From the original article comes this key quote:
How could this happen? It happened for the same reason that Wall Street types, with acquiescence of their boards and public officials, saw no reason to make any personal sacrifice at a time when others are sacrificing greatly. The UW Board of Regents, as most others at public universities, is not made up of scholars and altruists. It consists mainly of governor-appointed businessmen, lawyers, and other high-income types who themselves live insulated from the daily travails of ordinary state taxpayers.
As Froma Harrop put it, the ethos among leaders of the finance sector now seems to be "heads, I win, tails, I'm bailed out." That ethos has now infiltrated the leadership of many kinds of organizations, perhaps because in many cases the Masters of the Universe from the finance sector now lead the boards of these organizations. The result may be leaders of academia more focused on enriching and empowering themselves than on their organizations' high-minded missions.
I can't think of a better way to destroy a society from inside.
ReplyDeleteAmazing when you stop and think about it; we don't even need external enemies anymore.
There is a trickle down effect to this behavior. In the Sept. 4, WSJ we find Ohio Funding Cuts Spark Feud Over Plan to Close a YMCA. The short version is the Y wants to close a branch in a working class neighborhood, in Toledo, Ohio with few safe activity options for this area, in favor of supporting suburban facilities, with many safe activity options.
ReplyDeleteThe real issue becomes the directors $270,000.00 per year salary. I am sure this director is much more comfortable with his fellow suburban neighbors. I am also sure very few people make over one quarter of a million dollars per year in salary in Toledo, Ohio.
The disconnect between a rich suburbanite and the mission of providing services to all, including the low income, cannot be more evident.
Steve Lucas
He actually gave back $40,000.00. But the papers don't like to print that because it does not make leaders look bad. Before people start running others down they should know all of the correct facts.
ReplyDeleteA story once told by Uwe Reinhardt: "A Martian ship once visited American. It hovered over a hospital. In the front door, the Martian visitors saw a stream of sick people enter. Out the side door, they saw a huge parking lot filled with luxury cars of all types. As they watched, doctor after doctor exited, jumped in an expensive vehicle, and zoomed off. The Martian ship returned home and informed its leaders that American doctors had achieved a technological miracle. They had figured out how to turn sick people into Mercedes."
ReplyDeleteAnonymous #2 - I only write about what is in the public domain. I did not see anything in the public domain about the president "giving back" any money. If it is public, please provide a reference or a link.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous #3 - I don't believe President Mark Emmert is a physician. So I don't see the relevance of your comment. Furthermore, most primary care and other "cognitive" physicians, while pretty well-paid compared to the average worker, are not rich, and are not particularly well-paid compared to other professionals and certainly compared to managers. See this post:
ReplyDeletehttp://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2006/01/meme-of-overpaid-doctors.html
Anonymous #3 probably thinks no physician should be well paid enough to afford an expensive car.
ReplyDeleteThis is perhaps a symptom of simple jealousy. Perhaps he/she was drinking, smoking dope and goofing off in high school and college while his/her now-medical professional peers were studying hard and sacrificing their youth to become physicians.