Just here to say "Thanks!", Like Treasury Sec. O'Neill Said

The BBQ Pit
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In this transcript of Treasury Sec. Paul O’Neill’s interview on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer last night, O’Neill said this:

And I got to thinking, you know, maybe he’s right. Maybe it’s time for me to say “Thank you!” to all the CEO’s and company presidents out there for all the good they’ve done in my life.

I’d like to start off by saying “Thank you” to the president of the publishing company I work for. Except that I don’t work for them anymore. I was laid off in January as the company tried to stave off bankruptcy brought on by blatant and stupid mismanagement. But hey, that’s OK, 'cause I know he was acting in the best interest of the company! Like all the hardworking and honest CEOs out there!

Next, I’d like to say a big word of thanks to the CEO of a certain air conditioning manufacturer that laid off my uncle a couple of years ago a couple years short of retirement after 20+ years of loyal service. Now, instead of collecting a pension, he has to work in the maintenence department of a small town hospital well after he was planning to retire. Thanks!

And let’s give a big shout of thanks to the CEO and management of Wal-Mart! When Wal Mart moved in to the small town where I grew up, Main Street went out of business. Now, those folks who would have in times past owned small businesses and general stores, etc., work for $5.25 an hour at Wal Mart! Thank you for employing them, Wal Mart! You’ve done so much for the community!

But there’s more thanks due for Wal Mart! Thanks so much for progressive business practices like locking employees in the building after closing time for an hour or two of unpaid labor. Or how about their refusal to pay overtime no matter how many hours you work? After all, what would all of those poor people be doing with those extra hours anyway? Spending them with their kids? Taking care of Grandma? Or maybe just enjoying life a little? Of course not! Everybody knows that poor people will just snort crystal meth and have more babies! So thank you, Wal Mart, for saving us from ourselves!

And let’s thank the CEO’s of all the health insurance and pharmaceutical companies out there for making sure health care resources are properly allocated! Every time I see an ad on TV for a new drug with twenty seconds worth of side effects I say “Thank God drug prices are so low!” And every time I think I should see a doctor but don’t do it because I don’t have health insurance I think “Thank God the CEOs of the health insurance companies are ensuring easy access to hospitals and doctors! I’m sure glad those CEO’s are out on the golf course right now!” I was overcome with joy when my 90-year old grandmother’s health insurance company refused to pay for the ambulance when she had to go to the hospital. You can tell by the fact that she paid into their system since the mid-50’s that she’s got plenty of money left to pick up the $250 ride to the emergency room! Thank you!

I’m sure all California dopers out there will join me in a big “Thank you!” to Ken Lay and the CEO of Dynergy for the caring, honest, and straightforward way they have supplied energy to that great state over the last few years! Thank you!

And I know there are thousands and thousands of people in Huston, TX who would love to send a thank you card to Ken Lay! I’m sure he’s been smothered with affection!

And everybody from Mississippi, join hands and sing a hymn of thanks for the CEO of WorldCom, based in Clinton , MS. There are so many jobs there that those 17,000 folks who are looking for work as a result of the gut wrenching decisions he had to make will have no trouble finding new employment! Thank You! We know you had our best interest at heart!

And, like The Honorable Sec. O’Neill said, let’s give thanks for the spirit of innovation and willingness to embrace new ideas shown by the recording industry as they dilligently look out for the interests of all of those musicians out there by fighting file sharing tooth and nail. Given the industry’s track record, I’m sure they will continue to maximize the artist’s profits while selflessly allowing the distribution of quality music on their corporate labels! Thanks to the system they created, it’s easy as pie to make a living as a professional musician. And one listen to our corporate-controlled airwaves will confirm that a hearty thanks is in order for all of the great music they provide! Thanks, RIAA!

I’m sure that each and every one of you out there can think of dozens of examples where hard working, dedicated CEO’s and corporations have selflessly served the community. So the next time you see them out there slaving away in the hot sun to make your life better, be sure to express your deepest heartfelt thanks!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go eat cake.

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Come the Revolution, they go to the wall!

Splendid rant. Keep up the good work.

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My God, if you were in front of me I’d stand up, salute, cheer, raise you above my head and scream “Hallefuckingleuja!!!”

I think you should send that letter directly to O’Neill or send it in to the “Letters to the Editor” section of a few major papers. It is so true, so true.

Zette

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Yeah, because that’s so much easier than placing the “blame” where it would actually belong. If you’d take a moment you’d probably realize that the community itself was fully capable of “saving” Main Street. It would have been fairly simple to do, in fact. Simply continue to shop there. Instead they went where it was (probably) cheaper, easier and more convienient. WalMart and any of the other megastores that are villified for running the small stores out of business aren’t to blame. The consumers are.

