Few parents consider buying the safest car possible for their 16yo children. Very few get an S550, S80, A8, for their sweet 16. Parents don't seem willing to do everything they can, to mitigate the threat of their children being severely injured in a accident.
However, should they be injured we all seem to expect that no expense be spared treating what in many cases are wholly preventable injuries.
Why do we treat health care different from anything else we buy.
Most parents would glady pay $100,000 to save the life of their child - why not spend a few grand to prevent it?
Monday, February 19, 2007
Can you e-mail me the Options Backdating Evidence?
From todays Wall Street Journal:
"In one 2000 email quoted in the court document, filed in state court in California by shareholders suing the former executives, a Mercury finance executive wrote to another official about using "magic backdating ink" to manipulate the date of an options grant. Another employee whose grant allegedly was backdated was told in an email that "the stock price drop made us change the grant date" and "you will be happier with the new price."
WTF! How can otherwise intelligent people be so stupid? It's like the Abramoff scandal - what kind of idiot puts this stuff down on paper(or worse an e-mail server). If you're going to do it - at least take the time to call - preferably from an empty office. Or, ever better, pull you accomplice into a conference room and discuss it one on one.
The only theory I can come up with is these people have convinced themselves they aren't doing anything wrong.
I almost have more respect for a criminal, who acknowledges that he is a criminal. It seems almost worse to commit a crime having expended all that energy convincing yourself that nothing you're about to do is wrong.
"In one 2000 email quoted in the court document, filed in state court in California by shareholders suing the former executives, a Mercury finance executive wrote to another official about using "magic backdating ink" to manipulate the date of an options grant. Another employee whose grant allegedly was backdated was told in an email that "the stock price drop made us change the grant date" and "you will be happier with the new price."
WTF! How can otherwise intelligent people be so stupid? It's like the Abramoff scandal - what kind of idiot puts this stuff down on paper(or worse an e-mail server). If you're going to do it - at least take the time to call - preferably from an empty office. Or, ever better, pull you accomplice into a conference room and discuss it one on one.
The only theory I can come up with is these people have convinced themselves they aren't doing anything wrong.
I almost have more respect for a criminal, who acknowledges that he is a criminal. It seems almost worse to commit a crime having expended all that energy convincing yourself that nothing you're about to do is wrong.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
What obligation do the rich have to be rich?
Many argue that the rich have a philantropic obligation. But what obligation to they have to make their money in the first place?
Say you were advising an impressionable Princeton freshmen. On the one hand he could persue his dream to become an artist, writer, park ranger, or marine biologist. On the other hand, he could become a partner in Skadden Arp's corporate tax department, invesment banker at Goldman, maybe a fortune 1000 CEO. In a progressive society, what obligation does he have to maximize his utility?
Say you were advising an impressionable Princeton freshmen. On the one hand he could persue his dream to become an artist, writer, park ranger, or marine biologist. On the other hand, he could become a partner in Skadden Arp's corporate tax department, invesment banker at Goldman, maybe a fortune 1000 CEO. In a progressive society, what obligation does he have to maximize his utility?
Salaries - a perfect balance
A wise friend once told me: "People earn their money."
I'll give you a personal example:
Government IT position - 60k
*Near total job security - almost impossible to be fired/laid off
* Great health care and retirement benefits
* Very leisurely pace of work!
Corporate IT position - 90k
* Can be laid off for economic reasons or fired for performance issues
* OK Health care and retirement benefits
* Moderate pace of work
IT Position w/ Consulting Firm - 120k
* Low level of job security - a few deals fall through or a sales guy quits - you're out of luck
* OK Health care and retirement benefits
* Fast paced work environment
* PLUS 20 hours per week of travel time
* away from home 4 nights a week
IT Position - Independent Contractor - 180k
* No job security
* No health care of retirement benefits
* Fast paced work environment
* 20 hours per week of travel
* away from home 4 nights per week
In my experience; salaries = amount of work * skills * amount of delayed gratification * stress * degree of income insecurity * level of bullS**T tolerance required
I'll give you a personal example:
Government IT position - 60k
*Near total job security - almost impossible to be fired/laid off
* Great health care and retirement benefits
* Very leisurely pace of work!
Corporate IT position - 90k
* Can be laid off for economic reasons or fired for performance issues
* OK Health care and retirement benefits
* Moderate pace of work
IT Position w/ Consulting Firm - 120k
* Low level of job security - a few deals fall through or a sales guy quits - you're out of luck
* OK Health care and retirement benefits
* Fast paced work environment
* PLUS 20 hours per week of travel time
* away from home 4 nights a week
IT Position - Independent Contractor - 180k
* No job security
* No health care of retirement benefits
* Fast paced work environment
* 20 hours per week of travel
* away from home 4 nights per week
In my experience; salaries = amount of work * skills * amount of delayed gratification * stress * degree of income insecurity * level of bullS**T tolerance required
Is "looking busy" the moral equivalent of lying?
Working as a consultant, I can never understand why someone would pay me by the hour. Would you pay the guy who plows your driveway by the hour, the guy who paints your house?
I'll tell you what I learned on my first consulting gig. I was hired to do a 10 week job. I got on site and soon found that I could finish my piece of the project, in less than a week. I brought this to the attention of the project manager. Her response - "You need to learn to pace yourself."
I'll tell you what I learned on my first consulting gig. I was hired to do a 10 week job. I got on site and soon found that I could finish my piece of the project, in less than a week. I brought this to the attention of the project manager. Her response - "You need to learn to pace yourself."
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