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Tuesday, November 26, 2013



Published In CommPRO,biz 2013.11.26
 
Ignoring the Obvious

We are five years into a worldwide recession. And while the United States is very sluggishly gaining ground, much of the rest of the world is sliding further into the abyss. Germany has parlayed a heavily subsidized manufacturing sector into the best of a bad lot. The rest of the Euro block is gasping for air. Yet many in Europe and in the United States seem determined to defy history in dealing with this downturn.

The only folks in America who are doing well are at the top; up and running on the no-strings-attached-taxpayer-funded bailouts. The stock market is soaring, the too-big-to-fail banks that triggered the recession, the super rich, big business, they’re all singing happy days are here again. Meanwhile, the middle class, small business, and the poor are left struggling. The solution, we are told, is austerity, a focus on our nation’s deficit. This plan from the folks who created the deficit with the first wars in our history that we made no effort to pay for as they were fought, and a tax cut.

The economic cancer we gave Europe has ravaged the continent. Especially those who have entered the job market in the five years since its onset. Youth in some European nations face 50% unemployment, and even those who are working are grotesquely underemployed. They are in a way a lost generation. Many who have advanced degrees, masters, even doctorates, are lucky to find menial work. Many are in their late twenties, some in their thirties; robbed of their future, their hopes for career and family lost.

History teaches a very different lesson. Every single economic downturn since the modern economic age dawned with the industrial revolution has been overcome by government intervention. Let’s look at recent history. America went into WW2 deep in debt. The debt had increased by the war’s end in spite of astronomical wartime taxes. Then we spent on the GI bill, educating returning veterans and subsidizing their home ownership. We rebuilt our former enemies’ homelands and hardly took a breath before the war in Korea. After he got us out of that war President Eisenhower went on a spending spree building our interstate highway system. At the time he made it out to be needed in case we had to move a lot of troops around in a hurry, but it was really a way to boost the economy. High end tax rates for the very rich soared to 90%. And America boomed.

In contrast we are allowing our roads and infrastructure to decay. Education is the last thing on our minds; we are forgoing the future, following a path of proven failure. Those few who are benefitting from this folly will find that it can’t go on forever, it is unsustainable. As our roads and bridges break down, as the economy decays, they too will find their positions in decline. They’ll discover – perhaps too late – that the ethically and morally wanting path they have chosen, is economically wanting for them as well.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013



Published 2013.11.12 CommPRO.biz

Let The Seller Beware!

Cohn & Wolfe, a division of international communications giant WPP, just released From Transparency to Full Disclosure, a study they commissioned to find marketplace hot buttons. They polled 3,000 consumers in Great Britain, China and the United States on what opens their wallet. Price and quality were the overall winners with honesty (AKA ethics) coming in third place, except in China where quality and honesty beat out price. 

The transparency part comes from consumers’ interest in the values adhered to by the companies they do business with. They want the goods they buy created and sold by folks striving to do as they would do, folks who put their customers, workers, vendors, their communities and the environment ahead of profits. They worry most about the food they buy, that it is what it’s claimed to be and that it is produced with the buyers’ safety and health foremost.

You know what they hate most? A cover-up. They understand that we all goof-up now and then, but they expect us to fess-up immediately and do right by those who may have been misled or injured as a result of the error. What’s more, they have a clear view of where the buck stops, it stops at the top. The Cohn & Wolfe study found that “84% of UK and US consumers and 90% of Chinese consumers believe that if you are the leader of a company you cannot claim ignorance about something bad happening in your business, showing that there are no excuses for today’s leader.” They summed it up succinctly: “CEO = Chief Ethics Officer.” A point missed by the leaders of too many corporate entities of late.

The results of this study read like “Basic Communications 101.” Isn’t this what we’ve been telling our leaders or our clients?” Isn’t this what has been shown as the most profitable business model? Isn’t this what attracts and builds the most talented team in communications or any business? Of course it is. It’s the kind of team we all want surrounding us. The kind of team we all want to be a part of. If you are a leader, if you are the Chief Executive Officer (AKA Chief Ethics Officer), what are you waiting for? If your CEO doesn’t understand how interchangeable that title needs to be, what are you waiting for?

It all comes down to “Why would you work for, or do business with a crook?” While that quote sounds like Will Rogers, it isn’t and it doesn’t matter who said it, it’s a simple truth; one that only a few shortsighted business leaders choose to ignore. Actually people expect more than someone who just walks a line between lawful and criminal. We expect the businesses we trust with our hard earned cash to do right by us, to do the right thing. When they misrepresent their offerings, or dance around the truth, they betray us. And usually we simply never do business with them again — never.

Saturday, November 2, 2013



Published 2013.10.31 CommPRO.biz

Do No Harm

The Hippocratic Oath is a widely edited set of guidelines credited to a long-ago Greek medical practitioner. It is estimated that 98% of medical students swear some form of oath, as do a large percentage of dental graduates. These oaths are focused on ethics and are often condensed into, “Do no harm.” Recent reports of predatory lending practices by doctors and dentists give us a picture of the other two percent.

Patients who lack insurance and those who need or want procedures not covered by their insurer, are being herded into various medical credit cards that are little more than tools created to ripoff the unwary by the monster banks and their lackeys. Wells Fargo and Citibank seem directly involved while others hide in the shadows providing the funds for the smaller credit card issuers. It’s the same set of scams and scammers that created the sub-prime mortgage disaster and more recently the on-going payday loan racket. They seem to be betting on the Justice Department giving them another get-out-of-jail-free card no matter how or who they ripoff.

The unwary –Who doesn’t trust their doctor or dentist?– sign up for these cards right in the doctor’s or dentist’s office. They are told that they will pay no interest if the card is paid off in three or four easy payments. What the docs don’t say is that you will be slapped with interest charges –close to 30% in some cases– if you don’t pay up before the end of the interest free period.

Let’s say you owe $1,000, about average for extensive dental work or plastic surgery. And let’s say you haven’t been able to make any payments over the four month interest free period. In most cases you’ll owe interest from the first month on the entire $1,000, plus the compound interest for the additional three months. You’ll be in hock for a lot more when the fourth month comes around. You can see that this is not going to end well when you start adding on late payments etc.

One of the independent card companies specializing in healthcare credit cards is said to have between five and ten million card holders. In addition to the medical practitioners who swear to do no harm, there are medical device hustlers, selling everything from power scooters and chairs, to hearing aides. These people aren’t even restrained by a “Do no harm” oath. Although, when bucks are at stake some doctors and dentists don’t seem able to recall that phrase.

These practices are beyond unethical, beyond immoral. Doctors and dentists who lead people into these scams may not be breaking any laws, but they are certainly –or should be– on shaky ground with state licensing agencies. A few suspensions would slow down this racket A couple revocations for the worst cases might stop it dead in its tracks. It’s a shame when a few scammers can cast a shadow over a largely principled group of professionals pledged to do no harm.