There is a very unusual and ongoing situation in New England that highlights corporate greed in America today. Market Basket, a $4 billion Massachusetts based regional grocery chain, has an employee revolt going on. Unusual, you ask? Seems they love their CEO. Former CEO, that is. Seems the board of directors weren't happy with the amount of profit the company was making. So they canned the longtime CEO and brought on board 2 corporate hatchet men (well, 1 man and 1 woman) to cut costs.
Since Market Basket is a privately owned company, I was unable to find the kinds of financial information that is available by law on publicly listed corporations. But the following was related to me by a friend who lives in the area. According to him, Market Basket has always been successful, profitable, and a pleasant place to shop. You see, they had happy employees. They had decent wages and benefits. They were treated in such a way as to create good morale. A lesson that 99% of companies in America today need to relearn : a happy workforce results in employees invested in doing a good job. Therefore resulting in reduced costs, INCREASED PROFITS, and LONG TERM success.
The problem is, the big investors and the Boards of Trustees don't give a shit about the long term. It's all about me, me, me right now. How much can we make right now? Over and over again we've seen it. Screw the employees to pad their Swiss and Cayman Island bank accounts. Put 20k people out of work? So what, I'm enjoying my new 120 ft. yacht that burns $7k worth of fuel an hour. And paying a crew of 4 to sail it.
I saw it firsthand at the company I retired from. Watched it go from the best company in the country to work for (and one of the most successful) to just another typical "cut this, cut that, if you don't like it there's a thousand people who'd like to have your job" outfit after the long term CEO retired and the Board chose a former economics professor as his replacement. Understand, the average manufacturing company returns a 4 to 6% profit. We were making 12%, but suddenly that wasn't enough for the greedy bastards. So the next guy threatens to close plants, lays off several thousand workers then brings them back as part time with a huge pay cut and no benefits. Said CEO gets an extra couple million on his bonus. So now they've got a pissed off workforce that doesn't give one shit about doing a good job or if the company makes money or not. I'm hearing stories that product quality is suffering. Surprise huh?
I digress, back to Market Basket. The employees, including managers, have basically shut the chain down, demanding the return of the former CEO. And the customers are supporting the employees, refusing to shop there until this is resolved. I truly wish them the best of luck. Check out Save Market Basket on Facebook. Donate to their support fund if you can.
Dumb Farmer
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Saturday, August 9, 2014
DO DOCTORS STILL SWEAR THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH?
There is no doubt our medical system needs an overhaul. Proof of this? I just received a bill for $706 for 15 to 20 minutes of a doctors time. That's on top of the hospital's bill of $500. And $2k to get a spot of skin cancer removed from a different place. But is a government takeover of the entire system the answer? Just what has your government done for you with the "Affordable Care Act"? What has all of the bruhaha, political shennanigans, outright bribery for votes, and government BS actually done for us citizens?
Basically, not a damn thing except drive the price, not only of insurance, but also of medical services, even higher. The following figures are right from "healthcare.gov". For a single retired male, or a young family, the only plans that come anywhere near being affordable, even after the "tax credits? have either a $6250 / year deductible, or a $3500 deductible and you pay 30% of all charges. So basically, the only thing they're good for is if you get cancer, have a heart attack, or need some other major surgery. How many young families have $6k in the bank to pay deductibles? From what I've heard, most employer plans are almost as bad.
So who has Obamacare helped? I don't think anyone. The "poor", have always had free medical care, they still have it. The rich can afford it. And once again the working man gets screwed. Only now, the cost of care is up even more. So what have we accomplished other than adding a hundred thousand more federal government employees to administer the law? Adding another layer of bureaucracy and cost to a system already burdened by tons of laws, costs driven sky high by fear of lawsuits, and the age old human bugaboo, greed.
That's right, greed is just as rampant in the medical field as everywhere else today. You've heard about doctors charging you almost twice what they will accept from an insurance company as payment if you don't have insurance, right? I ask you : is this any different from someone robbing you at gunpoint? How in God's name can these people sleep at night? If you can't afford insurance, how are you supposed to be able to pay double what they accept from insurance companies? If they can cover their cost of doing business and make the high incomes they do at that rate of compensation, how do they justify screwing over the poor working man? Do doctors still swear to the Hippocratic Oath?
I have said before that anyone can detail (bitch) about the problems in our society today, but the idea is to come up with solutions. Well, truly, I'm stumped on this one. The only thing I can see that would help WITHOUT the government stepping in and controlling everything, including doctors salaries, is to get rid of the lawsuit crap. That fear of lawsuits causes doctors to routinely prescribe tons of expensive tests to protect themselves. One referral after another. Turning what should have been a, let's say $2k procedure, into a $4k ordeal. Actually, we need total tort reform, but since 75 to 80% of Congress are lawyers, that doesn't get done.
If you have any other ideas on how to "fix" the system, please detail in the comments below. Maybe if we get enough "average" people (as opposed to the rich elites in D.C.) thinking, we can come up with something better than what those prostitutes in Washington did.
Dumb Farmer
Basically, not a damn thing except drive the price, not only of insurance, but also of medical services, even higher. The following figures are right from "healthcare.gov". For a single retired male, or a young family, the only plans that come anywhere near being affordable, even after the "tax credits? have either a $6250 / year deductible, or a $3500 deductible and you pay 30% of all charges. So basically, the only thing they're good for is if you get cancer, have a heart attack, or need some other major surgery. How many young families have $6k in the bank to pay deductibles? From what I've heard, most employer plans are almost as bad.
So who has Obamacare helped? I don't think anyone. The "poor", have always had free medical care, they still have it. The rich can afford it. And once again the working man gets screwed. Only now, the cost of care is up even more. So what have we accomplished other than adding a hundred thousand more federal government employees to administer the law? Adding another layer of bureaucracy and cost to a system already burdened by tons of laws, costs driven sky high by fear of lawsuits, and the age old human bugaboo, greed.
