Sunday, August 7, 2022

Spin

 

Source
The topic of abortion is a mine-field. It is a no-win topic for public corporations who must satisfy employees, customers, regulators and share-holders.

"The company argued that the new ban will hinder their attempts to bring in 'diverse scientific, engineering and business talent from around the world.' "

It is best to avoid public statements. For example, suggesting that you will leave a given state because you cannot recruit the best-and-the-brightest because of that state's abortion rights suggests that the smartest people in your company are not smart enough to use oral contraceptives or have the backbone to insist that partners use condoms.

So if a drug company says "We are going to migrate to states with very liberal abortion laws...states like Illinois..." then it alienates share-holders who see very little value-added to the oppressive tax burden of deep-blue states. It pisses off employees who don't want to pay oppressive income, property and sales taxes. It should make customers leery because the implication is that the smartest people at Eli Lilly are stupid and don't have the stones to whistle-blow when quality tanks.

17 comments:

  1. Seriously, I would never want to hire some hire someone that made their decision on the availability of baby killing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Get woke, go broke. Good luck Lilly, and FJB.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I find that almost all of the discussions about the abortion legality issue seem to devolve very quickly into morality-based screaming events. I find that very frustrating; morality arguments do not define abortion activities - the laws do. The laws are decided by the legislative, ultimately political process.

    Therefore, shaping abortion outcomes is perhaps better handled by pragmatic political discussions, once a personal moral conclusion has been reached. I've read that in 2020 the abortion rate for US women in child-bearing years was about 1.4 in 1000; Less than 2% of women got abortions. What would that demographic look like, in practical terms? Presumably lower-education, lower-economic bracket women (that's a guess based on general knowledge).

    So: How many of these women would be working for Eli Lilly, then, to be impressed with their mighty decision-making? Logic would suggest their executive leadership, at the direction of their Human Resources experts, has followed the 'Woke, Virtue Signalling' path of the Dick's / Nike / Starbucks / Proctor & Gamble executive guild. They haven't done the math, and they haven't watched the outcomes, apparently.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe you would like to recheck the mathematics on that percentage calculation.

      Delete
    2. Rate probably refers to per-year. The 2% can refer to projected life-time or it could refer to snap-shot in time which would include women just entering their fertile years as well as women at the end of their fertile years. Aggie does not specify which but I don't think he calculate the 2% directly from the rate.

      Delete
    3. I think 1.4 % is indeed less than 2 %. I'm not a math wizard but hey!

      Delete
  4. What abortion ban in Indiana? Have any of these people read the law? Or the SCOTUS decision? No, they haven't. There is no abortion ban in Indiana, abortion as birth control has been banned. Mothers life, Childs viability, Rape and Incest are all available as determined by the Mother (Father?) and the Doctor, the way it was before Roe v. Wade. Other medical reasons are already covered and performed as needed. Morning after pill, birth control pills, condoms, abstaining are still available in Indiana,

    ReplyDelete
  5. Fiduciary responsibility of the corporation to the shareholders used to mean something. Much like the Twitter conversation, I would delight in seeing shareholders sue the corporation.

    And yes - given the the choice of Illinois, I suspect they will have employee retention problems. Who wants to relocate to a state with much higher taxes? Perhaps if anything, this underscores the fact the such things smack of elitism.

    ReplyDelete
  6. As soon as the financial analysis comes in for a move to Illinois (or any other blue/high tax state) the board will cancel it very quietly. The CEO got his Virtue Signaling points for the announcement and the Mob will move on.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I believe that Rick T has the right of it. Once the attention shifts elsewhere, and the CFO whispers in the CEO's ear, all this will go away.

      Just like all the Blue Buffoons who, once Bush/Bush jr/Trump was elected, "Why, I'll move to Canada! Watch me! I swear, I will!"

      Similarly, "Why, you 'outlawed' abortion! We will leave the state! Really, we will! Just you watch us!"

      Delete
  7. According to the distance measuring tool in google maps, the state of Indiana is 145 miles wide, so no discrete point in Indiana can be farther than 72.5 miles from another state.

    72.5 / 15 MPG = 4.83 gallons x $4.50 / gallon = $21.75.

    Are we to assume Eli Lily pays its employees so poorly they are unable to afford $22 to drive to Ohio or Illinois? Or, are we to assume Eli Lily hires employees of such low intelligence that they cannot figure out how to drive 73 miles to a neighboring state?

    If either of those is true why would anyone trust Eli Lily to competently make pharmaceuticals that are safe for human consumption?

    Or are we just seeing the usual political and social grandstanding by a woke corporation ?

    ReplyDelete
  8. OR the smart ones have already left for 'greener pastures'...

    ReplyDelete
  9. The whole ESG train is about to get derailed.
    Ferengi Rule #326:
    Never let politics get in the way of making money.

    ReplyDelete
  10. "moving jobs out of Indiana" ≠ "(planning) for job growth outside of Indiana".

    (a) if true, (b) one of these things is NOT like the other, yet, both are in the same headline.

    Do these fools even read their own headlines? Proofread? Edit?

    Buehler...?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great point.

      If you read the article you see that E. L. will add 500 jobs to Indiana in the next few years. That is VERY different that "moving jobs out of Indiana".

      Delete
  11. I'm surprised how many companies are making statements on causes like this; if I were corporate counsel, I'd tell management to stay quiet and focus on the companies mission.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I was at Merck plant when I was working that was set to shut down in 1991 according to their corporate newsletter. It ended up expanding 3 different times. The two Fortune 500 companies I worked with constantly changed direction like a convoy dodging submarines. I tended just to smile and ignore the chatter.

    ReplyDelete

Readers who are willing to comment make this a better blog. Civil dialog is a valuable thing.