the organization and combine that one person with just a little authority to access data and a computer work station, and you can gather more data about organizational crime in twenty minutes than independent sleuthing for weeks.

These individuals are a precious last line of defense against corporate wrong doing.

This society should welcome and protect these people. It has been said, “Let justice fall like rain.” It seems a garden hose sprinkle is more acceptable in the popular and business press. They don’t like whistleblowers, and could that be a surprise to anyone? Power and the money it brings may well be the biggest religion of the 21st century, the first truly international religion.

Against the religion of Power equals Money, the notions of law, duty and religious devotion probably appear a little quaint, more than a little obsolete.

Nevertheless, the whistleblower is important to maintaining some element of the rule of law in this country. And remember, the whistleblower is very close to the sole line of defense in discovering corporate wrong doing in other nations directed at the United States.

This article discusses how a whistleblower can use strategy to survive the inevitable fallout more successfully.

You may very well find yourself in the position of knowing what you should not and having to live with the decision of what to do. Read the article, put some knowledge on your plate, so you don’t have to start out cold when the crisis comes.

James Pilant

The dynamics of employee dissent: whistleblowers and organizational jiu-jitsu By Brian Martin with Will Rifkin Go to Brian Martin’s publications on whistleblowing Brian Martin’s publications on backfire (political jiu-jitsu) Brian Martin’s publications Brian Martin’s website We thank Bill De Maria, Hugh DeWitt, Wendy Varney, Tom Weber, Deena Weinstein and an anonymous reviewer for valuable comments on drafts of this paper. Abstract Whistleblowing … Read More

via FAA Whistleblowers Alliance

Do you want to pay more for internet? (via yourkeyed)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I have been appalled at the FCC’s decision making on the matter of net neutrality. Essentially they have abandoned it. The way is open for a corporate division of the internet. It should not be long before web sites will have to pay money for fast service while those unable to pay will sink into obscurity and then disappear. Consumers will (as always) bear the costs of these changes. Your use of the internet will become something like the cable industry with their multiple packages of different channel combinations. You will pay more for certain kinds of services, in particular, a fast internet connection.

The fight over net neutrality continues. Some sites like yourkeyed are still slugging. I like this web site’s spirit and appreciate its call to action.

I hope you hear that call and want to take part.

James Pilant

Do you want to pay more for internet? [Alright folks, I’ve been mentally hoarding my entries all month, I was going to talk about KSW programming this season, Vancouver, underground networks, gender politics, more things about desire and drive and human existence, yada yada yada., all those juicy things… but it all might be futile when no one will be able to afford the internet:] Do you want to PAY MORE for Internet?  Do you want the telecommunication companies, that already rip yo … Read More

via yourkeyed

Poverty and its negative effects, and means of eliminating it in Islam (via Islam: Message of Peace)

On By southwerkIn business ethics3 Comments
 

 

 

Islam by country

 I have a special list of web sites, one set of favorites I check on every day. There are only a handful of web sites listed. It is the beginning of my search for relevant subjects each day. Islam: Message of Peace is one of those web sites.

 

Poverty is a matter of business ethics since in the developed world, poverty is closely related to business practices and also related to business philosophies that have worked their way into the political spectrum. Islam: Message of Peace addresses these kinds of issues through religious texts and commentaries. The approach is often very different from the academic, political and religious ideas of the Western world. I find that both refreshing and a possible source of potent ideas.

Since I value this kind of material, it should be obvious that I do not believe that the followers of Mohammed are all terrorists. I find much to praise in the religion of Islam and it is only fair to give people credit for the good and great things they do.  At the time of the Crusades, the follower of Islam had universities (Madrasa), and in those schools was the most advanced knowledge of medicine and mathematics in the world. It is through their libraries that Aristotle’s and other philosophers’ writings were rediscovered. Those potent ideas led to the Renaissance and the current civilization of the West. If you benefit from a doctor visit, value the ideas of the Ancient Greeks (like democracy), or balance a checkbook with Hindu-Arabic numerals, you can thank the civilization of Islam. If you as a civilized human seek intelligent answers to difficult questions, this is a good place to look.

Let’s look at what Islam has to say about ending poverty – (this is a portion of the article, please click on the link to read all of it)

 
Praise be to Allaah.   

