The rewards are too damn high: Howard Schultz is threatening to run for president on the strength of a business career built upon a two-part plank—charging too much for his products while paying his employees too little.
All of a sudden, before he knew it, he owned three billion dollars! His stores had overcharged by exactly a dollar on three billion green tea lattes!
Yesterday, the Washington Post's Marc Fisher profiled Schultz on the paper's front page. More precisely, Fisher profiled the never-ending string of misstatements Schultz has emitted, down through the years, about his allegedly hardscrabble background and upbringing.
Is there anything Schultz hasn't misstated, in serial fashion, down through the many long years? Also, could we just call this gong-show off now?
With respect to which, one more point:
This week's college admissions scandal is rather limited in scope at this point, but it involves remarkably gruesome behavior by the upper-end movers and shakers who took part.
Their personal conduct was simply appalling. So, it would seem, is the way Schultz has kept reinventing his personal story down through the many long years.
Donald Trump's serial craziness has seemed to define a new low in American public morals. That said, the mainstream press corps has behaved in similar ways for decades, and "cable news" is now largely the province of high-priced selective clowning.
(We rubes aren't allowed to know how much those top-end performers get paid.)
"The rent is too damn high," one New Yorker once famously said. So are the rewards, in money and fame, available within our society. It's stunning to see what people will do to get to the top of the pile.
We strongly recommend Fisher's profile. Is there anything Schultz hasn't grossly misstated and rearranged down through the many long years?
To us, maybe more of the same: Then too, there's the FBI. According to the Los Angeles Times, they decided to treat Felicity Huffman like the gangster Roger Stone:
WINTON (3/12/19): When Felicity Huffman opened the door to her Los Angeles home at 6 a.m. Tuesday, she was met by FBI agents with their guns drawn, according a source familiar with the incident.Huffman allegedly scammed the SATs. This apparently made her a dangerous criminal. Is the bullroar now too damn high?
The agents informed her of the charges in a sweeping college admissions fraud case and handcuffed her, the source said. Huffman spent hours in federal custody at a detention center in downtown Los Angeles.
Can anyone get over themselves at this point? We ask, cable pundits decide.
"Tuesday, she was met by FBI agents with their guns drawn, according a source familiar with the incident."
ReplyDeleteHeh. This is kinda refreshing, actually. Perhaps the swamp is being drained, eh?
Eat the rich!
DeleteJared, Ivanka, Don Jr are next.
DeleteThe FBI doesn’t “decide” to treat a suspect a certain way. They follow standard procedure when arresting someone. Because our society includes a lot of gun owners possessing high-powered weaponry, the FBI has to be careful. No telling who might snap. We know 10 year old black street thugs with toy guns are a real danger, but it’s also possible a wealthy white woman might open fire.
ReplyDeleteYeah, if a bunch of armed men shows up at her door at 6am, then indeed she (or "gangster" Roger Stone) might open fire.
DeleteIt's hard to believe, however, that this sort of thing can't be arranged in a more civilized way.
"It's hard to believe, however, that this sort of thing can't be arranged in a more civilized way."
DeleteDoes Stone even have children young enough to be kept in cages?
“It's stunning to see what people will do to get to the top of the pile.”
ReplyDeleteEither Somerby is naive or he is just posturing. Anyone familiar with history would not be stunned. It’s par for the course.
Of course, one of those “people” was Roger Stone. Another was Manafort. And Trump. And if they broke the law along the way, they should pay for it. White-collar crime or crimes committed by the rich and powerful often go unpunished, or lightly punished (see Epstein, Jeffrey). That’s why it’s hard to square Somerby’s stunned revulsion at the misdeeds of the rich and powerful with his charge of “bullroar” or arrogance directed at the FBI, the agency charged with investigating and arresting these miscreants in these cases.
On the one hand, these people commit crimes to get to the top. But then Somerby dings the FBI for treating them like criminals. Apparently only “gangsters” deserve to be arrested with guns drawn.
Somerby is trying to create a false equivalence between Roger Stone and Felicity Huffman.
ReplyDeleteI fail to see the problem with alleged white collar criminals being arrested at 6 a.m. by agents with guns drawn and allowed only to wear their sweatpants and sweatshirts to federal court, like ordinary non-wealthy criminals. In fact this needs to happen more often.
ReplyDeleteExactly
Deletemaybe when there are real consequences to white collar crime in proportion to the amounts stolen, it would happen less often. Right now those in charge of the media see those crimes a "clever" and "in your face" only to be copied and to lament not thinking of it first.
Bob denigrates Howard Schultz, writing, "the strength of a business career built upon a two-part plank—charging too much for his products while paying his employees too little." This comment shows Bob's ignorance and dislike of business. These characteristics confirm he's a real liberal.
ReplyDeleteHolding down employee pay and holding up prices are part o what makes a business successful. In addition, running a very large business involving worldwide operations, many thousands of employees and millions of customers is a daunting management challenge. Very few of us could handle that job as successfully as Schultz did. I don't know whether he could turn his management skills into a successful Presidency, but these skills are real and they're important.
Unfortunately, most of our Presidents have not had successful management experience. That's too bad. IMHO the country has paid a price for their lack of management skills.
"Holding down employee pay and holding up prices are part o what makes a business successful"
ReplyDeleteAnd what makes a nation successful is taxing, regulating, and telling businesses to shut the fuck up when they come to you with a cup in their hand.
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