Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Monsters, Inc.

We see and read stories all the time about the heartless attitude of certain corporations towards their products that from time to time kill and maim people.

We heard on 60 Minutes many years ago about how Ford callously crunched the numbers around the little problem of the exploding gas tanks on their Ford Pintos. The job of their bean counters was to determine the cost to the company of potential law suits versus expenses they would have occurred in making the gas tanks on their Ford Pinto less prone to roasting their customers. Hideously bad publicity for Ford.

But nothing beats the callousness of the companies that make the military style weapons that have been used in massed shootings. While Pintos did cause accidents and had that design problem, these and other cars serve an enormous economic benefit. These assault weapons do what they are designed to do, largely kill people.

Let us not forget that recently James Fendry defended the existence of assault weapons in society because his buddies enjoy shooting. Hey, what's 20 kids getting butchered when it's your hobby that matters.

The gruesome details about Sandy Hook are emerging. It was noted in the case of six year old Noah Pozner he had to be buried with a veil over the lower part of his face because his jaw was shot off. Some of the little bodies in these classrooms absorbed hits from as many as 11 bullets. Imagine the horrible thoughts that play over and over in the minds of the first responders, many of them no doubt public employee union thugs.

You got to wonder what's in the minds of the executives with these companies, who could have done the responsible thing and limited the sale of these weapons to the military and to the police and probably still make a pretty good buck. General Stanley McChrystal on yesterday's Morning Joe indicated that he knows what these weapons are good for, and it's not for just anyone to use.

In this country, we have to honor these "job creators" and make sure the sky's the limit when it comes to their compensation, even if means a few deaths here and there. Instead, it seems all the guys in the C-Suite think about is their million dollar salaries, their third or four house and three week vacations in the Caribbean, and oh, quite likely money they contribute to "pro-life" political causes.

This too is a calculation in the decrepit head of these executives, and the knowledge that their products are leading to deaths in dozens and are arming crime gangs, the immorality seems to escape them.

Among the many frantic strategies the pro-gun crowd uses to ward off solutions when these violent acts happen is to cry there is no solution, other than enabling the good folks who run the assault weapon makers to turn out more of their product.

If there is any thing we can do to bring real common sense and security to this country, the first step might be is to ostracize the immoral monsters who see dollars when they are causing deaths.

Or better yet, how about exposing these executives to the visual effect of the results of their products. Something tells me they are so removed from the consequences of their actions that it's time to make them just slightly more conscious.

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