I’m ill and having trouble posting. Sorry. I’ll be back as soon as I can.
jp
I’m Sick.
I’m ill and having trouble posting. Sorry. I’ll be back as soon as I can.
jp
Betty Garrett Dies at 91
From the L.A. Times –
Betty Garrett, a comedic actress who was a fixture in such MGM musicals as “On The Town” and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” a regular on the television series “All in the Family” and “Laverne & Shirley” and a star on Broadway and in Los Angeles theater productions, has died. She was 91.
On rationality and morality, and valuing an individual’s life. (via Musings of a procrastinator)
This is a look back at the scandal surrounding the Ford Pinto, a car with a less than stellar reputation. I’m not going into detail. I don’t want to spoil the story.
This article makes some good points and I like it. He’s dealing with one of the most morally charged stories of the twentieth century.
It’s a good story, well handled. Please read it.
James Pilant
PB POST | Lawyer Ben-Ezra held in contempt over ‘fraud’ in foreclosure filing (via Foreclosure Fraud – Fighting Foreclosure Fraud by Sharing the Knowledge)
I like this. Too long has the foreclosure industry lived without legal retribution for their crimes. I have argued for months that robo signing and false affidavits were contempt of court. Well, at least one judge agrees with me.
I like this site. If you have the slightest interest in the mortgage crisis, it should be on your favorites.
James PIlant
via Foreclosure Fraud – Fighting Foreclosure Fraud by Sharing the Knowledge
Google Foreclosure Maps–no longer available (via Dregs of the Future)
Take a long last look at accurate maps of the foreclosure crisis. Google says they have low usage. Maybe they just have a high level of influence suggesting a better use of their time. Well, it’s gone. Here’s one more look.
James Pilant
The Ethics Sage Responds to the Post: Maybe It’s Time For A Movement – A Movement That Moves Beyond Doing Good To Doing Right (via First Friday Book Synopsis)
The Ethics Sage, Steven Mintz, comments on an earlier post.
Yes. We can do what is difficult but the first step is recognizing there is a problem. I haven’t seen that from any of our leaders and it’s certainly not discussed in the media. The work ethic and hunger for learning that once existed no longer is there. We have become a soft nation; too many have had it too good for too long. It used to be young people were motivated to succeed at least in part to have it better than their parents. Since they have been given everything they need and want, what’s left? The problem is exacerbated by our instant access culture. Press a button and you have what you want. Go on the Internet and download what you need. We are not a doing society anymore. We are a let others do it for us society. It has taken its toll and those of us who are trying to educate young people are constantly frustrated by the prevailing mentality of students — tell me what I need to know to get the highest grade or best job. I don’t have any answers because I don’t think many people recognize the problem or, if they do, it’s easier to just make believe it doesn’t exist.
Good Words. I, too, see a lack of leadership on moral issues. But we really can’t have a national dialogue without enforcement of the law against the financial sector. When we read daily of the profits of investment bankers against a back drop of investigative reports showing their culpability in financial disaster, it is difficult to tell anyone that high ethical standards are important. Just the opposite. The great investment banks live for profit without any consideration of any moral or ethical principle. They are willing to participate in the destruction of democracies, economies and the, occasional, forest; if it makes money.
In the next life they will be punished. I find that cold comfort when their actions are solid evidence that an immoral corporate culture can make you rich.
These people do not deserve their money. They do not deserve the high opinion in which they are held. They do not deserve the influence they have over the lives of others.
They do deserve salaries in proportion to what they produce, not a comical casino profit insured from blunder by the government, but salary based on value produced. Those among them who have committed crimes, prison sentences and confinement in real prisons with real prisoners. These captains of investment deserve to be rated according the their actual accomplishments and abilities not held up as examples to steer youth into ruthless pursuit of gain.
The culture I want rewards people based on their merits and at the very least values the common brotherhood of all human kind.
James Pilant
Education as a Means to an End (via LongWind)
Persuading my students that education is a lifetime process is a lot like nailing snow to the wall. It is generally unavailing and at best temporary.
The belief that a diploma indicates an education is pernicious. It is self defeating. A diploma is like a license to drive. Its possession is evidence that one knows how to learn. But if it is considered an end in itself, it is of little use. It is like getting a driver’s license, proudly carrying it with you and proudly showing it to everyone and then never driving a car.
We are confused between education as a finished product delivered at the end of the assembly line and education as a matter of capability. One is static becoming obsolete. The other is dynamic continually changing form and creating new dynamics and possibilities in endless chains.
As a society, treating education as a finite process limits and cheapens political discourse. It makes learning into a jobs game like going around the monopoly board.
To build a society, a civilized place for people to develop, education never ends. It continually creates and inspires.
A diploma without further learning is a static choice. It is easy. The other, lifetime learning, is dynamic and difficult.
We can do what is difficult. We have a responsibility to our posterity to do the difficult, to leave our descendants a lasting example and to call from us, our best efforts.
James Pilant
via LongWind
How The Mubarak Family Made Its Billions ~ Marcus Baram (via PLANETIZEN POST)
Frankly, I was curious about this myself. Amassing 5 to 10 billion dollars or more (there are estimates of up to 70 billion) while working on a government salary, be it in the United States or Egypt, requires considerable energy.
How did they do it? My figured it was the usual means such as corruption in state-owned enterprises and government-run banks giving out loans without the expectation of being paid back. However, they did it more slowly with the appearance of legality.
This scheme appears to be based on the 51% rule. That rule says that no foreign business can be set up in Egypt without a majority stake being owned by an Egyptian. Obviously, the Mubarak family is more “Egyptian” than anyone else.
There is a warning in this. Nations requiring such partnerships may not in reality be all that friendly to business, not in the long-term. Certainly foreign interests are going to take a hit when they are in such an incestuous relationship with a corrupt government, first by shakedown and then by the inevitable revolution.
Such economic rules exist in many parts of the globe. The most prominent being China. For those businesses investing overseas I would recommend caution in these kinds of partnerships. Such an investment may pay off for the next quarter or the next year. But in theory, corporations are eternal. Having your immortal organization seized by an enraged population is an ignominious end. The situation in Egypt is a textbook example of how such investment can go wrong.
Whether the investment is shared with a corrupt Middle Eastern nation run by a single family or by a single political party (Chinese Communist), the future is hardly serene.
James Pilant
via PLANETIZEN POST
Maybe It’s Time For A Movement – A Movement That Moves Beyond Doing Good To Doing Right (via First Friday Book Synopsis)
My reply to the gentlemen at First Friday Book Synopsis.
It is time. Absolutely time.
How long are we going to live in a nation where the great economic units occasionally remark contentedly about how they have given a few thousand dollars to charity after ignoring, breaking and lobbying against the nation’s law.
I know what it is like to feel despair about what business is doing right night all over the United States. You feel helpless. But it is still a struggle. Totally one sided but still a struggle.
On the one hand we have those who believe in the great philosophies of history, in Christianity, in the development of civilization and finally those who believe in simple obedience to the law.
You’re right about all this.
James Pilant
DYLAN RATIGAN: FORECLOSURE FRAUD; $45 TRILLION DOLLARS (via Dylan Ratigan Show)
A family seizes their home back from the banks.
It’s pitiful that Americans have to take justice into their own hands.
James Pilant
Pilant's Business Ethics Blog 
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