WalMart trashes the people it employs, has predatory business practices that makes Microsoft look like a piker and, at least for me, shopping in one of their megastores is one of the creepiest retail experiences I’ve ever had. But blaming them for the death of the local small businesses is ridiculous. The consumers decide where to spend their money. If it was important to the community to preserve those businesses, they would. Obviously, in the majority of instances, it’s not. WalMart moves in and consumers flock to it.

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You’re right big companies haven’t done a single thing, ever, to help people, or the economy, or bring innovation. :rolleyes:

If you think your standard of living would be anything near what it is today without the ruthless cost-saving, efficiency-improving efforts of big companies, you’re living in a dream world. Every single time someone comes up with a better way to do something, people scream “you will put people out of work”. Bullshit, people lose those crappy jobs and get better, more efficient, more valuable jobs.

A backhoe doesn’t put 40 ditch diggers out of work, it makes construction less expensive for everyone. At one point in time, somebody complained that his ditch-digging friend was put out of work by a soulless machine.

These companies and their competitive ways put this country on the map, I’m not looking forward to a time when we lose that edge.

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You’re welcome.

–scout, pharmaceutical company accountant
I can’t speak for CEOs, but there certainly are people out there who aren’t actively trying to screw everyone else.

I do, however, see your point. Greed is definitely a motivator in our economy. I’d like to say I was above it all, but hey, idealism ain’t payin’ the rent.

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Right, and the tax breaks the “city fathers” offer don’t have anything to do with that either. After all, “Joe’s Pharmacy” that’s been there for years isn’t going to offer money for a re-election campaign, because Joe doesn’t have the money to both contribute and undercut Pepto-Bismol by 35%.

Find me a Wal-Mart that’s paying property taxes, and I’ll send you a bottle of Pepto from a local pharmacy (i.e. not an Eckerd, Revco, CVS, Wal-Mart, Kroger, etc.).

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Yeah, it’s Wal-Mart’s fault that your local politicians are un-principled bastards.

And it’s their fault that the citizens in your town voted for them.

And it’s their fault that they shopped there instead of Mom & Pop’s on Main Street.

Makes perfect sense to me.

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Well type ‘Wall-Mart Property Taxes’ in Google and you will see that indeed Wal-Mart does pay proeprty taxes all over the place. I’ll pass on the Pepto, though.

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Here’s one that pays property taxes. The tax rate in Anne Arundel County is 96¢ per $100 of assessed value, so if my calculations are correct, Wal-Mart is paying $182,720.64 in property tax on this store. No need to send the Pepto. Instead, why don’t you go to the nearest Wal-Mart, buy a bottle, and give it and the 20% savings to Joe the pharmacist.

Generally speaking, I don’t believe Wal-Mart demands property tax breaks, or any specific tax breaks, to get in somewhere (though they’ll certainly take any offered, and those generally available, as any good business would–it’s not businesses’ fault that governments are too stupid to keep themselves from shelling out money). They just want to get everything through zoning so they can open the business and start making money–and, not coincidentally, helping their customers save.

A Google search for “Wal-Mart ‘property tax break’” gets you 18 hits.

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The sky is very blue today and the wind is blowing real purdy like.

*Hey, it has the same relevance to your comment as yours did to mine. *

Tax breaks, if they actually exist, are irrelevant. As I said in my original post, if keeping the “main streets” of the various small towns that WalMart drives out of business was a concern to the community at large, it wouldn’t matter how cheaply the MegaStoreOfDeath could sell Pepto, because people would be willing to pay the extra money (or drive the extra distance, or pay for parking or whatever the additional cost or effort might be) to keep these family run stores in business. If WalMart gets tax breaks, take it up with the city council or county commisioners. Don’t blame WalMart for the buying behavior of the community. As much as it seems to fit into the corporate culture they do display, they don’t send their greeters out into the neighborhood to round up the customers and cart them in at gunpoint. Consumers vote with their dollars, it’s as simple as that.

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I’ll be damned. I used to ride my bike in those (former) woods. Cool.

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I would like to thank the CEO of the large financial institution for which I work fo doing a pretty good job getting us through a large and very complex merger during some pretty crappy economic changes.

Thank you for dealing with employee redundancy by establishing a very aggressive retraining/relocation program that allowed me to develop a team of project managers that are not only good at project management but have a deep understaning of financial products because they have years of experience.

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I would like to thank the founder and president of the medium-sized, non-public corporation for which I work for responding to changing conditions and decreased volume in our business by engaging in cost-cutting measures which resulted in you not having to lay off a single person. (The company has never had layoffs in 40 years of doing business.) And for leading the way when instituting a temporary salary freeze this year by taking a 50% reduction in your own monthly salary.

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I’d like to thank the CEO and majority owner of our small mutual fund company for LBO’ing the place in 1968 and growing it from a simple sales organization to a fully integrated (if small) financial services company, with a life company, a bank and all kinds of other stuff. In particular, I’d like to thank him for the phantom stock plan for all employees, for not laying anyone off after the ‘87 crash, for teaching the sales force (and pounding and pounding and pounding!) the importance of clients’ diversifying even though all they really wanted in the late '90s was an internet fund, thus saving the clients billions and billions of dollars.

