RE: Midrange Computing Closed -- MIDRANGE-L

Chuck,

While I basically agree with what you said (many, not all, companies care 
more about short term shareholder profit than even long term investment 
and growth - especially if some key members of the board of directors are 
planning on leaving soon and want to raise the share price before they 
cash in the ridiculously large stash of shares they have been given for 
meeting mediocre performance targets that should just be considered part 
of their job in the first place - for which they are usually grossly 
overpaid anyway) let's be fair here. 

Re your point #3
Sara Lee didn't just get off with a $200,000 fine.

They  recalled 35,000,000 pounds of meat from sale once the source of the 
outbreak was identified.
There was no evidence found that they knowingly distributed tainted meat, 
or of any attempted coverup.
They agreed to spend $3,000,000 on food safety and microbiology research 
at Michigan State University.
They spent $25,000,000 upgrading the plant that was identified as the 
source of the contamination, started a new listeria testing system and 
installed prototype equipment to kill bacteria. 
They also settled 15 individual lawsuits with the seriously injured 
victims or their relatives, and settled a class action suit on behalf of 
those who fell ill (but recovered) where each person received from $250 to 
$50,000 (plus medical expenses).

What would you have proposed - closing down Sara Lee and putting thousands 
of employees out of work ?
Who would that have benefitted ?

So, although I agree generally with your point about everything in the 
corporate world usually being done for the sole benefit of the 
shareholders, your selective reporting of the consequences gave the 
misleading impression they "got away" with a mere $200,000 fine and 
nothing else, which was definitely unfair and weakens your argument.  It 
was an unintentional outbreak.  No one (apart from cigarette companies 
evidently) can survive by deliberately poisoning their customers.


...Neil
(Who owns no shares in Sara Lee or any associated companies, and seldom 
purchases their products).






Chuck Lundgren <lundgren@iris-software.com>
Sent by: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com
2001/07/30 12:30
Please respond to MIDRANGE-L

 
        To:     MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
        cc: 
        Subject:        RE: Midrange Computing Closed


I love thread participants who bash someone with "this is off-topic" then 
get in the last word.

To use your words: oh give me a break. If you want to know more about 
corporate capitalism, read "The Ralph Nader Reader". If you want to learn 
more about the goofy wired libertarian culture, read "Cyberselfish: A 
Critical Romp through the Terribly Libertarian Culture of High Tech".

Your statement about a company ceasing to exist if it "does not provide 
value to its customers, employees, suppliers and stockholders" is 
fundamentally flawed!

1. A corporation can take flight from the U.S. to Mexico, for example, 
firing all its employees and paying Mexican workers substandard starvation 

wages, thereby benefiting the stockholders, and not the employees.

2. A corporation can cut off its domestic suppliers in favor of suppliers 
who take advantage of cheap (or free) child labor, thereby benefiting the 
stockholders and not the suppliers.

3. A corporation can kill its customers, and suffer no consequences. To 
site but just on recent example, early this month Sara Lee pled guilty to 
crimes in connection with the 1998 outbreak of listeriosis, which caused 
the death of 16 people, eight miscarriages, and 40 to 80 seriously injured 

people. They paid a $200,000 fine, instead of having their corporate 
charter revoked (which is what should have happened), thereby benefiting 
the stockholders, but not the customer victims.

4. A corporation heavily influence elections, resulting in the election of 

representatives who are inclined to allow the concentration of corporate 
power. Take, for example, the 1996 Telecommunications Act which 
deregulated 
the communications industry and resulted in the further concentration of 
media. Americans now have fewer choices for news, information and 
entertainment. That benefits the stockholders, not the customers.

There's a common theme here: customers don't matter, employees don't 
matter, and suppliers don't matter. Only stockholders matter.

  ... Chuck

At 07/30/2001 11:14 AM -0500, you wrote:

>Oh give me a break.   This is off topic and out of hand.   Aren't we
>supposed to be a little bit smarter than to make generalizations about
>every corporation?
>
>If a company does not provide value to its customers, employees, 
suppliers
>and stockholders then it will cease to exist.
>
>At www.tredegar.com I find that Tredegar Corporation is a profitable
>developer of technology for drug delivery and other medical applications.
>Thanks, those products may save my life or the life of  someone in my
>family.    In return, you will be compensated for your time and effort 
and
>will continue to make products that improve our lives.
>
>For more information on capitalism read Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand.





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