Excerpts from Michael Moore's book

[NaMeaHou]

(haven't seen this posted yet)

This is from the Guardian. Amazing an English newspaper prints this. Haven't seen it on any American sites I visit (though they are probably there). At the end of this excerpt are links to a few more from the book.

http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,6761,1057357,00.html

During the past 20 years, companies including Disney, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Dow Chemical, JP Morgan Chase and Wal-Mart have been secretly taking out life insurance policies on their low- and mid-level employees and then naming themselves - the corporation - as the beneficiary! That's right: When you die, the company - not your survivors - gets to cash in. If you die on the job, all the better, as most life-insurance policies are geared to pay out more when someone dies young. And if you live to a ripe old age, even long after you've left the company, the company still gets to collect on your death. And regardless of when you croak, the company is able to borrow against the policy and deduct the interest from its corporate taxes.

Many of these companies have set up a system for the money to go to pay for executive bonuses, cars, homes or trips to the Caribbean. Your death goes to helping make your boss a very happy man sitting in his Jacuzzi on St Bart's.

And what does Corporate America privately call this special form of life insurance?

Dead Peasants Insurance.

That's right. "Dead Peasants". Because that's what you are to them - peasants. And you are sometimes worth more to them dead than alive.

[RobertFrancisK]

1. Wow

That's really disturbing. This is going to be an incredible book.

Michael Moore for President!!

[NaMeaHou]

3. It's out as of today!

I know his politics don't necessarily mesh with some democrats, but then I have a hard time finding three dems that agree on everything myself!

That's a good thing! Diversity is a good thing.

[RummyTheDummy]

9. Absolutely

"but then I have a hard time finding three dems that agree on everything myself!"

This board is a prime example of that. You could show three DUers a pic of a cow grazing in a field and they'd see three different things. Annoying at times, or most of the time actually, but it makes for some interesting board drama.

[KCDem]

2. OMG.

How disturbing! I'd heard of individuals doing this, but not companies. There needs to be serious reform when it comes to life insurance policies. No one should be allowed to take out life insurance on anyone without their prior approval. How horrific.

[Red_Viking]

4. My grandmother worked for Wal-Mart

She worked for them late in her life, after many years of service at a retirement home. I was always grateful they let her work as long as she could after she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She worked her whole life and didn't know what else to do every day except get up and report in. Once she was too ill, she stopped working, but I remember how useful she felt while she was still able to carry on with the life she considered so normal. She died in 1989.

Recently, I found out about these companies who buy life insurance without employees' knowledge. It's been years since my grandmother died, but I can't help wondering if those ghouls at Wal-Mart benefitted from her suffering and death. I already crossed them off my list of places to shop, but now I actively evangelize against them.

I have no way of knowing if they carried this kind of insurance on my grandmother. But they undoubtedly have policies on other peoples' beloved grandmothers. Bastards.

Michael Moore helped bring me over to the liberal side. Can't wait for his new book!

:dem:
RV

[ComerPerro]

6. Its horrible that something like that brought you to our side

But we welcome you just the same!

Its terrible that compaines do this.

[Another Bill C.]

7. You might be able to find out

if Wal-Mart cashed in on your grandmother's death. County clerks sometimes keep a log of certified death certificate requests. If your county does, you might get a list of those who requested a copy of your grandmother's death certificate.

[NaMeaHou]

8. There's something incredibly sick about making money on the

misery of others. Especially when the workers were treated like "peasants" during their life.

Your grandmother had a healthy work ethic and probably believed in the American dream. Good for her that she didn't lose faith!

It's just that the dream doesn't really exist anymore except for those one in 28 million who play the lottery. The other 27,999,999 people get to tear up their tickets and wish they had bought a gallon of milk instead.

edit: too many nines

[RummyTheDummy]

10. Making money of the misery of others is the Wal Mart credo

The people who work there are generally miserable and overworked and the people who shop there are generally miserable as well. And I'm sure the slave labor that makes many of their products are also miserable.
Personally, I have an active boycott of them. They say hell is what you most hated on earth and for me that's a Saturday afternoon at Wal-Mart. Talk about cultural train wrecks.

[tjdee]

5. Also called "janitors/dead janitors insurance" or "Corporate-Owned Life

Insurance"/ COLI.

I remember vaguely hearing about it, Walmart got sued about it for collecting $64K on somebody....don't remember when though. And of course, LOL, Enron used it. All I remember.

Amazing, the things that go on and people DON'T EVEN KNOW.

Scary.

[NaMeaHou]

11. More interesting excerpts

But, if you listen long and hard enough, you can hear their faint and distant cries for help. It's clear that they suffer from a unique pathology that is slowly driving them insane. They are, at their core, very, very afraid. They are afraid because, ultimately, they are ignorant. They haven't a clue what it's like to be black or hopelessly poor or wishing to kiss someone of their own gender. This basic ignorance leads to their overwhelming and permanent state of fear. The fear quickly manifests itself into hate, which eventually leads to a very dark place. They become consumed with a desire to actually harm others, if not by their own hands (they are usually too afraid to do it themselves), then by having the state act in their stead: "TAKE AWAY THEIR FUNDING! ELIMINATE THEIR JOBS! EXECUTE THE BASTARDS!"

There is no school of therapy I know of to cure this illness; no medication developed yet by pharmaceutical companies for this conservative rage. (Actually, the drug companies need these Republican voters to insure that they will never truly be regulated; so it's in their best interest to make sure that these angry white guys are never healed.) But I firmly believe that many of these conservatives can be shown the error of their ways. They can be encouraged to think differently about the issues we are concerned about. I think there is a way to convert that brother-in-law of yours.

[eleny]

16. oh, lord...

I once had a boss who was an awful piece of crap. I knew her for years and surmised that she feared everyone. Employees, her own boss, her family, spouse, kids, friends - everyone. Her fear then morphed into anger and bad behavior towards all sorts of people around her.

But at the heart of it was her awe and fear of the others in her life. I have lots of nerve and could always outmanuever her and be a free spirit. Like when she'd ask me how I intended to be a success and I'd answer that I've always been a success my whole life. Then I'd laugh and walk away.

It is very comforting to read Moore's assesment of companies in this way. It starts at their top and permeates the corporate culture, attracting like minded individuals. Sociopaths - all.

Be very careful around these people. They're in awe of anyone, fear everyone and hate us all for "making them" feel that way.

[NaMeaHou]

17. Why is it these shits

always seem to move to the top?

Is conniving, lying, ignorance really how the world runs itself?

[Deja Q]

12. One of the few saints left in America - and he is Michael Moore

The people need to read this and then do something about it.

[Catholic Sensation]

13. BUT HE SUPPORTED NADER!!!!1111

Who I also supported in 2000. Michael Moore and Al Franken are the two most important non Politician leftists in America right now. He, unlike Bill O'Shithead, is a good independent.

I want to know one thing, I am going to assume that a lot of what Nader was about is the same thing a lot of you are about: Corporate reform, campaign finance reform, stricter environmental regulations on Corporations, and overall progressive policies... Why is the Green hated more than the Republican party?

[Dubyawatchers]

14. The Ceos

The Ceos of today are the feudal lords of yesterday.
Only a revolution will remove or change them.


Shit, that sounds like something a communist would say.

[NaMeaHou]

15. Well, what will it take to wake people up?

I watched the news on broadcast tv earlier, and saw the story about "near" record numbers of mortgage foreclosures.

If Hoover was still alive, he would be so happy he would eat his own disgusting excrement.