Ethics Class

Business, Government and Society: A Managerial Perspective
by George A. Steiner, John F. Steiner, John Steiner

Chapter 9
The FDA and Tobacco Regulation

The FDA is required to regulate any “drug or device” to be “safe and effective” for human consumption. Tobacco like alcohol was never designed or intended to be safe and effective for anything valid and useful. Both are commodities that exploit human weakness and have a great deal of negative side effects with only some social enjoyment factors. The general public enjoys watching people die too, as the suicide restaurants found in Japan. However, allowing this is not civilized. But for the tobacco and alcohol industries, being civilized or responsible impedes their bottom line.

The Supreme Court decision in favor of the tobacco industry seems like a political decision to me. What difference does the other laws and intent of congress back in 1938 have to do with the issues today? In 1938 tobacco was a major export from this country and accounted for a significant part of the Gross National Product. Further, there was no evidence or conception of their being adverse health effects. The tobacco industry was very careful about only letting information out to the public to show the benefits of smoking.

The facts of this case illustrate how little the public understands about the political process. The judges can address and formulate their conclusions on anything they feel necessary to derive the position most suitable for their political and personal agendas. In 1938 congress made a law to protect people. At that time no one considered tobacco a health issue at all, so congress never intended it to regulate tobacco. However, since then the truth about tobacco has been learned. So the FDA has a responsibility to address this like any other “drug or device.”

Clearly to me the Supreme Court decision was paid for by the tobacco industry.


Chapter 10
Microsoft Corporation and Antitrust

The Department of Justice was extremely lenient. Their final decision was much to the benefit to Microsoft, even after the detailed findings of fact which made it clear Microsoft had done everything they were charged with. However, if you notice the final decision came after the Bush Administration took office, and notice how the passing the Patriot Act, which destroyed many privacy rights; coincided with the sudden onslaught of tremendous amounts of spam. Interesting coincidences there? Many people avoid even considering such thoughts of conspiracies between different branches of government and corporations. However, this is precisely why events such as Enron and 9-11 occur. The concept of government officials profiting from these events is so far beyond civil notions of humanity that the truth is avoided, even when the facts are published. They trained us well. The truth will come out sooner or later. Most of the elite in Germany thought Hitler was a righteous and courageous citizen fighting for the German populous. No one believed there could be such an atrocity hidden behind the scenes.

On the PRO side the DOJ required Microsoft to disclose all their licenses, Patents and Copyrights. On the CON side, Patents and Copyrights are already public information, which can be found already. http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html Microsoft still has control over its Patents and Copyrights, so who cares if they disclosed public information. This would seem valid and beneficial to the general public, like a jury, but anyone technically competent in the field would recognize this is really insignificant, it is like the Judge calling the sky Blue. SO WHAT!

Another PRO is that the OEM’s can add middleware, browsers and messaging systems. The CON is that Windows comes installed with a Microsoft version of all these products which are set as the default by the Windows operating system. Further Windows itself will automatically reset the computer to this default even if the OEM or user changes the systems on their own computer. There are also other key operations which Windows has built into it that will not function with any other Middleware. For example, Windows now has a built in operation for updating the system files and computer drivers. This operates through a web site. But will ONLY operate with the Microsoft IE browser, not any other browser. A Big CON, but the PRO see the sky is blue!

Another PRO is that Microsoft is prohibited from retaliating against OEM’s who install competing software on their PC’s. However, the CON is that Windows has built in operations that make these competing programs inadequate. As stated previously, if the browser is Netscape instead of IE, the update won’t work. Further, Microsoft Office includes a “free” version of FrontPage a web building program. So now a great number of websites available are built with FrontPage. However, if you use Netscape the FrontPage websites won’t work correctly. So Microsoft will never retaliate against anyone because Windows automatically make your operations cumbersome and inoperable if you use anything except Microsoft products on a Windows Machine.

Another PRO is the Microsoft is prohibited from making exclusive contracts that support their products. However, the CON is that Windows already forces this so the contracts are meaningless now. Look the sky is Blue! I guess the biggest CON about this legal settlement that Bill Gates made with the DOJ was that he essentially sold his soul to the Devil. Poor Billy is now a pawn in a massive corruption that far outreaches all mortal imaginations.


John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Trust

The South Improvement Plan so rightly named to the benefit of the few at the cost of the many, seems to line-up perfectly with the DOJ deal for Microsoft. Seems to me that Rockefeller made the same kind of deals as Gates, and they both got away with it while bankrupting the competitors. Yes Rockefeller was a “good” man and read his bible and went to church. Bill Gates is “good” too, see how his foundation has provided vaccines to thousands in Africa and continues to provide millions to charities.

