Posted by Rick Denney on May 06, 2003 at 10:56:30:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Our business posted by Taxes for the Arts on May 05, 2003 at 19:57:43:
Have you ever known a lowly musician who took drugs (and sold them to his buddies)? Or who perhaps stole a car in their youth? Or who committed some other crime?
Industry bosses are no different than anyone else, including poor people. Some of them are honorable, and some of them are crooks. Who said anything about immunity? You are trying to expand into a political discussion that has nothing to do with the subject at hand, and I suspect that everything you see in life is filtered through your political world view. Personally, I hope the crooks get nailed. I suspect that corporate bosses who commit major frauds eventually get nailed about as reliably as petty thiefs (most of whom are never caught), and perhaps moreso.
Of course, there were predictions of doom (reinforced by your hintings) that the bad apples represented by Enron and Tycho were just the tip of the iceberg. Fortunately, those predictions have proved false. I know from my own company that most corporate leaders are extremely careful not to run afoul of the SEC or the FBI. They have a lot to lose, after all.
You really ought to go to those local orchestra concerts yourself, and read the names in the donor lists. Yes, there are some corporations listed, but there are also lots of people--rich people--who are part of the reason there is a local orchestra.
Rick "who is sitting five minutes away from the Worldcom headquarters, and who knows lots of people who used to work there" Denney