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.

Facebook And Goldman Sachs

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Steven Mintz, the Ethics Sage, has a new post about the Facebook deal with Goldman Sachs. Any transaction with the name, Goldman Sachs, in it should raise legitimate concerns. Professor Mintz provides detail on what is wrong with the deal. I suggest you read the full post.

James Pilant

From the Steven Mintz post, Facebook — Goldman Sachs Deal –

I am quite dubious about the Facebook — Goldman Sachs transaction because we’ve been there before. Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s we heard about company’s such as Lucent Technologies, Sunbeam, Qwest, WorldCom and, off course, Enron that all had one thing in common — they cooked the books and fooled investors into thinking they were doing a lot better than the true numbers indicated. I hope that’s not the case with the Facebook deal for the sake of the investors and our fragile economy. Otherwise, there may be a sequel to the movie, The Social Network — The Demise of the Social Network!

Andrew Gates Comments On The Essay, “$250,000 And Poor”

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This is a comment from Andrew Gates who as always has some useful points.

James Pilant

Andrew Gates –

All I could think of while reading that article is “are these people serious?!”

I think the problem is that the accounting firm doing the study just assumed that many of these “burdens” were necessary for a four person family with a large income. Not having time to keep our houses immaculate is not just a burden for the upper class. I think thats a burden that families of every class (especially ones with children) face. The difference is that lower and middle class families FIND the time to keep their house in relatively livable condition.

Dry cleaning tab?! Are you serious? I guarantee you that our men and women in the armed services must keep their uniforms to a higher standard than corporate executives. How do they do this? They learn how to iron and starch a shirt after coming home from their watch. Something tells me that corporate executives probably don’t work as many hours either.

$4000 for kids activities? Ok, I understand that some childrens activities can be expensive. I am the oldest of 6 children. My father was able to allow all of us to play baseball, football, and/or soccer with our counties recreation department for just a few hundred dollars a season. I suppose the upper class children are too good to get their baseball uniform dirty with lowly middle class children?

Yeah, its SOOOOOO hard being them.

An Interesting Discussion On Modern Ethics, Education And Hope For The Future: Ed Deep, Steven Mintz, and Andrew Gates

On By southwerkIn business ethics

(Bank Of America Next WikiLeaks Target – Bank Digging For Dirt
by James Pilant on Tuesday, January 4, 2011 at 10:39am)
The title above is the Facebook subject that began the discussion. I include it for perspective.

Ed Deep What Bofa is doing is pretty much PR 101, trying to state that the misconduct or “problem” is a person thing, not a corporate policy.
There are several problems, though. The executives from the bank are not recruited in Mars. They are recruited amongst ourselves. Their actions are reflexes from the acceptable conducts amongst ourselves. Our culture, the way we live in society. My take on this is: We must make clear that there are moral values, ethical conduct and moreover, there is the regulation from the market authorities and there is the Law. And there is punishment. There should be no witch hunt, but we can not forfeit fixes, malfeasance, unorthodox solutions or other euphemisms for crimes that are listed. For the crimes not listed, there is our values. A clear message from society that these practices are not condoned will change the attitude. We must educate our children to have moral values and ethical behaviour. Can not allow anyone else to do it. Much less the “media”.
Wednesday at 6:31am

Steven Mintz Ed: Well said. I fear, however, it’s almost too late too teach our children moral and ethical values because of the unethical, irresponsible culture in our society that permeates throughout. Also, who is to teach it? As a university professor I’ve seen instructors shy away from the topic and even have a counter-productive slant on what is ethics.
Wednesday at 6:41am

Ed Deep It is never too late.I would not give up. Humankind have gone a long way since slavery and serfdom as an example. Even Aristotle though slavery to be moral, so there is always a future. There will be a new Renaissance, a revolution of the mind. Never dispair. -Keep Reading ..,>

Bullseyes And Crosshairs Have Consequences?

On By southwerkIn ethics

Look at the fourth name on the right.

(Click on the picture, its expands.)

I don’t feel the need for any comment.

James Pilant

Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Shot By Gunman (Gunman’s Manifesto Included)

On By southwerkIn ethics2 Comments

Anti Government to the max. Terrorism, property owners, treasonous government, it’s all there.

This is some kind of manifesto from the shooter.

My new information is that she is in surgery.

From NPR –

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head by a gunman at a public event in Tucson on Saturday. There are conflicting reports about whether she was killed.

