Tag: technology

Elon Musk’s Disastrous Week

On By southwerkIn Capitalism

Elon Musk just canceled a spacecraft launch, settled a lawsuit over paying ex-twitter employees for what must have been at minimum hundreds of millions of dollars and federal judges in California and Maryland certified separate class action lawsuits against the carmaker and its CEO personally.

(An illustration from Dante descent into the nine planes of hell. It seems appropriate. JP)

But there is more, much more.

One of the reasons people buy particular models of car is the resale value. The idea that you might get back a high proportion of your purchase prize is a compelling one.

The resale price of a Tesla is collapsing, at least, according to Mike Taylor, writing for the Cool Down. He suggests the collapse might be do to the many controversies, some of them political, surrounding the controversial figure.

Mike Taylor writing for The Cool Down in article entitled: New report reveals stunning trend in used Tesla vehicle prices: ‘Quite exceptional’ reports that the value of used Teslas is collapsing.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/report-reveals-stunning-trend-used-004500645.html

The cost of a used Cybertruck has dropped the most over the last year: 30.4% to $83,963. The Model S is down 22.6% to $26,534, the Model X is down 16.8% to $37,747, and the Model Y is down 12% to $29,216. The most affordable offering is the Model 3, which is down 8% to $23,318.

“The fact that its average used car sale price would dip below the industry average, which includes inexpensive mass-market vehicles, is quite exceptional,” Electrek reported, noting used Tesla prices are down 4.6% year over year, while the market is up 1.2%.

Why is this important?

“It’s proof that the Tesla brand has taken a massive reputational hit and there’s no clear recovery in sight,” Electrek stated. (My emphasis. jp)

The other day I was reading an article in which Elon Musk claimed that if you want to be amazingly rich, all you have to do is work 120 hour weeks. I immediately discarded the nonsense classifying it as one of those ridiculous screeds where wealthy people attempt to appear virtuous against all actual evidence. (I will not link to it – if that kind of braggadocio is your cup of tea, you can look it up.)

However, we do have an insight into how he makes money from an investigation by CNN and discussed in an article from The Cool Down.

Cody Januszko writing for The Cool Down has an article entitled: Small businesses forced into bankruptcy after multimillion-dollar deal with Tesla: ‘It’s been horrible’

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/small-businesses-forced-bankruptcy-multimillion-004500053.html

CNN’s recent investigation sheds new light on Tesla’s business practices. Many of the small businesses that Tesla contracted were not paid for their labor or products, forcing at least two of them into bankruptcy.

“It’s been horrible. If I didn’t have my family, I don’t think I would have made it,” Jennifer Meissner, one of the business owners who went bankrupt, said.

Unpaid contractors have filed liens against Musk’s companies. Liens are legal claims against property that allow a creditor to take the property if the debt isn’t paid.

CNN’s financial analysis shows that more than $110 million in liens have been filed against Tesla over the past five years, with a potential $24 million still owed.

It would appear to me that if you don’t pay your bills, you can accumulate a lot of money. These small businesses, at least the ones still surviving, are making legal claims against Tesla, so something about payments that is very bad is happening. Let us see what develops.

In international news surrounding the fellow, Elon Musk, we have this burst of disaster journalism. Musk’s AI, Grok, has been superseded in China by the local’s AI system. What do you think? Several hundred million in losses? That is just a guess. I would think providing an AI system for cars produced in China would be in the tens of billions of dollars but I might be mistaken.

Joe Wilkins writing for Futurism has an article entitled: Elon Musk Just Suffered a Humiliating Defeat in China

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-just-suffered-humiliating-134518373.html

So far, 2025 hasn’t exactly been a year of resounding success for centibillionaire Elon Musk’s AI efforts.

The richest man on earth has struggled to get xAI’s Grok off the ground, with setbacks taking the form of privacy scandals, misinformation controversies, not to mention a highly-public white supremacy episode.

And now, more than a month after Musk promised to roll Grok out to Teslas “next week,” it turns out a Chinese AI model will be taking the chatbot’s place.

According to Bloomberg, Tesla’s Chinese division is planning to introduce in-car voice assistance via DeepSeek and Bytedance’s AI models at some point in the near future.

It would seem that the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune are falling with intensity upon Musk and his empire. Of course, there are many critics who might find the barrage just and fair. Well, there are a lot of points of view out there.

