.
Money and Profit Addicts Power, Wealth, and Mental Health 13 June 2010
.
.
|
Eden or Cosmic TitanicYour Choice ? |
Replacing
|
TLC-Life-Center
® |
|
TLC-Life-Center Has Over Sixty Websites. TLC-Life-Center's Introductory Page |
|
|
~ Page Content ~ |
|
.
. |
|
Let's begin with a simple question: Most of us would like to have more money, so the question is: "Why do we want more money?" The obvious answer is to pay our bills, take care of our families, educate our kids, have a comfortable retirement, et cetera. How about the super-wealthy people? They already have more than enough money to fulfill all those needs and to live comfortably for a hundred lifetimes. Why are the multi-millionaires obsessed with making more money? Most people, when asked that question, will have no answer. I, too, spent years without an answer until I heard a comment in a documentary film about pleasure. In that film, ______ of _______ University made this comment about the relationship between making money and brain chemistry:
"Making money and using heroin both stimulate the same portion of the human brain." . |
|
~ The Connection ~ |
|
.
. |
|
What are the implications and the possible conclusions that can be drawn from this researcher's statement? Is it possible that there actually are money & profit addicts? Is it possible that many, perhaps most, of those in positions of great power and wealth are addicted to making money? When we examine the behavior patterns of some of well-known, wealthy men in the business world, their actions match the patterns of addictive behavior, but lets not draw conclusions before we examine addiction more closely. The evidence indicates that addictive behavior patterns are very similar over a wide range of addictions. In the long-run, addictive compulsive behavior leads to either direct self-destruction or destruction of the environment around the addict, both causing an inevitable crash. The path is: Feed the addiction again today and ignore the inevitable disaster that is sure to come by continuing the current behavior. The addiction to making money is not yet openly acknowledged as an addiction, but the behavior patterns of some well-known wealthy men follow the same pattern as that found in numerous other forms of compulsive behavior. Like a heroin addict is out of control on heroin, the addiction to making money appears to prevents a money addict from making sound, rational decisions. There are numerous examples of people who were already very wealthy and who in spite of their wealth were obsessed with making more money. The corporate executives responsible for The Enron Scandal are a recent example of a financial disaster caused by men who fit the pattern we refer to as the money & profit addiction. The multi-billion-dollar-Ponzi-scammer Bernie Madoff, is an even more recent example of a money-addict in action. The AIG corporate leaders and the other people behind the huge multi-corporation, financial rip-off that triggered the 2008 financial crisis also fit the pattern of a money & profit addicts. When you examine history, you find literally hundreds of people whose behavior fits the patterns of a money & profit addict. For example, The "robber barons" or the late 1800's and early 1900's, Rockefeller, Morgan, etc. fit the pattern of a money & profit addict. Right now, today, this addiction dominates the corporate world and shows up in the form of "Short-Term Profits at Any Price." . |
|
. Many people who engage in dangerous activity are compulsive thrill seekers. They get high (create a change in brain chemistry) from exposing themselves to danger. Could it be that the incredibly destructive behavior that many super-wealthy people engage is also a response to an internal, chemically-based addiction. Could it be that "The Powers That Be" are, themselves, drug addicts? Is their drug "making money?" To add a little more clarity, let's compare cocaine users to the super-wealthy who engage in (or oversee or control or direct) usury, exploitation, invasion, and violence and the like. Do the behavior characteristics of these two groups have any commonalities?
Here are some behavior
attributes that are common among cocaine
users. Do you suppose any of these behavior patterns could also apply to the super-wealthy? Perhaps a research study should be undertaken to find the official answer -- an answer that cannot be sloughed off and denied because it's not based of clear, specific research principles.
Belief Systems: In order to justify this much destructive behavior, there must be a cause. It's not likely that little green men form Mars are bribing them, so these people must be either criminally insane, self-centered ego-atheists, or under the influence of something that is controlling their minds. The most likely answer is that making money stimulates something in the human brain that makes these despicable activities seem OK. The most likely cause of their behavior is that they are out-of-control addicts addicted to Short-Term Profits at Any Price. . |
|
Are you aware that it's very common for people to get caught up in their own lies. Researchers have discovered that even the most despicable criminals engage in mind-altering lies to themselves - lies they tell themselves to justify their behavior. For example, Do you recall Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, a communist guerrilla group in Cambodia in the mid 1970s? He was responsible for killing about two million Cambodians? On his death bed, Pol Pot was asked about the millions he murdered. He was not remorseful. He had justified his actions in his own mind and had convinced himself he had done a good thing. Researchers have found similar types of justification from all kinds of people who have committed some of the world's most terrible acts. So the question is: Do the super-wealthy who engage in the despicable activities listed above think that they are doing good? . |
In Early 2010, CNBC television ran a two-hour special, produced by HDNET Films, titled: Enron - The Smartest Guys in the Room. This documentary is about the largest corporate bankruptcy in American history. Before its fall, Enron was the seventh largest corporation in America, with reported assets of about 70 billion dollars.
