Across the Great Divide

Mountainous Ego

In general, I think it's good when challenging activities pass from a priesthood to the masses. As more people run marathons, fly airplanes or devote themselves to some other difficult pursuit, they overcome self-doubt, acquire new awareness and gain increased appreciation of those who truly excel. Tiger Woods may be an impressive athlete to anyone, but it's the serious golfers who really know just how great he is.

Some things get lost in translation, too. Today, joggers celebrate times that wouldn't have been officially recorded when I was racing in the late 70s and early 80s. Tour groups inundate once-remote towns, destroying what made them worth seeking out. And climbers troop to the top of collectible mountains, swathed and coddled, compared to the  adventurers who first conquered them.

It's not any easier to run marathons and climb killer mountains, but it is easier to reach the finish without having acquired the culture. The recent death on Mt. Everest of climber David Sharp provides a sad example of what happens when sport becomes about the obsessive goal instead of the loving daily pursuit.

Big Waiting List for Solutions on Healthcare

Television "debates" have no time for nuance. Still, I couldn't help wishing Ford Bell had gone further in his Almanac response to Erik Escola's characterization of single-payer healthcare as "Canadian-style, big waiting lists."

Bell noted that Canadians want to preserve their hockey and their healthcare.

I would have said:

Erik, single payer has nothing to do with waiting lists. You're confusing the realities of delivery in a big, sparsely populated country with the payment system.

If you think Canada has waiting lists, maybe you haven't tried to see an orthopedist lately. Or a psychiatrist. Or a dermatologist. Or a proctologist. And you have a good healthplan. Do your homework, and then let's talk about what needs to happen with healthcare in this country.

You can compare the senatorial candidates' statements on healthcare here:

Ford Bell
Amy Klobuchar
Mark Kennedy

You Call This Security?

A reader of my last post on William McGuire sent me a link to a story that has since disappeared from City Pages' The Blotter, so you can read it below. The item says representatives for UnitedHealth didn't return Jim Walsh's calls, but it's possible soon after he posted that UHG's lawyers did get through.

Bulletproof Throne

Today's Star Tribune gives much dubious love to Minnesota's wealthiest CEOs, but here's a tidbit about SEC-embattled UnitedHeath Group CEO William McGuire they missed, courtesy of a former UHG security guard who prefers to remain anonymous:

"His office is in the top floor of the tallest building in Minnetonka, built on a hill. He made sure of that. The first time I saw it, I said it was a cathedral of capitalism, and my colleagues asked me if I thought it could be a target for foreign terrorists. I said, 'No, domestic ones.' No one likes HMOs; people are dying, (committing) suicide, because of people like him, because they can't get coverage, and he just keeps raising the rates. I made twelve dollars an hour.

"He's got a Kevlar-lined bathroom. It's bulletproof, so at the first sign of trouble he can hide. He doesn't care about anybody else; he can run in there and lock the door. There was an open parking ramp that's not card-accessed or anything, so somebody could sit across the highway at Caribou and blow that building sky-high. But McGuire and all his spendy original artwork would be safe."

Representatives for McGuire and UnitedHealth did not return calls from City Pages.

"It's his 'safe room,'" says the former guard. "It was common knowledge. All the executives have a 'panic button' they can push in case of trouble, and the joke was McGuire would push it and just take his time strolling to his safe room while everything fell."

Posted by Jim Walsh at May 22, 2006 08:36 AM

This is gossip leaking resentment from a disgruntled former employee, so it's not too surprising that someone at City Pages might think it failed to reach the level of news. But it's worthy for consideration here for this reason: We don't report news; we moralize.

I'd encourage the ex-guard and McGuire to look at each other more closely and talk about their lives. Both might learn something.

A man with a penthouse office and a Kevlar biffy close by does not inhabit the world with the rest of us mortals. But he does have to fear for his safety in way  we or the anonymous gossip do not. A guard making $12 an hour may have some legitimate gripes which are exacerbated by proximity to wealth, but one of them is not that he will be kidnapped or shot by someone who hates "HMOs."

McGuire may think he is helping humanity and is receiving just rewards. I am sure that the ex-guard is not the only UHG employee who has a different view of what the CEO hath wrought. Or what constitutes security.

