A letter from the CEO of my company.

[Ban Hammer 12,876]

gary, i've never heard squat from my company president. i do compare that email of his to a pep talk by a coach and i don't consider that to be a bad thing although some of our resident apologists here apparently do. it's par for the course on their part, ain't it?

[DelcoCouple 1]

This Admin is screwing up the Constitution so bad. It is called the patriot act. That has taken a lot of my civil rights away. If I want to open a bank account I have to show I am not a threat. If I check out books from the libary and they can get the records.

they can bust into your home with out a warrent now and arrest you and put you in jail and not tell you why..and can leave you as long as they feel like. They just say he was a terriost and keep him in jail.

So a lot of civil rights been taken away. they are tapping people phones, putting people on the 'no fly list' and they wont let you know why you on it.. the Homeland dept is the Bush admin. SS Nazi's

If only schools here taught kids to research the top 20 countries around the world, they would find that they already have similar or even tougher laws in place than the patriot act. Welcome to the 21st Century and being civilized.. I think you will find no other country has such an anything-goes style system.. Or a system where the government has to report 24/7 any security measures taken to protect its' citizens.

The school system would actually do better by educating school children, it does not surprise me that you see blind propaganda as more important than factual knowledge. Can you please provide us all with a link to another civilized 21st century country from those top 20 you refer to that has its own gitmo bay then? Oh and while you are at it perhaps you please tell me how removing my non profile shoes at an airport protects the USA, or what business of the governments it is where I choose to legally travel within the USA, why my credit card details are of national security importance, why we are all safer by placing a 4 year old on a no fly list, why my 1st amendment rights are violated in the interests of security etc etc etc. Oh and I really must be stupid because for the life of me I still can't see the connection between 9/11 and Iran yet there must be one because dubyah keeps reminding us about it. That ought to keep you busy for the next year or so have fun

Education is indeed a wonderful thing provided it is a liberal education (not in the political sense because I know most republitards won't understand the difference) as opposed to indoctrination. Oh that reminds me what happened to the dinosaurs then?

Although the right to think critically and examine evidence is not specifically guaranteed by the constitution it is ok to use it you know Or you could just bleat soundbites and other on message party slogans, have a nice day sheeples

As an aside it is interesting to note that the CEO choose to equate his view of the world with words written in 1953. Either he is backwards looking, nostalgic or totally out of touch with reality to make a comparsion with the world we live in today and one that existed 54 years ago. I guess it tells us something about Republicans and their grasp on reality

Edited January 31, 2007 by DelcoCouple

[GaryC 7]

Gary, take for example, the Philippines - where a select few who are wealthy while a large majority of people live in poverty. Do you suppose it's because all those poor people are just lazy and jealous of those who are wealthy? Do you suppose that they only need to work hard enough and they too can lift themselves up the economic ladder because a free market creates such possibilities for all? That's an incredibly naive and simplistic understanding of economics and a failure to recognize that economic injustice does exist in a free market.

Boy you walked into this one Steve.

That is my point!!!!! In America anyone that wants to succeed and is willing to work for it then it will happen! I wasn't talking about PI! Anyone in America that spends his life at the bottom is there because he chose to. Anyone, anywhere in America can succeed here. That doesn't happen in to many countries.

Steve you see social and economic differences in the American population and see it as unfair. You see it as something to become an activist about and to seek to change through laws and regulations. I see that even our lowest of the low in terms of standing or lifestyle has it better that most outside of the 1st world. The lower class was where we start in life. Get a job and experience or get an education. Then after you work and gain life experience you move out of lower class. If someone spends his entire life at the bottom then it is his own fault. If we make it to cushy then they have no incentive to improve and move up in the world. We are really keeping that person down if we make the bottom to easy. It's like welfare. We found that if we make it to easy then entire generations live off of it. The bottom is there for a reason. To give people an incentive to improve. We have nothing to be ashamed of. We do have room for improvement, yes, but nothing to be ashamed of.

[DeadPoolX 9]

Boy you walked into this one Steve.

That is my point!!!!! In America anyone that wants to succeed and is willing to work for it then it will happen! I wasn't talking about PI! Anyone in America that spends his life at the bottom is there because he chose to. Anyone, anywhere in America can succeed here. That doesn't happen in to many countries.