What are the business ethics issues here? Corporate citizenship would be a good call. Tesla does not seem interested in paying taxes or benefiting the nation to whom it owes so much.

Of course, we could do Stakeholder analysis. The government, it could be argued always seems to come up on the short end of the stick on these deals with Elon Musk, — cars, spacecraft and DOGE all seem a bit problematic. What about the American People? Elon Musk seems to me more of a well paid parasite than any kind of benefit. But we could do the full shareholder analysis. How would we classify Elon Musk with his enormous wealth and powerful connections purchased for many millions of dollars? Would we call him a Super Stakeholder? His needs seem at times to outweigh citizens, nations and economic systems. All these appear as little more than pawns to our class of oligarchs.

Sometimes, it seems like we are reading a new and cruel version of the Iliad and the Odyssey where the gods of Greek mythology walk the earth and interfere with the destinies of men. These billionaires seem every bit as capricious as Hera and Zeus, and their depredations are equally cruel.

We cannot escape reading about these people, however godlike they think they are. The news will continue to roll in.

Let us see what happens to him and his empire next week. I’m sure it will be interesting.

James Alan Pilant

Do CEO’s Understand AI: I don’t think so.

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Capitalism, Corpoorate Social Responsibility

There is a big sell off in AI related stocks at the moment. But don’t worry. After reading several dozen articles in the business press once again asserting that AI is the future of, well, everything and more, the investors will be back.

So, far AI has produced a vast wasteland of crappy video’s on You Tube and countless poorly written novels, essays, short stories, editorials, love notes and much else. This doesn’t give you a lot of faith in the thing.

It has enabled talentless and vapid people everywhere the ability to write at a modicum level which is scary. But that isn’t the real scary part. The part that worries me is the sheer volume. A ten year old with an AI writing program can write tens of thousands of articles, the same is true in regard to fake images and much else.

And it is happening now. AI is producing countless short films, an infinity of pictures and articles without count. These all consuming devices are devouring the internet and all of social media as I write this (without I might add a shred of AI – I don’t use it – I won’t use it.).

It is my business, Business Ethics, that keeps me reading article after article about the coming “revolution.” Some of it sounds scaremongering. I hope that it is just hype but after watching the flood of material the thing is already producing, it is hard not to have some worries.

Even if AI operates at the level of a functional moron, businesses in the hope of replacing their human workers and making enormous profits are plugging it into all kinds of uses. It is the magic wand that will fix business problems and propel us into a sort of corporate nirvana, at least, according to the hype. I have serious doubts.

When it is late at night and I want something intelligent to listen to while I am drifting off to sleep and search the internet and find wall to wall AI content which is usually just exaggerations, lies and fantasies with a tiny amount of actual data, when I do that, I worry about our future and those that think our future is going to be based on this stuff.

(Trying to understand AI and failing.)

From Fortune Magazine below is a link to an article called – An MIT report that 95% of AI pilots fail spooked investors. But it’s the reason why those pilots failed that should make the C-suite anxious

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mit-report-95-ai-pilots-165754716.html

Ok, now let’s look at what the report actually says. It interviewed 150 executives, surveyed 350 employees, and looked at 300 individual AI projects. It found that 95% of AI pilot projects failed to deliver any discernible financial savings or uplift in profits. These findings are not actually all that different from what a lot of previous surveys have found—and those surveys had no negative impact on the stock market. Consulting firm Capgemini found in 2023 that 88% of AI pilots failed to reach production. (S&P Global found earlier this year that 42% of generative AI pilots were abandoned—which is still not great).

…

But where it gets interesting is what the NANDA study said about the apparent reasons for these failures. The biggest problem, the report found, was not that the AI models weren’t capable enough (although execs tended to think that was the problem.) Instead, the researchers discovered a “learning gap”—people and organizations simply did not understand how to use the AI tools properly or how to design workflows that could capture the benefits of AI while minimizing downside risks. (My emphasis.)

A LEARNING GAP! These people are spending millions of dollars and incorporating AI technology into everything humanly and inhumanly imaginable and they don’t “understand how to use AI tools properly.” I don’t even want to discuss “workflows.” I am depressed enough.

Here, let’s discuss the sell off we are at the moment observing.

From Futurism an article entitled – Meta Freezes AI Hiring as Fear Spreads, linked to below.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meta-freezes-ai-hiring-fear-191830507.html

The AI industry as a whole is facing a critical juncture, with mounting concerns contributing to a massive tech selloff roiling the stock market this week. Shares of AI tech stalwarts, including Nvidia and Palantir, have plummeted — raising concerns that the hype had driven their valuations too high for the shaky realities of their current tech.

