Air Jordan Fiasco

Maybe you saw the headline news…or read it on the internet…I don’t get it. What the heck is so special about an Air Jordan tennis shoe? For goodness sakes it is just a shoe! A sneaker!

People waited at the doors of malls where the shoe would be selling for a price of $180. Sorry, but I would not spend that kind of money on a pair of shoes. Nor would I wait outside overnight in front of a mall to buy a sneaker! I could do much better with my $180, couldn’t you? The really sad part of this is that people were injured, property was damaged and fights ensued all over a shoe! And those buying these shoes, and trampling people in the malls, and damaging property, are the same folks selling the shoes on the internet for triple the price they paid. Again, this is a sneaker!

What is in the name? OK–Air Jordan: Clearly has to do with basketball celeb Michael Jordan. Let me ask those who are wearing the labels: How much are they paying you to advertise for them? Nothing? What, you wear a label and do not get paid? Hmm….free advertising for something that will more than likely not last like my Ked’s or PF flyers! Those lasted me for years as a kid, and believe me I was brutal on those shoes.

This is a sad commentary on society when a shoe creates such havoc! What people should be more concerned with are the things that really matter, like putting a roof over their heads, food on the table, and the ability to pay for their bills. Am I paying for those shoes now because the money spent on these shoes could be possibly coming from welfare? Hmm….

And shame on you to the sellers of these shoes to wait until the 23rd of December to put these shoes on sale on one day only! You created the hype; you assisted in creating the havoc, and the damage, and the injuries and you should pay for this!

This takes me to corporate greed. Yes, this is due to corporate greed. Shame on you! And it is also due to those who just had to have this shoe at a cost of $180, so, shame on you too! You forgot what was important in the message of the season. Take your shoes and put them on, and walk to the fireplace, if you have one, to the stocking hung with care. I hope that you find a lump of coal!

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Where Does Corporate Greed Lie?

Last night while watching CBS evening news, I heard a disturbing number. I heard that one in fifteen people in the U.S. are now living at 50% below the poverty level. Robert Moffitt, an economics professor at Johns Hopkins was reported as stating, “There now really is no unaffected group, except maybe the very top income earners. Recessions are supposed to be temporary, and when it’s over, everything returns to where it was before. But the worry now is that the downturn — which will end eventually — will have long-lasting effects on families who lose jobs, become worse off and can’t recover.”

When I heard this story, I thought to myself, this reminds me of 20 years ago. I was working for a service company after graduating from college. We placed folks in jobs at a number of various companies. I was excited to have this job, and I was told when I was hired, that I would be given a raise after three months with the company.

A month after I signed on, the company announced a wage freeze and raises were on hold for the next fifteen months. Working in the accounting office, I discovered that before the wage freeze was announced, eight, yes eight, Vice Presidents were all given raises. The average wage twenty years ago for these folks after the raise was $125K, not including bonuses. What this wage freeze did for me was keep my earnings at poverty level. Why do the top wage earners forget about the worker bees who keep the company running, make the money and whose hard work is providing them their salaries?

The thought in my head at the time was, “It is easy for these VP’s to accept this decision, because for them, they are really not affected.” The affect on me? Living in the San Francisco Bay Area meant for me no extraneous costs. Food that topped the list included Top Ramen and a lot of stone soup. Rent was taking up 60% of my after tax income. Dining out was not an option. Cable TV was not an option. Getting sick was not an option. Vacations away from home — not an option. Presents to others at the holidays for the first time in my life could not be done. Couldn’t you have made something you ask? No. I could not afford the materials.

C. Northcote Parkinson wrote a really good book that I had to read while getting my college degree. In the book there was a chapter that had to do with a board of directors of a company. Basically it said that the board could make a decision involving millions of dollars in two minutes, but when they had to discuss what kind of coffee to buy for the office it took a half hour of their time. Why? Because the coffee immediately affected them in their daily lives. The millions, did not. For a good read check out “Parkinson’s Laws.” Look for it in your library: C. Northcote Parkinson (Nov 19th, 1955), “Parkinson’s Law.” While the book focuses on UK bureaucracy, it fits for us in the U.S. as well.

The question is: Today, how can these top earners sit in their offices, look at themselves in the mirror in the morning, and feel good about themselves for making one in fifteen people survive below poverty level? How hard would it be for them to take a pay cut so that someone else can eat something more than Top Ramen or stone soup?

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