Category: business ethics

Caitlin Clark Gets Less than One Percent! Wow!!

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments

If you’re like me, you are surprised at the disparity between the pay for the first round draft pick in the WNBA as opposed to the NBA. Those amounts are 76,535 dollars (Caitlin Clark) and 10,500,000 (Victor Wembanyama).

I am well aware that the NBA makes a lot more money than the WNBA but the disparity is pretty incredible. It is most fortunate that Clark can still get extra money from endorsements but it does bring to mind how we value women as opposed to men.

Women’s sport have been in a long, long climb toward substantive budgets and attention. Women get less money at a every step in the ladder. Now, I am rather old and I can remember when women’s college sports had virtually no measurable budget at all. So, there has been a lot of progress but I absolutely sympathize with those that find the current numbers appalling.

One person upset by the amount paid the new WNBA draft pick was the President of the United States. Here are two quotes and the links to the articles.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/president-joe-biden-weighs-wnba-182940790.html

US President Joe Biden has called for female athletes to be “paid what they deserve” amid ongoing outrage surrounding Caitlin Clark’s rookie contract with the WNBA.

https://sports.yahoo.com/joe-biden-calls-fair-pay-195103809.html

On Tuesday, Biden wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that “women in sports continue to push new boundaries and inspire us all.” “But right now we’re seeing that even if you’re the best, women are not paid their fair share,” he wrote. “It’s time that we give our daughters the same opportunities as our sons and ensure women are paid what they deserve.”

Although there is a great deal of controversy over the salary. Caitlin Clark was rightfully full of pride and jubilant on her drafting. Here is what she said and a link to the quote.

“I think the biggest thing is I’m just very lucky to be in this moment and all these opportunities and these things, they’re once in a lifetime,” she says, reflecting on a whirlwind couple of months. “When things might get tiring or you have to do stuff, I think the biggest thing is look at it just as an opportunity. This isn’t something everybody gets to do. It’s once in a lifetime, and just trying to soak in every single experience because I know how quick of a turnaround it is, and I have a lot of people helping me.”

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/16/sport/caitlin-clark-indiana-fever-wnba-draft-spt-intl/index.html

It is important that you have faith in my numbers. Here is my source for the salaries listed above.

https://www.vox.com/24132057/caitlin-clark-wnba-draft-2024

Despite her record-breaking performance in the NCAA and the energy that she’s generated for the sport, Clark’s base salary will be $76,535 as a rookie. In the NBA, meanwhile, the first draft pick is expected to make roughly $10.5 million in base salary their first year.

In 2022, the NCAA reporting on expenditures in College Sports showed the stark difference in investment between males and females.

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/24/1107242271/the-ncaa-says-that-funding-for-women-in-college-sports-is-falling-behind

The report, released Thursday and entitled “The State of Women in College Sports,” found 47.1% of participation opportunities were for women across Division I in 2020 compared to 26.4% in 1982. Yet, amid that growth, men’s programs received more than double that of women’s programs in allocated resources in 2020 – and that gap was even more pronounced when looking at home of the most profitable revenue-generating sports: the Football Bowl Subdivision, the top tier within Division I that features the Alabamas, Ohio States and Southern Californias of the sports world.

So, here we have the stark disparity between female and male sports. You can see it in Caitlin Clark’s salary and in overall investment between the two in colleges and universities across the United States.

What do we do? I’m sure there are those who would claim we’re making progress and isn’t that enough? Much, probably, almost all of the money invested in college sports is public money or income derived from public money. And this suggests that simple fairness demand equal investment in both sexes.

Further, we have to not just be astonished at the salary disparity but commit ourselves to action, commit ourselves to change. Accepting the status quo is not the path to justice, fairness and the full development of human potential.

Think of the future that could be if we will it and invest our money in a new and better world.

James Alan Pilant

Jesse Watters Can’t Count or Can He?