However, are these “good” efforts on the outside just an attempt to sway public opinion? Rockefeller conspired to collect competitor intelligence, much as Gates now provides access to every private citizens personal PC. Rockefeller sidestepped ethics issues in the crusade to illuminate the world just like Gates has a crusade to internet the world, which allows the DOJ intimate illumination into each private PC and household. This is very similar to the biblical crusades as well. Let us all fight for the Christian ethical ideals which support marriage and the rights to life... votye for Bush and destroy the last shred of decency in America

What a CON JOB. The church is only there to control people and profit. Marriage is controlled by the state not the church. It is designed to destroy families not support families. Divorce is easier than marriage, requiring no license or ceremony; but forcing an equal division; which is designed to destroy children and profit women. Sure women still need to fight to win in business, but all they need is to smile pretty to marry and then divorce the take everything. Divorce has a powerful GREED incentive. It IS Basic War 101, divide and conquer techniques. It makes it easy to take individual rights and destroy them. Like the “Right to Life” scam. Women have controlled their bodies for millions of years, but involve a doctor who will convince her that she can’t control her body so he can profit and then she wiil need an attorney who will profit some more by convincing her to fight in court for her right to do what she can already do.

Rockefeller was no different than Gates and Bush. The issues of ethics are valid and important on Sunday for show, up until they interfere with their latest profit scam. The concept of greed reaches beyond anything in the Bible. The church has become a den of thieves as greedy as the oil or software barons. The truth will come out soon, you just wait and see!


Pacific National Oil Company and the Senate Candidate

Laws permitting unlimited independent expenditures are as bad as lobbying laws. They allow the corporate elite to buy people to run the government. This country has become a dictatorship of greed instead of a democracy. The last election was stolen like the first of the millennium. The Bush’s burned votes in Florida, which has been done since government began in Florida, and then they instituted an electronic system so they could modify votes even quicker.

If the laws regarding buying politicians are changed the greedy people in control will find a loophole for bribing elected officials anyway. Changing the laws will never change this. Recognize that the laws are written by lawyers for lawyers, if they write a new law to restrict something then they actually only created a more profitable loophole. This is the very nature of the system, it is designed to work this way. And those inside will never admit it because they are paid too much to do too little, and they know it!

The concept of bureaucracy is designed to encourage greed and deception. It is a system that teaches and encourages greed and deception. Each year they get their department funded based on how much they spent last year, so if they don’t spend all they got before, they won’t get as much next time. They are encouraged to spend and overspend. Fundamentally government never follows the rules and laws, they create the laws to keep people in line and protect their pay checks. All federal projects are exempt from any permitting requirements. And they will always have a law to protect them when they profit.


Chapter 11
A Win for Federal Express

Give me a break; like “hooking it as a rider in unrelated legislation.” How can any fully conscious intelligent person consider this ridiculous con a democracy when some people are “more free” and more protected than others? It is standard practice to create “riders” and “pork” in unrelated legislation. Everyone recognizes this in America. Just like everyone knows a politician is a liar. It’s so fundamental to our culture that it is pathetic. Of course FedEx paid lobbyist got the changes they wanted. That’s exactly what lobbyist are paid to do. And we allow and encourage lobbyist and even hire them to support our university, city or state.

What does this really mean? Well technically speaking it means that whoever pays the most gets what they want. The rich get richer. OJ Simpson buys his way off. The American way! Whether it’s a lobbyist to get a rider for FedEx or a new missile contract or another war started. When we allow and encourage a system based on greed and payment for favors how can we expect any honesty or integrity at all. This is not a system of honesty and truth, but greed and power based on money. I wonder how many people remember the Oliver North scandals about guns for drugs. This was a big issue for a while. But it disappeared. You won’t find it in history books or anything, like it never occurred. Why would drugs be illegal? Wouldn’t this greatly increase the street values and increase the profits involved in them? You know when they made marijuana illegal, the legislation was funded by the paper industry because hemp was better and cheaper for making paper.

So now let’s institute a Drug Enforcement Agency so we can be sure no one is in the market to compete with us. And if we don’t like the competition we can destroy them. Like let’s start the war in Afghanistan to destroy their opium fields there so we can have our cartels in South America take over. It’s really interesting to speak to someone from another country who sees what happens in the world and not the processed fantasy that the media feeds to the American population. I wonder how the population would react to all the wars the CIA has started or the corruption and greed that runs the city hall down the street. And sadly they really already know all about this. Like whoever heard about a cop getting a speeding ticket?

Did you know that police have a symbol they put on their cars to signal to other police that they can speed? Sure teach police that only some laws apply to them and you will get people who create and enforce laws to suit themselves. This is a system flaw. It’s a system designed to exploit and corrupt itself. It is designed to do this. Like Bush or Kerry, do you think it really matters? Each will only suffer under the corruption that they are placed in with lobbyist, and lawyers writing laws for themselves.

Like FebEx, they do what they have to do to get their profits. That’s called capitalism, and it was necessary to bring us to this point in time. It built the rialways and the Internet ways. Soon Americans will learn what ethics really is and accept that electing the lesser or two evils is not good enough any more. Ethics, honesty and trust are not a conditional thing based on profits and control. It is a fundamental that is necessary to be civilized before even considering profits at all. Profit first is uncivilized, and destructive, soon we will learn.... lol... Truth must be First, LOVE then we'll learn... sooner than you think too!