Oh, and that paycheck dealie every two weeks is kind of cool, too. So thanks for that.

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OK. I’ve calmed down now. I usually stay out of the Pit, but when I read that quote I had whatcha call one of them spontaneous outpourings of emotion. Meaning it really fucking pissed me off. So it was either rant in the Pit or go on that three state killing spree that everyone I went to high school with is convinced that I will embark on some day.

No, I do not believe all corporations are evil. There are some things that corporations are very good at. I love my Honda Civic, which was made by a corporation. I love my computer, which was made by Dell, another corporation. I have a little kitchen timer that was made by Timex which has both a magnet and a little stand that you can use to set it up where you can see it. These are good things.

But you must admit, each and every one of you, that the modern corporation has caused some very serious bad things to happen in America and in the world. The ones I listed above are just the tip of the iceberg. Furthermore, you must admit that the particular remark that prompted my decent into madness was both poorly timed and hovering dangerously in Marie Antoinette territory, especially coming from someone who has “unindicted co conspirator” written all over him.

I stand by my statements about Wal Mart. They have caused more harm to my hometown than good.

Cheesteak, I wasn’t aware that large companies “put this country on the map”. I thought it had something to do with, you know, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Or maybe the rule of law. Or maybe the stable democratic system and hatred of tyranny. At least, that’s the part that we were selling for fifty years during the Cold War. But now certain elements of corporate culture border on tyranny, and I see my duty as an American to speak out against them.

Scout, I’m glad you can get those motherfuckers to pay you money. Bully for you. I still believe that advertising as it is practiced by many pharmaceutical companies is unethical. I furthermore believe that entities like health insurance companies and pharmeceutical companies should put the welfare of the people they serve, whose very lives they hold in their hands sometimes, over profits. Period. Just because you CAN gouge someone for a lifesaving drug doesn’t mean you have the right to. Business is not amoral. Is that simplistic, naive, and idealistic? Sure it is. But so is “All men are created equal”.

obfusciastrist, pldennison, and manhattan, you have each provided examples of good behaviour by CEOs. I am glad you are privelaged to work for such organizations, 'cause I’ve read some very intellegent posts from y’all and I figure I’d like you if I ever met you in person. Southwest Airlines managed to get through the end of last year without laying anybody off. The other airlines took what, $30 billion of taxpayer money and laid off thousands and thousands? And I’m supposed to thank them for that?

Now I must eat more cake.

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Hey, can’t you at least let us eat some cake?

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I’d like to thank the CEO of the company I work for for reassesing the corporate priorities when financial times got tough, and for then buying a large chunk of our stock when it’s price was depressed with his own family money and guaranteeing that we, the employees, would be able to purchase the stock at that price with the company stock matching plan for 3 years, regardless of what the price went up to in that time. ( I’m currently buying $18 shares for $5 each. Wheeee!)

Oh, plus we provide afordable health insurance in the face of all the people screaming “There is no afordable HI available!”. Good coverage too.

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That’s a nice little patriotic sermon. Cute, too. Guess what, it’s crap. America is on the map because of its rather large manufacturing base and economic power. America had the ‘life, liberty and pursuit of happiness’ thing going for it for 200 years. It didn’t become a power until 100 years ago…right about the time large corporations came in and developed the manufacturing base.

Of course, it’s arguable that ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ is what allowed businesses to prosper here…along with a government that didn’t impede it very often unless when necessary.

Of course corporations should be held accountable for illegal actions. They definitely should be regulated. Workers and environmental laws are extremely valuable and needed. But to not give large corporations their due when discussing the success of the US is to just be plain ignorant.

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Well, yeah, in the same way I’ll admit that every single human institution, bar none, (and virtually all humans) has caused some very serious bad things to happen in America and (or) the world. On balance, however, the coming together of individuals for commercial and other activities has been vastly to the good.

No, I mustn’t admit that. When else would such a comment be necessary? When CEOs are collectively thought of as the second coming, as they were four or so years ago? Now is exactly when we need reminding of the benefits of corporations and those who lead them.

Oh? I’m sure you’re not stereotyping CEOs here, so do you know something about O’Neill’s tenure at Alcoa that I’ve missed? While he has a proclivity for saying what he thinks (dangerous in Washington, but we could use more of it), it strikes me that if there’s one thing he’s not, it’s crooked. I’ve seen nothing to indicate otherwise.

I see nothing at all “Antoinette-ish” about his comments. He’s right–we do go from one side of the ship to the other far too quickly, and far too often. I think putting CEOs on pedestals four years ago was a mistake (I also think far-reaching changes to CEO compensation are long overdue), but to say now that all CEOs are evil is equally wide of the mark, if not more so.