Firstly: 
Poverty is one of the calamities that Allaah has decreed should happen, either to a specific person or a family or a society. Poverty has negative effects on people’s beliefs and conduct. Immoral behaviour becomes widespread to a large extent because of poverty, as a means of meeting people’s needs, so theft, murder, zina and sale of haraam things become widespread. 
Undoubtedly these things have a negative effect on individuals and societies. Allaah tells us that some of the mushrikeen used to kill their children, the apples of their eyes, either because of the poverty in which they were living or for fear of poverty that might befall them. Allaah says of the first case (interpretation of the meaning): 
“kill not your children because of poverty — We provide sustenance for you and for them”
[al-An’aam 6:151] 
And He says of the second case (interpretation of the meaning): 
“And kill not your children for fear of poverty. We shall provide for them as well as for you. Surely, the killing of them is a great sin”
[al-Isra’ 17:31] 
In al-Saheehayn there is narrated the story of a woman of the Children of Israel who, when she needed money and felt under pressure, she could not find anyone but her paternal cousin who wanted to have his way with her in return for giving her money. Then Allaah saved her from that after she reminded him of Allaah and told him to fear Him. 
Whatever the case, it is well known that poverty leads to crimes and corruption. Many nations suffer from it and are looking for solutions to this problem, but to no avail, and there is no solution except in Islam, which brought rulings for all people until the Hour begins. 
Secondly: 
The means that have been prescribed by Islam to solve the problem of poverty and combat it are as follows: 
1 – Teaching people to believe truly that provision comes from Allaah and that He is the Provider (al-Razzaaq), and every calamity that Allaah decrees is for a reason, and that the poor Muslim should be patient in bearing his calamity and strive to relieve himself and his family of poverty. 
Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): 
“Verily, Allaah is the All‑Provider, Owner of Power, the Most Strong”

Religion and Prosletyzing At Work – My comment exchange in the Associated Baptist Press

On By southwerkIn ethics

A gentleman named Marv Knox, wrote an opinion column in the Associated Baptist Press entitled:Opinion: Baptists and the role of faith in public policy.

I think this paragraph of his sums up what he is trying to say:

Extremists stake out opposite ends of the spectrum, with some saying religious perspectives have no place in public policy and others claiming religious views should trump all others. But most citizens come down in the middle. We realize faith is integral to people’s lives and cannot be banished. We also recognize no religious tenet or organization has the right to dominate others. The tension between the extremes holds up a tightrope we must walk as we balance competing perspectives.

I liked what he had to say and encourage my readers to read his opinion piece. I wrote this as a comment on his writing.

There are many competing forces in the United States that figure in the debate over right and wrong. The Christian religion because of its long historical experience and great learning has much to contribute. I perceive that Christianity prospers in the free arena of ideas. The dangers of exclusionary polices against other religions and of active proselytizing have to be defended against. If the truth sets us free, what kind of Christians are those who demand that their message be the only one? Let us struggle forward seeking what is right but always remembering the dignity and trust we place in our fellow citizens.

My comment was answered by another comment who was critical of my point of view. This is what was said:

We can only hope Huckabee’s presidential hopes are dashed. It was Huckabee who took votes away from Romney which got us (Republicans) stuck with McCain! McCain couldn’t beat Obama but Romney could have won.

My thoughts concerning proselytizing are this. If someone has found Almighty God, the very essence of good in the universe, and does not feel burdened to share then full of bull is the only phrase that is properly descriptive. To know God, maker of heaven and earth, is to share Him.

And I responded with this:

There are appropriate and inappropriate places for proselytizing your religion. There are an enormous number of places where one can advocate for their religion. Using teaching jobs, supervisory positions and government offices for such purposes is wrong. People have a right to work without being told they should be a Christian, a Moslem, a Buddhist, an atheist or a deist.
One of the primary obstacles to the use of Christian principles in teaching morals and ethics is the belief, in my experience justified, that some teachers will use it as an opportunity to push for converts. I teach with Christian principles as one of the alternative ways of thinking about business ethics. I think that it is important to use these teachings. Society needs ethical principles. Business needs ethical principles. But if an advocate of Christianity is compelled to witness at all times and in particular through his job, the absence of Christian principles in all teaching might be a better alternative to putting children and adults in multi week conversion class.

Currently this is where the discussion stands. I realize that this is my forum and I have an advantage in my wordiness. If you would like to comment, I will add them directly to this posting.

James Pilant

(This is a repost of a essay written on this blog, December 11, 2009. I thought it was time to revisit the issue.)

 <atom:link rel="search"  type="application/opensearchdescription+xml"  href="https://southwerk.wordpress.com/osd.xml" title="Pilant's  Business Ethics Blog" />

They Make A Wasteland and Call It Healthcare

On By southwerkIn Government Failure

The Individual Mandate.