On By southwerkIn business ethics

https://www.yahoo.com/news/nearly-choked-coffee-fox-news-201830195.html

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jesse-watters-math-backfires_n_661ced3ce4b0f709554b39b4

Actually it may just be that he doesn’t want to. In his job as a “Newsman,” he wanted to overstate the effect of the $20 an hour California has mandated for fast food workers in some sectors. So, he implied that a single worker would make a 100,000 dollars a year on that salary. Surprisingly there was someone there who correctly stated the actual income.

So, he than claimed that a couple working fast food would earn a 100,000 dollars a year, only to once again be corrected.. Watters found the real figure of 40,000 dollars to be horribly unfair. I’m less sure about this. Let me quote a paragraph from the article:

Someone making $40,000 a year in California brings home about $32,000 after taxes, or about $2,666 a month. Meanwhile, according to Zillow, the state’s median rent sits at $2,790 a month. 

While he may believe that these workers are living lives of unearned luxury, the dollars amounts seem much less impressive against the cost of living and taxes.

Middle and lower class wages have been stagnant for about thirty-five years and the current minimum wage is pitiful. Yet, Watters and Fox News wants to portray these workers as the undeserving while portraying the owners of these huge chains as poor victims of state overreach. But the industry has been recording record profits over the last several years.

I think what the financial press is troubled most by is the empowerment and electoral clout of these workers being effective. In the past wage increases, like those in Washington State have not proven to be the disastert predicted.

And the simple fact is – paying working American a decent salary is a key element of economic growth and simple fairness.

James Alan Pilant

Is Beauty worthwhile?

On By southwerkIn business ethics
Is Beauty a Business Ethics Value?

Is Beauty a Business Ethics Value?

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

One man’s artistic wonderland, created secretly in rented apartment, given protected status (msn.com)

A U.K. Home Filled With Surreal Outsider Art Receives Protected Status (artnet.com)

When you drive down to the mall or along the city strip where the fast food stores lurk, you are often struck by the sterile sameness of it. You’re looking at a kind of scenery duplicated thousands of times all across the United States and to a lesser extent across the world. A great deal of end stage capitalism is devoid of creative and artistic merit because all values aside direct monetary value have been long ago discarded.

More than twenty years ago, I spent a year working the legal department of the Wal-Mart Home Office in Bentonville, Arkansas. You are no doubt well aware of the utter sameness of the store designs. They have a very distinctive look. So, you might assume that all the stores look the same. But you would be mistaken. While I was there Wal-Mart wanted to put a store in a particular city in California but the building codes did not allow for the typical design. So, they had to create a store to meet those codes. The design department was very proud of their new building and big beautiful drawings of the new store were placed on easels for employees to admire.

The new building was surrounded by shrubbery and extensive green lawns well back from the main drag. To drive to the parking lot you had to navigate meandering zig-zag roads designed to keep you at a very low speed for pedestrian friendliness. The building itself was red brick faced or actually brick in design, very elegant looking something like an upscale bank.

So, even Wal-Mart was willing to spend the time and money to build a good looking store, a tribute to the community, a recognition that there are community values beyond simple profit. I’m sure they didn’t like it being who they are — but they complied.

It is important the we realize we don’t have to live in sterile sameness. We don’t have to live in pedestrian hostile environments. We don’t have to live in a community that looks just like the community up the street and everywhere else in America.

We can live where people can walk in safety, where bicyclists can ride to work without fear. We can live in an environment full of flowers, trees, healthy shrubs surrounded by nature. And above all we can do our buying and spend our time in buildings full of art and beauty.

There once was a fellow named Ron Gittins. He lived in a apartment for many years and during her time there he built it into a temple of beauty. The links are above. Look at what he did. This is now a protected site. It is in Britain. We in the United States would do well to create protected sites like this.

Why did he transform property that he didn’t even own in such a dramatic way? I tend to believe that he couldn’t stand the ordinary, that his life and his soul yearned for greater things. And you might realize at this point in the essay, that you too desperately yearn for high values and greater things. We all do.