The Pima County, Ariz., sheriff’s office told member station KJZZ the 40-year-old Democrat was killed. At least nine other people, including members of her staff, were injured.

Giffords, who was re-elected to a third term in November, was hosting a “Congress on Your Corner” event at a Safeway in northwest Tucson when a gunman ran up and started shooting, according to Peter Michaels, news director of Arizona Public Media.

Wasn’t this inevitable? The language thrown around in the last election was irrational and foolish. Isn’t this the state where Sharon Angle said that we may have to resort to 2nd Amendment solutions? Well, problem solved.

Who’s going to die next?

Are we going to hear the usual explanations about all this talk being just entertainment? Are the books, the radio programs, the television shows, the internet posts, all going to be dismissed? Better yet, will they say the left does the same thing? Will they suddenly discover that there an equality between the two sides? How about an everybody does it argument and the crazy talkers are just being picked out and victimized?

That’s it. That’s the ticket. All these people who said all these things are victims. They are unfairly singled out by the media. They should be apologized to. They’ve only committed wrongs in the minds of the liberal press. It’s unfortunate that there are crazy people but they aren’t to blame, right?

I’m waiting for the manifesto, the television interview, where the gunman talks about the American way of life, the 2nd Amendment, Socialism, Communism, Obama, Obamacare, death panels, the deficit, giant international conspiracies.

Now, you might argue, “James, we don’t know anything yet. The gunman could be a terrorist, an old boyfriend. Don’t talk like that, James. You’re cruelly abusing innocent radio hosts.”

Okay, here’s my argument. This took place in Arizona, a state noted for its interesting beliefs. The discussions there have bordered on violence for some time. There are heavily armed groups that “help” law enforcement patrol the border. Terrorists generally operate in metropolitan areas where they can blend in, have the best chance of escape and get maximum publicity. This leads me to believe we are dealing with a domestic terrorist.

If I am wrong, I will sincerely apologize.

Watch for it – if I’m wrong.

James Pilant

Mozilla Firefox Unstable?

On By southwerkIn Capitalism3 Comments

My Firefox browser has become increasingly unstable over the last few weeks. Is anybody else having the same problem?

James Pilant

$250,000 And Poor

On By southwerkIn Capitalism2 Comments

That headline caught my eye. This is from The Fiscal Times. The whole article is called Down and Out on $250,000 a Year.

My first response was to see how far I could read before I got the joke. But I was wrong. This is not a joke story or a satire. From the article –

By most measures, a $250,000 household income is substantial. It is six times the national average, and just 2.9 percent of couples earn that much or more. “For the average person in this country, a $250,000 household income is an unattainably high annual sum — they’ll never see it,” says Roberton Williams, an analyst at the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C.

But just how flush is a family of four with a $250,000 income? Are they really “rich”? To find the answer, The Fiscal Times asked BDO USA, a national tax accounting firm, to compute the total state, local and federal tax burden of a hypothetical two-career couple with two kids, earning $250,000. To factor in varying state and local taxes, as well as drastically different costs of living, BDO placed the couple in eight different locales around the country with top-notch public school districts, using national data on spending.

A reader begins to get the idea that we are going to explore the difficulties of getting by on this sum of money each year. So, you read further on, things like this –

Some of the expenses incurred by couples like the Joneses may seem lavish – such as $5,000 on a housecleaner, a $1,200 annual dry cleaning tab and $4,000 on kids’ activities. But when both parents are working, it is impossible for them to maintain the home, care for the kids and dress for their professional jobs without a big outlay.

And it keeps going like this. If I was from a distant part of the world with no knowledge of the United States, I might have gotten teary eyed. However, I do live here and I’m not going to cry over those suffering with a quarter of a million dollars in income.

Why don’t you read the article? If you feel sorry for them and wish them better, please let me know.

James Pilant

(The President’s New Chief of Staff) William Daley – “You can pick up the phone and call him in a way you can’t really with anyone there now.”

On By southwerkIn President Obama

William Daley
Who can pick up the phone and call Mr. Daley, the President’s Chief of Staff?

That’s an interesting question.

From CBS News Political Hot Sheet –

“With Wall Street reporting record profits while middle class Americans continue to struggle in a deep recession, the announcement that William Daley, who has close ties to the Big Banks and Big Business, will now lead the White House staff is troubling and sends the wrong message to the American people,” said Justin Ruben, Executive Director of MoveOn.org.

