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Montebello
E-News
March
27, 2008
The greatest
lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.
Winston
Churchill, 1874 – 1965,
was
a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of Great Britain
during World War II. He served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman, orator and
strategist, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army. A prolific
author, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his historical
writings.
[Is Churchill saying that
humility is key to success?]
1.
Did We See It Coming? Do
We See It Going?
2.
A Not-So-Divine Comedy, Part 14
3.
Announcements
4.
Fun Facts about Nevada
5.
The Flashback Quarterback:
Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth
6.
Beware and Share: Remembering
Al Gore’s Frog
7.
About
Montebello E-News and “My
Montebello”
Did We See
It Coming? Do We See It Going?
Do
you have time to spare?
In
past issues of E-News, we have seen the need for us to become more
involved in protecting ourselves, instead of leaving protection to
government. An example of this
need came when we learned last month that the USDA had failed to inspect
meat adequately. In this issue
of E-News, under “Beware and Share,” there is another example,
this from the FDA.
One
should expect that government agencies would not be adequately funded, as
the priorities for scarce dollars lie elsewhere.
And one should expect that reassigning responsibilities, as the
Congresswoman from
Connecticut
wishes to do, would be inadequate, given that the fundamental problem of
inadequate funding would remain.
Where
would a solution lie? The best
solution, one which nobody is talking about, would be to involve more people
in protecting us. An example of
that was the secret video which revealed the violations at the
slaughterhouse last month.
Could
we avoid more large failures if we involved more people in our protection?
Intuitively, yes. Actually,
we do not know. We will know
when we try.
If you answer the
multiple-choice questions below and e-mail to lessonanswers@mymontebello.com
with “Lesson answers” in the subject field, you will be credited toward
a “certificate of recognition in community affairs” to be awarded in
2007 by a local nonprofit organization.
1. What is a recurring phenomenon which is unlikely to
change for the better?
(a) Government insensitivity to the public.
(b) Inadequate funding making it impossible for
government to protect us adequately.
2. What is the solution to this problem?
(a) Authorize and appropriate more money for
protection.
(b) Contract out protection to businesses which
specialize in security.
(c) Involve more people in our protection, and do it
through nonprofit organizations, so as to reduce the urge to cut corners to
increase profit.
A
Not-So-Divine Comedy, Part 14
No one can earn
a million dollars honestly.
William Jennings
Bryan, 1860 – 1925,
an American lawyer,
statesman, and politician, three times the
Democratic Party
nominee for President of the United States.
The decadent international but
individualistic capitalism in the hands of which we found ourselves after
the war is not a success. It is not intelligent. It is not beautiful. It is
not just. It is not virtuous. And it doesn't deliver the goods.
-----
Capitalism is the astounding belief
that the most wickedest [sic] of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of
everyone.
John Maynard Keynes, 1883 – 1946,
a British economist whose ideas, called Keynesian economics, had a
major impact on modern economic and political theory, as well as on
many governments’ fiscal policies.
So far, we have noted
many deficiencies in the capitalism which we practice.
The purpose behind such a look is to encourage thought and
action about how to make capitalism work better.
We now begin looking at possible solutions.
One problem with
capitalism is that a shareholder’s understanding of the circumstances of,
as well as sympathy for the privations of, others is debilitated because his
primary motivation is profit and, more often than not, he is far from the
others who are being harmed.
CalPERS, the California
Public Employees’ Retirement System, invests money on behalf of employees.
CalPERS has a reputation for raising the bar of business
responsibility. Yet, CalPERS has
a conflict because one of its goals is to maximize the return on investment.
CalPERS, at best, provides a partial solution;
furthermore, not every investment firm or organization is as
conscientious as CalPERS. As a
result, we periodically have large problems, the latest of which is
happening to homeowners.
Can businesses operate
without shareholders? Startup,
expansion, and modernization are necessary and only in a few instances can
these happen without any investment at all.
So, for the most part, shareholders are needed.
The key question is not “Why shareholders?”, but, rather, “Who
shareholders?”