What is the above paragraph saying? Well, unlike virtually any element or aspect of AI, the paragraph above is straightforward. It is very simple. Nobody know what this stuff is worth. You can say things like the future of all technology and all of American business will rely on Artificial Intelligence and you can say it over and over again but what does it mean in dollars and cents? If all American businesses will become dependent on AI, how much will it cost to implement, to operate on a regular basis and are there going to be any profits? Not to mention its effect on investment and return itself. Will it replace buying and selling by humans and if so will business, industry and investment all become one united AI operation like one of those science fiction movies,(The Forbin Project)?

And then there are the little side issues, like a massive unemployment across multiple fields that will leave the economy as empty and useless as an old paper sack or the other little issue of destroying all life on earth should there bit a little misstep in the application of the thing in one small industry or maybe even one small laboratory.

Now if none of this concerns you and you find me alarmist, try reading this little tid bit below!

Joe Wilkins writing for Futurism has an article: OpenAI Chairman Says AI Is Destroying His Sense of Who He Is.

https://tech.yahoo.com/ai/articles/openai-chairman-says-ai-destroying-132644783.html

For being poised to become the richest startup in history, OpenAI’s architects seem strikingly ambivalent about its work.

The company’s CEO is constantly afraid of the technology he’s unleashing on the world, a longstanding investor has been driven to what his peers say are signs of psychosis, and even its chairman is panicking about losing his identity to the machine.

Speaking on the podcast “Acquired” earlier this week, the chair of OpenAI’s board, Bret Taylor, expressed his anxiety that AI chatbots like ChatGPT are redefining his relationship to technology, destroying — or at least making unrecognizable — the world of programming in which he built his career.

So, you think I’m alarmist. I think Bret Taylor is more scared than I am and since he has more knowledge, I find that worrying.

(I seem to recall the minister from “Plan 9 from Outer Space” saying that we should all be concerned about the future because that is we will be spending our time.)

To sum up. This AI stuff is dangerous, has already had deleterious effects and nobody anywhere seems to really understand what it can do or what is going to happen.

James Alan Pilant

The End of the Corporate CEO!

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Capitalism

CEO’s will soon be gone. And when they are, it will be much better world and a much better economy.

When these preening fools with their enormous salaries, portfolio of stocks and out sized political power disappear, no one will lament and no one will care.

And right now they are firing people and replacing them with AI. They are so happy about it, talking about more profits and not having to deal with ungrateful and troublesome workers. You might think that they are acting like unfeeling and inhuman machines. And you would be right.

Over and over again, you see in the business press the worship of the cutthroat CEO putting the hammer down on the workers. You get the impression that they want a man who is completely free of the normal limitations on greed and wrong doing. They don’t look for Christians. They don’t look for human qualities like love, kindness and understanding. And above all a reverence for nation or an obedience to the law is a red line to be avoided.

So, what do stockholders and boards of directors want? They want a man shorn of human emotion.

However, they are often bitterly disappointed. Even the cold blooded specimens of humanity they can find sometimes slip. It is deeply regrettable. He might develop a love for a child. He might wander accidentally into a church. There is no telling what traps of morality, religion or family can do to even the best cold blooded psychopath.

At the moment, they are happily firing and destroying the human beings that get in the way of their vision. Don’t believe me??

How about this little story:

https://fortune.com/2025/08/17/ceo-laid-off-80-percent-workforce-ai-sabotage/

Eric Vaughan, CEO of enterprise-software powerhouse IgniteTech, is unwavering as he reflects on the most radical decision of his decades-long career. In early 2023, convinced that generative AI was an “existential” transformation, Vaughan looked at his team and saw a workforce not fully on board. His ultimate response: He ripped the company down to the studs, replacing nearly 80% of staffwithin a year, according to headcount figures reviewed by Fortune.

Over the course of 2023 and into the first quarter of 2024, Vaughan said IgniteTech replaced hundreds of employees, declining to disclose a specific number. “That was not our goal,” he told Fortune. “It was extremely difficult … But changing minds was harder than adding skills.” It was, by any measure, a brutal reckoning—but Vaughan insists it was necessary, and says he’d do it again.