The pursuit of profit, the bizarre and troubling worship of the free market, is a wrecking ball to many of the values in this nation. Our churches have become “mega-churches” where political power and connections are pursued. Our colleges and universities increasingly build dorms and facilities to attract a higher paying customer as if learning and a life of learning was only valuable if it could be immediately turned into a salary. I see ad after ad talking about art as the newest safe investment for retirement. I see young men and women looking for mates based on their lifetime earning potential and while I was in law school observed the my male comrades were actively planning to to trade up wives just as soon as the money got good. It is depressing.

We don’t have to live a life as money grubbing barbarians. The liberal arts, an appreciation of painting, sculpture, music and architecture enriches not only our lives but every other life we touch. We might also actually cultivate friendship and love based not on economic advantage but actual honest relationships. Just saying.

Think of Ron Gittins. He didn’t make art in his apartment for money. He created because humans, the whole, developed kind, need to create and to make value.

That the pursuit of money at all costs would deny the creation of the whole human being, so important to our civilization is one the strongest argument that we must develop a more nuanced economic system. And we need to start creating it now if we are going to preserve the values of real importance in our society.

James Alan Pilant

A Week of Business Ethics

On By southwerkIn business ethics
Business Ethics Roundup – April 7 to 13

Business Ethics Roundup – April 7 to 13

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

It was a bad, bad week. The business iniquities, stupidities and damned incompetence were on full display. It didn’t just rain business ethics problems, it was more of a thunderstorm.

So, I have instead of trying to cover all that very wide ground, I have picked out a few topics I thought more interesting than the rest. We must begin with the wretched murderer, O.J. Simpson, a solid demonstration how powerful friends and money perverts the scales of justice.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/apr/13/oj-simpson-payout-estate-goldman-family-civil-judgment

O.J. Simpson was a remorseless murderer, spousal abuser and all around scoundrel. The Goldman family deserve every last dime of his fortune. That is simple basic ethics.

John Eastman was one of the architects of the plan to overthrow the 2020 election on behalf of Donald Trump. He deserves the loss of his law license and much, much more.

https://apnews.com/article/social-media-native-youth-suicide-lawsuit-9e73288a29c748e7888129fc80404f6f

Taken directly from the article above:

“Enough is enough. Endless scrolling is rewiring our teenagers’ brains,” added Gena Kakkak, chairwoman of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin. “We are demanding these social media corporations take responsibility for intentionally creating dangerous features that ramp up the compulsive use of social media by the youth on our Reservation.”

It is not just the tribe, it is all of the United States and much of the world suffers because social media has no social responsibility and virtually legal limitations on what they can do. They have unleashed unfettered capitalism, grifting and savage manipulation across the planet. And made many billions of dollars in the process. The saddest thing is that for many of our ruling class those billions obscure any moral or ethical needs to act because for them money is only indicator of virtue.

https://apnews.com/article/book-bans-libraries-lawsuits-fines-prison-0914fa6cbb2a99b540cbbd28a38179b4

For many in the United States, the community status of librarians, teachers and school administration has been a barrier to their attempts to shatter, destroy and diminish public education.

In order to deal with this “problem,” these individuals and considerable number of radical organizations have embarked on an organized take down of the listed professions.

Slander and libel have become valuable tools in this regard. Calling educators, “groomers,” was a first step in damaging the moral, ethical community status of these people.

But they are not stopping there, criminalizing behavior associated with books and curriculum – and once again, slandering and libeling teachers, librarians and administrators as purveyors of obscene materials (like “The Diary of Anne Frank” and “To Kill a Mockingbird”) are the next step. The goal is, of course, to get a few librarians and teachers thrown in jail or prison. These events will be used for fund raising and the encouragement of new laws allowing parental lawsuits and further criminalization of those professions.

That this is evil, immoral, unethical and unworthy of any decent human being is self-evident.

https://www.vox.com/24121372/college-tuition-enrollment-minnesota

Minnesota froze tuition at public colleges and for in-state students, whose families makes less than $80,000 a year, will start paying tuition and fees this fall after allowing for grants and scholarships.