Of the corporate leaders responsible for
this financial disaster. Two of
them are dead, two of them went to jail and
the fifth one walked away with billions of
dollars in corporate money and became the
largest single land holder in the state of
Colorado. The five main players
were: Four of the five expressed the classic symptoms of: 1) Money and Profit Addicts, 2) High-Stakes Gambling Addicts, 3) Addiction to danger and thrill seeking. If you want to see addiction in action and the incredibly-destructive result of un-challenged corporate mismanagement, we recommend watching this documentary. We'll add a few highlights from the documentary here. Ken Lay, Enron Chairman and then Corporate CEO, was convicted of ten counts of fraud and conspiracy. He died after his conviction and before his sentencing. He expressed no remorse and repeatedly declared himself to be a man of high moral and ethical values. He was in complete denial of any harm or wrong doing. Lay was a major advocate for government deregulation of the natural gas industry. He got Bush Jr. and a multitude of other politicians to push for deregulation of the Natural Gas industry. He obviously succeeded because that industry is the only major energy industry excluded from being subjected to the regulations of the Environment Protection Agency. We invite you to examine just one of the devastating and disastrous consequence of his success -- Hydraulic Fracturing. Jeffrey Skilling, Enron CEO was convicted of nineteen counts of fraud and conspiracy, insider trading, and lying to authorities. He was sentence to twenty four years in jail. Andy Fastow was found guilty of several crimes, had 23 million dollars in corporate benefits taken back from him. He received a ten year jail sentence. Cliff Baxter took 30 million dollars out of Enron. After the crash, he felt so guilty that he committed suicide. Lu Pi Lu Pi is the odd man out in the Enron Scandal. His behavior was markedly different from the other four major players. He was a quasi-mystery man. He came in quietly, kept his presents very low key, did what he did, and quietly left with millions of Enron dollars. He did so legally, but the things he did caused the company to lose billions of dollars. He's about as close as we'll get to what we call, The Ultimate Crook. Enron Business practices: Enron peddled the illusion of "the free market" and told everyone who would listen that the best way for the government to deal with any business was to deregulate it. In sharp contrast, the evidence tells us that we do not have a free market -- that we have a highly-controlled exploitation economy designed to direct the "lion's share" of everything to the super wealthy. (Reference: The Illusion of a Free Market.) Deregulation allowed the natural gas industry to receive billions of dollars in government subsidies and also,to increase its profits by billions more. Hydraulic Fracturing for Natural Gas: You might note that deregulation of the natural gas industry, the Enron scandal, and to the collusion-style ties between the Enron leaders and the Bush junior presidency are all intimately inter connected. 1) Enron's leader, Ken Lay and George Bush junior had had a very strong personal connection. Author, Kevin Philips likened that relationship as "professional courtesy between a sidewinder and a rattle snake." 2) Enron was the largest single corporate donor to the 2000, financial campaign of George Bush Jr. Here's another quote from Kevin Phillips: "This [the Bush- Lay relationship] absolutely has no precedence. It is, by far and away, the most important major relationship of a presidential family with a single corporation in American history." 3) Enron was intimately connected to the natural gas industry. Enron was not interested in natural gas. Their only interest was in making money and they didn't care what they had to to make more money and they didn't care who got hurt in the process. Enron became a quasi-stock market for natural gas. They transformed energy (in this case natural gas) into an instrument that could be traded like stocks and bonds. In 1992, Enron became the biggest buyer and seller of natural gas in America. Enron remained a major player in the money end of the natural gas industry until its collapse in ______ . Lay - Skilling - Fastow -- These three men were the major cause of the Enron Scandal. They each sold millions of dollars in stock options at the same time that they knew the company was collapsing, and while they were telling everyone else that the company was in good financial condition. They were each Money and Profit Addicts. They were each High-Stakes High-risk Gamblers. Here are three quote form Jeffrey Skilling: "We like risks because you make money taking risks." "Money is the only thing that maters." "I'm Enron." They were each Physical Risk Takers. Not only were they likely to end up ion jail, they created a macho culture in the company. Executives regularly engaged in outings and excursions were there were significant chances of being injured or killed. T They promoted greed, competition, survival of the fittest. Their traders were excessively aggressive or they were fired. They pitted employees against each other. Those who didn't fit the company pattern were fired. Those who spoke up and questioned authority or the company policies were fired. They engaged in extremely deceptive accounting practices. All this under the illusion that they were healthy individuals running a major corporation. They promoted themselves and each other as "the smartest guys in the room." The Bottom Line: 1) Their activities stimulated their brains to produce the same psychological effect that is produced in the brains of cocaine addicts. 2) Very sick, drug addicts destroyed one of the world's biggest corporations and in he process, caused, financial disaster, injury, death, to thousands of people and are responsible for the serious environment damage caused by Hydraulic Fracturing. 3) There was absolutely no oversight to stop them. . |
|
.
