Center for Consumer hood-winking

Its interesting to see how people with the opposite views from you portray you. As a progressive you can check out the "Center for Conumer Freedom". They have quite an interesting web site with a break down called activist cash of a large number of progressive activist groups, foundations and individuals. For each one there is an overview, list of motivations, financial information, connections to other organizations, news and a "black eye".

There is no doubt some, even a lot of factual truth in the information they provide, however in amongst the lists of funders, actions taken etc. is also a definite and strong marketing pitch by CCF because everything is written on the assumption these organizations are a) wrong, b) corruptted and c) acting against the interests of consumers, heck they even rail against Mothers Against Drunk Driving because: [their] original goal of going after “drunk” drivers has now been replaced by the goal of eliminating any drinking and driving.

Strangely missing from this web site is the kind of information about CCF that they provide on all other organizations. The "About Us" page merely says:

The Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit coalition supported by restaurants, food companies, and consumers working together to promote personal responsibility and protect consumer choices.

Oh. Well that's really informative. How about some more? Strangely they suggest that one has to go search for their non-profit 501(c)(3) filing to find out more. And conveniently:

Many of the companies and individuals who support the Center financially have indicated that they want anonymity as a contributor. They are reasonably apprehensive about privacy and safety, in light of the violence some activist groups have adopted as a "game plan" to impose their views.

So that stopped them from naming even one single person who is supporting them? Not one of those restaurant chains wanted to step forward and lay claim to supporting consumer freedom? Well that's a suprise isn't it!

Well I think I can probably name the #1 contributor to CCF - junk food and huge meat and food processing companies that supply them. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out given that the CCF web site is full of TV and press ads criticising efforts to encourage junk food restaurants to be more responsible about how they market the calorie loaded "meals" they sell. Predictably the CCF chase after the lawyers who are trying to bring suits against people like McDonald's, while conveniently forgetting that it took lawyers to bring down the big tabacco companies for selling cigarettes, and lawyers to bring down Goodyear for selling tyres known to be defective. Its sad that sometimes peoples own free will, and the governments legislation are powerless to have an effect on multi-billion dollar industries with their own sticky fingers stuffing wads of cash in the back pockets of government...

For the full scoop on who the CCF really is - the scoop that their "freedom" site was too afraid to publish - check out the truth about the Center for Consumer Freedom.

My thoughts exactly

Mark Morford, a famously outspoken columnist at SF Gate, pretty much said it all for me in todays column. Its a timely reminder of the history and both the dollar and human cost of the "military action" so far.

Open season on Diebold

When the finger was first pointed at Diebold in California they clamed they had done nothing wrong. Now its looking like open season on Diebold. One article tells of scads of illegally upgraded machines are located, incorrect procedures and non-use of correct procedures. Another tells of convicted felons in management positions at Diebold. Employees included a cocaine trafficker, a man who conducted fraudulent stock transactions and a programmer jailed for falsifying computer records. Once again Diebold claimed innocence and that all their employees had passed background checks.

The incy wincy tyrant climbed down the spider hole...

Along came the Bush and flushed the spider out.

Which is to say, the war hero pretender GWB got himself a tyrant aka Saddam Hussein. Is that a good thing? Well, its probably the most expensive and bloody arrest of an evil doer the world has ever seen. Discounting Hitler of course because he managed to kill himself before the alied posse got to him. Of course reeling in Dick Cheney for conspiring with Enron will cost us much more than the $60 billion of investments that were wiped out almost over night, and may even take longer than finding Saddam.

Along with several other people I was half suprised they didn't find Dick hiding out in the "spider hole" with Saddam. But then again, perhaps they did, which is why NeoCon Enemy #1 got out alive without a granade burn to show for it.

But aren't we forgetting something here... wasn't, and isn't, Osam bin Laden the Public Enemy #1? Isn't it the case that Hussein never meet with, worked with, or funded Osama and the only common connection between Osama and Saddam is in fact the US Government who met, aided and funded both of them at one time or another?

I guess when the bogey man is dragged out of a hole and he looks no scarier than Walter Matthau on a bad hair day (I wasn't the only one to think this) then I suppose everyone has to suspend disbelif and just praise to Jesus that George Bush saved us from him.