He got rid of eighty percent! Now, that is cold blooded! And he is so proud telling the press the he’d do it again and talking about his former employees as if they were some kind of disobedient pets! What a guy! The ideal CEO! Got a conscience, hell no, screw that! Ice water for blood.

Now of course, there has to be a down side. Carping critics like me. I, a pitiful liberal, with my weird and out of date beliefs in the sanctity of the law, Christian obligations devised and stated clearly by Jesus Christ and a devotion to the ideals of the United States. Those beliefs lead me to believe that this CEO is doomed to Hell where many others like him dwell.

But as these CEO’s fire and proclaim their delight in cruelty, they don’t realize the bitter irony.

Let me tell you a story. There was once an episode of the Twilight Zone called “The Brain Center at Whipple’s.”

Let me Quote that master of television writing, Rod Serling’s intro:

These are the players — with or without a scorecard. In one corner a machine; in the other, one Wallace V. Whipple, man. And the game? It happens to be the historical battle between flesh and steel, between the brain of man and the product of man’s brain. We don’t make book on this one and predict no winner….but we can tell you for this particular contest, there is standing room only — in the Twilight Zone.

This passage is from my dear friends at Wikipeda, specifically https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brain_Center_at_Whipple%27s

In the story, a company manager replaces all the workers with machines and then is replaced by a machine himself. and this fictional and cautionary event is about to happen in real life.

(Film screen-shot of 1956 film Forbidden Planet. Intended to support film’s plot description. I include this picture because in the Twighlight episode discussed above, our friend robbie here was the one who replaced the boss – but he was uncredited, the fate of the robot.)

In an article written by Emma Burleigh in Fortune, Google X’s former chief business officer Mo Gawdat is quoted in the following article.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/ai-gutting-workforces-ex-google-150148959.html

But executives shouldn’t celebrate their efficiency gains too soon—their role is also on the chopping block, Gawdat, who worked in tech for 30 years and now writes books on AI development, cautioned.

“CEOs are celebrating that they can now get rid of people and have productivity gains and cost reductions because AI can do that job. The one thing they don’t think of is AI will replace them too,” Gawdat continued. “AGI is going to be better at everything than humans, including being a CEO. You really have to imagine that there will be a time where most incompetent CEOs will be replaced.”

“Better at everything than humans, including being a CEO.” I love the irony and have a certain sense that this is finally real justice at these self-proclaimed masters of the economy.

But you say, “Stop James, that is merely one voice among many. I’m sure it is not true.”

Don’t be quite so sure, I have some other sources.

How about this one:

From by Hamza Mudassir, Kamal Munir, Shaz Ansari and Amal Zahra writing in the Harvard Business Review.

https://hbr.org/2024/09/ai-can-mostly-outperform-human-ceos

Or this article written byFrank Landymore for The Byte:

https://futurism.com/the-byte/ceos-easily-replaced-with-ai

CEOs better start endearing themselves to their employees real quick, because oh boy: the case for replacing them with AI just keeps mounting.

And then there is this article from Forbes –

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sherzododilov/2024/01/11/can-ai-become-your-next-ceo/

And this article from Inc – EXPERT OPINION BY JOE PROCOPIO.

Let me add here just above the link that this is a very delightfully written article. You should read the whole thing. This guy is just a great writer. jp

https://www.inc.com/joe-procopio/it-wont-be-long-before-ai-replaces-the-ceos/91194705

Corporate and unicorn CEOs have never had a stellar reputation. These aren’t men and women of the people by nature. But over the last 10 or so years, the CEO role has been further marred by alleged thieves (FTX), alleged liars (Theranos), and alleged cults of personality (WeWork), among many, many more problematic abuses of the position. 

So, in my opinion, the days of the CEO are numbered. It probably should have happened a long time ago.

James Alan Pilant

Hardcore Culture or the Absence of Western Values??

On By southwerkIn Capitalism

Hardcore Culture, a shift away from company loyalty to a “market based” culture. That doesn’t sound too bad, does it? Market based: Yeah, based on market forces, that’s okay, right? Or is it?

John Stankey has been making people “return to the office.”

(Quoted directly from the article linked to below.) The increasingly strict return-to-office mandate that AT&T has rolled out in phases over the past year has also resulted in further reductions, multiple employees have told Business Insider, and Stankey signaled in his memo that he’s fine with more people leaving if they’re not on board with the company’s new direction. (End quote.)