One of my clients in a former life was US Bank's CEO Jack Grundhofer, who was kidnapped from a parking garage. He escaped, and after that day, came to work with an armed bodyguard. (I remember picking through the holiday snack trays next to his man, who wore his side arm even in the executive kitchen.)

It's one thing to say a man makes too much money or that his wealth has insulated him from the lives of others. It's quite another to make jokes about violence against his life — especially when it was your job to protect it.

An Offense the Non-Crooks Can Identify With

Interesting how quickly things can turn. William McGuire, the can-do-no-wrong CEO of UnitedHealth Group, is not in Kenny Boy territory, but he is in danger of becoming the wanted-poster child of executive over-compensation.

Of course, we already knew he was overpaid according to the terms that apply to most mortals. But the stock market success of his company — never mind that its substantial profits supposedly come from improving healthcare and reining in its cost — provided the justification as well as the vehicle for his lavish rewards.

If UHG shares appreciate, then the executive compensation plan shows its appreciation to Dr. McGuire. If not, not. This seems fair — or at least as fair as any system that hands over money to one person, eight or nine figures at a time. 

The theory is that stock options make executives more fully invested in the success of a company. The reality is that tying compensation to a rising market value induces them to focus on whatever continues to goose up the share price. For a CEO saddled with this obligation, at a certain point, fundamentals can give way to fabrications, or at least highly selective disclosures. If previous prosecutions of bad corporate stewards weren’t warning enough, it’s difficult to say whether tossing the bodies of Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling on the pyre will make much more difference. 

But making an example of McGuire and his company might. The reason is that CEOs and their boards don’t think of themselves as having much in common with crooks like Ebbers, Kozlowski, Scrushy, the Adelphi crowd. And I don’t believe McGuire is a crook — at least not in our conventional, non-Sarbanes-Oxley understanding of the word. Nor has UHG acted, as Enron did, to rapaciously exploit a vulnerable marketplace.

Rather, McGuire represents the logical extension of a bad system — a brilliant, visionary leader who built a great financial empire that has profited all out of proportion to the actual difference it has made in lives of the average healthcare consumer. That’s not to say UHG hasn’t made a difference, or that it won’t in the future. It’s just that the system over-rewards companies for their services to the moneymakers, not their customers. And it punishes companies in the same proportion.

How can you not lose your sensitivity to your customers — or to right and wrong — when you are an intimidating intellect, leading a powerful organization and wrapped 24 hours a day in a multi-million-dollar cocoon of obeisance and comfort?

McGuire and his advisors somehow thought it was okay to use corporate resources to purchase a property bordering his — ostensibly as temporary housing for relocating executives. McGuire could easily have bought the property himself, as he has done with a number of others. And his board saw no problem with backdating stock options to the quarter’s most favorable share price.

If anyone in the company saw something wrong with this, they didn’t speak up or weren’t heard.

Now those shares have taken a beating, and McGuire is in some trouble himself. Not for being a crook, or being too rich, which is still not a punishable offense, but for acting like it. There are a lot of execs in corporate America who might be able to identify with that.

In Other Music News

My college band was named Radio Free Pillsbury, in honor of nearby Pillsbury Bible College.

We were trying to corrupt their young people, sure, but not like this.

[via Sideshow]

When Elephants Start to Dance

What do these rock groups have in common?

The Who. Beatles. Rolling Stones. Lynyrd Skynrd. Beach Boys. U2. Sex Pistols. Metallica. Kinks.

Between them, they've recorded the top ten conservative rock anthems of all time, according to the National Review. Now, I'm hoping they open the Republican National Convention with the delegates getting down to "Sympathy for the Devil" (No. 3) and close with a tableau featuring "I Fought the Law" (No. 15), Lewis Libby, Jack Abramoff and Ken Lay.

The magazine's preposterous top 50 list — which ignores the politics of many of the artists, not to mention the actual meaning of the songs — has already been skewered by The Rude Pundit and  Left of the Dial.

But let me add my personal fave tone-deaf choices: Creedence Clearwater Revival's anti-war "Who'll Stop the Rain?" and The Pretenders' anti-development "My City Was Gone."