No win, no fee

One of the things I noticed back in England was that all of a sudden there seem to be commercials for ambulance chasers. You know, the lawyers who flock around accident victims looking for someone to sue. One of the things Brits love to mock the Americans over is their propensity for litigation, not living in a litigious society gives Brits a sense of moral superiority. However the real reason Britain has never been a litgious society is that it was actually illegal for lawyers to work for a client on a no win no fee basis. This meant, for all intents and purposes, that only the wealthiest people could afford to sue anyone, even for really obvious things. But now it seems that changes to the law allow this and hence the commercials for ambulance chasers on TV and a marked increase in Brits looking for someone to sue.

As a Brit one of the consequences of living in the USA for ten years now is I find myself increasingly adopting a litigious attitude. I suppose its better than wanting to settle things "outside" as it were, after all the law is supposed to be there to protect those unable or unwilling to fight physically for protection. This increasing desire to find people to sue is somewhat bothersome to me, however I believe I have found a great example where a class action suit seems to just the ticket and all it is waiting for is an enterprising firm of lawyers ready to bite the bullet.

I think that there should be a class action suit for regular car owners against car companies for promoting safety of SUV class vehicles at the expense and personal risk of regular car drivers. As I've pointed out before, in a side impact of car vs SUV the car driver is six times more likely to die than in a car to car collision. The net consequence of this is that car drivers end up paying higher insurance rates than SUV owners because their cars are now statistically less safe (oh, and they die more often of course). There's some very contorted and misleading logic going on here that allows auto companies to market and promote SUVs as safer while not being required to mention the net effect on regular car drivers. Just like with the tabacco industry, I think its the kind of thing that only the fear of grave financial injury can persuade the auto companies to change their ways.

Of course while I'm on the subject it goes without saying I should mention that Detroit and Texas love SUVs because a) being essentially low tech beasts, they have much higher profit margins than regular cars, and b) they guzzle more gas than they should if some of that profit margin was pumped into building more fuel efficient SUVs. But neither of these things are ones that would probably fuel a successful class action suit - when it comes down to litigation it is only money and consumers in body bags that count.

Deflating the American dollar Bush style

On my recent trip to Europe I came to realize just how far the mighty dollar has sunk. Since two years ago it has devalued 25% against the British Pound, and a whopping 38% against the Euro. Add to that the overall decline in USA economic health and you can see that relative to the rest of the world its quite amazing that our leaders can still hold their head up high and proclaim that everything is going to be alright.

"Death by a thousand cuts" Wal-Mart style

Sometimes the press manages to find a voice. All at once we have three articles in the LA Times (sorry no link, its subscription only), an article in the SF Chronicle and then another in Fast Company. The Fast Company article gives the best run down on how Wal-Mart affects its suppliers, the LA Times ones focus on the people effect. Either way I think they tell all you need to know to make an informed decision about whether to shop at Wal-Mart.

Except... do they?

Just try to balance in your head spending 50-100 billion dollars to aid a small nation like Iraq, with sending equal if not larger amounts to aid overseas countries by buying products from the businesses. It may seem like an unfair apples and oranges comparison but is it really? After all, when it comes down to it, wasn't the major complaint with Iraq (the undiscovered WOMD not-withstanding) that they just weren't buying our commerce based democracy. So if Wal-Mart had somehow managed to find a way to suck Iraqi businesses into their vast all encompasing supply chain do you think we would be at war with them now? Wouldn't the Wal-Mart way be a better way to get cozy with our neighbours than the US Army death-or-glory way?

Probably the biggest beef I have with the Wal-Mart effect is that they feed purely on the all American instinct for shopping and getting the best deal. But Wal-Mart shoppers typically have no idea about what goes on behind the curtain and where most of their products come from and what the consequences of embracing the If they did would they truely shop elsewhere? Do they even have any choice not to? I guess they were doing okay before Wal-Mart comes along, and briefly afterwards (as one comment about the Fast Company attests) they may find themselves continuing to spend the same or more but buying even more. Wow - more bang for my buck, isn't Wal-Mart wonderful! However eventually the supply chain squeeze and the lower wages squeeze takes effect and the downward spiral begins to set in.

