The new Fatso

For some time now I've been showing the movie "Who Killed the Electric Car" to my students, particularly those in my ethics courses. Just recently I've begun to recognize that a euphemism that has been so rudely used to describe people could be applied very aptly to label corporations.

After watching the film I initiated a discussion with the students in class. We talked about how the technology patent for long lasting Electric Car batteries (that would enable them to go without a charge for at least 100 miles) had its controlling interest purchased by an oil company and how the gentleman who invented it was told to be silent about it.

That along with the automoble companies' distruction of their existing Electric Vehicle (EV) fleets, while a waiting list of consumers were requesting their use through lease and possibly purchase, left me with the obviously sickening feeling that the oil and automotive companies were growing enourmously Fat so we could continue to stuff their pockets with cash.

There's really no ethical basis for a car company to destroy a technology that would substantially eliminate carbon pollutants and help create a much cleaner and efficient vehicle. However, there is an economic one. As the movie well documents...electric cars mean no combustion engines, which mean less revenue for service and repair. And, we can't forget the long time symbiotic relationship between the automobile companies and the oil companies.

Driving along the turnpike yesterday I heard the news station mention that refineries were cutting back on production in order to raise prices at the pump so that they could increase profits. What! During this economic free fall, they're squeezing us more! Distasteful!! was my repsonse...ok maybe a bit more animated and colorful, but you get the idea.

The picture is putrid, but oh so clear. The car companies didn't run with a technology they knew would work, so they could fatten their corporate pockets. Fat so we could suffer.

The oil companies buy up the technology so we would be prevented from using something that could benefit us and the environment, while fattening they're already fat wallets. Again...getting more Fat so we could continue to suffer.

And...to add salt to our wounds - because the car companies didn't produce electric cars and instead opted for Hummers, Bummers, and Behemoths while the price of gas at the pump reached new heights (and is slowly creeping back up today...see above), we're left to bailout the very same people who got Fat so we could wonder what happened to automotive sanity.

Yep...we're free to use that long (and rightly so) unused word: Fatso. Because now...we found a whole new category of people (and companies) that deserve to be called that euphemistic descriptor.

And where are those Fatso Wall Streeters who took our 18 Billion? Please come forward - we all wanna see what you look like!