If you're only going skin deep, you could make a case that John Fogerty was a proto-Republican — viz. "Centerfield" and "Fortunate Son."

And Chrissie Hynde, a clear voice of moderation, if not the uber-chick of the conservatives:

• "Baby's Breath" and "I'm a Mother" — pro-life
• "Legalize Me" — speaking on behalf of Bush's immigration plan
• "Never Do That" — taking a courageous stand against raising taxes
• "Sense of Purpose" — the case for being in Iraq
• "Criminal" and "Back on the Chain Gang" — three strikes, and you're out, baby
• "You Know Who Your Friends Are" — bitter denunciation of leaks
• "Waste Not, Want Not" — the ownership society anthem
• "Money Talk" — an argument for money as free speech

Yeah, I think I'm starting to get it.

Erlandson Ends the Suspense

Mike Erlandson apparently went to the Fortress of Solitude after the DFL 5th Congressional District convention to contemplate whether the endorsement process was fair — fairness being his pre-convention criterion for continuing to pursue the nomination in a primary challenge.

The suspense is over.

The former DFL Party chair, whose job once was sorting out intra-party struggles like this, has announced that he has "The Values to Get it Right. The Experience to Get it Done." Presumably, his values and experience will work better in Washington than they did during his initial, unsuccessful run for the nomination.

The fairness question seems to have gone away, which is wise, since he couldn't make that case. His new angle seems to be that, once given the nomination, he would "roll up his sleeves" and help the other DFL candidates win their races!

The choice on September 12th for DFL Primary voters will be an important one, as that individual will be favored to win the November election.  The Representative from this district also has the responsibility of helping lead our statewide Democrats to victory.  If I am given the honor on September 12 to be the Fifth District DFL candidate this November, I will roll up my sleeves on September 13 to get the job done for the rest of our ticket and our U.S. House candidates in the first, second, third, and sixth districts.

Does this sound contorted to you? It sounds to me like he wants his old job back, or maybe I'm confused about what a party chair does with his time.

I am told, and believe, that Erlandson is a decent guy who would be an effective representative. His heart and his positions are aligned with mine. He may well be more able to "get it done" than party-endorsee Keith Ellison, because he knows his way around the self-interested, incestuous, myopic, backstabbing world Washington has become.

But what does this really say about "the values to get it right"? I don't think you can go from party chair to opposing your party's nominee to riding out on your white horse to lead the rest of the party's candidates to victory without answering how that's consistent with your values. It's not consistent with mine.

Why Not Do for Autos What We Did for Fridges?

I'm slogging to the end of Kevin Phillips' American Theocracy and may yet provide a brilliant summation. But meanwhile, here's some of the good stuff:

The Bush administration energy legislation enacted in 2005 left the global energy markets sufficiently unimpressed that oil prices made new highs. Skeptics observed that the most important sections of the bill were those deleted at various stages, meaningful provisions requiring the government to find ways of reducing U.S. oil demand, automakers to improve efficiency, and utilities to generate 10 percent of electricity from renewable energy sources. Powerful constituencies found such strictures unacceptable, although the federal government had raised the standards of energy efficiency for refrigerators, for example, six times since the 1970s with enough success that comparable new units use only one-fourth as much electricity. Any remotely similar gain in automobile and truck efficiency would go a long way to ease oil-import demands.

Amen. In my hometown house, a generously sized new fridge runs on "vacation mode" consuming no more electricity than a 75-watt bulb. In my sister's garage sits a beloved family milk dispenser that the dairy once installed in our house, so it could deliver milk in three-gallon cans, two at a time, as if to a restaurant.

Over the years, it evolved into a beer cooler. It still works, but now sits idle because it consumes so much energy and throws off so much heat. It's instructive to see it beside my brother-in-law's restored '68 Mustang, which stinks when it idles but otherwise gets gas mileage about equal to a new Denali's.

Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans fantasize about sending out $100 gas tax rebates or releasing some of the strategic oil reserve to mollify people who've made bad choices — instead of kicking some automaker butt.

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor Excuses for Publicity

Funny how some "news" that takes up a lot of print real estate doesn't make a showing in the online version of the paper, where bandwidth is presumably cheaper than newsprint.

