One thing that I always teach my clients is that if we are to solve a problem we must first truly understand what is causing the problem. Because without that understanding we really have no idea where to focus our efforts and what solutions we should apply.
No where is that more important than when an airplane crashes and in the case of the Boeing 737-Max, when 2 airplanes have crashed. If you listen to the news, every reporter has become an aeronautical engineer overnight and has chosen to scapegoat the billion dollar behemoth Boeing Corp. Now I know its easy to scapegoat them considering the infamous 737-Max’s history of small seats, awful legroom, non-existent bathrooms, and now plane crashes. But as a pilot myself, it would be reckless to just look at Boeing because while surely sharing part of the blame for these crashes, there are other factors that we must look at.
These crashes were less about plane crashes but more a systematic problem within corporate America and the calculated risk of gambling with the safety of consumers with the profits of the shareholders. With competition and pressure from Wall Street, every CEO in corporate America is forced to make calculated risks to maximize profits often at the expense of the safety of its consumers.
For this very special episode of Gray Matters Radio With Michael DeVine, we invite The Professor Richard DeVine back into The Gray to help us understand how corporate America balances profits with risk and what it means for the future of this country. If companies are pushing the boundaries with safety in the name of profits , what does it tell us about the very government they are paying off to make laws that clearly cater to them?
We can’t deny that money corrupts and the history of businesses often making questionable decisions in the name of profits have been resoundingly consistent for the past 100 years. Now more than ever, we must take a step back from the political rhetoric and ask ourselves what is the the role of government in protecting its citizens from basic human nature? If we have laws to protect ourselves from human nature than why of all places where human nature is most susceptible to corruption do we think businesses can police themselves?
These are all huge questions that we only begin to scratch the surface of in this important episode of Gray Matters Radio. As always I am joined in the studio by The Armchair QB Bill Reed to help me stay firmly in The Gray. Gray Matters Radio is a proud member of The Reporters Network family of podcasts.
