In an editorial today, The Toledo Blade, which calls itself “One of America’s Great Newspapers” (tough-to-see pic here), finds itself in what appears to be a bitter labor dispute engaging in tactics it has surely criticized when employed elsewhere, and sounding quite a bit like a number of business folks it has derided over the years:

REGRETTABLY, The Blade today finds itself in a labor dispute with the people who traditionally have mattered most to the company: our employees and their families.

We wish it were not so. We wish that it had not become necessary to utilize a management prerogative with an unfortunate sounding name - a lockout. So we believe it is instructive to explain for our readers, and indeed, for our own workers, why we are at this point.

The simple truth is that The Blade is bleeding financially and cannot continue to operate indefinitely under such circumstances. The company would not be proposing wage reductions and other concessions if our economic situation were not so severe. Our unions, in fact, do not dispute that our financial condition is dire. One of them, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, has already accepted a new contract.

The company considers a lockout to be the management equivalent of a strike by labor, and we believe it to be a legitimate tool in collective bargaining.

There’s no mention as to whether The Blade might be re-examining its far-left news bias in the hope of gaining new readers. Don’t count on it, and that’s too bad. No one can deny that The Blade has outstanding investigative reporters. If they prioritized their pursuit of the truth beyond topics that make America, Republicans, and conservatives look bad, the market would probably reward their efforts.

There isn’t a large enough bold-faced font to show you how angry this makes me.

Add this special delivery from the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) to the “deadly perils of nationalized health care” file:

The NHS scandal that cost a young boy’s life
12:11pm 22nd August 2006

Earlier this month, leading orthopaedic surgeon Simon Moyes, who put patients at risk of infections by re-using surgical equipment, escaped punishment after it was claimed such practices are widespread in the NHS due to cost cutting. It was news that shattered the Clowes family, whose nine-year-old son Tony died exactly five years ago this month after (a) breathing apparatus was reused in what should have been a minor operation.

The UK’s Daily mail interviewed Tony’s father George:

He says: “After reading about Simon Moyes in the newspaper last week, I was left feeling as though I’d been run over by a truck.

….. And to hear at the same time that the very practices that killed our son are still going on was shattering.

After Tony’s death, we were promised that lessons would be learned, which, given this latest investigation, we find difficult to believe.

One of the consultants who gave evidence in support of Mr Moyes said it was common practice to reuse equipment because the NHS is so short of funds.

To us, the thought of doctors still risking people’s lives for the sake of a little penny pinching feels like a slur on Tony’s memory.

….. At the time of his death, he was in perfect health. He wouldn’t have ended up in hospital at all had he not lacerated his right index finger while trying to repair the chain of his bike.

….. I had no idea that as I flicked casually through magazines, doctors were struggling to save Tony’s life.

I thought in a couple of hours, Tony would be ready to go home and would be chatting away about the welcome back dinner his mother was making him.

The first I knew anything was wrong was about an hour later, when a doctor and his assistant came and found me and ushered me into a side room. He looked at me and said “I don’t know how to tell you this but there’s been an absolute disaster.”

Then he said that Tony had died. It was impossible to take in what they told me next. I listened in total disbelief as they told me that they’d discovered Tony wasn’t getting any oxygen through the breathing tube they’d put down his throat while he was under the general anaesthetic.

At first, after checking the breathing equipment and discovering it was all fine, they’d thought he’d had an allergic reaction to the anaesthetic drug.

So they’d started injecting him with a cocktail of other drugs, including adrenaline, in order to counter the anaesthetic.

It was only after other senior anaesthetists had rushed in to examine Tony, that one of the doctors finally lifted Tony’s mask and discovered one of the connectors inside it had slipped into the tubing and was blocking the airflow. Tony had suffocated to death.

….. We still can’t believe not only did they break guidelines but they didn’t do something as basic as mouth-to-mouth which would have saved his life.

….. If doctors continue to get away with such behaviour, then there will be little incentive for them to change their ways and more people will die as a result of NHS budgetary constraints.

Even five years on, we still miss Tony desperately. There is still a gaping hole in this family and although we have days now when we’re able to laugh, we will never be as happy as we once were.

Read the whole sickening thing.

So what’s the point of “free universal access” to medical care if this is what you and your loved ones get access to?

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UPDATE: Dean at Dean’s World relates a horror story with his lovely bride, and makes the point that indifference is not unique to nationalized systems. Fair enough — but I would suggest that the unsanitary and dangerous reuse of disposable items is NOT a widespread practice here as it has been found to be with the NHS. He also e-mailed and questioned why health care should be employer-based as it is in this country. That is of course an important issue. Employer involvement is an accident of history that goes back to World War II and evolved (or devolved) from there. Ideally, individuals should pay their own medical insurance and medical care costs, as with auto insurance, but getting from where we are to the ideal is going to be difficult (Medical Savings Accounts are the bridge). One thing that I believe experience shows won’t work is pretending that a government takeover of the healthcare system will be an improvement.

