And You Thought Lost Luggage Was Bad…

One could probably suggest that without the Airline industry, this secondary blog would never have made it out of the gate; I first got the idea for Racing to the Bottom when I realized that by the time I’d written an airline rant and posted it something worse would have surfaced on the news, and I’d be starting all over again. Of course, it’s also true that given how low the bar has been set, all the industry would have to do to get me (and probably five to ten million other bloggers) to stop ragging on them would be to just spend a few weeks operating with the same competence demonstrated by your average fast-food stand. This is not one of those weeks, however…

In a story that hit yesterday, MSNBC is reporting that a nine-year-old boy travelling by himself from San Francisco to Ottawa was left stranded at O’Hare International Airport for nearly eight hours because the airline personnel who were supposed to get him onto his connecting flight forgot about him and left him in the daycare center in the terminal. It wasn’t until his plane arrived (late) in Ottawa and his mother realized that he wasn’t on it that anyone realized anything was wrong…

Now, there’s no evidence to support the mother’s contention that her son was intentionally bumped off an overcrowded flight, on the principle that a child isn’t going to complain when adults tell him to do something. It’s actually quite possible that the ramp agent who was supposed to be looking after the boy was diverted to other duties, sent home early, or just didn’t realize that no one else was going to come and pick him up from the daycare center. None of that changes the fact that the child’s parents had already shelled out a hefty “unaccompanied minor” fee, or that the airline had a contractual responsibility (not to mention legal, ethical and moral obligations) to make sure that someone looked after the boy and got him onto the correct airplane. Nevertheless, it does make you wonder just exactly what was going on in O’Hare that would classify as more important than not making the company look like blithering idiots in front of the entire world…

That is, until you realize that the airline in question is United; the same people who managed to lose the luggage of a musician who had already become world-famous for mocking them on You Tube. In this case, they’re just lucky that the boy in our story had a pre-paid cell phone on him, and the presence of mind to call his mother and tell her what had happened; most parents in that situation would have informed the authorities, and since this was an international flight, that would have involved the FBI and their Canadian counterparts. There’s a very real possibility that there would have been arrests, criminal charges, or even an international incident, if the wrong people got their noses out of joint. As it is, the airline is going to considerable limits to avoid being sued – and I’m not convinced that any of them will help…

It’s been said that if you can’t get the little things right, you’ll never get the big ones right. It’s probably not fair to say that a company that can’t get one small customer from one gate to another without losing him for eight hours doesn’t inspire much confidence, but there’s no question that it would suggest a careless, lackadaisical and unprofessional attitude that we can only hope does not extend into the people who operate or maintain the airplanes. Because if that ever happens, United is going to be racing straight into the ground…

In a Nutshell

Sometimes a story comes along that is such a perfect Racing to the Bottom piece that I know I can’t even get 500 words of snarky comments out of it; I can only present its moronic goodness to the Universe (or whatever part of the Universe wanders by my blog from time to time) and let all of my readers (assuming I have readers) bask in the dull-witted glow. This is one of those times: I bring you the story of a large group of people who live in public housing who decided to attack safety and rescue personnel with incendiary devices just for the fun of it…


You can pick up the story from the local news here if you want to, but the basic story is that a mob of people who live at the Oakwood Housing Complex in Alton, Illinois, decided to call in a false alarm to the local Fire Department, and when the firefighters showed up, the people in the crowd started shooting bottle rockets and firing off Roman candles at them. The same miscreants decided to give the same treatment to several Alton police officers who showed up to investigate as well. However, there are currently no suspects, since no one who lives in the complex saw or heard anything, or was within 50 miles of the place on Sunday night. Or, at least, that’s the story they’re all telling the authorities…


Now, I’m not going to sermonize about the lack of trust that has grown up between various at-risk communities and the police in the United States over the past fifty years. The fact is, there have been enough atrocities on both sides of that war to make you wonder if anyone left in this nation has pure intentions, and I don’t have anything approaching the arrogance to assume that I can settle anything with a little humor blog. I do have to wonder about the intelligence of people who do something like this and then complain that emergency services are slow to respond to their complex, or even to their part of town, however…


Several authors, notably including the late Robert A. Heinlein, have argued that once basic courtesy disappears from a society, that civilization is simply and frankly doomed, and there is no way to save it. Heinlein in particular cites several examples, noting that this sort of decay is almost rationalized by the people who are doing it as a matter of “strength” in taking full advantage of their opportunities and not allowing anyone to take advantage of them. I call this to your attention because it takes little imagination to picture the people shooting fireworks at firemen being very pleased with themselves, for taking advantage of “the man” or “the system” to provide them with free entertainment, or justifying their treatment of these underpaid rescue workers by citing some wrong done to their parents, grandparents, or ancestors at some point over the last 150 years…

So far, this is still drawing outrage and Internet ridicule from the so-called “decent people” who object to this sort of hooliganism, but it’s hard to imagine any such events occurring even 50 years ago in this country. Which means it’s just possible that I might be onto something with this whole “Racing to the Bottom” concept…

Negative Energy? Really?

Sometimes the hardest thing about writing a post for Racing to the Bottom is just coming up with a title that doesn’t involve profanity, obscenity, or just asking “Are you putting me on?” over and over again. The point of this blog is to showcase news stories, events and trends in our society that are outrageous or jaw-droppingly stupid or both, and thus a lot of the time I’m just staring at the screen going “No way!” or the equivalent with more cussing. You’d think after three years of writing a business blog, five years of graduate school in business where one of my research interests is institutional failure, and more than 20 years in Corporate America, there would be nothing left in the news that would surprise me that much. The story of a woman from Omaha who was fired because her boss thought her unborn child carried “negative energy” would prove you and me wrong about that, however…


According to the story from the Associated Press an employee of Hearthstone Homes was fired because her boss, the CEO of the company, thought that the child she was carrying was causing harm to the company by giving off negative energy. When a number of psychics, including a chiropractor who the CEO described as an “energy worker” confirmed his suspicious about the fetus, he fired the employee, who had up to that point been his personal assistant. She is, quite logically, proceeding with wrongful termination and discrimination lawsuits, while the company (and her former boss) are being mocked by the local radio stations, television news, various Internet news aggregators, and of course, your friendly neighborhood bloggers…


What struck me about the story was that I honestly can’t decide which would be worse: if the CEO in our story honestly believes this new-age negative energy claptrap, or if he doesn’t. On the one hand, if he does, he’s allowing a preposterous lash-up of superstition, animism and self-help nonsense to interfere with the proper operation of his business, costing the enterprise a huge amount of money (even before the cost of legal fees and possible legal sanctions are applied), in addition to revealing to competitors and customers alike that he runs his company based more on his emotions and insecurities than on any responsible business principles. If, on the other hand, this is simply a ploy to avoid having to pay for having an employee out on maternity leave (and possibly increased insurance premiums for having a dependant child on the firm’s policy), or a mean of ridding himself of an employee who will now have childcare responsibilities that might interfere with her demanding work schedule (e.g., his demands), then he’s a cretin and should be imprisoned as well as sued…


Now, I realize that just because I don’t believe in something, that doesn’t make it wrong. Every American has the constitutional right to believe in whatever he or she wants to believe in; if you want to make decisions based on “intuitive spirituality” and your beliefs about “reincarnation and energy fields” that’s your business. But your rights to believe in and be guided by exotic new-age beliefs do not supersede the rights of other people. And if our society has actually reached the point where we have to use legal proceedings to discourage people from doing so, or from using such beliefs as a cover for eliminating employees who might become expensive and/or inconvenient, then our race to the bottom is starting to pick up speed…