Have we got a job for you. …
Bus we mus’? Maybe not.
The two companies ’Burque has dealt with while trying to improve its mass-transit system are facing charges that they failed to follow through on their end of wage-and-benefit deals, according to The New York Times.
BYD we’ve discussed before. Now New Flyer, the outfit the Duke City turned to after its deal with BYD wound up on blocks, faces a fraud complaint in California.
Says the Times:
In a 2012 proposal to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority for an order of up to 900 buses, New Flyer said it would create more than 50 full-time positions that paid $11 to nearly $50 an hour.
New Flyer won the contract, worth about $500 million. But the company did not pay the wages it said it would and misrepresented the value of the benefits it was providing, according to pay stubs and corporate reports recently unsealed in the fraud case.
“It was a commitment — it matters,” said Madeline Janis, the executive director of Jobs to Move America, the nonprofit group that filed the complaint against New Flyer in California state court. “This case is about holding a huge company’s feet to the fire. … They make deals with public agencies and promise whatever, and think they don’t have to follow through.”
Is it just me, or does the invisible hand of the free market seem to spend a lot of time jerking off the rubes?
Mad Blog Media 
August 12, 2019 at 8:13 am |
I always laugh when I hear or read “the wisdom of the free market” when the reverse is usually the case. More and more these days, business seems more like a legalized pyramid scheme than what I learned about in business classes back-in-the-day.
August 12, 2019 at 8:55 am |
It’s the American way. Just dangle a shiny deal: In exchange for major tax breaks you promise massive “job creation” and a huge boost for the local economy… it’s a piece of cake to dazzle state & local lawmakers who want to look like they’re doing something positive. What could go wrong? Just ask the residents of Racine county, Wisconsin how that Foxconn deal is working out for ’em. Ex-governor Walker and ex-speaker Ryan know. FoxCONn indeed.
Same old story all over.
August 12, 2019 at 9:19 am |
Seemed I remember that Foxconn was also going to take a shitload of fresh water and turn it into contaminated water. Just tell those cheddar heads that the resulting pollution will hurt walleye populations in the surrounding waters, and the deal will get cancelled toot sweet.
August 12, 2019 at 9:32 am |
And nobody wants to abandon the tax-breaks”deal” because everybody else is doing it. Lemmings.
August 12, 2019 at 9:20 am |
As Carlin might say, jerking us off would leave us with a little something to show for it. Robbing us blind is whatthey are doing and have been for decades.
August 12, 2019 at 9:40 am |
I’m more and more convinced the so-called “invisible hand of the free market” is actually at least two hands: one doing as you describe, PO’G, and another one simultaneously in our back pockets relieving us of our wallets.
It’s/they’re also a bit like Mother Nature: A cold-hearted, cruel, dispassionate bitch that is prone to excesses.
August 12, 2019 at 9:58 am |
The company that promises jobs for money is talking about themselves not about the regular folk. They want something for nothing and politcos seem to believe every scum sucking low life puts a proposal in front of them. When the entity gets the public money they book for the door. Either party is equally stupid in regards to this matter. Bolsheviks were right shoot politicians and lawyers. Parenthetically insurance industry(all) autromobile dealers and saints.
August 12, 2019 at 8:17 pm |
I wish to point out you left heartless and overpaid hospital administrators off your list. And I think we’ve had quite enough shootings. Would you settle for putting them in stocks and chains in the town squares for a bit of public shaming, pelting and scorn?
August 13, 2019 at 11:49 am |
It is hard to enumerate all the folks that need remediation in any form. I stand corrected. Thank you for your additions and corrections.
August 13, 2019 at 2:33 pm |
The great Way is easy,
yet people prefer the side paths.
Be aware when things are out of balance.
Stay centered within the Tao.
When rich speculators prosper
While farmers lose their land;
when government officials spend money
on weapons instead of cures;
when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible
while the poor have nowhere to turn-
all this is robbery and chaos.
It is not in keeping with the Tao.
Tao te Ching, translation by Stephen Mitchell
August 13, 2019 at 6:15 pm |
Read this morning that the dumpster decided to delay tariffs on phones, laptops and toys, Then the markets jumped up, especially Apple. Does anyone think our orange boy might be up to some insider trading scheme. He makes the tariff on and off decisions often.
August 13, 2019 at 9:27 pm |
My thought as well. Someone is shorting the day before the proposed tariff gets tweeted, gets his money when it’s called off. And his defense will be that he’s tweeting it all so it’s all in the open. The heads up to his buddies, not so much.