UPDATE 2: The Socialized Medicine blog posted on this and received this e-mail from a reader who said he/she is an anesthesiologist in a U.S. public hospital:

Local anesthesia can also be dangerous, or fatal, in the wrong hands. This boy was in the wrong hands. We have separate “ambu bags” to ventilate patients. If the machine malfunctions, we reach for the ambu bag, ventilate the patient, and then troubleshoot the machine. We have “pulse oximeters” to measure oxygen in the skin, and “end tidal carbon dioxide” to measure ventilation. Alarms are set to go offf if these become abnormal, as would occur if the ventilation circuit was blocked. In addition, the anesthetist should be observing the patient - obviously not the case here. The time of neglect must have been significant. A healthy patient has enough “reserve” oxygen that it would take a number of minutes to die even if the oxygen supply was cut off. In the USA, this would be negligence - plain and simple - and a multi million dollar out of court settlement.

Tom Borelli at Townhall (HT Amy Ridenour) has a great column on how company CEOs are using “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) as a form of public-relations insurance:

CEOs of some of the largest companies have become the biggest advocates for expanding the responsibility of business beyond financial performance to include social and environmental goals. With the public outraged over executive compensation, and high profile cases of corporate fraud, CSR is an insurance policy for image-sensitive CEOs.

By paying an ideological and financial cover charge to social and environmental causes, CEOs gain admittance to Club CSR and enjoy a host of membership privileges. One major club benefit is protection from advocacy actions such as protests and boycotts wielded by anti-business activists.

Membership requires the creation of a public relations campaign or business strategy that serves the CSR agenda. By feeding into politically correct themes, these campaigns frequently distract the media and shareholders from failed business practices and poor stock performance. Being viewed as socially responsible buys great latitude for struggling CEOs. No longer considered selfish capitalists, these CEOs can finally gain access to elite social circles.

Global warming, the Holy Grail of CSR topics, provides the greatest cover for a distressed CEO. For example, under the leadership of John Browne, the giant energy company BP has enjoyed a free ride from activist attacks because of the company’s aggressive advertising campaign promoting global warming concerns, carbon footprints and alternative energy.

Meanwhile, BP’s record includes a deadly explosion at one of its refineries and a major oil pipeline leak in Alaska. Because of these incidents, the company is under investigation by an alphabet soup of federal and state agencies – EPA, OSHA, and DOJ – for possible law violations.

Borelli also points to GE as another company using CSR to cover up mediocre financial performance.

Three points on what Borelli wrote:

1. BP may be getting a pass as much because it’s British as because of it green advocacy. Similar efforts by ExxonMobil accompanied by a refinery explosion and a pipeline leak would certainly not earn that company a pass.
2. GE’s green strategy could actually make cynical business sense. There is a lot of business opportunity in controlling and cleaning up pollution, especially in rapidly industrializing countries like China. In GE’s case, associating itself with the “climate change” movement and showing off a few demo plants shuts the enviros up, allowing the serious business of building cleaner-than-ever coal and nuclear plants to continue.
3. For many American companies, no amount of make-nice will buy a company peace over the long-term. Exhibit A: Wal-Mart, which has spent nearly a year trying to placate critics with its public go-green promises, lightening up on shoplifters, revising its pay structure, and putting social activists on the payroll. And what does it have to show for its efforts? A health-care tax in Maryland that affects only the retailer (first item at link; may be overturned by the courts); a “living wage” ordinance in Chicago that as of this writing is close to becoming law (may be vetoed by the city’s mayor); and racially embarrassing comments from one of its (now former) community-outreachers. Some payoff.

All of this giving in to “social responsibility” is not without potential cost. Nobel laureate (1976 - Economics) and legendary economist Milton Friedman famously wrote in one of the greatest economic essays of all time that “The social responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits,” and that “Businessmen who talk (of “social responsibility”) are unwitting puppets of the intellectual forces that have been undermining the basis of a free society these past decades.” Further:

What does it mean to say that the corporate executive has a “social responsibility” in his capacity as businessman? If this statement is not pure rhetoric, it must mean that he is to act in some way that is not in the interest of his employers. For example, that he is to refrain from increasing the price of the product in order to contribute to the social objective of preventing inflation, even though a price increase would be in the best interests of the corporation. Or that he is to make expenditures on reducing pollution beyond the amount that is in the best interests of the corporation or that is required by law in order to contribute to the social objective of improving the environment. Or that, at the expense of corporate profits, he is to hire “hardcore” un­employed instead of better qualified available workmen to contribute to the social objective of reducing poverty.

In each of these cases, the corporate executive would be spending someone else’s money for a general social interest. Insofar as his actions in accord with his “social responsibility” reduce returns to stockholders, he is spending their money. Insofar as his actions raise the price to customers, he is spending the customers’ money. Insofar as his actions lower the wages of some employees, he is spending their money.