Every state can do this. Let’s get rid of the specter and horror of student loans for the bulk of the middle class – and get people through college.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/09/business/lunchables-for-school-high-sodium-consumer-reports-wellness/index.html

Directly from the article: Consumer Reports said sodium levels in the store-bought lunch and snack kits it tested ranged from 460 to 740 milligrams per serving, or “nearly a quarter to half of a child’s daily recommended limit for sodium.” The group found that sodium levels in the turkey and cheddar school versions of Lunchables contained 930 mg of sodium compared to 740 mg in the store-bought version.

We should not be feeding this stuff to children. It’s wrong.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/billionaire-brothers-bankroll-education-programs-000000351.html

Farris and Dan Wilks have been sending millions of dollars to encourage the belief that global warming is a natural phenomenon and destined by God. Among those receiving the money is our old friends at Prager U who suggested that those who advocate for the environment are just like the Nazis.

I have a real curiosity about this. You see those who denied the damage caused by opiates and tobacco, they made bundles of money and then successfully moved on to lines of disinformation but what will happen to these people after the first million die in the coming climate catastrophes? Or the first billion? Or just when the surface temperature in the middle United States hits the mid 130’s?

There might be some anger.

The Dark Secret Behind Grocery Store Rotisserie Chicken (msn.com)

This was a major disappointment. I was all excited about the “dark secret.” I was thinking maybe additives, contamination, you know, business ethics stuff. What I got was — when regular chickens in the meat section get close to expiration they get used for rotisserie chicken.

When I read the phrase, “dark secret,” it sort of implied that maybe Voldemort was cooking them or they were a by product of the Empire in Star Wars, or maybe they were Nazi or Commie chickens, you know, cooked birds with a strong political bent.

But no, they are just close to expiration before being cooked.

My thanks to my kind readers. Have a wonderful and fulfilling new week (hopefully better than this one).

If you want to get rich?

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

If your one desire is to get rich, I only have one thing to say to you. If you are working, going to school, and studying in your spare time, so you can get rich, this essay is for you.

Do something else.

It’s okay to have money but it is just stuff. Trust me. I am old man now and I’ve seen a lot of stuff, you can always get more.

(Just in case, you still want to get rich, below is a link to one of those constantly appearing article where wealthy people give you useless advice on how to be incredibly wealthy. They tell you to scrimp and save when obviously they did not. They tell you to invest sometimes in specific stocks that will add to their bottom line. They tell you to work hard when every picture and every article ever written about them discusses their sexual adventures, their times at resorts (and rehabs), their enormous homes and the huge sums they began with. If you are ready to believe this stuff, well, good luck with that.)

‘Who in the hell needs a Rolex watch?’: The late Charlie Munger warned Americans against ‘pretentious expenditures’ — here’s what he preferred to invest in instead (msn.com)

Let me explain. Do you know what the problem is at Boeing? Right now, all that the leadership intends, the board and the executives, is to make money. There is a laser like devotion to bonuses and stock profits. It is a perfect example of an organization built on greed and perhaps, even Milton Friedman’s silly concept of shareholder value. What happens when you seek profit at all cost? Your product safety and quality go down and people die — and they did. Eventually no one wants your product as they realize that being a customer means the only, the absolutely only purpose a customer has, is to be a source of revenue. There is no recognition of the customer as a human being, a brother or sister in the flesh, a value beyond revenue in at least some tiny sense. In other words, you are just dust as far as the company is concerned. Should you die, they will send a carefully composed form letter and check to make sure the insurance refunded them their losses, just the cost of doing business.

What made Boeing the incredible success that it was once? They were engineers and men of vision. They loved building aircraft, they loved overcoming challenges and above all, they loved the concept of flight. In a real way, a miracle of the 20th century. The aircraft they created were things of beauty. The other commercial values, fuel economy, customer service and long term value, all followed in the wake of engineering and visionary goals. Because the creators of Boeing knew what the current crop of fools do not, building airplanes and flying millions of people around the world is a calling, something to live for.