And finally, all those profits (billions and billions) go into the shareholders pockets, not the workers. Ask yourself this: do you think Wal-Mart would do business with another business as big and profitable as Wal-Mart? No, it would probably tell itself its profit margins were too high and that it should go cut its profits somewhere. But what would that mean to an end of chain seller? It would mean charging lower prices (wow, even lower prices!) or paying its workers and suppliers more. So if Wal-Mart is so great why doesn't it become a profit-sharing company and handed out a signifcant amount of it profit as a dividend to its employees and shoppers - just like REI does at the end of the year. That might go some way to shovel all of that wealth it generates back into the economy and help sustain a viable shopping mass.

IQs still dropping sharply

As if on cue the J.D. Powers report on vehicle quality has rated the Hummer H2 dead last. As well as 225 problems per 100 vehicles it turns out that 22% of H2 owners complained about, wait for it.... low gas mileage. Apparently H2 owners are not happy about having to refuel every 200 miles when zipping up and down the freeway in their off-road tanks. Interestingly Hummer has blamed it on a marketing problem instead of buyer stupidity. But it was a cunning exploitation of loopholes that permited Hummer to market the H2 without quoting gas mileage in the first place. It seems unlikely that they will dash to show rooms to brag about the soul and gas sucking mileage of the H2.

I expect with their unique all American know-how the people at Hummer will figure out the best way to solve the gas mileage problem is to simply put in a forty gallon tank. Stupid is, stupid does...

Random notes from the long dark tea-time overseas

As promised here is a list (possibly quite long) of random stuff that occured to me during the two weeks I spent in England.

• A letter to AdBusters has suggested guerilla tactic of putting "Out of Order" signs on vending machines, especially those selling high sugar drinks. This little piece of social engineering is apparently very successful since no-one no matter how thirsty wants to shovel coins into a machine that will probably eat their money instead of dispensing sugary beverages.
• When departing for England I got to the airport a good two hours ahead of time like they always tell you to. Of course walking into the International Terminal at SFO I encountered a vast an empty wasteland of checkin desks. Unfortunately as I rounded the corner right at the end of the cavenous hall it turned out that Virgin had a huge line (although not as long as this line) I in front of it. The cause was apparently "our computers are not talking to the ticket printing computers" i.e. someone probably screwed up a network router somewhere. Consequently all tickets were being, shock-horror, hand written! And this was the cause of the monumental delay. I waited in line for an hour and probably would not have made it onto the plane if the computer problem hadn't been fixed after about 45 minutes. As it was I then had to wait another thirty minutes in the security line to take off my shoes and belt and watch and jacket and hat but not my pants... and by the time I got to the gate it was already boarding and there was no time for duty free, a snack or anything like that. Oh well, as they say - "expect the unexpected".
• Having got the front of the aforementioned checkin line I was staggered when a Virgin employee came up to me and tried to sell me a bulkhead seat upgrade for $75. And that was just for one way... The tried it coming back to - the total would have been $150 or only slightly less than my entrie ticket cost. I was amazed that they are trying this kind of trick, I really didn't expect it from Virgin. After all on a 747 if you have a bulkhead seat you are likely to end up right next to the loos and face hordes of people (like me) milling around for eight hours trying to ward off deep vein thrombosis.
• While on the plane I read something to the about Visa that just blew my mind. If you're a regular reader you'll know how the US national debt (that's debt, not deficit) is something like $7 trillion, or over $80,000 per family. Well apparently the folks at Visa (credit cards) handled transactions totally a stunning $362.4 trillion last year. But the really incredible thing is they only have a few thousand employees worldwide. So do the math - they cream of 2-3% (or maybe more) from each transaction which makes something like $6 trillion just from shoveling money around each year. They surely must have the highest revenue per employee of any company worldwide??? Next time you're wondering why credit card companies aren't worried by billions of dollars in credit card fraud you shouldn't be surprised, its a drop in the ocean compared to how much money they are making. And note, this figure doesn't include MasterCard, Amex and all those other smaller credit companies.
• Of late I've found myself having more and more convesations with people about why mega-corporations like Wal-Mart and the like are bad for pretty much everyone except the executives running them and perhaps the shareholders who profit from their profits. The latest development seems to be that the UK supermarket chain Asda is now owned by Wal*Mart which lead to my sister-in-law asking me the leading question "So what's so bad about WalMart then?". This gave me an excellent opportunity to give her a run down on the apauling employee relations record of WalMart, their battle against unions, their terrible record on treatment of injured employees, and the very unpleasent anti-competive business practices the engage in with their suppliers. WalMart employs a staggering 900,000 people in the USA and 1.4 million worldwide so statistically most Americans know someone who works at or worked at WalMart. I do. Last year they made a net profit of $8 billion or almost $6000 per employee. Unfortunately most WalMart employees are languishing on minimum wage taking home a whopping $5-6 an hour and almost none of them have the benefit of full-time employment rights because the managers cunningly keeps their hours below the amount where they would qualify as full time employees. So in the end the only good thing about WalMart is the low prices and profit for shareholders (or if you're an executive the millions of dollars in compensation). Unfortunately the cost of communities that embrace WalMarts low prices as a god-send is undoubtedly a net negative when all factors are considered. They are just another example of a huge corporation siphoning billions of dollars out of our communities and redistributing to the top few percent that have no need for food stamps and working two or three jobs just to make ends meet.
• While in Europe I got a much more balanced view of the world. Yes American issues are reported in the news, almost every day on the TV and certainly every day in the papers. However, even when accounting for the bias towards local stories you get a much greater balance between American, European, Asian and news from the rest of the world Indeed given that the European Union now has a larger population than the USA, and both India and China have populations of over one billion its a wonder how long the USA can maintain its empire building streak before collapsing into obscurity like the UK, France, Spain, Russia, and all those other empire wannabes did in previous centuries. The USA has long been lauded as the poster child of efficiency but recent figures are starting to suggest that Europe, with all it advantages of a superior standard of living is getting very close to current US efficiency standard. And there may even be reason to believe that much of Americans economic growth has been bolstered significantly by increases in efficiency at the expense of living standards vs. adopting inherently more efficient systems.
• I read an article on how Vietnamese catfish farmers realized that opening of trade borders meant they could sell their catfish into the USA and vastly undercut local suppliers. As they began to corner the market the USA catfish farmers retaliated and forced the Vietnames fish to be sold under a different name. While both fish were technically "catfish" the Vietnamese were of a different species than those farmed in the USA. This opened the door for the FDA to rule that only US catfish could be sold as "catfish". To add insult to injury the ITC then decided that the USA could levy a stiff tariff to ensure even the relabled product could not undercut the local product. This to me is yet another fine example of how globalization is okay just so long as a US company is in the chain somewhere to milk some cash out of the newly created international trade. Just how long will it be before India and China finally wake and realize that the WTO and GATT treaties with the USA are only useful if an American corporation is in the chain somewhere to suck up a tidy profit from the cross border trade. After all, if some overseas sneaker company started successfully selling its locally produced product in the USA just how long do you think it would be before Nike was calling for trade tariffs against them?
• Finally my hat goes off to Roy Disney who's resignation letter pointed out that Disney is now perceived as a company that

