This week’s forum will be sandwiched between Parts 1&2 of a September clean-up. So many delicious ethics stories and issues have floated or crawled by recently—and the volume seems to be increasing—that I’m desperately trying to reduce the backload. And the hits just keep on coming: I woke up to an alert that Senator Feinstein had died, an ethics story in itself. Evoking memories of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s most selfish and irresponsible conduct as President, Feinstein was willing to wither and die in office rather than give up her power and position when it was clear that the Reaper was knocking.
Last night, ethics actually kept me awake: the last post was typed out around 5 am. I’m hoping the contributions to the Forum will let me take an early nap.
Ethics Alarms 
Jack words: “I woke up to an alert that Senator Feinstein had died, an ethics story in itself. Evoking memories of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s most selfish and irresponsible conduct as President, Feinstein was willing to wither and die in office rather than give up her power and position when it was clear that the Reaper was knocking” reminded me of the responsible, ethical, and completely contrary way in which President Ronald Reagan, publicly, faced the knowing end of his life …while he still had life left to live.
On November 5, 1994, President Reagan wrote:
“My Fellow Americans,
I have recently been told that I am one of the millions of Americans who will be afflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease.
[ . . . ]
Unfortunately, as Alzheimer’s Disease progresses, the family often bears a heavy burden. I only wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience. When the time comes I am confident that with your help she will face it with faith and courage.
In closing let me thank you, the American people for giving me the great honor of allowing me to serve as your President. When the Lord calls me home, whenever that may be, I will leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future.
I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead.
Thank you, my friends. May God always bless you.
Sincerely, Ronald Reagan.”
May God help each of us to choose wisely to live our lives honorably, responsibly, and ethically, so that at the time of God’s appointed time (our demise), our families, friends, and our neighbors will have kind and meaningful memories of how we lived well before them.
I don’t know what reminded me of this, but something did. When I was in 9th grade, we had a class discussion about college, careers, all that stuff. My teacher made the statement that those of us of a certain intelligence level had an ethical obligation to society to pursue a career which utilized our intellect.
Virtually every job requires a set of learned skills–maybe it’s how to use the cash register or how to use the hydraulics on the garbage truck–but he was talking about “professions” as opposed to “jobs.” I guess that by getting a couple of degrees and becoming a professor I fulfilled his expectations, but what if I really wanted to be a short-order cook or the guy who operates the rip saw in the back of the lumberyard or a subsistence farmer?
And there are certainly jobs which require a lot less training/preparation/intelligence than mine but pay better than mine ever did. I chose my career path because it was what I wanted to do and had shown some affinity for, not because of an admonition from years earlier, but I still remember that day from over 50 years ago. Was he right? Do/did I owe it to society to contribute in a way some of my friends couldn’t?
Yes.
I’d say yes, but that way doesn’t need to be a career.
Having and raising intelligent, responsible children, putting your intelligence to work for your community or charities, pursuing some kind of side project like art or commentary, or doing an excellent job at a career that could be done by someone of lower intelligence (like teaching grade school) are all ways of helping further society, and there are good arguments that some problems in the world come from fewer highly intelligent people pursuing those less prestigious avenues.
The 2022 Death on the Nile had an excellent opening sequence illustrating this matter. In a flashback to World War 1, Hercule Poirot saves his platoon from a bloodbath by reading the weather and flight patterns of birds, stating there will be fog cover for the next hour for them to ambush the enemy (rather than wait for similar cover later in the day). He is encouraged by his commander to enter a learned field, rather than return to simple farming, after the battle is successful won.
Politics By The Numbers
3.65% per year. Average annual military pay increase under Biden.
6% per year. Average annual inflation under Biden.
10.0% per year. Average annual pay increase Biden says UAW deserves.
57%. Households with union members voted for Biden in 2020.
45%. Military voted for Biden 2020.
Why a 32-hour work week? I don’t get that.
A 32 hour work week is a bargaining chip for negotiators, not something union management expects to gain. Labor unions are a tyranny that would have us believe that they transfer income from rich capitalists to poor workers. In fact, they mostly transfer income from the large number of non-union workers to a small number of relatively well-off union workers. New UAW hires earn a starting hourly wage of $17 with senior workers earning $33 an hour all plus benefits. The UAW’s demand for a 40% pay raise would increase the top rate to roughly $45 an hour plus benefits.
A 32 hour work week is a bargaining chip for negotiators, not something union management expects to gain. Labor unions are a tyranny that would have us believe that they transfer income from rich capitalists to poor workers. In fact, they mostly transfer income from the large number of non-union workers to a small number of relatively well-off union workers. New UAW hires earn a starting hourly wage of $17 with senior workers earning $33 an hour all plus benefits. The UAW’s demand for a 40% pay raise would increase the top rate to roughly $45 an hour plus benefits.
So we’ve discussed ChatGPT a time or two here on this blog. I have an interesting application for this app that I am likely to employ.
All of us have gotten calls from telemarketers trying to sell us something, offering to hook you up with new Medicare benefits (like paying grocery bills), signing you up for final expense insurance, a whole host of things, many of which are scams.
The Wall Street Journal quoted someone from the FCC saying the average American gets 14 unwanted calls a month. We are not that average American. A couple days ago I counted — from 9am through mid-afternoon 33 of these phone calls. The phone never stops ringing. We’ve tried various tactics — my sister tries to shame them (Do you have a mother? What would she think of you trying to scam strangers?). Sometimes I will engage them, which if I’m on my game I call waste 5 or 10 minutes of their time whilst providing some amusement to my family — a win, win.
But, ultimately nothing works and the volume of calls seems to be increasing.
So I looked up a company profiled in the WSJ that offers a service to deal with this menace. They will answer your phone automatically (they have a whitelist of phone numbers you want to talk with) and engage the telemarketers. They have a number of different phone personalities (Jolly Roger, Salty Sally, Whitey Whitebeard, etc) for you to choose from.
And, the latest trick they have is to employ ChatGPT to help out their bots keep up their end of the conversation, and keep the telemarketers on the phone.
It’s an interesting application of this new technology, I thought. I am almost certainly going to try out their service and perhaps we can get some peace in our household.