That's right, greed is just as rampant in the medical field as everywhere else today. You've heard about doctors charging you almost twice what they will accept from an insurance company as payment if you don't have insurance, right? I ask you : is this any different from someone robbing you at gunpoint? How in God's name can these people sleep at night? If you can't afford insurance, how are you supposed to be able to pay double what they accept from insurance companies? If they can cover their cost of doing business and make the high incomes they do at that rate of compensation, how do they justify screwing over the poor working man? Do doctors still swear to the Hippocratic Oath?
I have said before that anyone can detail (bitch) about the problems in our society today, but the idea is to come up with solutions. Well, truly, I'm stumped on this one. The only thing I can see that would help WITHOUT the government stepping in and controlling everything, including doctors salaries, is to get rid of the lawsuit crap. That fear of lawsuits causes doctors to routinely prescribe tons of expensive tests to protect themselves. One referral after another. Turning what should have been a, let's say $2k procedure, into a $4k ordeal. Actually, we need total tort reform, but since 75 to 80% of Congress are lawyers, that doesn't get done.
If you have any other ideas on how to "fix" the system, please detail in the comments below. Maybe if we get enough "average" people (as opposed to the rich elites in D.C.) thinking, we can come up with something better than what those prostitutes in Washington did.
Dumb Farmer
Saturday, August 2, 2014
MANIPULATION BY THE MEDIA REACHES NEW HIGHS (LOWS)
Hello friends, it's certainly been a long time. Quite frankly, I've just pretty much given up on educating people. Almost given up on caring what happens to this country. I've come to the conclusion it's a losing battle. People are so wrapped up in their own little worlds they don't want to know or care what's happening in the real world.
That is until they are manipulated by the news media into thinking a certain way about any given subject. And that has never been more obvious than with the current mess in the Gaza Strip. I just saw a picture that's propagating around the web of parents carrying dead Palestinian children. Caption asks if this is right, and states "this is a yes or no question". This is such blatant manipulation it would be hilarious if it wasn't so tragic. And if half the country wasn't so stupid that they fall for it. And if it wasn't being repeated in kind all over the liberal news media in one way or another. Oh, the poor Palestinians. Shame on those barbaric Israeli's!
Let's ignore the thousands of years of hatred between these two sides for now, and simplify the issue to recent history. Since 1948, Israel has been repeatedly attacked by one group or another. Now it's Hamas. It's been Fatah, the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic Jihad, and on and on. ALL WITH THE STATED GOAL OF REMOVING ISRAEL AND ALL JEWS FROM PLANET EARTH. Israel, who does have the capability of removing their problem from the planet, has bent over backwards time and time again. Ceded this, agreed to that.
Why do you think there are so many Palestinian civilian casualties? Because Hamas deliberately locates their rocket sites and tunnel entrances in neighborhoods, mosques, even hospitals so they can say to the world "see how barbaric the Jews are?" They are experts at manipulating and using world opinion. And they don't care how many of their own people they sacrifice to accomplish that. So, who are the real savages? I can't recall ever hearing about an Israeli beheading someone because they didn't believe in Israel's God. Oh, and by the way, the Palestinian people ELECTED Hamas to govern them. They had other choices. Choices that wanted to choose the path of peace and reconciliation. But they CHOOSE Hamas. Why? Because they've been brainwashed into hatred from time of birth. And it happens on both sides of any ethnic division. Brainwashed by greedy power /money mongers.
Here's the bottom line question for you - If Mexico started lobbing rockets into the US, if Mexican soldiers dug tunnels under the border and made attacks on US citizens, what would you demand your government do?
Don't be brainwashed
Dumb Farmer
That is until they are manipulated by the news media into thinking a certain way about any given subject. And that has never been more obvious than with the current mess in the Gaza Strip. I just saw a picture that's propagating around the web of parents carrying dead Palestinian children. Caption asks if this is right, and states "this is a yes or no question". This is such blatant manipulation it would be hilarious if it wasn't so tragic. And if half the country wasn't so stupid that they fall for it. And if it wasn't being repeated in kind all over the liberal news media in one way or another. Oh, the poor Palestinians. Shame on those barbaric Israeli's!
Let's ignore the thousands of years of hatred between these two sides for now, and simplify the issue to recent history. Since 1948, Israel has been repeatedly attacked by one group or another. Now it's Hamas. It's been Fatah, the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic Jihad, and on and on. ALL WITH THE STATED GOAL OF REMOVING ISRAEL AND ALL JEWS FROM PLANET EARTH. Israel, who does have the capability of removing their problem from the planet, has bent over backwards time and time again. Ceded this, agreed to that.
Why do you think there are so many Palestinian civilian casualties? Because Hamas deliberately locates their rocket sites and tunnel entrances in neighborhoods, mosques, even hospitals so they can say to the world "see how barbaric the Jews are?" They are experts at manipulating and using world opinion. And they don't care how many of their own people they sacrifice to accomplish that. So, who are the real savages? I can't recall ever hearing about an Israeli beheading someone because they didn't believe in Israel's God. Oh, and by the way, the Palestinian people ELECTED Hamas to govern them. They had other choices. Choices that wanted to choose the path of peace and reconciliation. But they CHOOSE Hamas. Why? Because they've been brainwashed into hatred from time of birth. And it happens on both sides of any ethnic division. Brainwashed by greedy power /money mongers.
Here's the bottom line question for you - If Mexico started lobbing rockets into the US, if Mexican soldiers dug tunnels under the border and made attacks on US citizens, what would you demand your government do?
Don't be brainwashed
Dumb Farmer
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