The information that we have, that is, the facts, say that working from home and other such flexible work ideas have led to greater employee satisfaction and productivity. So, why would you make people return to the office. It’s pretty clear, isn’t it. It is a return to the dictator style boss, the kick them in the teeth style boss epitomized by the yuppies in the 1980’s.

Apparently the investors are eating this stuff up. They love reduced work forces, corporate mandates and divesting the company from previous endeavors. And none of it has to make any sense, they are like toddlers strapped in a car seat, they enjoy the motion of the vehicle and that is enough. Thinking logically, critically or even trying to protect their money is hard while reacting positively to the supposedly alpha male characteristics of hard charging decisions, commands rather than cooperation, lots and lots of forced resignations and an emphasis on the perceived toughness of the CEO, well, that’s easy.

If you get the impression I don’t think much of the investment community, you would be right. But there is something far more alarming here but first let me quote my article about our star of a CEO.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/t-ceo-john-stankeys-hard-202422959.html

(Quoted from article above.) As the company moves to sunset most of its copper network in the US by the end of 2029, Stankey has also instituted a broad cultural shift internally. He’s moved away from prioritizing 20th-century corporate values like loyalty and tenure in favor of a tech-style, “more market-based culture,” the AT&T CEO wrote in a sweeping memo last week that was first reported by Business Insider. (End quote.)

So, here’s my concern. Where are Western Values in all of this? A giant corporation like this one is also a political and cultural entity. In this article, there is an almost complete absence of any issue or topic related to Western Values save capitalism and market economics, and then only in its cruelest and simplest form.

What are Western Values? They fall into six categories: (From Wikipedia with my thanks!)

Does AT&T have any stance on obeying the law or participating in democracy or pledging to pay its taxes like a good citizen?

Why is a bald statement celebrating naked power and greed a positive for investors? And at the same time, the absence of any commitment to a better society, a greater nation or an improved civilization, and this absence does not trouble the investors at all. In face, I think they regard the evasion of human and moral values as a positive.

I think every corporation in the United States has a duty to the law and to its fellow citizens. I think we should all be invested with the responsibility of creating and maintaining a civil society and a program for human and cultural development because that is what a great people do and we should above all things strive to be a great people.

James Alan Pilant

Ninety Laptops!

On By southwerkIn crime

Christina Chapman became a front, that is, a “facilitator,” for a North Korean Operation in the United States. She found jobs for thousands of workers. The companies hiring thought they were hiring American citizens, instead they were hiring North Koreans. The money these workers earned was used for such things as the North Korean nuclear program.

Thousands of identities were stolen to make this fraudulent and illegal practice work. Chapman knew she was committing crimes but the money was very good.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/03/ninety-laptops-millions-of-dollars-us-woman-jailed-for-role-in-north-korea-remote-work-scam

(Quoted from the article linked to above.) To run the schemes, the North Koreans need facilitators in the United States, because the companies “aren’t going to willingly send laptops to North Korea or even China”, said Adam Meyers, head of counter-adversary operations for CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm. “They find somebody that is also looking for a gig-economy job, and they say, ‘Hey, we are happy to get you $200 per laptop that you manage,’” said Meyers, whose team has published reports on the North Korean operation. Chapman grew up in an abusive home and drifted “between low-paying jobs and unstable housing”, according to documents submitted by her attorneys. In 2020, she was also taking care of her mother, who had been diagnosed with renal cancer.About six months after the LinkedIn message, Chapman started running what law enforcement officials describe as “laptop farms”. (End Quote.)

She ran the scheme for about three years and it generated roughly seventeen million dollars for the North Koreans. She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments. She was sentenced to more than eight years in prison and to pay fines.

Of course, the money the North Koreans made was one thing but the value of the information they got as employees of major American companies will never be known.

This was a betrayal, and COVID and hard times are not much of an excuse for committing massive fraud on behalf of a foreign nation.

What’s the business ethics analysis here? This is a set of crimes and the perpetrator was well aware that she was committing federal crimes. Breaking the law particularly in cooperation with a foreign power is an obvious ethics failure. No deeper reasoning is merited here. This was wrong and there is no defense merely a relative handful of mitigating circumstances.

J. Pilant

Writing about Business Ethics!

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Since I have returned to writing regularly on my business ethics site, it is important to reflect on what has changed since I first began this project.

I started this blog in 2006 and often published several times a day. I was very enthusiastic. Each morning I would go over the major news sites carefully reading their “Business” sections (sometimes the sites called it “Money” or some other euphemism) and there were always one of two things worthy of a business ethics writer’s attention.