. |
Bernie Madoff was recently caught running a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scam. Madoff was already a wealthy man when he started his Ponzi scam. He already had enough money to live in opulence for the rest of his life. He knew what he was doing was not only destructive and unethical, it was criminal. He knew a day would come when his Ponzi scheme would be exposed. He knew that when that day came, he would lose everything and go to jail for the rest of his life. Yet, is spite of his knowing that he was setting himself up for a complete, personal disaster, he spent his days ripping people off for more money. He took in billions of dollars, most of which has somehow disappeared. He didn't need the money. He didn't keep the money. Then the big question is: Why did he do what he did? Let me say this again: Making money and using cocaine both affect the same portion of the brain? Was Bernie Madoff the equivalent of a cocaine addict. Was his addiction, not to cocaine, but to making money? If Bernie Madoff"s actions was a rare phenomenon, we could discount his behavior as a coincidence, but it's not. This type of destructive behavior is all too common among those with enough money to live in opulence for a hundred lifetimes. What about The Powers That Be -- the super-wealthy men who behind the scenes control the corporations that spend the money to elect the politicians who write the laws that control anything of any significance in the United States, England, and Europe? The evidence tells us that these men drug addicts. Their drug is making money. . |
|
.
. |
|
. To better understand what The Powers That Be do and how they do it, readers are directed to the TLC-Life-Center web pages,
Con Artists and the Ultimate Con Game
at and
To understand why they do what they do, readers are directed to these TLC-Life-Center web pages: Power Wealth and Mental-health <-- You Are here.
To understand why their "house of cards" is about to fall, readers are directed to these TLC-Life-Center web pages:
Speaking to the
Children of the Moneyed Elite
at:
The Bottom Line Conclusion: The overwhelming evidence clearly tells us that The Powers That Be act like parasitic, vampires stealing life, liberty, and everything, including that which is nailed down. The big question is: Why? These men are not bad guys. There aren't any bad guys. Could it be because these men are addicted to the mind altering drug (dopamine) that human biology pumps into their brains when they make more money. Could it be that they are simply money & profit addicts. doing what they are compelled to do? . |
|
The evidence indicates that we have out-of control money & profit addicts running the world and dragging the rest of us into the disasters which will be the inevitable result of Runaway Global Climate Change. Do we want that to continue? If not, how do the rest of us protect ourselves from the evils of those who have and/or control huge amounts of money? I know it's blasphemy in the eyes of the worshipper of the Great God, Money, but, perhaps there should be a limit on how much wealth a person (or a group of people, or a corporation) can own or control. Since that's not likely to happen any time soon, are there any other alternatives?
Fortunately,
the answer is a resounding
"Yes,!" And the
answer is surprisingly
simple. The True Corporate Democracy
Foundation's Win-Win
Business Structure -- a process of partnering
revised and updated versions
of the traditional
non-profit foundations with
existing corporations,
resolves this problem.
It doesn't stop money & profit addicts from being addicts, but
along with providing several
other very positive
benefits, it dramatically
reduces a corporate
executive's capacity to
secretly engage in
high-stakes,
multi-billion-dollar,
destructive behavior.
Additional References:
For an example of
partnering a non-profit
foundation with a
profit-making corporation,
readers are directed to
The Medical-Marijuana,
Access-Assistance Foundation:
. |
|
Eden
or
Cosmic
Titanic |
Money and
TLC-Life-Center Family of Websites Copyright © 2010 -- Robert E. Coté -- The Life Center All rights reserved. See: Terms of Use --- Privacy Statement .. |
TLC-Life-Center
® |
|
|
We're Walking our Talk |
|
At TLC-Life-Center We're
demonstrating our proposals by
creating two |
|
The for-profit
business(Mari-Med Corporation)
is based on The New Corporate
World Foundation's Win-Win Business
Structure -- a structure in which
corporate employees, corporate
customers, and the environment hold
equal priority with making a profit.
Corporate focus is Hemp.
We are creating a
medical-marijuana, access-assistance
foundation,
The Mari-Med Foundation will
provide funding and access to medical
marijuana for those in need who
cannot, by themselves, afford to pay
for the products and services The
foundation owns controlling
interest in the Mari-Med Corporation.
Most corporate profits go to the
foundation. Do You need a Job? You are invited to examine our websites and determine if you'd like to join the development teams for either our non-profit foundation or our profit-oriented corporation. If you find the prospect of joining our team intriguing, please contact us.
|
|
|
The Ultimate Crook: "The Ultimate Crook." is a person who lies, cheats and steals without ever getting caught and without ever doing anything to attract the attention of the police or any other investigators. He (or she) is usually never seen or heard of by the public. And very likely, his family and friends have no idea what the ultimate crook is up to. If the person is a public figure in any way, he or she is well liked and/or respected. If I had to look to see who would fit this description, I'd begin looking closely at former president, George Bush Sr. and born-again religion peddler, Benny Hinn. . |