President Obama took universal health care and converted it into an insurance company bonanza. The President claims a great victory and says he has accomplished what many Presidents failed to do. Quite a victory. It reminds me of a quote about a war “They take a wasteland and call it peace.” Well we have the wasteland.

We live in a country where you can at penalty of law be forced to buy medical insurance.

It’s a great precedent. Think of all the things Congress might decide you should buy. From the innocuous like an emergency medical kit to disaster insurance (only if you live on the coast) to forced retirement accounts only in Wall Street Investments (We wouldn’t want the Chinese to get American money). The government has the power to force Americans to make any business profitable.

Back in the days before the Civil War, many people called the new industrial workers, “wage slaves.” What does that make us, “insurance slaves?” Taxes are one thing. I understand that civilized societies need to do things, defense, education, etc. But when did business get to collect taxes? Because that’s essentially what this is. The government mandates that you buy a service whether or not you want it. Everyone has to pay out the money, no exceptions. That’s a tax.

Individual responsibility.

They always cry out this one phrase, whenever they take something from you. Now, they say, once you’re buying insurance, you’ll be compelled to act responsibly. No free riders (Brush those teeth, eat right). You’ll be part of the system. I don’t think I have to worry about you being fooled.

This is an insurance company mandate.

There is no universal health care here. Forced consumers are powerless consumers. What do you get when you have no bargaining power? Tell me, if you have a $4,000 deductible, how inclined are you to get medical problems looked after? Not having insurance is a set of problems. They are formidable problems. Having this kind of insurance is a set of problems. They have you like so many rats in a trap. Bewildering sets of rules, denials of insurance claims, endless games and financial penalties aimed at American citizens. There is indeed insurance here, the insurance companies are insured against loss. They are insured against their own incompetence, stupidity and failure.

They’re too big to fail. Could the government allow an insurance company to go under? Wouldn’t that interfere with the smooth delivery of services? What’s a few billion here or there to keep the system running. And the government will have new ways to make insurance companies on the backs of Americn taxpayers.

How about profit? Let’s have a look.

This is a superb post by one of my favorite bloggers, J.N. Nielson on his blog, Grand Strategy: The view from Oregon.

How about the money?

How much cash flow are we talking about as a result of the individual mandate? I did some very rough calculations — literally on the back of an old envelope — and if we take the frequently cited figure of 47 million Americans without health insurance, and divide this by average household size of 2.59, we get more than 18 million uninsured households. I found figures cited between $46,000 and $50,000 as the median US household income in 2010. I took the lower number of $46,000, and found estimates between 7.5 and 12.8 percent of household income to be spent on healthcare (the Urban Institute’s report cited above gives a rate of 2.5 percent, but this is not to be taken seriously). If we pick a number between the two percentages cited, between the high and the low figure, we get about $4,650.00 annually for health insurance per household. This is an unrealistically low number, but I’m doing a conservative calculation. With these conservative numbers, we find that the individual mandate would funnel another 83.7 billion dollars into the coffers of the insurance industry annually. This is cash flow that they can leverage even if they have to pay out a little more than 83 billion in claims.

83.7 billion dollars. Pretty good chunk of change, courtesy of the United States government.

Andrew and The Ethics Sage Comments on “Web Site Rewrites King’s Life”

On By southwerkIn Teaching

Andrew Gates and The Ethics Sage (Steven Mintz) comment on my earlier post, Web Site Rewrites King’s Life.

Neither the King Center or martinlutherking.org are fully credible historical accounts of his life. I believe both should be taken with a grain of salt.

On one hand, the King Center is much more willing to ignore the negative aspects of Kings life and actions in order to preserve the politically correct illusion that he was some sort of second coming. For instance, it is widely known that King engaged in many extramarital affairs while he was busy with the Civil Rights Movement. There is also much evidence that many of Kings sermons and speeches contained plagiarized material. There is also much debate as to whether he ACTUALLY did the work at Boston University to earn his PhD. There are letters and testimony from some of his professors that suggests or outright states that they gave King high marks in their classes because he was black and it seemed the politically correct thing to do. None of this will be found on The King Centers website.

I would be more willing to cast aside the biography of MLK Jr. on martinlutherking.org as garbage if it didn’t have a lot of sources to back its facts up.

One the other hand, conclusions and rhetoric found in martinlutherking.org are FAR from unbiased. It does nothing to highlight the work that King did to lead the Civil Rights Movement.