Only 55 days have passed between the Strib's featuring Hollywood Walk of Fame photos — George Lopez on March 30th and Deborah Harry today — although I was out of state for much of April and could have missed an interim sighting. I promise to keep closer track from here on for you online news readers who miss out on this vital content.

The only photos played larger in the front news section are part of a special series on Mexican immigrants. (The American Idol finalists' mugs on the cover of Source occupy more space than Harry's, however.)

When checking my Lopez post to confirm the prior date the Strib ran the regular Hollywood promotion, I discovered "Image not available" in place of the shots of kneeling celebrities. So we'll leave this one to your imagination, too. Don't want the Walk Police to Call Me.

Thank You for Gambling

Jonathan Gaw's By the Numbers column yesterday included this:

136

In the fifth year after a casino opens, percent increase in robberies experienced by the county that is home to the casino, according to a study by economists from the University of Georgia and Baylor University, who looked at crime rates over 20 years in every U.S. county. Counties also experienced double-digit increases in aggravated assault, auto theft, burglary, larceny and rape by the fifth year after a casino opened. Counties next to casino counties did not experience compensating crime reductions.  

8.6, 12.6

Controlling for other factors, percentages of a county's property crimes and violent crimes, respectively, that can be attributed to the presence of a casino.

Gambling is one of those supposed freebies that lets us finance government without the pain of taxes. Supporters don't want us to see the added costs of gambling to society, or how it shifts more cost of government to average folks.

Here's the original study Gaw took his data from, I believe.

It also points up flaws in prior studies drawing more benign conclusions about casino gambling's impact. Even if you're not The Analyst, you can spot how research may be grinding an axe — or felling the forest so you only see a few trees. Here are some of those issues and infractions:

Who's the sponsor? Some of the studies were underwritten by the gambling industry, tourism organizations or law enforcement. This doesn't mean the research is skewed in their favor, but it could mean only the favorable findings are reported by the sponsor.

Who's in? Who's out? When data is being reported in relation to the population, make sure who's in the population — especially if a large transient population might be affected. For example, counties where Indian casinos operate may have a low population as measured by the Census; a larger population if workers (who may not reside in the county) are included; and a significantly larger population if customers are counted. Sometimes the visitors won't matter (impact on local school demand); but they could have a big impact on crime (as victims and perpetrators).

Qualitative differences. The researchers cite a study that blames increased crime on the influx of visitors because visitors are prime targets. However, national parks don't seem to attract visitors likely to commit or be victims of crimes. Ditto Disneyworld and Mall of America. They go on to say, "If visitors of any type are the predominant mechanism for crime, then Branson [Mo.] and Bloomington [Mn.] should be among the most crime-ridden places in North America... Bloomington received 7.7 million more visitors than Las Vegas [!!] but had a diluted crime rate less than 1/15th of Las Vegas's."

What's being counted? Some crime may be expected to rise in direct relation to casinos and casino crowds. For example, prostitution, assault, robbery, auto theft, and burglary. Other crimes may increase moderately, such as illegal gambling, embezzlement, rape and murder. Whereas, child abuse, perjury, arson and other crimes may see little impact. To get a better picture of casinos' impact, look at crimes that have a theoretical relationship to gambling. Including all crime dampens the apparent effect.

What's the context? Some of the studies finding no increase in crime after casinos moved into counties failed to take into consideration other factors, such as a parallel drop in crime nationally. Annual crime statistics within the county didn't reveal what a county-by-county comparison showed: while the casino county's crime didn't increase, neighboring counties lowered their crime rates.

Indirect impacts. I know personally two businesses that lost very substantial amounts of money to trusted employees with gambling addictions. In statistical terms, a million-dollar embezzlement counts as one more crime, equal to a car break-in, but it has a much greater impact. Crimes resulting from  increased gambling pathology may not show up for years after studies covering a three to five year span following casino introduction — what the researchers call "intertemporal effects."

Spinmeisters at work. Notice how I used a study on casino gambling to buttress my point about all state-endorsed gambling? There could be a crime connection to be made, but I don't have the data to make it....