To the extent that “social responsibility” doesn’t get in the way of what stockholders, customers, and employees receive, it can be excused as harmless grandstanding. To the extent that it does get in the way, and I believe that would be most of the time, it hurts all of us by slowing down economic growth, and preventing the resources needed to accomplish valid social goals from ever appearing.

David Boaz of Cato at Liberty catches The Wall Street Journal succumbing briefly to doublespeak in an obituary (link to WSJ requires subscription; 2nd obit at link):

Gen. Alfredo Stroessner, the military strongman who ruled Paraguay from 1954 until 1989. Among 20th century Latin American leaders, only Cuban President Fidel Castro has served longer.

As Boaz notes: “Why is Stroessner a ‘military strongman’ while Castro is ‘Cuban President’? Both came to power through bullets, not ballots, and ruled with an iron hand.”

Why indeed?

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Note: Starting August 21, what was the “AM Coffee Biz-Econ-Life Links” post has been replaced with four or so short individual posts early each morning to increase visibility and allow greater opportunity for comment.

Looks like it to me.

Jeff at Credit/Debt Recovery smells a rat.

The credit bureau Experian is contacting consumers about their services and acting like it’s a business call.

Hey, the services they are selling almost certainly revolve around a person’s credit, which is pegged to their personal Social Security number. If so, despite the disguise, these are personal telemarketing calls, which are illegal if made to any phone number on the Do Not Call Registry.

Paging the Federal Trade Commission: Come down, HARD.

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Note: Starting August 21, what was the “AM Coffee Biz-Econ-Life Links” post has been replaced with four or so short individual posts early each morning to increase visibility and allow greater opportunity for comment.

The UK is making halting steps toward privatization, after Japan jumped in with both feet (first item at link) some time ago. Why aren’t we?

Of course, the unions there aren’t going to make it easy, even when told that the alternative is closure, but that’s to be expected.

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Note: Starting August 21, what was the “AM Coffee Biz-Econ-Life Links” post has been replaced with four or so short individual posts early each morning to increase visibility and allow greater opportunity for comment.

From Expatica:

The Christian Democrat CDA wants a 40-hour working week to become the norm again in the Netherlands.

….. Currently, the working week in the Netherlands is 36 hours.

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Note: Starting August 21, what was the “AM Coffee Biz-Econ-Life Links” post is being replaced with four or so short individual posts early each morning to increase visibility and allow greater opportunity for comment.

Similar stories to this one come along from time to time. That doesn’t make them any less amazing:

07.28.2006
Man lifts car off pinned cyclist
Teenager expected to survive dragging
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

When Tom Boyle saw a young man being dragged underneath a car on the East Side Wednesday night, his fatherly instincts kicked in.

Kyle Holtrust, 18, was riding his bike south on South Kolb Road against traffic near East 22nd Street around 8:30 p.m. when he was hit by a car, said Sgt. Decio Hopffer, a Tucson Police Department spokesman.

Holtrust became trapped under the car, along with his bike, and was dragged for about 20 to 30 feet before John Baggett, who was driving the car, came to a stop.

Boyle had just left a shopping center with his wife when they saw Holtrust underneath the Camaro, he said.

“I didn’t believe what I saw,” Boyle said Thursday. “I didn’t believe it until my wife said something, and I was just like, ‘Oh my God.’ You think things like that only happen in movies.”

Boyle and his wife got out of their car and ran over to the Camaro where he said he saw the front tires lifted off the ground.

Holtrust was pinned underneath his bike, which was pinned underneath the car, said Boyle, who is 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 300 pounds.

“As soon as I get to the car, the boy is just screaming his head off, and I could tell he was in a lot of pain,” Boyle said. “As I was lifting the front end of the car off of him, he was just saying, ‘Mister, mister, higher, higher.’

Then when it was high enough, he said, ‘OK. I can’t move. Get me out.’ ”

Boyle said he began yelling to Baggett to pull Holtrust out, but he didn’t respond.

“I yelled at him like four or five times, and then he reached underneath and pulled him out,” Boyle said. “The driver must’ve been in shock, and he couldn’t seem to come out of it.”

Once Boyle put the car down, he held Holtrust until the Tucson police and fire departments arrived, he said.

As they waited, Boyle recalled Holtrust asking what happened and having to explain to him that he was hit by the car, he said.

“That boy really impressed me with how composed he was,” Boyle said. “He was pouring blood everywhere, and he kept saying he didn’t want to waste anyone’s time. He even said thank you to me, and that blew my mind.”

Boyle, a paint-shop supervisor at Hamilton Aerospace and father of two, said he doesn’t view himself as a hero.

“All I could think is, what if that was my son,” he said. “I’d want someone to do the same for him, to take the time and rub his head and make him feel good until help arrived.”

Added Hopffer, “It is reassuring to see people in this community who not only stopped, but also helped someone in need.”

Holtrust, who was taken to University Medical Center to be treated for head and leg injuries, was not available to be interviewed. He is expected to survive.