Re: Morality Question

whheydt@xxxxxxxxxxx (Wilson Heydt) writes:

> In article <ek8bzjod.fsf@xxxxxxxxxx>,
> Richard D. Latham <lathamr@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>The "No-Pass No-Play" laws began as the personal hobby-horse of
>>another gentleman who's last name you might have reason to recognize
>>though ... Ross Perot. It was his intro to politics on the state level.
>
> he also goaded the Texas legislature to require that school
> administrators be something other than failed (or not sufficiently
> successful) football coaches.
>
> The whole effort had noting, per se, to do with improving skills.
> It was part of his concern about where EDS was going to get future
> programmers who would work cheap and could be coerced into putting
> in long hours. That is, purely self interest as it related to the
> company he was running.
>
> When H. Ross Perot got into national politics, I used to remark that
> I might be tempted to vote for him if I knew *less* about him.
>

I've never met Ross Sr. , have casually met his son, once. I certainly
don't feel like I'd be able to accurately divine their altruism, or
lack thereof.

Tangentially, I'd have to check , and am not going to bother, but
thought I remembered that he'd already sold EDS off to GM before this
point in time ... but the senior moments come closer and closer
together nowadays, alas. Would make sense that , being at loose ends,
so to speak, he got involved in politics. :-) ( Idle hands are the
devil's playground, nyet ? )

Figuring out people's motives is a slippery subject, and "it's usually
above my paygrade".

What specifically troubles me is the general lowering of the tone of
the debate that follows from ascribing the basest of motives to people
when you have no real basis for doing so ... except that you've
decided that they're a mutton head ( or worse ).

Perhaps I'm just too idealist, but I think that most people want to
"do good" ... a lot of close to general agreement on the _ends_, but
rather less so on the _means_ .

But perhaps you know the Perot's well enough that you're able to speak
from a position of personal knowledge. Even if this happens to be
true, I still think my general observation in re: ascribing foul
motives is generally accurate.

P.S. I had friends that worked for EDS for a few days :-) If even 10%
of what I've heard about the way his company treated its employees is
accurate, well, let's just say that I would have had a short tenure
there, too.

P.P.S. The "we need more trained talent in the North Texas area" is
generally ascribed to Jack Kilby of TI ( Texas Instruments). He and
his partner started a little university in 1961, which became
University of Texas at Dallas in 1969. ( If you belive the UT @ D
web-site, anyway ).

--
#include <disclaimer.std> /* I don't speak for IBM ... */
/* Heck, I don't even speak for myself */
/* Don't believe me ? Ask my wife :-) */
Richard D. Latham lathamr@xxxxxxxxxx
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Morality Question
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  • Re: Morality Question
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