Well, now it is 2025 and we are just at the end of first six months of this lawless administration. I went through the news and came up with 25 solid business ethics topics to discuss — and that is when I stopped counting. The regular business ethics issues I saw when I began have been replaced by a flood of business ethics failures and obscenities. One day’s news output could keep a man writing for weeks.

Wanton, incompetent and often downright evil behavior is a constant in the news, in particular when discussing the actions of our current President. But many business leaders, the wealthy and other politicians have leaped on the immorality bandwagon. Never before in American history has being cruel, self serving and vile been so celebrated and publicized. I never thought to live to see such times and it is painful to see such evil and so little push back.

Let me give you an example. And I didn’t have to look for an example, it was on today’s news.

Stupid and Immoral — And Proud of it!

Take a look at the article linked to below. This CEO’s hatred and disdain for human beings who I might add he is paid to lead and manage is self evident. He is outwardly, nakedly and proudly empty of moral values and human decency. Not to mention, astonishingly unaware, for if AI makes workers obsolete, it does the same for CEO’s. I promise that while I weep for the suffering of workers, I will celebrate with good food and friends every CEO replaced by a machine.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/technology/artificial-intelligence/ceo-brags-that-he-gets-extremely-excited-firing-people-and-replacing-them-with-ai/ar-AA1JsRr4

“CEOs are extremely excited about the opportunities that AI brings,” Elijah Clark, a chief executive who advises other head honchos on using AI at their companies, told Gizmodo in an interview. “As a CEO myself, I can tell you, I’m extremely excited about it. I’ve laid off employees myself because of AI.”

“AI doesn’t go on strike. It doesn’t ask for a pay raise,” he added, parroting cliched talking points, much like a certain over-hyped technology. “These things that you don’t have to deal with as a CEO.”

I used to teach in a business college of the type that this cretin almost certainly graduated from one does not fill me with pride. We should have done better with our students than turning out morally challenged money-grubbers. I certainly tried and many faculty I knew also tried hard to give some semblance of moral, ethical and traditionally American values teaching but we were up against the corruption and evil of our current business and political leadership. All the money and power now seems to go to the psychopath and the sycophants. It is not an edifying spectacle.

It may be in a few years that we will once again live in a democracy that this proto-fascist feast of the gluttonous pigs will be over. Be we may very well lose this and all the things a whole human being should hold dear will pass away to subsumed in a morass of greed and self interest.

We’re going to find out.

James Alan Pilant

Wilhoit’s Law!

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

I read a lot and from time something I read stands out. The idea that caught my attention was Wilhoit’s law. It has enormous explanatory power when it comes to modern conservatism. It is also counter to my firm conviction that the law should bind everyone, that if we are not equal under the law, democracy is impaired or impossible.

But a very fine explanation of the idea is quoted below and I am indebted to the author, Jason Linkins. I did a little research and it appears I am very late on learning about this concept. And that is too bad, I don’t get to fly in intellectual circles very often here in Northeastern Oklahoma.

The quote below is from this link: https://www.yahoo.com/news/maga-plan-destroy-fourteenth-amendment-110000254.html It was written by Jason Linkins.

Those who are familiar with Wilhoit’s law—which holds that conservatism, in the words of Ohio classical music composer Frank Wilhoit—“consists of exactly one proposition.… There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect”—will recognize that Trump’s plans aren’t novel but rather stem from the primordial ideas that have long guided his party along its postmodern evolution into a haven for authoritarianism and oligarchy.

Affordable Connectivity Program Ends Because of Governing Failure

On By southwerkIn business ethics
This is a Tennessee focused article but very good.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/31/tech/fcc-affordable-connectivity-program-acp-close/index.html

Direct Quote from the article above:

On Friday, the US government announced the final closure of the broadly popular federal program, which has helped tens of millions of households afford internet service, after Republicans in Congress ignored calls by consumer advocates and Democratic lawmakers to approve more funding this spring. The program’s lapse threatens to throw nearly 60 million Americans into financial distress, CNN has reported.

For several years, the federal government has subsidized internet access to millions of Americans, almost 60 million of them. It was a very successful program because access to the internet is a “production good.” If you don’t remember you college economics or never had it, a production good is something you can buy that increases your output. Before the age of the computer that would have been a car (so you could go to work) or a typewriter (for filing applications and sending cover letters or working from home). Internet access allows you to apply for jobs or government benefits, communicate with your employer and learn the rules and regulations in countless fields. It is quite difficult to successfully apply for a job without an active internet connection.