In that regard, consider
the following, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee-owned_corporation
:
Employee-owned
corporations are corporations owned in whole or in part by their employees.
Employees are usually given a share of the corporation after a certain
length of employment or they can buy shares at any time. A corporation owned
entirely by its employees (a worker cooperative) will not, therefore, have
its shares sold on public stock markets. Employee-owned corporations often
adopt profit sharing where the profits of the corporation are shared with
the employees. They also often have boards of directors elected directly by
the employees. ...
...studies
in Massachusetts, Ohio, and Washington
state show that, on average, employees participating in the main form of
employee ownership, employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), have
considerably more in retirement assets than comparable employees in non-ESOP
firms. The most comprehensive of the studies, a report on all ESOP firms in Washington
state, found that the retirement assets were about three times as great, and
the diversified portion of employee retirement plans was about the same as
the total retirement assets of comparable employees in equivalent non-ESOP
firms. Wages in ESOP firms were also 5% to 12% higher. National data from
Joseph Blasi and Douglas Kruse at
Rutgers
shows that ESOP companies are more successful than comparable firms and,
perhaps as a result, were more likely to offer additional diversified
retirement plans alongside their ESOPs. The data is also available at www.nceo.org.
While ESOPs have
drawbacks, it seems as if, generally, they would be good for employees.
But what about the communities where they are located and the
consumers whom they serve?
Announcements
FOR EVERYONE.
Free classes to prevent and manage diabetes.
Start
time 6 p.m., March 28, April 4, April 11, April 25, May 2, 2008, at Our Lady
of Miraculous Medal, 820 North Garfield Avenue, Montebello.
Offered by the Latino Diabetes Association.
For more information, 323.837.9869.
FOR BUSINESSPEOPLE AND COMMUNITY
LEADERS. Chamber Business Expo.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008, 11:00
a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The Montebello
Chamber celebrates its nineteenth annual business exposition! The expo has
proven itself to be a great way for chamber members to promote their
businesses to a large amount of potential customers in a short amount of
time. Not a member? Call the chamber at 323- 721-1153 for information.
Wish to attend? Cost:
free.
Location: Quiet Cannon. Contact: Teri Wilkinson at 323-721-1153.
FOR EVERYONE.
Commission meeting. The
Montebello City Planning Commission is holding its regularly-scheduled
meeting on Tuesday, April 1, 2008, at 7 p.m. at city hall.
The meeting is open to the public.
For more information, 323.887.1200.
FOR EVERYONE.
Stop unwanted mail now. Catalog
Choice is an easy, free service that allows you to decline unsolicited
catalogs, reducing the number of catalogs in your mailbox and the number of
trees that get sent to the paper mill. https://www.catalogchoice.org/signup
FOR MOTORISTS.
Say your thanks. NEW YORK
(CNN/Money) – Gasoline prices in the United States
, which have recently hit record highs, are actually much lower than in many
countries. Drivers in some European cities, like
Amsterdam
and
Oslo, are paying nearly 3 times more than those in the U.S.
... For
a list of prices, go to http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/global_gasprices/
.
Fun
Facts about Nevada
In 1899 Charles Fey invented a slot machine named the
“Liberty Bell.” The device
became the model for all slots to follow.
The
Imperial
Palace
on the Las Vegas
strip is the nation’s first off-airport airline baggage check-in service.
Once the highest concrete dam in the world, Hoover Dam
offers guided tours and a museum of artifacts of the construction and its
workers.
In
Death Valley, the Kangaroo Rat can live its entire life without drinking a drop of
liquid. [What??]
The first recorded white men in the Elko area were fur
trappers who trapped beaver in the area, starting in 1828.
Nevada
takes its name from a Spanish word meaning snow-clad.
Nevada
is the seventh largest state, with 110,540 square miles, 85% of them
federally owned, including the secret Area 51 near the little town of Rachel.
Nevada
has more mountain ranges than any other state, with its highest point at the
13,145 foot top of
Boundary Peak
near the west-central border. [This
is not the same as saying "most mountainous state," is it?]