I think if you take both articles and ignore the obvious bias in both, then you can get more of a full picture of the man and what he did. The King Center will point out his achievements, accomplishments, and the positive aspects of his life. martinlutherking.org does a good job (in my opinion) of bringing to light the negative characteristics and actions of the man that his PR people didn’t want the public to see.

Andrew’s Second Post one hour later –

Both websites seem to be bias and not fully trustworthy. When you get past the obvious bias of both sites and just take in the facts, I think you get a better overall picture of who MLK Jr. was and what he did.

The King Center does a good job of highlighting his accomplishments and achievements. It also does a good job of giving you the politically correct version of the man that his PR people wanted the public to see.

martinlutherking.org seems to do a decent job of highlighting the character flaws and negative actions that his PR people didn’t want the public to see. Although this sites biography is filled with extreme interpretations and rhetoric. If the biography contained no sources whatsoever, I might be more willing to cast it aside as garbage. This is not the case though.

Like it or not, MLK Jr. did more to bring about equal civil liberties for african americans than any other person. This is definitely worth being remembered. However, he was engaged in extramarital affairs and was a plagiarizer. These are facts, not opinions. He did attend Communist Party meetings. I dont personally hold that against him, but I can appreciate how that would’ve destroyed his reputation back then if it became public knowledge.

A politically correct atmosphere is just as detrimental to the preservation of truth as extreme, ignorant rhetoric.

My response –

You might want to avoid two comments so close together in time. My computer identified it as spam and didn’t post it. I’ve been checking the spam lately, found it and put it up.
Comment as often as you like. I don’t want to discourage you but I don’t always check the spam and I don’t want to lose your comments. Those were about an hour apart, so it’s more than that. Thanks for commenting.
I really don’t have anything to say in response. I did the post because of my interest in a healthy skepticism of web sources and prefer to stay in that area.
jp

Comment from The Ethics Sage –

It is amazing that such a website exists and there is a “community of white nationalists” with the theme: “White Pride, Worldwide.” I believe the proper way to handle sites like these is for teachers to discuss their points of view and refute their hatred. It can be a teachable moment and what better day to expose the lies and bigotry these groups stand for than the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.

My Response –

I really want children taught early one about the need to exercise judgment about the web and sources, but I worry that the need not to offend one group or another might prevent that from happening.

An editorial comment –

I wrote the post purely to talk about the virtue of skepticism when dealing with the Internet. Discussions of Martin Luther King (and I am experienced in these) tend to go toward the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover and then they head straight for a variety of conspiracy theories. I want to talk about using the web.

Now, that does not mean, you can’t discuss those aspects of King’s life you find interesting. If you make a comment on “Web Site Rewrites King’s Life,” I’ll put it up on this post just like I did Andrew’s and The Ethics Sage’s, that is, in full with no editing.

If you wish to criticize me, even harshly, for my unwillingness to join that aspect of the discussion, you may rest assured I will put that up completely as well.

James Pilant

Web Site Rewrites King’s Life

On By southwerkIn Teaching7 Comments

Keith Thomson writing for The Huffington Post was alarmed to discover this.

Recently, a diverse group of New York City high school students was assigned to write reports on Martin Luther King, Jr. Searching the Internet, several students learned that the renowned civil rights leader had in fact been a drunken philandering con man. Others concluded that the federal holiday marking King’s birthday should be repealed.

Where in the www did these kids search?

Google, for starters.

If you enter “Martin Luther King, Jr.” as a search term, the site netting the third-highest ranking is martinlutherking(dot)org, which purports to be “A valuable resource for teachers and students alike.” Visit the site and you can read the “truth” about King — communist, wife-beater, plagiarist, sexual deviant and all-around fraud. There are flyers to the same effect that children can download, print and bring to school.

As you have probably guessed, this site is not run by the King Center, the memorial established in 1968 by Coretta Scott King to the advance her husband’s legacy (TheKingCenter.org ranks seventh on Google). Rather, MartinLutherKing(dot)org is a spinoff of Stormfront(dot)org, the “white nationalist” online community created in 1995 by former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Don Black. Stormfront’s Web forum now claims nearly 214,000 participants. Black registered martinlutherking(dot)org on January 14, 1999, later adding MLKing(dot)org and MLKing(dot)com.

