Christoph Reuss wrote:
[snip]
> In a "free" market, safety corners are being cut over and over again to
> save money. I already wrote on the Gotthard tunnel fire which happened
> because a Belgian company thought it was smart to save a few bucks for
> a truck driver and safety equipment. A couple of shareholders win, and
> the public at large loses big time.
[snip]
> > A baseball player signed a deal today. Over the next 7 years he'll get $120
> > million. He doesn't even have to run a corner store.
>
> What an obscene waste of money...
I wonder whether the "social climate" is healthier in Europe or Japan
(e.g.) than in the United States?
It seems that the centrifugal (splitting persons and human
values ever further apart) attitudes in the US are just blindly
exacerbating themselves. The New York Times this weekend says that
in the past 20 years, 47% if the increase in income has gone to the
top 1%, and that inequalities are ever more increasing.
I remember back when "employee loyalty to the company" meant
something in both directions. Were the CEOs back in 1970,
with their limousines and big houses, etc. grossly underpaid?
Many workers had some measure of what was called "job security"
back then, and America did not have to be a Stalinist dictatorship
in order to provide such amenities.
It feels to me like the ship is getting bigger and ever more
powerful so it goes faster and faster, but the fog is getting
thicker, if there is radar or GPS it's broken and the
captain is not interested in fixing it (or maybe it's
working and nobody cares what it's saying), and the
rudder is getting smaller and smaller even if somebody
is trying to steer the ship.
Also in the NYT this weekend, somebody writes:
Deregulation is not the same as no regulation.
Maybe that's a topic that needs *a lot more attention and
public focus*. Maybe it's a key (crowbar?) to getting beyond
the shibboleths of "free enterprise", "free trade", etc.?
\brad mccormick
--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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