tomato can

I'm looking for a few different view points about the social responsibilty of businesses. There is a big debate about petcoke going on. The Whiting,Indiana refinery is proccessing the tar sands oil from Canada. The bi-product is Petcoke. I'm debating with another local resident about this. He is an enviornmentalist and a NIMBY. The communities in Northwest Indiana and Chicago are all around this industrial area. His arguement is profits before responsibilty. I countered with "The social responsibility of business is to increase profits and society would surely lose social benefits that would not exist without the pursuit of profit. His response to that was " No, the social responsibility of business is NOT to increase profits-- That is the very business of conducting business. Yes, society benefits as businesses profit and provide employment...but at what costs? Social Responsibility arises in corporations that can profit without exposing the local residents to contaminants . Considering the average income throughout the neighboring communities, t would appear that there is the impression that it is allowable for KCBX (owned by the Koch Brothers) to expose low-income residents to chronic respiratory illlnesss, (which are likely to require medical attention), driving up health care costs and --considering the income-- placing an increased burden on the taxpayer. All because they wouldn't provide proper containment. So am I missing something here? Is there some social responsibility of a company to a community? This has been an industrial area for 100 plus years. Most of these communities could not even exist if not for all the industry. I keep telling these environmental wacko's they are chasing all of the jobs away. They claim the comminity is being poisined.

Do you believe he is innocent?

So you get a part time job to make ends meet. Lets be realistic here also. An awful lot of people in these minimum wage jobs simply refuse to try and strive for better. Not every minimum wage worker is mentally challenged. The ones that have those types of issue should get some help from the government. You can in fact live on these low wages if you are willing to sacrafice. You don't get nice designer clothes, an unlimited cell phone plan, ect. In Chicago we have a St. Vincent DePaul thrift store. I donate stuff to them often. They have very nice clothes there. You can get a very nice used pair of jeans for $2, nice shirts for a few dollars, dress clothes for cheap. Get your self a pay as you go cell phone plan and know those minutes are precious and valuable so don't waste them. You dont get to have a nice lap top computer or ipad with an internet connection, you have to go to the local public library where its free. You don't get cable television. You dont have an automobile or insurance payment every month you buy a monthly bus pass that allows you unlimited rides. You clip coupons to use at the grocery store. You don't get steak at the grocery store. You get beans, rice, eggs, bread, can goods, generic brands of cereal, oat meal, ect. Now you can always try for better and upgrade your life style. The mall I worked at a few years back started off the janitors walking around with a dust pan and broom at $13 per hour with benefits. After about 5 years you were close to $17 per hour. I have a friend that is a security officer at a hospital. Starting pay for a part time security officer is $12 per hour, full time is $15.50 with insurance. My Mom does HR/recruting for a Secruity Company and she says they have Security jobs $10 -$11 per hour and some as high as $14 per hour. All these are entry level jobs that pay more than minimum wage so people can upgrade there life style if they choose. this post ranks up there with one of the funniest I have read on here!

I don't know that I could have been on that bus and not did anything. In hindsight it seems like when you try and do the right thing today or help out you end of being the bad guy or end up on trial.

I wonder how Jesse, Al, & company feel about this one.... http://www.wnd.com/2013/08/white-child-pummeled-by-blacks-on-bus/

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323646604578405001071809788.html

He says he has nothing against them and believes they will keep the place warm but he wouldn't have taken any chances of having another fire with space heaters because he views them as a dangerous alternative. He says he would have informed his tenants the building wasn't suitable for living. He also said he totally believes you that the city inspector has been a pain in the @ss for you because he has dealt with the issue here in Chicago and that getting plans approved and premits do take some time but he has never waited 2 months even here in Chicago with all the regulations and back log of problems people have with the city buildings department. He seems to think that if you have been waiting 2 months that your contractors plans were rejected once if not twice because they were inccorect? Oh please 3rd! I seldomly chime in on most of the topics! EIL doesn't need my assistance at all he seems to do a pretty good job mopping the floor with you on a regular basis!

Yeah really Jim. I don't want to be to critical but I have a good friend thats a landlord. He said he wouldn't allow or offer space heaters. He said the insurance policy covers lost rent. Tenants also have renters insurance and if they didn't he would place them in a hotel until his building is back to normal. The city inspector told you 2 weeks and you already know how bad these city employees are and that it will more than likely be longer. Why put your tenants through all this? The only heat they have is from a space heater, they have no hot water to shower or take a bath. Allstate has been gold to you, all they have done is write checks, often for more than you asked for. Why not put these people in a hotel so they do not have to suffer? I am absolutely sure Allstate will have no problem writing you a check for lost rent!