  "is rapacious, soul-less, and always looking for the "quick buck" rather than the long-term value which is leading to a loss of public trust."

  Well tar and feather me and roll me down the Matterhorn but surely truer words could not have been spoken? Couldn't he have been speaking about almost any Fortune 500 company? Of course Roy Disney will now be ostricised and marginalized as some freak of the excutive world who "just didn't get it" but I think he "got it" exactly. For years now that confounded Disney mouse has caused a very negative reaction in me, not disimilar to that exhibited by Cayce Pollard in William Gibson's "Pattern Recognition". It has nothing whatsoever to do with an aversion for mice, but entirely about Disney selling its soul somewhere along the line to become an icon of all that is bland, phoney and exploitative in America. So that said, if I ever meet Roy Disney I'd certainly shake his hand and buy him a drink for saying what was really on his mind..

Once more unto the Tea-Time

If you didn't know already I have recently returned from a trip to the Mother Country where I spent two weeks doing little else except drink tea. Its such a pastime over there I had forgotten how it was to drink a half dozen or so cups of the stuff in one day. So you would think such a trip would surely have me bursting with things to blog about, well it has but somehow I haven't managed to until today.

In the end I started to get tired of hearing "When are you going to blog again?", to the point where I've started to wonder about it myself. While I have managed a few quips over on JohnnyTheo none of my copious notes made while on the road have made it into digital print. In the end I think it was the shear volume of notes, and the loss of immediacy that killed the urge to put fingers to keyboard. I really should have just written the entries in full there and then, and done a copy and paste when I got back. As a solution I think I'm just going to dump my notes into the next entry and get back to the normal programme...