Tag Archive for profit

While You Shop, Do This

January 14, 2020 Comments Off on While You Shop, Do This

Use your immense power as a consumer. Ask where items you’re buying are made. Why? Activists to Retailers: Shoppers Need to Know Who’s Making the Clothes explains. Here’s a short excerpt:

“Consumers have more power than they think. If a store manager has their shoppers asking questions about where their clothes are being sourced, we think they are more likely to listen….In an industry where garment companies pocket huge profits whilst workers are being exploited…we want brands to listen to those who produce and buy their clothes.

“Asking a question as simple as ‘Who is making my clothes?’ takes into consideration how workers are being treated, where materials are coming from, and whether or not your clothing has been made sustainably. On average, garment workers in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and India receive 70 cents an hour for their 12-hour work days and live in poverty. Publishing supplier lists is one way to help consumers start shopping responsibly and improve conditions for garment workers.”

READ MORE AT http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/12/02/fashion-suppliers

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Why Drug Prices are so High

October 18, 2019 Comments Off on Why Drug Prices are so High

A new drug enters the market with a 20-year monopoly before a generic version of it can be sold.  This is the time period in which the pharmaceutical company recoups the amount it spent in developing the drug.  In other words, unlike your small business, they get to  charge a high price for that little pill until they break even.  If that’s the case, why don’t they drop the price after 20 years?  The answer is simple: more profits.

Yes, a generic company can make a cheaper version and challenge the 20-year window through the FDA.  It’s really a patent challenge, claiming that there’s a flaw in the patent or it isn’t valid for some other reason.  Of course, the big-pharma company counter-sues  leading to lengthy and expensive litigation.  If they think they might lose or don’t want to take the chance, they just settle it all with an agreement that the generic company will drop the suit and hold off introducing their more affordable pill, and, in exchange, big-pharma will pay them a tidy sum.  Everybody wins, right?

Wait a minute.  What about us consumers who depend on the medicine, especially people who, because of the expense, must often choose between life-saving medications and food or rent?  And doesn’t that also add to the high costs of our medical system?  Mmmmmmmmm.

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How this Church Stretched a Dollar and Saved Lives

July 9, 2019 Comments Off on How this Church Stretched a Dollar and Saved Lives

This Indiana church turned $1 contributions into $4 million. It stared with a Dollar Club–people giving a single dollar each quarter. The money helps foster families and people with health-cost burdens and others needing help. Then they teamed up with a charity, then with RIP Medical Debt, a non-profit that pays off crushing medical debt for people in dire need.

It’s an interesting story. Read more about it in this CNN article.

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B of A = Bad guys of America

January 24, 2018 Comments Off on B of A = Bad guys of America

Yesterday’s post was on corporate generosity.  Today’s is on corporate greed–Bank of America’s.

If you are a Bank of America customer who, like many people, does NOT have at least a $250 direct deposit into your account each month OR you can’t keep a constant balance of at least $1500, you’re losing $144 a year.  B of A is now charging $12 a month if we can’t meet one of those conditions.  When we signed on for our free checking account, we met whatever criteria they asked us to meet.  Now they’re going back on their original agreement so they can rake in even more profits.  Yes, there is that fine print that says they can change the rules at their own whim, but bankers assured us that nothing would really change.

Maybe you don’t mind giving them that $12 a month.  Maybe it doesn’t hurt you.  But it does hurt seniors on fixed incomes, sick people who have to scrape together enough dollars to pay medical costs, single parents working two jobs to provide food and shelter for their kids–the poor and vulnerable among us.

That’s just not right.  Tell B of A it isn’t right.  Tell them they need to rescind that decision NOW.  I’m a lucky one because I have a direct deposit.  And I’ve been with B of A for decades.  I won’t be for long, though, if they don’t get rid of that unfair charge.

 

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Lurking in your Phone….

November 7, 2017 Comments Off on Lurking in your Phone….

This is about Androids, BUT it can apply to any phone. There are doppelgangers waiting to invade your phone. Those are apps that look like the real thing (similar to ones you know and trust) but are fake ones trying to ensnare you.  For example, doesn’t “Lovely Wallpaper” sound safe and innocent? NOT! Once you download these things they can do all sorts of stuffs, even when you aren’t on your phone: steal your passwords, user names, and credit card and banking information; send texts that look like they’re coming from you; track you as you wander about; even take pictures of you.

Once you’ve downloaded one of these demons it’s too late simply to change your password–they’re already in. You have to delete the app, then wipe your phone.

Be careful, then, of the apps you download.  First check out the company and make sure it’s reputable, legitimate, and trustworthy. Don’t assume that, since you found it in the Google store, it’s okay.Google is busy trying to clean out their store from these things, and keep it clean–a huge task.

It’s disgusting that there are people out there who profit from our carelessness. Let’s not give them the chance.

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Profitable Prisons

October 2, 2015 Comments Off on Profitable Prisons

Who has contributed in excess of $10 million in the last 16 years to politicians and spent almost $25 million to lobby for their interests?  You may be surprised.  They are GEO and Corrections Corporation of America, the two major for-profit prison companies in our country. Combined, private prison companies bring in $3.3 billion a year, all while the number of people in our prisons  doubled in only ten years (2000-1010).

Contracts with such companies require that the government keep their prisons at least 90% full…some have a 100% provision.  If not, taxpayers must pay for any empty beds.  They own 9 out of the 10 immigrant detention centers and profit greatly from a Congressional mandate (that they lobbied for) that a minimum of 34,000 immigrants be detained daily (and the number is rising, even as the number of undocumented aliens has leveled off).

For more details, view this PBS video:  http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/419/video.html

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Pay Up and Keep Paying

July 3, 2015 Comments Off on Pay Up and Keep Paying

Ever been tempted to get a payday loan?  It’s so easy…and so dangerous.  As Credo points out, “The dirty secret of the payday lending industry is that there is no money in people repaying their loans on time. The key to the whole profit-making engine that makes lenders’ Wall Street backers rich is tricking people into taking out one loan and then locking them into months or years of debt. Charging hidden fees and demanding sky-high interest rates, payday lenders are little more than legal loan sharks.“

Too many people, vulnerable because of low-paying jobs, a sudden medical or auto expense, and a hundred other situations, fall into this trap.  And it’s legal.

Read more about this at Credo Action.  If you think the Consumer Protection Agency should crack down on payday lenders, use Credo’s webpage to send them a strong message telling them just that.

 

 

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Why that Rx Costs So Much

March 25, 2013 Comments Off on Why that Rx Costs So Much

A new drug enters the market with a 20-year monopoly before a generic version of it can be sold.  This is the time period in which the pharmaceutical company recoups the amount it spent in developing the drug.  In other words, unlike your small business, they get to  charge a high price for that little pill until they break even.  If that’s the case, why don’t they drop the price after 20 years?  The answer is simple: more profits.

Yes, a generic company can make a cheaper version and challenge the 20-year window through the FDA.  It’s really a patent challenge, claiming that there’s a flaw in the patent or it isn’t valid for some other reason.  Of course, the big-pharma company counter-sues  leading to lengthy and expensive litigation.  If they think they might lose or don’t want to take the chance, they just settle it all with an agreement that the generic company will drop the suit and hold off introducing their more affordable pill, and, in exchange, big-pharma will pay them a tidy sum.  Everybody wins, right?

Wait a minute.  What about us consumers who depend on the medicine, especially people who, because of the expense, must often choose between life-saving medications and food or rent?  And doesn’t that also add to the high costs of our medical system?  Mmmmmmmmm.

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