And that is what your life goal should be. Instead of contemplating being rich, contemplate making a new product, working to serve humankind, being a lady or gentleman, living a good life with an appreciation of literature, science and the arts. In other words, have a goal worthy of an intelligent moral being.

To reiterate, making money is okay but it should not be an end in itself.

Look below at the picture of a Boeing 707. It is not just a plane. In a real way, it was a revolution in travel and in technology of the this small planet. Have you ever looked at pictures of planes from the Second World War? After a while, you can very often tell what nation the aircraft belongs to without seeing any insignia at all. That is because our creations mirror their creators, their backgrounds and experience. The Boeing 707 was embodied vision of the people who built them.

By Mike Freer – http://www.airliners.net/photo/Pan-American-World/Boeing-707-321B/1281992/L/, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17026969

Be someone that makes a difference in our lives, a positive one. Make a new product, sell a new idea, write, think and contemplate. Money is to a certain extent necessary. That while true does not mean getting value is more important than anything else.

Have a life. Form an idea of the eternal and get in touch with it. Have a strong relationship with someone — I’ll leave the choice to you. You don’t need my recommendation for your personal life. Just know that I hope you have a good one.

Live a life that at the end, you can stand before your creator or your nation or your philosophy and feel that you can stand proud as one who was the best human being possible.

James Alan Pilant

(My thanks to Wikipedia for the use of their 707 picture. I have followed the instructions on credit carefully. If you wish any changed or can suggest and improvement in how I use your material, please let me know. And I want to remind all my readers that Wikipedia is a worthy cause to donate to.)

Tow Truck Discovers New Way to Violate Ethics

On By southwerkIn business ethics
Tow Truck Tries to Seize Moving Car in Serious Ethical Breach!

Tow Truck Tries to Seize Moving Car in Serious Ethical Breach!

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

https://autos.yahoo.com/tow-truck-attempts-pick-occupied-131500868.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13294269/san-francisco-towing-lamborghini-specialty-towing.html

https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/tow-truck-video-san-francisco-19396392.php

Generally speaking I always considered the tow truck business to be mundane under most circumstances. Apparently with a certain creative (and probably illegal) license, you can make it a very interesting business indeed.

A few days ago in San Francisco, a tow truck attempted to possess (seize, steal, catch, lay hands on,… ?) a vehicle at a stop light.

I have attached the video and several news stories. Here’s a quote from the Yahoo news article:

A Reddit user posted a video to r/sanfransisco showing a tow truck driver attempting to hook up and tow a vehicle in traffic. This isn’t some vehicle that was left abandoned by its owner, no, this is a vehicle being driven by someone sitting in traffic at an intersection waiting on a light to change. 

As for the towing company, here’s a quote from the “Daily Mail:”

The bright yellow tow truck, with the name ‘Specialty Towing’ plastered across it in lime green, was captured on video trying to snatch a silver Toyota sedan before the vehicles sped away. In February, Specialty Towing was suspended by San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu after the owners, Abigail Fuentes and Jose Badillo, were found to be claiming government handouts and scamming customers. The owners, described by the city attorney’s office as a couple with ‘a personal relationship’ and ‘multiple kids’, pocketed around $2million from their scams and used the money to buy a Lamborghini, documents said. 

From a business ethics standpoint, this is just pitiful, not only morally and legally wrong but aggressively foolish. It’s hard to even contemplate this level of stupidity. At the very least, they might have wound up being charged with car jacking, or kidnapping, as well as an amazing variety of traffic offenses. It is interesting that the the tow truck driver fled when he realized he was being filmed (according to one of the stories).

I suspect that the city, state or feds will find something to charge given the contents of the video. But we’ll see. I think justice has long been denied in regard to this company and it is absolutely time to remedy this.

James Alan Pilant

A Crime over many months

On By southwerkIn business ethics
Bus Aide Fired