[Superman]

I know, Moses. I know. I like the idea of people making money. I like the idea of American being the Land of Opportunity. I know the heat of our economic furnace is what also warms the less fortunate. In the form of taxes and also in the form of private (and corporate) giving. What I can't get comfortable with is our culture of winning at all cost. We have a culture of rule-breaking and rule-bending and opportunism. Not just finding and seizing opportunities. It goes way beyond that.

Chris, I know I've criticized you mercilessly and you take it pretty well. At this time, I'm going to suggest you read some books about the founders of this country's largest corporate success stories. Ray Krok, founder of Wendys, looks like a sweet teddy-bear fellow on TV, right? Ummmm.... How 'bout Henry Ford? How 'bout Wal-Mart's current and past business practices? Heck, how 'bout Microsoft? Those businesses did not become the lartest of their kind by being nice, or socially responsible.

Moses and Chris and whoever: Just quickly, as many of you know, I worked at a state agency that enforces labor law. Minimum wage, overtime, etc. Virtually the worst thing I have ever seen happen to a business in the twelve years I was there.....is that the business had to pay a portion of the wages they deliberately failed to pay in the first place. With just a few very notable exceptions, which took many years and hundreds of hours of legal action, employers caught red-handed cheating poor families out of hard-earned money.........IS A ****ING GENTLEMAN'S GAME!!!!!!!!!!! Cheating these poor people is funny, I am told. A bonus. If you can make money and also get away with breaking labor law at the same time........bonus points. The law has no teeth. Apparently, the last thing we want to do is create and actual, fearful barrier to prevent employers from stealing money from the working poor.

A woman was fired because she refused to sleep with the boss. Nice young lady, I am told. Two well-behaved little boys. She was a single mother. When the money ran out, she came to see one of our investigators. The employer/letcher had routinely cheated her out of overtime money. Weekly. She worked 50-55 hours per week and he never, ever paid her an overtime rate. Minimum wage. Our investigator got her the money owed. He also heard that this fellow's romantic and financial game was the same for all his employees. He got away with those. He only paid that one woman's back wages, and there were no fines. Of course. Why are the fines not practically applicable? Why are there just 16 investigators statewide to safguard the earnings of nearly three million workers? Because cheating is encouraged, frankly.