Law Prohibiting Price Gouging In Effect in Oklahoma (via 40/29 tv.com)

On By southwerkIn business ethics3 Comments

On occasion I am told by a student or layman that a business has a right to charge as much as they can get. As to rights, I generally prefer to think of the rights of free speech and religion. As to squeezing customers’ wallets as much as possible, this article below should attract a little attention.

James Pilant

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt says a state law to prohibit price gouging during an emergency is now in effect.Pruitt said the Emergency Price Stabilization Act went into effect statewide after Gov. Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency Monday ahead of Tuesday’s winter storm.The law prohibits price increases of more than 10 percent on most goods and services when a state of emergency is declared and remains in effect on the price of goods, services, storage spaces and dwellings for 30 days after the emergency. It remains in effect for 180 days after the emergency on the prices of repairs, remodeling and construction.


Is Higher Ed Doomed? (Part I): Driving off a cliff near you, the state-run university (via Paul Kiser’s Blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

This Part 1 is the intriguing first shot across the bow to get our attention. It explains the developing crisis in state run universities.

What Kiser has said so far has definitely caught my interest. I’ve read this one and I’m looking for part 2.

This is going to be interesting. I think you will enjoy it as well. So, read this one and then catch the number 2 article when it comes. While you are at this, it might be a good idea to favorite the site. There might be a part three. Besides, you’d enjoy reading the site regularly. I do.

James Pilant

Is Higher Ed Doomed? (Part I): Driving off a cliff near you, the state-run university by Paul Kiser USA PDT [Twitter: ] [Facebook] [LinkedIn] [Skype:kiserrotary or 775.624.5679] Article first published as Is Higher Education Doomed (Part I): Driving Off a Cliff Near You – The State-Run University on Technorati.com Part I The average cost of a college degree is rapidly rising. In 2006, the annual average cost for tuition and fees at a state- … Read More

via Paul Kiser’s Blog

Ethical Spying…Google Me Baby! (via Shanti-Janae)

On By southwerkIn business ethics3 Comments

She’s absolutely right. Using Facebook to judge job applicants is wrong. And it is a foolish practice. The web is where we can be anything. A shy girl can be flamboyant. An unpopular guy can talk to dozens of people on the web and feel a confidence he doesn’t feel at school. Those images, those roles we play are just scenes in our lives. The significance is pretty variable.

I’m foolish enough to believe that good interviewing skills will pick up most problems in job applicants. I believe that these background checks: criminal, medical, credit and now social networking sites have gotten totally out of control. It is time for legal limits on these kinds of background checks.

And I believe that we should have some form of personal lives outside our work where our employer’s inquiring eye should not go.

I like what this web site had to say. I recommend you read it.

James Pilant

Topic of the Week #3 Social networking & the “ethical” spies!  I know my title and first sentence is off the meter, but I just hate this topic! Lately, college students have been warned that their Facebook and any other social media site profiles are being used as reason for them to not get hired. For one, I think that is very petty and unreliable. Not to mention shallow and a very easy way to cover-up discrimination. You might overlook the n … Read More

via Shanti-Janae

Academics on the Inside Job (via 21st Century Scholar)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Can academics (professors) be co-opted by the corporate grants and consultancies? Academia is for most professors not a lucrative field. Beginning salaries of less than thirty thousand dollars are not unknown. My understanding is that the field of economics is considered by some authorities to be the most corrupted.

This posting offers insight into academic corruption as reported in the documentary, Inside Job. I liked what he has to say.

James Pilant

by Bill Tierney “Inside Job” is a well-done documentary about the collapse of the financial industry.  The movie is akin to Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” in tone and style.  The movie is very serious and has little of the fun of a Michael Moore flick.  But the director and writers make a very difficult topic understandable to viewers who may not know their derivatives from their hedge funds. About two-thirds of the way through the movie, however … Read More

via 21st Century Scholar

Does China Force Companies To Move There?

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments

In an earlier article I reported that a writer had said that the Chinese used threats to force companies to move to China. At that time, I said I would look into the charge.

I have looked into the charge. This is what I found out.

China will not let some companies do business in their market without moving operations to their country.

Companies that move there are subject to unexpected laws and at least in one case, the arrest of its agents until they signed over their Chinese assets to the Chinese partner.

They are forcing companies to register thier patents in China giving that country a great deal of technology that is patented in other countries, particularly the U.S.

They are forcing auto companies operating in China to consolidate  with other companies to form new companies up to a certain size or lose the right to do business in China.

Corruption in China may be as much as ten percent of the gross national product with bribes and shake downs a normal part of doing business.

China has used threats in its foreign policy to gain access to markets, to force countries to accept its goods and it make sure its dissidents are not supported.

China has been doing industrial espionage on a large-scale for years.

China has developed an enormous cyber warfare apparatus and has used it against other countries, essentially an act of war.

Based on what I have found, there is no direct evidence of China telling a company, “move here or else.”

James Pilant

Football Pain

On By southwerkIn business ethics

From a Salon article called

The NFL: An indictment of America

by Ethan Sherwood Strauss –

True fans possess an enormous capacity to live through their football heroes, but they retain an even greater capacity to do so without empathy. Just last week, Bears quarterback Jay Culter was all but put in stocks for leaving a game due to a torn MCL. Fans burned his jersey as though Cutler “quit” out of feminine frailty, as though this professional QB had concocted some elaborate, cowardly, fan-jobbing conspiracy. The public violently, irrationally demands that a player play, even with knee ligaments dangling. No wonder so many of these athletes gobble painkillers in a manner that would trump a toilet-bound Elvis.