Steve you see social and economic differences in the American population and see it as unfair. You see it as something to become an activist about and to seek to change through laws and regulations. I see that even our lowest of the low in terms of standing or lifestyle has it better that most outside of the 1st world. The lower class was where we start in life. Get a job and experience or get an education. Then after you work and gain life experience you move out of lower class. If someone spends his entire life at the bottom then it is his own fault. If we make it to cushy then they have no incentive to improve and move up in the world. We are really keeping that person down if we make the bottom to easy. It's like welfare. We found that if we make it to easy then entire generations live off of it. The bottom is there for a reason. To give people an incentive to improve. We have nothing to be ashamed of. We do have room for improvement, yes, but nothing to be ashamed of.

While that is, for the most part, true, it's not entirely accurate. For instance -- take someone who is homeless. How do they get a job? One of the requirements for a job is a permanent place of residence. If you're homeless, you don't have that, so you can't get the job. If you can't get the job, you can't make money, and therefore, you can't raise yourself out of poverty.

I'm not saying that this is the situation with all poverty cases. I'm just pointing out that sometimes, it's not as easy as we might think to "raise ourselves up" when we're sunk to the bottom.

[DelcoCouple 1]

Boy you walked into this one Steve.

That is my point!!!!! In America anyone that wants to succeed and is willing to work for it then it will happen! I wasn't talking about PI! Anyone in America that spends his life at the bottom is there because he chose to. Anyone, anywhere in America can succeed here. That doesn't happen in to many countries.

Steve you see social and economic differences in the American population and see it as unfair. You see it as something to become an activist about and to seek to change through laws and regulations. I see that even our lowest of the low in terms of standing or lifestyle has it better that most outside of the 1st world. The lower class was where we start in life. Get a job and experience or get an education. Then after you work and gain life experience you move out of lower class. If someone spends his entire life at the bottom then it is his own fault. If we make it to cushy then they have no incentive to improve and move up in the world. We are really keeping that person down if we make the bottom to easy. It's like welfare. We found that if we make it to easy then entire generations live off of it. The bottom is there for a reason. To give people an incentive to improve. We have nothing to be ashamed of. We do have room for improvement, yes, but nothing to be ashamed of.

While that is, for the most part, true, it's not entirely accurate. For instance -- take someone who is homeless. How do they get a job? One of the requirements for a job is a permanent place of residence. If you're homeless, you don't have that, so you can't get the job. If you can't get the job, you can't make money, and therefore, you can't raise yourself out of poverty.

I'm not saying that this is the situation with all poverty cases. I'm just pointing out that sometimes, it's not as easy as we might think to "raise ourselves up" when we're sunk to the bottom.

Oh please what are you thinking of? Don't you understand that cutting benefits for veterans returning from Iraq is just the governments way of making sure they don't have life to easy and have an incentive to crawl to work. Who needs legs anyways?

[MAui_Taylor06 0]

I think he seems like a nice guy, Gary....you can tell he's a caring and personable boss from his email AND from the fact that he even signs it '#######' it gives a very welcoming and informal vibe...which is very rare to see in a boss nowadays.

Don't bother defending him, cos the haters will hate and pick every word apart cos that's what they do...it's 'black and white' and nothing you ever say will change that. So don't waste your time! You know he's awesome, and for a worker to feel the way you do...well that says a lot for the company and the man who built it!

Yeap!LisaD is right!

Thay are all too blind to see things in the bright side! you really wasting your time to this KIND of people!

BTW I like your siggy photo..you have such a cute 'lil wife .. opps hope nobody *hate * me to say these..

[GaryC 7]

While that is, for the most part, true, it's not entirely accurate. For instance -- take someone who is homeless. How do they get a job? One of the requirements for a job is a permanent place of residence. If you're homeless, you don't have that, so you can't get the job. If you can't get the job, you can't make money, and therefore, you can't raise yourself out of poverty.

I'm not saying that this is the situation with all poverty cases. I'm just pointing out that sometimes, it's not as easy as we might think to "raise ourselves up" when we're sunk to the bottom.

There are a multitude of government agencies that will take you off the street and give you the basics to get started over. If not then there are plenty of private groups to help. If someone is rock bottom and stays there then one of two things are going on. He has a physical or mental problem that is stopping them or they just don't have the ambition to try. For the first there is government help. If there isn't I would support it being started. For the latter it's their choice to be there.

Let me tell you a little about myself. In 1980 when I got out of the navy we were having a terrible ressession. Unemployment was double digit and I didn't have a job. For a while I slept in an abandoned car. I worked my way out of it without anything more than unemployment. From that day on each of my days have been better than the last. I did it and anyone of sound mind and body can do it also. That is the great thing about America.

