Tennessee Motorcycle Law Not Government's Responsibility

In the next few months the Tennessee Assembly and Governon will be deciding whether or not to repeal Tennessee's motorcycle law. It is not government’s responsibility to stop citizens from acting stupidly, just those acts that affect others. In situations covered by Tennessee's Motorcycle Law, insurance companies have absolute control. All they have to do is to insert “riders” in their policies. How about these:

• Driving or riding a motorcycle, without a helmet, voids medical and/or life insurance coverage.
• DUI or riding with a driver determined by the police to have been DUI voids medical and/or life insurance coverage for driver and passengers.
• Driving or riding without using a seat-belt voids medical and/or life insurance coverage.
• If an illness is determined to have been caused by smoking, medical and/or life insurance coverage is voided.

See how easy it could be. The problem is insurance companies are profiting by passing their costs along to the rest of us as they continue to enable the violaters. Insurance companies should be prohibited from passing along costs they incur covering illegal activities and activities determined by the medical community to be hazardous to the health of the offending individual as well as the health of others.

As is common we all are paying for the stupidity of others and/or for their illegal activities. How about we stop that?

Wal-Mart Subsidized by State and Federal Governments, Us.

The only people making money are the Waltons. Wal-Mart keeps the pressure on their vendors to keep their prices low. The vendors keep their prices low by paying their employees at or below poverty level. Wal-Mart keeps their prices low by paying their employees at or below the poverty level. The majority of these employees do not participate in the company-offered-benefits because they cannot affort their share. Therefore Tenncare and Medicare provide the company-offered-benefits. Wal-Mart as a whole reports 46% of their employees have benefits. The rest, at least those in Tennessee rely on Tenncare or Medicare etc. In other words we subsidize the Waltons.

Financial magazines have stories from China how Wal-Mart demands low prices so they can sell to the public at low prices. To meet that requirement, Wal-Mart suppliers do not pay their employees very well. Wal-Mart does not pay their employees very well so the only people making money are the Waltons and as you see some of their executives who bring home $400,000 a week. Wal-Mart watch is an organization monitoring Wal-Mart and its business practices.

Wal-Mart has turned into a monster Sam Walton never conceived of and the story below is an example.

Wal-Mart Watch will launch an on-line fundraiser today to assist former Wal-Mart employee Deborah Shank and her family of Jackson, Missouri with Mrs. Shank’s medical expenses after Wal-Mart demanded repayment for its health care plan costs from the family. The organization also pledged to match all funds raised.

A November 20 Wall Street Journal article entitled “Accident Victims Face Grab for Legal Winnings,” reported on Mrs. Shank’s story. When she was left brain damaged after a tragic collision with a semi-trailer truck seven years ago, her Wal-Mart health care plan paid her initial medical bills. Wal-Mart subsequently sued the Shanks for the $470,000 it paid in medical expenses, plus the company’s legal expenses and attorney’s fees. Wal-Mart’s lawsuit demands will completely drain the settlement money set aside in a trust for Mrs. Shank’s future care and force her to rely on public assistance for her medical and living expenses.

As Wal-Mart touts its new health care plan and launches public relations campaigns to repair its damaged reputation, this story once again exposes the company’s poor business practices and total disregard for the health and welfare of its employees.

“Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott’s decision to take away the money that Mrs. Shank would use for her medical expenses represents the kind of failure of moral leadership that we have sadly come to expect from him,” said David Nassar, Wal-Mart Watch Executive Director. “The Shanks are a hard-working American family - the kind that Lee Scott currently claims Wal-Mart helps to ‘save money and live better.’ Unfortunately, the Shank family is doing neither.”

Wal-Mart Watch will raise funds for the Shank family and tell their story to remind consumers this holiday season that the low costs Wal-Mart provide come with a very high price paid by American families like the Shanks every day.

“Lee Scott will bring home more than $400,000 this week alone,” Nassar added. “If Wal-Mart needs that money so badly, perhaps Scott should pay it himself. Or, maybe the Walton family, some of the wealthiest individuals in the nation, would be willing to pay it to attempt to quell the moral outrage this story is generating against their father’s company. But, we will not wait for Lee Scott or the Walton family to do the right thing. We are doing something about it ourselves and we hope to make a difference for Mrs. Shank and her family.”

Buying More and More for Less and Less

The expanding global economy demands that corporations seek out the cheapest possible labor to maximize profit, and stimulate growth and innovation. With free trade has come an explosion of global inequality making it possible for consumers to buy more and more while paying less and less.

Some in the business world insist that the business sector's efforts to tap into the vast pool of cheap labor in poorer countries are all about free market economics.

Unfortunately, this remains largely ignored by the American consumer.

Chain retailers that sell low-cost goods manufactured overseas by workers who are allegedly paid less than the minimum wage, forced to work long hours, not given overtime pay and even beaten in order to keep them working grueling shifts have become easy targets for human rights groups. Companies that once urged consumers to "Buy American" are among the largest importers of goods made in China, which is one of the world's worst labor abusers.
We have perfected the art of indulgence and avoidance. Wealthy as we are in the West, living and eating off the fruits of their labor, can honestly say we are unaware or that the problem is simply too great to comprehend. In other words, do not to think about it."

We must think about it. And in thinking about it, at some point we must realize that there is a moral dimension to our buying habits. As long as we are willing to buy, buy, buy at lower and lower prices without a care for how those goods were produced or where they came from, corporations will continue to seek out cheap labor, which invariably goes hand in hand with inhumane working conditions.

We should take a moral stand against sweatshop labor. Christ urged his followers to reach out to the less fortunate. Christians claiming to emulate Christ should speak out against slave labor. If Christians would boycott large chains that perpetuate inhumane labor practices and working conditions, it could go a long way toward changing conditions around the world.

The next time you head out the door in search of another great deal, remember that your bargain could be coming at someone else's expense. For example, a report on a Korean-owned factory described working conditions:

Toilets and canteens were unsanitary. Some managers screamed at workers or pressured those who complained to resign. And many women, who comprise 88% of the plant's workers, said they were denied time off for doctors' appointments. One pregnant worker who had a note from her doctor about a high-risk pregnancy was not allowed to leave until five hours after she complained of pain. She lost the baby.

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Nothing Good Happens in a Bar Late

Nothing good happens in a bar after 11:00pm . People with jobs are either home preparing for the next day's job or at their job. Either way they are not in a bar. Most of the people in bars after 11:00pm are there because they have no better place to be and that is sad.

Recently a visitor from out-of-state was shot by another bar patron who was eventually killed by local police. What happened to the visitor was terrible but nothing good happens in a bar after 11:00pm especially for the father of eight children. His careless and selfish decision has forced his children to grow up without their dad. His death was not his fault but his decision to be there, that late, was.

Wal-Mart Clips

In 2006, a Pennsylvania State University study revealed that during the last decade, dependence on the food stamp program nationwide increased by 8 percent, while in counties with Wal-Mart stores the increase was almost twice as large at 15.3 percent. Although Wal-Mart employs many people living in its communities, for most, the hours worked and the wages paid do not help these families transition out of poverty, the study said. [St. Louis Business Journal, 5/17/06]

In October 2003, a 21-state immigration raid at Wal-Mart stores happened because the government believed that Wal-Mart executives knew their cleaning contractors were using illegal immigrants, officials said. In 1998 and 2001, 102 illegal immigrants working for Wal-Mart contractors had been arrested and 13 Wal-Mart cleaning contractors had pleaded guilty after those arrests. [New York Times, 10/25/03]