Some years ago, I was doing research on Joseph Stalin. I had looked at a number of web sites and found one with a lot of information. Strangely it considered him one of the greatest rulers in Russian history. I found this difficult to reconcile with the 51 million dead people. So, I did some further research. I discovered that the Communist party had not disappeared in Russia and there had been regular demonstrations calling for a return to Communist rule and opposed to historical research that cast the years of Communist rule in a “bad” light. The web site I had found was one of theirs. It was fake history, a fantasy

I am a college teacher. I have a posting I call “The Internet Care Kit” with the more important and reliable web sites on them. I usually post them on the class website about midway through the semester. I find it odd that the old creaky teacher (me) often knows more about web than my students. Oh, they can social media better than me but they are often helpless on important topics. I only rarely find a student who knows what Project Gutenberg is.

I know it’s hard to navigate the web without abundant caution But I treasure the huge amount of information and opinion on the web. I am old enough to remember crawling on the floor of a university library to get to the lower cards in a card catalog that was almost too tall to reach and far too low for comfort. I would be trying to find an appropriate source for my writing . It would take me thirty minutes to get five sources and if it was an esoteric topic, nothing at all.

Now, it’s amazing. I can find hundreds, sometimes thousands of postings on even rare subjects. For the learner, it’s a dream come to life. Sometimes, I just prowl the internet. I find one interesting posting and follow a link from it to another site and then another and so on.

When I was a little boy and watched science fiction movies with mainframe computers that filled buildings, I dreamed one day I would work one of those. Even today, working on a computer never quite feels like work. It’s an adventure.

Along with adventure, there are viruses, spam, malware, rip-offs, pornography and enough just simple strangeness to frighten the most stalwart among us. But I wouldn’t go back to crawling on the floor of the library looking hopefully for some kind of information.

I don’t know anything that will help people get through their research safe from falsehood and political fantasy besides a healthy skepticism. That’s probably how it should be. We are beset continually by lies and exaggeration. Why should we expect the web to be any better?

Are you confident in the 24 hours news cycle? Are you confident in the promises of the political world? Do you find the beltway commentators reliable? Does corporate PR give you a sense of security? The web is treacherous but it is not alone in its danger.

Those children have to learn caution sometime and it’s better now than later. Now, they don’t have credit card accounts to be stolen, Nigerian princes willing to share their millions with them, the secrets to investing in gold, the coming apocalypse or their vital need for an interesting variety of performance enhancing drugs. I understand that the young face threats of their own on the web but isn’t that something that a healthy dose of skepticism will assist in. Let’s develop their judgment early.

James Pilant

Patriotism, Citizenship and Holidays

On By southwerkIn ethics

Arthur Dobrin (Arthurdobrin’s Weblog) had these thoughts in a post he called, Closing schools, Martin Luther King and ethics. This is an eloquent discussion of the importance of citizenship. Here is an excerpt.

We have confused citizenship with consumerism. A citizen is one who is concerned with the public realm and makes choices about representation and policy; a consumer is concerned with the private realm and makes choices about products and prices. By closing schools on national holidays we reinforce notions of buying. If schools remained open, there is the opportunity to underline what it means to be a citizen.

National holidays should be time for discussions about the difficulties and dilemmas of ethical choices in a democracy, the hard and sometimes muddy choices. There is George Washington, the man who could have become king but walked away from a third term as president, the same one was the leader of a troop that engaged in an Indian massacre; Abraham Lincoln, the emancipator of slaves, who also suspended the writ of habeas corpus in several places, then ignored a court orders to restore it; the veterans who served when called upon, occasionally in wars that shouldn’t have been fought; and, of course today, MLK, the civil rights hero who broke the law for the sake of fulfilling America’s more nobler self.

Citizenship and patriotism have been hit hard in the last few years. Oh, I have no doubt that virtually all Americans consider themselves, and justly so, to be patriots. Nevertheless, the development of an American economic class with slender ties to the United States is a disastrous event. Further, the ascendency of economic theories, free market fundamentalism, allows certain individuals to make decisions damaging to the nation which they pretend to be justified philosophically.

If a human has the heart of a patriot, hollowing out the nation’s infrastructure and manufacturing is not justified by any theory at any time at any place.

Citizenship is a similar issue. It is difficult to live anywhere in the United States where companies are not seeking through legislation, favors, “economic development zones,” and outright blackmail to evade paying taxes. They use the educational system, the roads and the other infrastructures but they will not willingly pay any sum whatever for the support of their community or nation.

This is citizenship only in “reasoning” built on deluded greed.

Yes, the holidays should mean more than a day off. We all need to consider the duties of citizenship and patriotism from time to time.