[garya505 2]

Boy you walked into this one Steve.

That is my point!!!!! In America anyone that wants to succeed and is willing to work for it then it will happen! I wasn't talking about PI! Anyone in America that spends his life at the bottom is there because he chose to. Anyone, anywhere in America can succeed here. That doesn't happen in to many countries.

Steve you see social and economic differences in the American population and see it as unfair. You see it as something to become an activist about and to seek to change through laws and regulations. I see that even our lowest of the low in terms of standing or lifestyle has it better that most outside of the 1st world. The lower class was where we start in life. Get a job and experience or get an education. Then after you work and gain life experience you move out of lower class. If someone spends his entire life at the bottom then it is his own fault. If we make it to cushy then they have no incentive to improve and move up in the world. We are really keeping that person down if we make the bottom to easy. It's like welfare. We found that if we make it to easy then entire generations live off of it. The bottom is there for a reason. To give people an incentive to improve. We have nothing to be ashamed of. We do have room for improvement, yes, but nothing to be ashamed of.

While that is, for the most part, true, it's not entirely accurate. For instance -- take someone who is homeless. How do they get a job? One of the requirements for a job is a permanent place of residence. If you're homeless, you don't have that, so you can't get the job. If you can't get the job, you can't make money, and therefore, you can't raise yourself out of poverty.

I'm not saying that this is the situation with all poverty cases. I'm just pointing out that sometimes, it's not as easy as we might think to "raise ourselves up" when we're sunk to the bottom.

Pleeeze! Americans are some of the most generous people in the world. If someone wants to drag themselves up there will ALWAYS be someone willing to give them a hand to do it. If they just want a hand-out they might get that too, but there will be more people willing to help an honest person who has fallen into bad times.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Gary, take for example, the Philippines - where a select few who are wealthy while a large majority of people live in poverty. Do you suppose it's because all those poor people are just lazy and jealous of those who are wealthy? Do you suppose that they only need to work hard enough and they too can lift themselves up the economic ladder because a free market creates such possibilities for all? That's an incredibly naive and simplistic understanding of economics and a failure to recognize that economic injustice does exist in a free market.

Boy you walked into this one Steve.

That is my point!!!!! In America anyone that wants to succeed and is willing to work for it then it will happen! I wasn't talking about PI! Anyone in America that spends his life at the bottom is there because he chose to. Anyone, anywhere in America can succeed here. That doesn't happen in to many countries.

Steve you see social and economic differences in the American population and see it as unfair. You see it as something to become an activist about and to seek to change through laws and regulations. I see that even our lowest of the low in terms of standing or lifestyle has it better that most outside of the 1st world. The lower class was where we start in life. Get a job and experience or get an education. Then after you work and gain life experience you move out of lower class. If someone spends his entire life at the bottom then it is his own fault. If we make it to cushy then they have no incentive to improve and move up in the world. We are really keeping that person down if we make the bottom to easy. It's like welfare. We found that if we make it to easy then entire generations live off of it. The bottom is there for a reason. To give people an incentive to improve. We have nothing to be ashamed of. We do have room for improvement, yes, but nothing to be ashamed of.

Yes, economic disparities only exist when there is economic injustice - when workers aren't paid for what they are worth. And while we don't live in the Philippines, we Americans benefit off the backs of third world labor - we purchase goods made by laborers who are paid very little with no benefits. This is becoming a circular argument for us, Gary. It really boils down to the fact that you want the market to determine the worth of an employee and I'm trying to demonstrate that no only is it unfair, but it creates growing wage gaps between the rich and the poor.

Economic mobility is a great concept and I'm all for creating opportunities for Americans to have that option, but many don't. The free market is not some kind of utopia that simply brings forth the best in everything, it has to be well regulated to keep things fair. The S&L scandal is just ONE example of what happens when deregulation takes place. Imagine if on Sunday, the NFL decided to deregulate the Superbowl game by doing away with the refs - leave it up to the teams to call their own calls.

[Peikko 1,575]

No matter how hard some people work to make their lives better, circumstances sometimes conspire to throw them back down again. It is a little too simplistic to say everyone can become rich if they only work hard enough.

Should there be a 'cosy corner' for anyone who 'can't be bothered' to work. Of course not, but most analysis of people who are on welfare consistantly proove that the majority of people in this circumstance are not lazy or somehow content to be in this situation.

