I think that politicians and senior bureaucrats are also prone to this. Power *tends* to corrupt and all that.
arthur -----Original Message----- From: Ed Weick [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, July 21, 2002 9:25 AM To: Michael Gurstein; Futurework@Scribe. Uwaterloo. Ca; stuff-it Subject: Re: Let Them Eat Granola Bars Mike, I don't think it's the system that's at fault. It's essentially a neutral medium, filled by human behaviour, whatever form that takes. Its in that behaviour that the fault lies. And I'm not referring to a few bad apples, but to a kind of mass behaviour - a culture of excessive self-importance that takes over and feeds on itself. I witnessed it while working in the Calgary oil patch during what proved to be the climax of the National Energy Program during the late 1970s and early 1080s. The oil patch was a very important place at the time, and everybody working in it felt very important. Even when scheduled air transport was conveniently available, people flew in Learjets. Why? Not because it made any economic sense or really saved that much time, but because they were important, and flying in a Learjet was evidence of that. I recall being in Inuvik, in the Mackenzie Delta, one Friday afternoon. I and my colleagues had two choices - take the "sched" out the following morning (at a convenient hour) or order a Learjet up from Calgary. My colleagues chose the latter, of course. They had worked so hard and the work they had done was so important that they deserved the full weekend at home. There were many other examples of a similar kind. I'm sure you recall the culture of that time. Oil prices spiked in 1973 and 1979, and everybody was scrambling to find reliable reserves. People looking for hydrocarbons became very important, with everyone else becoming less important, including politicians, who had been conned into moving large sums of public money into Arctic exploration. People in the oil patch got rich on that, in some cases very rich. It wasn't the same kind of game Enron and Worldcom played, but it was a game nevertheless. A great ride while it lasted! Ed Ed Weick 577 Melbourne Ave. Ottawa, ON, K2A 1W7 Canada Phone (613) 728 4630 Fax (613) 728 9382 > I was perusing today's Glob as I was having my morning bottle of Jolt and > feeding my Piranha fish--being lean and mean for the NAm competition > machine... > > When I came across these items--President of Ontario Hydro is dismissed > because, among other things, of unauthorized (?) payments of $330,000 in > limousine transportation costs for her children and nanny despite a car > allowance including a luxury automobile and $40,000 in additional payments. > Remember, this woman had previously been a senior Ontario civil servant whom > one presumes peddled or walked to work and took home rather less each year > than she was now paying in limo expenses. > > Another article reports on a smallish US tech company which is looking to > have its former CEO repay $700,000 expended for his personal automobile > racing expenses. > > What of course, is astounding about this, (apart from the prime facie) is > that about 6 months ago this would have been accepted by the business press, > the relevant boards, and the investors/ stockholders as just "the way things > are done". So long as the media hype machine kept the stock market/golden > goose laying (as it turned out infertile) golden eggs, that kind of stuff > didn't really matter and most importantly was seen as just part of the cost > of doing business/making money along the yellow brick "market" road. > > This isn't "capitalism" or even "corruption" and certainly not a few "evil > doers". This is the decadence of an entire strata of managers, financial > practitioners, media folks (including reporters and the Business TV porno > merchants), politicians/regulators, and all their courtiers and hangers on > and just about everybody who didn't really want to earn a living in any > conventional way. And they induced/ensnared/forced/hypnotized the great NAm > (upper and middle) middle class to pay for their fantasies through investing > their futures in the NAm markets. > > A meltdown of 30-40% of the savings--retirement and other of these folks is > rather enough to make them somewhat less tolerant of the Bourbon-ic excesses > of the hype-ocracy. And so, as they are constantly telling us on TV today, > we wait on a Saturday morning, for the markets on Monday morning to tell us > whether we eat caviar or dog-food in our declining years. > > Hmmm...I can see Nader as Marat, but Michael Moore doesn't really work as > Robespierre.... > > M >
