- Now I know what you're thinking: The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention in Atlanta have recently reported that incidents
of E.coli, salmonella and other food-borne bacterial illnesses have declined
23% in the past five years. And if you were thinking that you would be
correct. It was recently reported by Reuters and appeared in The New York
Times, as well as many other papers.
-
- But the COLI that caught my eye this week was reported
in The Houston Chronicle and was about a totally different "COLI"-
-not "E" as in "Eeeww- -bacteria", but "D"
as in "deceased". I'm dead serious.
-
- And what are these COLI? It's an acronym for "Corporate-Owned
Life Insurance"- - policies companies take out on their employees,
mostly without the employee's knowledge. And that is because they are taken
out by the company on low level employees including minimum wage workers.
In the event of the death of one of these employees, the company collects
the death benefit. The families, like the employees, never even know. Well,
almost never. These policies are known in the insurance trade as "Dead
Janitor" or "Dead Peasant" policies. How do ya like them
apples? Talk about your bacterial scum.
-
- In a recent article by L.M. Sixel in The Chronicle the
story of how big companies profit from the deaths of their everyday employees
is spelled out. We're not talking about the top level execs, whom you might
expect to be insured, and many are, but that is done openly and everybody
knows it. The Chronicle story tells of a woman whose husband worked in
the receiving department at the Wal-Mart distribution center in Plainview,
Texas who died of a heart attack. When the man died, Wal-Mart won the $64,000
jackpot. The woman got nothing. Okay, she got a membership in the Dead
Peasant's Society. But that's all.
-
- How can this be, you ask? Well, the truth is, it's actually
legal in some states. But not Texas. Which is why it's a big story in Houston.
Wal-Mart got found out. No yellow smiley face next to this one.
-
- Did you ever wonder how Wal-Mart was able to sell stuff
supposedly made in America- -where the wages are higher- -for prices lower
than anyone else, and still have Sam and the family always on Forbes' or
Fortune's lists of our richest citizens? I've always wondered. Actually
Sam is a member of a club other than his own these days. All that money
and where is he now? Right, he's dead too. Fat lot of good it did him.
-
- So there's "Gramps The Greeter" asking if he
can get you a shopping cart and the minute he falls over- -cha-ching- -"Show
me the money"! Why do you think they hire all those old people you
see at the door? It's a "can't miss" investment.
-
- Of course unscrupulous business practices have a long
and very successful history here in the Good Ole US of A. Arthur Andersen
has a long list of them. Oh? Well, they used to before the spreadsheets
hit the fan, erthe shredder. Think back on those you remember.
-
- For example, last year Sony Pictures took out full page
ads- -as movie companies often do- -to hype some new turkey of the silver
screen. Banner headlines proclaimed what a "GREAT" flick this
was going to be. And they quoted some critic- -as these ads always do-
-saying "Fabulous" and "I Loved It!!" You've seen how
they do this. Only trouble was- -the critic didn't exist. They just made
this stuff up. And they made the guy up. They only got caught because they
quoted a small paper in Connecticut as having loved it and that paper never
wrote about it. Well, not until they noticed their name used to hype this
loser. Better the film were turned into a lifetime supply of guitar picks.
-
- And speaking of guitar picks- -Camelot Music is another
of the chains that has taken out "dead guy" policies on their
employees. Some of these policies documented in The Chronicle story are
worth between $300,000- -$400,000. As they used to say- -You better See
Sharp or you'll Be Flat!!
-
- Since Texas law doesn't allow these kinds of policies,
they were created out of state, in Georgia in one instance. These shenanigans
came to light when Camelot sued the IRS for not allowing tax deductions
on the company's insurance premiums. What a lot of nerve, you say, but
that's one of the reasons companies do this- -tax benefits. They find out
who's died by running Social Security number sweeps every quarter.
-
- And lest we pick on only Wal-Mart, it should be noted
that Procter & Gamble and AT&T are cited in the article, and we
are told that many Fortune 500 companies do this. And firms like Hartford
Life and AIG Life are more than happy to sell these policies.
-
- The most unconscionable firm mentioned is National Convenience
Stores. Each time an employee is shot in a robbery NCS gets $250,000, so
why provide security? Stick'em up.
-
- There are multi-million dollar suits going on at present
involving several of these cases and others. What a country. No wonder
Al Qaeda is yelling "Death To The Infidel"- -They probably have
life insurance policies on us all. ___
-
- Views expressed by the author are their own and do not
represent the views and/or opinions of the staff and/or management of DebateUSA.com,
nor are they limited or restricted in any way.
-
- http://www.debateusa.com/featured/dmcbride.htm
-
-
- Comment
-
- From MStakes
4-27-2
-
- It might be interesting if someone checked out the grocery
stores, discount as well as WalMart on this. Haven't you noticed the number
of elderly retired people they hire as greeters and baggers?
-
- Furthermore, how about the nursing homes? This gets VERY
interesting. This merits very serious investigation.
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