I’ve spent my life wondering what people saw in football. NFL football, I get that. That’s entertainment. What I don’t get is college or high school football. There’s this strange story line that football builds character and teamwork. I imagine there is some development there – “playing fields of Eton” and the other charming and nonsensical tales of our culture. But for almost all colleges, football loses money all the time every year. In high school it is at best a distraction from the real purpose of school and worse, a money drain diverting resources from other programs.

But the author here is right. It is the pain. It is the harm the sport does to the players. And the fans. There is some strangeness there. Many years ago I was in high school and the NFL players went on strike. My fellow students deprived of their television pacifier were outraged. My father subscribed to Sports Illustrated and I read about the strike. I discovered that the average life span of an NFL player was 58 years and the injury rate was 100%. That’s a lot to give up so that people can be entertained.

The author continues –

At a certain point, we are — in part — defined by this tendency. That America endorses the NFL’s pain party starts to say something about the country. Such as: American culture is replete with couch-jockeys who feel more masculine for having watched other people destroy themseves. Or: American culture is fine with perpetuating a system of destruction, so long as a few, mostly poor people are involved. In many ways, our attitudes towards fetishized athletes mirror our attitudes towards those glorious troops whom we only support with platitudes. This is not good.

I agree.

James Pilant

The Student Loan Crisis – Is It For Real? (via Go College)

On By southwerkIn Government Failure

Students now leave college with a debt of around $25,000 dollars a piece. When you choose a job after assuming that kind of debt, do you stay in places with generally low salaries like Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, or do you get out and head for the coast where the salaries often run double for the same job? What effect does this brain drain have on the economic development of these states, the viability of their communities and the kind of people elected to public office?

James Pilant

According to their data (Chronicle of Higher Education), of the student loans that entered repayment in 1995, one of every five has since gone into default. That’s correct, fully 20% of those who borrowed could not meet the expectations set forth in their repayment schedule.

Fast Forward to 2010

While one in five is truly scary, one needs to understand that the average student loan debt from that period was roughly $13,000. Today it is nearly double that figure, $23,000 plus.

One might suggest, using simple math, that fifteen years from now we might expect a doubling of the rate of default.

So no, the crisis isn’t hyperbole. According to the Wall Street Journal, “consumers now owe more on their student loans than their credit cards.” According to the June 2010 figures from the Federal Reserve, Americans owe some $826.5 billion in revolving credit. The total owed on student loans comes to $829.8 billion, according to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org and FastWeb.com.

Over at the Huffington Post, op ed writer Zac Bissonnette noted the Chronicle data and went on to note that defaults are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the impact of student loans. Many students who were not in default likely managed to stay in good standing only by accepting career options based on pay instead of goals and lifestyle choices based on debt as opposed to following their heart.

… Read More …

Student loans leave crushing debt burden (via MSNBC)

On By southwerkIn Government Failure

When will student loans reach such a size and ferocity in collection that a majority of American students no longer believe it is financially worthwhile to go to college?

Has the American dream simply disappeared for millions of Americans to whom a college education was the gateway to some form of economic security?

James Pilant

The cost of a college education is rising faster than the cost of medical care and as much as three times as fast as consumer prices in general. But that’s just the beginning of the price of admission.

This is the story of a debt crisis few are talking about.

Americans now owe more on their student loans than they do on their credit cards — a debt fast approaching $1 trillion with no end in sight.

Students borrow because they see little choice. A college education, after all, is a key to success. That, it seems, is an article of faith.

…Read More…

Opinion: The Looming Student Loan Crisis (via AOL News)

On By southwerkIn Government Failure

For many student loans are a continuing crisis in their lives. Is this kind of debt for millions of Americans sustainable? What are the social effects?

Does the student loan burden keep students away from running for public office, pursuing jobs valuable to society like police, fire and military?

Is this the way, we as a nation should finance our children’s education when that education is so critical to national success and competition?

Read this article and see what you think.

James Pilant

Like home ownership, a college degree used to be perceived as one of the keys to success. Unfortunately, these days it’s starting to look like a gateway to financial ruin.

The Federal Reserve has confirmed that as of June 2010, consumers now owe more on their student loans than on their credit cards.

A separate report reveals that one in five people can’t make their monthly payments.

As a result, Sallie Mae and Citibank have become the arch nemesis of millions, and the country as a whole faces what some warn is America’s next “mortgage meltdown.”

..Read More …

The Internet and Social (Network) Conflict (via Only a Northern Song)

On By southwerkIn ethics

This is a fascinating post about how we treat internet posts differently than traditional writing. I enjoyed it. I hope you do too.

James Pilant

The Egyptians worshiped the open eye because they knew attention was redemptive – if you pay attention to things you can understand them and make things better. This resonates with us – we generally believe that paying conscious attention to things is the best way of achieving an objective grasp, a full understanding of what a thing is from itself, rather than simply from our perspective. We improve on this by establishing perspectives which are, … Read More

via Only a Northern Song