Of course there are countries in the world where there is abject poverty, beyond anything most of us have experience of and it is ridiculous to try to make comparisons between US poverty and 3rd world poverty.

To feel 'hard done by' because you can't have the latest gadget if you can't afford it is a misplaced sense of values. To feel frustrated because you are only paid minimum wage if you work hard for that wage is understandable.

[Lurker 0]

Good post Gary.

All I got to say is if I become filthy rich from my hard workings and have loads of money coming out of my #######...so WHAT!!! It belongs to me, and me only. Get your own shite and stay off my back door biaches!!!

If that makes me selfish then so be it. I don't owe anybody anything except my family and defending this country when we get invaded by pot smoking hippies!!! "Momma!!! Go get the shotgun...found me some hippies, we havin chicken tonight!!!"

GO SMOKE A ROPE!!!

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

Not every CEO has worked hard to get where they are. Like James Murdoch, for example.......

[DelcoCouple 1]

Not every CEO has worked hard to get where they are. Like James Murdoch, for example.......

Nor does every CEO wastes his or his staffs time forwarding spam "globally" either. You might like to re read the original post where it is clearly stated

I am sure many of you may have seen the attached comments but a friend sent it to me

and then take a look HERE

It seems the OP hero worships spammers. Just how much credibility as a manager does a spammer have?

Oh what foresight and vision he has in his leadership skills that the best inspirational e mail for a Monday morning he can come up with is not relevant to the business, nor is it self written, or his thoughts on words of wisdom by a recognised leader in their particular field but instead a forward of spam mail? :lol:

One wonders what the staff handbook says re company policy in acceptable computer usage and spam?

Thanks to the OP for the best unintentional foot in mouth I have seen in a while

Edited January 31, 2007 by DelcoCouple

[ChristinaM 0]

I'm pretty free-market capitalist when it comes to wages. (See Gary, I'm not the flaming liberal you think I am!) I do have an issue with CEO wages for one reason though. I't been said a couple of times in this thread that anyone can raise themselves up and earn a bigger piece of the pie. Very true. But, there is only so much pie to go around. And logic dictates that the more pie any one individual takes, the less there is to share between the others.

There has to be some justification for paying a CEO 416 times the amount his median employee earns (and yes, I did pull the number out of my rear end because I can't be arsed to go and look right now), otherwise the distribution of renumeration simply goes crazy. It's almost akin to a womans 70 cents on the dollar - what is the justification for such a huge discrepancy? I understand that a CEO has great and often ultimate responsibility, but if he's a good CEO he will surround himself with people who are expert in their field and can take some of that burden of responsibility. So what is he doing that makes him worth $500K or $500mil a year? Just as I have to go before my boss and justify any pay rise that I want, I think a CEO should be able to justify their salary also.

But I digress.

I don't think it's wrong to be dissatified with your life or your country. Sure, appreciate the good things. But dissatisfaction lies at the root of any change - otherwise change would be unnecessary. And while the US may be a good place to live, it is not the perfect place to live. Change can be both positive and negative, and it can be both things at the same time to different people. One of the biggest problems to making meaningful change here in the US, as I see it, is that everything is so polarised. There is a middle ground, shades of grey. A place where Gary and Steven will find something they can both agree on. The US needs to find and utilise that middle ground to make the country better for everyone; and that won't happen unless people are dissatisfied with something.

JMHO, of course.

[GaryC 7]

Not every CEO has worked hard to get where they are. Like James Murdoch, for example.......

Nor does every CEO wastes his or his staffs time forwarding spam "globally" either. You might like to re read the original post where it is clearly stated

I am sure many of you may have seen the attached comments but a friend sent it to me

and then take a look HERE

It seems the OP hero worships spammers. Just how much credibility as a manager does a spammer have?

Oh what foresight and vision he has in his leadership skills that the best inspirational e mail for a Monday morning he can come up with is not relevant to the business, nor is it self written, or his thoughts on words of wisdom by a recognised leader in their particular field but instead a forward of spam mail? :lol:

One wonders what the staff handbook says re company policy in acceptable computer usage and spam?

Thanks to the OP for the best unintentional foot in mouth I have seen in a while

Dude you make no sense at all. He clearly stated that it was sent to him. It sounds like you can't fault what he says so you have to bash where it came from. Pretty weak of you there.