Then why did the Republicans not fund it? I think it is safe to say that philosophically Republicans believe that the government cannot successfully do anything. Perhaps when subsidizing highly profitable industries, they see an exception but not very often. There is also the factor that this assists people of the lower and lower middle class incomes, and they feel a strong need to make these people suffer so they will “learn to achieve like the rest of us.”

If you have been following the news these last few weeks you may have observed that they were also busy browbeating University Presidents, Merrick Garland and the former Surgeon General. This kind of grandstanding takes the place of governing in their minds. Performing important government functions doesn’t get your name mentioned favorably on America’s numerous hate radio stations where every kind of nonsense is spouted as if it were the wisdom of the ages. Our alternate media sources do not find achievement and action on behalf of the public to be compelling topics. It doesn’t push the big topics of the deep state or the coming civil war, so we have a political party basically devoted to inaction and publicity stunts. This is called nihilism.

It was a good program, a successful program that helped millions of Americans go to school, get jobs, maintain employment and learn important skills. It wasn’t very much money and it made a lot of difference but that kind of governing is out of style. Sabotage and inaction are the tools in use here. If we can make the government not work, we can hurt the current administration. The public be damned.

It is ethically wrong, morally bankrupt and a failure of business ethics. But screwing over people while owning the libs is a value among Republicans more valuable than diamonds and gold. So, some teenager having difficulty applying to college because he has no internet access is just another victory over those people who practice compassion and making them suffer is the most important thing in the world.

James Pilant

We Need to Reconsider the Use of Gas Stoves

On By southwerkIn business ethics

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1042477

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/how-safe-is-your-gas-stove-heres-what-a-new-study-shows-180044909.html

A new study concerning the dangers of gas stoves came out today. It is very alarming and it calls into question claims of safety for the appliance.

From the study (the top link above):

Beyond asthma cases, the long-term exposure to NO2 in American households with gas stoves is high enough to cause thousands of deaths each year – possibly as many as 19,000 or 40% of the number of deaths linked annually to secondhand smoke. This estimate is based on the researchers’ new measurements and calculations of how much nitrogen dioxide people breathe at home because of gas stoves and the best available data on deaths from long-term exposure to outdoor NO2, which is regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“As many as 19,000 deaths” is a lot of deaths but the new research also concerns childhood asthma and the overall national levels of pollutions.

The data we had before this was enough to strongly consider banning gas stove in new construction and if you have a child with asthma replacing your gas appliances immediately. This new research is more compelling and alarming. We should begin consider a national phase out.

However, for many families, the cost of replacement is just too much. If you have a gas stove, you can mitigate the effects by proper ventilation. Use the fan above the stove to diminish the pollutants. (Yes, there is supposed to be one up there.) And never ever use a stove to heat the home, they also produce benzene and carbon monoxide. Trust me, you don’t want large concentrations of either one in your home.

In the future, as a writer on business ethics, I am going to have to talk about the fossil fuel industry in the light of the history of lead pollution, climate denial, “clean and safe” natural gas, and some other things like fairly extensive support for various fascist governments before World War Two because I think it demonstrates a pattern of unethical behavior.

But that will be pretty lengthy and it will take a lot of research. For the moment, run with my observation that the oil and gas industry are not neutral observers when it comes to the use of gas stoves and treat what they say accordingly.

I believe based on the new research that this is not a safe way of cooking or heating.

James Pilant

This is from a year ago but it lines up nicely with the May 3rd Study.

Ethics Roundup, Week of April 14 to 20

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This last week was crowded with business ethics disasters and issues. Let’s get started. Above you’ll see a short You-Tube video that I liked and included.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/21/louisiana-state-university-oil-firms-influence

Louisiana State University is offering corporations the ability to influence research. The University has, it seems, offered up its intellectual integrity for a price, a very good price. In their defense I have to point out they aren’t selling themselves cheap (maybe it’s more of a rental?). Let me quote from the article above:

For $5m, Louisiana’s flagship university will let an oil company weigh in on faculty research activities. Or, for $100,000, a corporation can participate in a research study, with “robust” reviewing powers and access to all resulting intellectual property. Those are the conditions outlined in a boilerplate document that Louisiana State University’s fundraising arm circulated to oil majors and chemical companies affiliated with the Louisiana Chemical Association, an industry lobbying group, according to emails disclosed in response to a public records request by the Lens.