Practice what you preach

I don't believe that to be totally accurate. I can tell you for a fact that is not the case here in Chicago. In these crime riddled areas people are not crying out for more police. There is a code of silence in these communities. Someone gets shot and the word on the street is don't help "the man" (The Police). The majority of fire fighters in the United States are in volunteer fire departments. Teachers I agree. The majority lobby for taxes to go up for more teachers. I wouldn't paint the entire police department as shoot first then ask questions. There are several thousand police officers that have remained calm, are controlling the situation, acting professional, and trying to locate this person. How ever the brass in the police department have to take a look at the officers that did shoot at these two ladies delivering papers and determain if they are cut out to be police officers.

WoW ! An American business that actually realizes the symbiotic relationship between labor and investors , INCONCEIVABLE! http://finance.yahoo...-191318206.html Mackey says conscious capitalism, on the other hand, “is a type of free enterprise capitalism that is...a very different model than what we’re seeing happen in the U.S. today.” Whole Food's pay structure is a perfect example. The maximum ratio of executive pay to workers is 19:1, which is far less than many other U.S. companies.

As you love to tell others :look it up" Go piss in someone else's ear and tell them its raining! Read the whole thread if you are going to comment. No place in this thread did I say that unionized government agencies do that!

Can you read? When companies can get away with illegal overtime, low pay and the use of underage workers it leads to much higher profits! Its not rocket science!

My point was crystal clear! You act as if these companies sent the jobs overseas and said to the Chinese workers in the sweat shop "hey the American worker doesn't want the $15 dollar per hour job and benefits so we are offering you all the same wages and benefits!" Those jobs were sent overseas because they were taking advantage of illegal overtime, low pay and the use of underage workers! They could not get away with that in America so they went to a place where they could. Its widespread in Chinese factories!

It was right there in the link that I provided for you.......... Foxconn has become a focus for criticism of practices widespread in Chinese factories including illegal overtime, low pay and the use of underage workers. http://www.cnn.com/2...-foxconn-union/

Not so fast. Latino workers, demanding respect in a precarious job environment, helped boost the state's unionized workforce by 100,000 in 2012. http://www.latimes.c...,0,795664.story The republican party will become the dieing breed if they continue with the anti-union/labor policies. They are going to need the LATINO vote! And guess what? They are going to continue to unionize! That is just the beginning. You didn't answer my question sir...

Is it because the majority of working man's jobs were sent overseas? Guess the Chinese workers are tired of working for low wages... http://www.cnn.com/2...-foxconn-union/

WOW! Interesting. Right here http://www.muni.org/...handoutag24.pdf it says you can pretty much get an inspection at any time. They list the entire schedule for all 7 days! Man you can even get an inspection on Sunday from 8am up until 12midnight!

LOL Jim. You cast the first stone that sent it PPP when you were bloviating about the city inspector being some lazy government / union worker not doing his job. There has to be thousands of people that live in your city? You can't be the only person that has an issue that requires the city inspector to approve the work. So it went to PPP. You got some good responses to the issue. I thought it was a good discussion from all angles. The main thing is no one was hurt. The downside is your tenants and you are being temporarely inconvienced. As far as the city inspector goes its very possible he has a heavy work load. I highly doubt he is sitting back sipping coffee, feet up surfing the web, and filling out a Super Bowl pool while residents of the city he works for are paitently waiting for a serious issue to get resolved. I hope everything gets resloved for your tenants and you. Good luck.

Come on now 3rd! Its also highly possible that the city inspector has a work load that suited for more than one person. It seems to me that the city Jim lives in is operating within their budget in terms of man power. Everyone wants better and faster service but if the funds are not there then they have to make due with what they got.

I wonder if those contractors that Allstate sent out to handle the repairs are union workers? Then again some non union, non english speaking contractor will do the work much cheaper but might cut a few corners and it probably won't be up to code.

LOL! I actually thought about stopping at that point myself but continued on

Do you think his former teamates told the truth because they were being contrite? I don't for one second. Its not like Tyler Hamilton and Frankie Andreau were completely clean until Armstrong forced them at gunpoint to dope up. Lets not act like they deserves a medal for being so brave to stand up and accuse Armstrong - after being caught themselves. Every single one of them is flawed in this. They each made a choice to use PED's to stay relevant. When they got caught they should have stood up and took the punishment for it. As far as Lance attacking them, who cast the first stone? It certainly wasn't Lance!

Anyone buying that he has no use for money? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/bill-gates/9812672/Bill-Gates-interview-I-have-no-use-for-money.-This-is-Gods-work.html

Okay thanks.