eastowners

Pretty heavy title, eh? I was in the livingroom at the same time the dreaded light-box was spewing (delayed and controlled) moving images from Athens of the 2004 Olympics. I’m not much for any kind of organized sports, especially those that I don’t understand. I have to admit that is most of them. It all seems kind of strange to me and I start focusing on odd things like the ups and downs of the announcers voice; not really paying attention to what he or she is saying. I do that with sitcoms and the laugh track, too.

We were sitting there watching this (delayed and controlled) video of the Olympics and there was a cut to commercials (dreaded, hated commercials) and for a moment, I actually started paying attention. Apparently, as I was informed multiple times by various bits of soundbite eminating from the tube before me, Insurance companies and drug manufacturers are MORAL. Did you know that? Entities that exist purely to make a profit are moral! My very foundations were shaken. Could this be? Of course, I had to think about this for a moment; a fraction of a second actually.

Here’s the issue, folks. Business, unless run by inherently moral people, is not moral. An inherently moral business, you will find most times, is not a profitable one. Drug and Insrance companies are some of the most profitable endevours I can think of, and I’m betting if the average “moralist” got a whiff of what goes on in the “real” world in these industries, they’d have a heart attack. There are two reasons that business participates in philanthropy. One is that there are tax breaks; increasing profitibility. The other is that, if they do, even a little bit, they can advertise that they do, and reel in customers who believe in purchasing goods and services from “moral” companies; increasing profitibility. Successful companies don’t make decisions based on morality. They make them based on money and the law.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that business in general is not lawful. Morality goes above and beyond the law, at least in this country. Of course, the discussion on morality and what that means could fill many many books, but suffice to say that if a company is trying to leave the impression on the American people that is a “moral” company by paying millions of dollars for ad spots during the Olympics, you can take a pretty safe bet that they aren’t.

TV rots your brain.