This is a pivotal moment in the history of the energy industries. I believe they are in the midst of a almost revolutionary pivot. My perception of what is currently happening is that they are attempting to build a huge infrastructure of “carbon capture” industry. The companies ability to limit and influence research would be invaluable when you are an organization that created in large part the global warming crisis and now intend to profit like bandits from that same crisis.

That is just what I think.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/18/splenda-diabetes-lawsuit

A quote from the article linked to above.

(Elizabeth) Hanna, a registered dietitian nutritionist and certified diabetes care and education specialist with “16 years of experience in the field of medical nutrition therapy”, according to the lawsuit, says the ADA and in particular Nicole Johnson, the ADA’s vice-president of operations for the science and healthcare division – “a former Miss America who has traded upon the dreams and aspirations of people with diabetes to reach fame and fortune” – pressured her to endorse what she believed were unhealthy and unethical claims.

If you’re teaching ethics or business ethics or any of a number of business courses, this is a lengthy article laden with serious business ethics issues, you should use this. “How much deference should an organization pay to its donors?” is a recurring issue we constantly see over and over again.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/apr/17/nestle-adds-sugar-to-infant-milk-sold-in-poorer-countries-report-finds

(A quote from the article above.)

Nestlé, the world’s largest consumer goods company, adds sugar and honey to infant milk and cereal products sold in many poorer countries, contrary to international guidelines aimed at preventing obesity and chronic diseases, a report has found.

This is the latest in a number of controversies regarding the products international corporations sold in developing countries. Stay tuned. I will probably get to return to this issues again.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/17/canada-elephant-seal-relocation-attempt-failed

I have heard economics described as the “dismal” science. Well, that is not true, it is business ethics. Greed, death and human stupidity are big parts of the field.

So, from time to time, I take a break. This is a fun story.

Here we have an elephant seal who declined to accept relocation.

Last week, gun-wielding conservation officers stuffed a 500lb elephant seal in the back of a van, drove him along a winding highway in western Canada and left him on a remote beach “far from human habitation”.

That beach was 126 miles away. The elephant seal known as Emerson declined to accept relocation and came right back. I side with the seal but I very much want the public to give the fellow a safe distance. He’s got a lot of muscle on him and he’s not in anyway tame.

It wouldn’t be standard week in 2024 without Boeing getting a headline or two. And for Boeing while the headline isn’t friendly, at least parts didn’t fall off of plane or bunch of people die.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/decisions-making-going-end-smoking-182931894.html

I have addressed the Boeing issues before and no doubt will return to the topic in the future. Good article though.

In the United States, politics is something of a business but according to some including our former President, not as much a business as it should be. Trump is asking for five percent of all donations received from candidates who use his likeness in fund raising.

That is a very solid transformation of political relationships into purely business relationships. Every down ballot candidate becomes something of a financial subsidiary. It’s in a real way revolutionary. Here is a link.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-strategist-reacts-trump-unconventional-142447663.html

From the link, one gets the impression, that this “request” is not going over well. Imagine my surprise at this!

Elon Musk has been in the news but he is always in the news much like bad weather and air accidents he figures in our national consciousness. But this is a special occasion. He’s not saying anything stupid or bizarre. Have a look at the link below:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/tesla-ask-shareholders-reinstate-pay-112125798.html

From the article:

Tesla is asking shareholders to restore a $56 billion pay package for CEO Elon Musk that was rejected by a Delaware judge this year, and to shift the company’s corporate home to Texas. The changes, to be voted on by stockholders at a June 13 annual meeting, could be a tougher sell than when it was first approved in 2018. The Austin, Texas, electric vehicle maker is struggling with falling global sales, slowing electric vehicle demand, an aging model lineup and a stock price that has tumbled 37% so far this year.

So, all Tesla wants is to reward Elon Musk for what some might call leadership by restoring his 56,000,000,000 dollar pay package voided by that meany of a Delaware Judge. They also want the company headquarters moved from Delaware to Texas to escape the aforementioned judge.

You know I was really going to pound Elon Musk for his many missteps but do I really need to? He does not deserve the money. He has acted foolishly and every company and cause associated with him has suffered. Enough said. For another good read on the subject, go to the link below:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-clock-has-struck-midnight-for-tesla-and-elon-musk-145446735.html