Nevada
is the largest gold-producing state in the nation. It
is second in the world behind South Africa. [More gold in
Nevada
than in California,
Alaska
or South Dakota?]
Hoover Dam, the largest single public works project in
the history of the
United States, contains 3.25 million cubic yards of concrete, which is enough to pave a
two-lane highway from
San Francisco
to New York. [Now, that is impressive.]
The dam face was used in an amazing stunt for Roland Emerich’s
“Universal Soldier” and has been seen in such films as “Viva Las
Vegas” and “Fools Rush In.”
Construction worker hard hats were first invented
specifically for workers on the Hoover Dam in 1933.
The longest Morse Code telegram ever sent was the
Nevada
state constitution. Sent from
Carson City
to
Washington,
D.C.,
in 1864. The transmission must have taken several hours. [Would the Civil
War have compelled immediate action, so that members of Congress would have
known whether Nevada
would have favored or opposed slavery?]
http://www.fun-facts.com/item/86116?type=fun-facts&order=added
The
Flashback Quarterback: Looking a Gift
Horse in the Mouth
The
excerpt below is from a long news release by AT&T.
In light of “A Not-So-Divine Comedy” above, which has been
running in E-News for three months, what do you think when you read
such a news release? What say do
we have in AT&T’s decisions? How
comfortable should we be with the thought that the desire to maximize profit
is the underpinning of AT&T’s decisions?
How might that affect customer service?
How does AT&T’s “revolution” help
Montebello
as a community, because, is it not likely that more money would leave Montebello
in fees paid to AT&T than would come into
Montebello
in wages paid to Montebelloans?
This Revolution Will Be Televised
AT&T Delivers Tomorrow’s TV Service, Today
by Kieran P. Nolan, AT&T Vice President and General Manager,
Greater Los Angeles
Area
...AT&T is leading that pioneering way again by introducing the
latest and most technologically advanced TV experience that is currently
available to consumers.
Recently launched in the Los Angeles area, AT&T U-verseSM TV
offers consumers a new home entertainment experience that adds revolutionary
to the list of adjectives that aptly describe AT&T. Delivered over an
advanced 100 percent Internet Protocol (IP)-based network, U-verse TV offers
a new level of service integration and features for consumers. The flexible
IP platform makes the promises of “anytime, anywhere” access possible,
and will allow AT&T to deliver the integrated features and services
customers want, when and where they want them. The launch of U-verse TV, the
delivery of digital content, the integration of digital content and
television (e.g., AT&T Homezone) and, of course, the iPhone,
dramatically enable this convergence to come to life.
ACCESS TO HD CONTENT … TV ON MY SCHEDULE … THE CONTENT THAT I
ENJOY ..., GOOD VALUE … BETTER CHANNEL-SURFING… GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE
… Delivering
the best customer experience is AT&T’s highest priority. ...
Beware and Share: Remembering
Al Gore's Frog
Note
the date of the article excerpt below. The
article came before the major meat recall of February and before the
Congresswoman mentioned in the March 20, 2008, E-News called for
reducing the USDA’s authority. (Why
is the title above “Remembering Al Gore’s Frog”?
Watch “An Inconvenient Truth” and note the lesson about the frog
in warming water.)
FDA So Underfunded, Consumers Are Put at Risk
by
Julie Schmit,
USA Today, 12.3.07
The Food and Drug Administration is so underfunded
and understaffed that it's putting U.S. consumers at risk in terms of food
and drug safety, an advisory panel to the FDA says in a report to be
discussed Monday. The report —
developed in the past year by experts from academia, industry and other
government agencies — delivers a scathing review of the state of the FDA,
which regulates 80% of the nation's food, its drugs, vaccines and medical
devices.
About
Montebello E-News and “My Montebello”
To learn about this newsletter, Montebello E-News,
and the accompanying, growing Web site, “My Montebello”, visit
www.mymontebello.com. Also, you
will find instructions and contact information for submitting announcements
for publication in this newsletter, and for submitting stories to
"Montebello Memories" at the Web site.
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