James Pilant

Economic Inequality and Global Elites

On By southwerkIn Government Failure2 Comments

What do the global elites think about the issue of inequality (economic disparity)? One clue might be the Global Risks 2011, Sixth Edition. This report is issued by the World Economic Forum –

From Wikipedia –

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a Geneva-based non-profit foundation best known for its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, which brings together top business leaders, international political leaders, selected intellectuals and journalists to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world, including health and the environment. Beside meetings, the WEF produces a series of research reports and engages its members in sector specific initiatives

 James Ledbetter writing for Reuters has some thoughts on the subject –

This year’s report makes a big deal about “economic disparity,” which it helpfully defines as “wealth and income disparities, both within countries and between countries.” We used to call this “inequality.” The WEF report rightly points to OECD data indicating real income growth of the top income quintiles in wealthy countries (Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and the United States) was twice as large as that of the bottom quintiles between the mid-1980s to mid-2000s. The poor may not be getting poorer, but the rich are getting richer at a much faster pace than everyone else. That situation is not only immoral, but dangerous, as it can lead to open conflict between nations and internal political turmoil.

But wait — why is this happening? The WEF report cites “the erosion of employment culture, the decline of organized labor, and failures of education systems to keep pace with the increasing demands of the workplace.” That all sounds plausible, but the time frame cited marks the heyday of the very global governance institutions the WEF seeks to support. You don’t have to accept a causal relationship — though it certainly suggests itself — but at a minimum, global governance institutions have been demonstrably ineffective in addressing the economic structural issues that the WEF now worries about.

I have to disagree on one point. Mr. Ledbetter points out that “the poor may not be getting poorer.” While in these other countries, finland, etc., the poor, the lower classes have kept pace with their previous income. That is not the case in the United States. The middle class here has lost ground, their wages stagnant for three decades and their manufacturing jobs being outsourced as a deliberate policy of the United States government.

I am aware that in an article of that length, he hardly has an opportunity to break it down by country. But I am more local.

To summarize, James Ledbetter’s conclusion, they don’t know what to do about inequality and institutions like theirs do not have the influence to make changes should they suddenly discover the secret of income equality.

When you erode national sovereignty to build international trade and finance, there is no one to deal with issues like income distribution. Now, you might argue that international organizations like the United Nations or the World Economic Forum might fill in the gap. It’s a weak argument. The huge international corporate and financial combines have no intention of yeilding one iota of money or authority to anyone anywhere. And I am cynical enough to believe that military and judicial power trumps economic. If you want to take on an international organization be it organized crime or another kind of organization, use real power, not moral persuasion, not an argument that they should honor stakeholders, you put them in prison, you take their buildings and facilities, you confiscate their money, you leave them no where to hide and you never ever stop chasing them.

Of course, I am not referring to any American corporation.

James Pilant

P.S. The World Economic Forum’s report has been downloaded about 6,000 times. Considering the number of people online, that is not a large number. So I am flying in a high intellectual circles today.

Illusions of Free Markets

On By southwerkIn Philosophy of Business

Chasing Fat Tails has an interesting post. It is a discussion of the issue discussed in the book, Illusions of Free Markets, Punishment and the Myth of Natural Order, written by Bernard E. Harcourt.

Harcourt’s book is vital and bracing reading, and once read isn’t easy to forget.  Its two central ideas, that “free market” rhetoric masks the inevitable regulation that must occur and encourages mass incarceration, start popping up everywhere once you start to look for them.  It touches on any rhetoric about regulation, any argument about prisons, and any idea that’s concerned about affecting change in either.

The argument isn’t perfect.  Those familiar with recent trends in the industrial-prison complex will already be asking: what about the steep rise in private prisons?  Doesn’t that interfere with the book’s claim that incarceration is strictly the province of the government?  (For the record: yes it does, and it’s an instance of the power of free market rhetoric that it can infiltrate a long-held province of legitimate state action).  But the intellectual history is too airtight, the relationships mapped too perfectly, to dismiss.

I share the author’s skepticism about free markets and the “natural order.” To me, the natural order sounds very similar to the divine right of kings. After all wasn’t that the nature of reality in the 16th century?

Humans are not an orderly species. They vary in talent, morality, training and experience. To expect a clockwork mechanism based on an inevitable economic cooperation is the height of delusion. Yet, I encounter it everyday.

You can knock down every premise of the free market fundamentalist and it comes back like Dracula in a Hammer film.

I will write about this in more length later. Right now, I would like you to read Chasing Fat Tails and take a look at the book on Amazon. There are two more reviews there you might find interesting.

James Pilant