Monday, April 7, 2008

The US Business Model of Life and other absurdities ...

Yesterday I posted a quote from a conference where some are suggesting it was time to shift from product development to discovery research in the fight against AIDS.

Imagine a world where the main emphasis is on the next health related product that can be developed, preferably with the public's money but without the public's ownership, and where that health product will be legally protected so that the end business owners can sell it at inflated costs for years and years, often back to the same public's government organizations that initially invested in the development of the product. That's the world we live in ...

Today I read this post: Shareholder Wealth Maximization in Action
Thus, Walgreen CEO Jeffrey Rein, speaking to shareholders, said “If attendees of the meeting needed to cough, he joked, they should leave the room and ‘go to a movie theater or on a bus’ to spread their germs. ‘We’re really hoping for a very strong flu season’.” While P&G CEO A.G. Lafley said on a quarterly analyst call: “Unfortunately, people have not been getting sick at a rate that we would all like yet.” Finally, LifePoint Hospitals CFO David Dill mused that "You have a strong flu season, and the ancillary business is very profitable . . . On the pediatric side, young kids coming into the hospital, that’s a nice margin for us, as well.”
Truths presented as humor. When people get the flu Walgreens and other corporations make more money selling flu related products. Walgreens' job is definitely not to serve the public. Walgreens' job is making money. The purpose of Walgreens' management is to make the maximum profit which in turn increases the investment value for it's shareholder (joke) so the job of Walgreens' management is to ensure there are an increasing number of people with the flu. Or Walgreens could just change to manufacturing weapons, start another war and kill people directly. That would work just as well and, well, it appears to be the American way. Abortion, no. Genocide, yes. The word is VALUES. Keep repeating a few key words and the whole world, well, at least the US will fall into line ...

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