What has liberals so upset? It’s hard to know where to start. There’s the years at JPMorgan Chase and on the board of mortgage giant Fannie Mae; the fact that Daley reportedly opposed the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that was a major component of financial regulatory reform; Daley’s December 2009 argument that Democrats should “steer a more moderate course on the key issues of the day, from health care to the economy to the environment to Afghanistan”; his reported work with the Chamber of Commerce to “loosen the post-Enron regulations on the accounting and auditing professions”; his work in the Clinton administration to get the North American Free Trade Agreement through Congress; and, more generally, the fact that he’s seen as a strong advocate to the Obama administration for the interests of big business.

Before the selection, Politico asked banking officials and corporate lobbyists who they wanted in the chief of staff job, and the “unequivocal” response was Daley. The subsequent story included just the sort of quote to make a liberal (as well, potentially, as a Tea Partier) cringe: “Immediately things would get better” if Daley got the job, one executive said. “You can pick up the phone and call him in a way you can’t really with anyone there now.”

Now, you know who can call Mr. Daley and “call him in a way you can’t really with anyone there now.”

James Pilant

Mind Controlled Devices?

On By southwerkIn business ethics

From the Denver Post article entitled – Mind-controlled devices may be next, say experts at CES

I believe in mind control,” Xavier Lauwaert, worldwide marketing manager for Hewlett-Packard, said Thursday during a panel discussion about the future of user interfaces.

Such technology would be like voice control, only a user would simply need to think of what he wanted a device to do, rather than having to say anything.

“The next evolution of the HP PCs will be mind control,” Lauwaert predicted.

I can’t help but think this poses a whole new area of privacy concerns. I freely admit that if you use a device to turn things on and off, there is little to be concerned about but the ability to monitor how another person makes decisions (how their mind works) is not an area I want the government or private industry poking around in.

Look at it this way, if you use parts of your brain to maneuver through the internet or make financial decisions by paying your bills or investing on line, monitoring those kinds of transactions provides an intimate portrait of how one formulates thoughts and make decisions often on an unconscious level. A powerful computer can make sense of these of the minds patterns which can then be incorporated in music, videos, advertisements, scams and political campaigns.

Advertising campaigns are already designed to probe the unconscious but they have been limited by the occasional burst of rationality on the part of the public. Manipulation of thought patterns could devestate this last line of defense. They could short circuit the conscious mind bypassing it entirely.

It could be used as a limited but quite effective form of mind control depending on the power and detail of the monitoring equipment.

So, I have some concerns.

James Pilant

The Power Elite Abandon America

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments

We now live in an age of the billionaire. They are American only by convenience. They are not really comfortable here. They are comfortable only with their own kind. When this nation becomes inconvenient, they will simply leave.

They know no bounds of patriotism, no civic responsibility (beyond a desire to destroy social security and public schools), and vicious antipathy toward taxes of any kind.

They are willing to spend billions to protect their interests which are largely financial.

Their contempt for the American middle class is almost unmeasurable. To them, Americans are overweight, greedy, overpaid, unambitious, a lumpen mass of losers, it is time history abandoned.

Globalization has left them abundant places to go that are not the United States, abundant ways to avoid taxes and an astonishing variety of way to vent their contempt for the unfortunate societies that spawned them.

Frankly, as a defender of the middle class, I feel woefully out gunned.

My strong suspicion is that if I am willing to forego my beliefs and embrace the coming new order, my life will improve materially.

By the standards of the new elite, I don’t even make fool.

I am a patriot. I believe in this nation and its future. I am disgusted by the strange sense of entitlement by those who have mercilessly exploited this nation and seem to intend the destruction of its economic base. So, I am not the right kind of person.

We are not as a nation fully abandoned yet. But the ties that bind the power elite to this country steadily weaken. The destruction of the public institutions of the United States will not end with Social Security but culminate in foreign owned roads, bridges, sewer systems, electricity and oil. This nation is valuable only for the money that can be squeezed out of it. The beliefs that created it and the sacrifices that maintain it are of no consideration.

I do not know if this can be changed. I have doubts that it is possible.

I fear for this nation’s future and not for just this nation but for many others around the globes who will be swept up in these changes.

Business ethics is not possible without law to support it. It is not possible with a sense of morals. It is not possible without consideration of other people and their rights.

So, in my mind, I am looking at the destruction of this field.

In fact, the whole concept of business ethics may become an idea only practiced at the bottom of the economic order.

I will continue to believe in this nation and its future but we are going to be sorely beset in the next decade.

James Pilant