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The New Robber Barons
By Peter Rost
02/10/06 "ICH"
-- -- The U.S. Department of Labor claims we have
an unemployment rate of 4.9% [1]. According to "the Economist,
however, the true unemployment rate in the U.S. is over 8%, or
12.6 million Americans [2]. The difference is due to the fact
that the U.S. Government doesn,t count people as unemployed
after six months without a job [3].
I recently joined the ranks of our many unemployed citizens. The
termination of my employment as a Vice President at Pfizer was
subject to intense media interest [4], partly due to the fact
that Pfizer notified the press before they informed me.
Contrary to press reports, however, I have received no severance
payments and for the first time in my life I am eligible for
unemployment benefits; $13,078 [5]. At this annual income level
my family of four would actually fall below the federal poverty
level [6]; quite a difference from a year ago when my salary was
over half a million [7].
I,m also uninsured for the first time in my life and I have to
pay the full price for drugs, just like 67 million other
uninsured Americans [8]. Contrary to many others, however, I do
have a choice. In accordance with federal COBRA law, I was
offered the opportunity to continue my health care coverage for
18 months. There was only one hitch; I had to pay $15,269 per
year to receive this benefit [9]. I decided that with an income
of $13,078 that didn,t make sense.
Clearly the system we have today isn,t just broke. The system is
utterly and completely sick and our weakest citizens are paying
the price, every day. And while I have belatedly been forced to
share some of the experiences of our poor, uninsured, and
unemployed, my situation doesn,t even start to compare with
people with no resources, no voice, nowhere to go and no one who
listens to them. For those citizens we have something that,s
called the Government; a government that is supposed to look out
for the people who can,t look out for themselves, but instead
focuses on "pay to play money.
Today,s system is built on greed. Greed is defined as an
excessive desire to acquire or possess more than someone needs
or deserves. Greed is not a corporate executive who builds an
organization such as Microsoft, creates a lot of jobs, and
happens to get rich. Greed is to become CEO for a drug company
such as Pfizer, be responsible for a stock price drop of 40%
over his five year tenure, twice as much as the AMEX
Pharmaceutical Index [10], secure a $100 million retirement
package [11] while firing 16,385 Pharmacia and Pfizer employees
[12], and get a 72% pay increase to $16.6 million as his reward
[13].
According to the New York Times average worker pay has remained
flat since 1990 at around $27,000, after adjusting for
inflation, while CEO compensation has quadrupled, from $2.82
million to $11.8 million [14]. Our CEO,s are in a position in
which they can basically use public companies as personal piggy
banks. And this is perfectly legal as long as they get someone
else to sign their check. Meanwhile, the federal minimum wage
has remained at $5.15 an hour since September 1, 1997. In fact,
after adjusting for inflation, the value of the minimum wage is
at its second lowest level since 1955 [15].
At the same time, the pharmaceutical industry spends over $100
million on lobbying activities to stop lower drug prices,
according to the Center for Public Integrity. There are 1,274
registered pharmaceutical lobbyists in Washington, D.C. and
during the 2004 election cycle, the drug industry contributed $1
million to President Bush [16]. For an industry that makes $500
billion on a global basis [17], spending one million on a
president or $100 million on lobbying is pocket change.
This money was well spent. It stopped legalized import of
cheaper drugs and instead we got a new Medicare drug program.
This $720 billion law includes $139 billion in profits to drug
manufactures and $46 billion in subsidies to HMOs and private
insurance plans [18]. The program has been such a disaster for
our poor that at least twenty-four states have enacted emergency
measures to ensure access to medications in the last couple of
weeks [19]. That,s what a million dollars buys in Washington.
So how could this happen? The answer is simple. The American
democracy has been stolen by our new class of Robber Barons"the
CEO,s of our big corporations. A political system dependent on
charity from rich men in hand-tailored suits with $100 million
retirement packages is no democracy. It is a kleptocracy [20].
It is not what our founding fathers envisioned.
But we have the power to change this; to free our corporations
from sticky-fingered CEO,s, to free our elected representatives
from "pay to play money and to free our people from all these
tyrants. We have the power to be free, at last.
Peter Rost, M.D., is a former Vice President for the drug
company Pfizer. He first became well known in 2004 when he
started to speak out in favor of reimportation of drugs and
lower drug price. His e-mail is rostpeter@hotmail.com.
Notes
1. http://www.dol.gov/
2. http://www.economist.com/finance/
3. http://www.thinkandask.com/news/jobs.html
4. http://www.google.com/
5. NJ Department of Labor Notice to Claimant of Benefit
Determination BC-3C (R-10-99)
6. http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/06poverty.shtml
7. http://scooter.gnn.tv/headlines/3297/
8. http://help.senate.gov/testimony/t194_tes.html
9. Cobra Fact Sheet, January 6, 2006
10. http://finance.yahoo.com/
11. http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/olin_center/
12. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/
13. http://www.forbes.com/2005/03/10/0310autofacescan06.html
14. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/18/business/18pay.html
15. http://www.cbpp.org/9-1-05mw.htm
16. http://www.usatoday.com/money/
17. http://open.imshealth.com/IMSinclude/i_article_20040929.asp
18. http://www.house.gov/stupak/issues_prescription.shtml
19. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/21/politics/21drug.html
20. http://www.google.com/
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