Monday, October 31, 2011

Why are you paying Lockheed Martin to fix defective merchandise?

Let's say you bought a highly-anticipated new Ford model straight off the floor as soon as it hit the showroom. And let's say you paid an arm and a leg to be the first customer to get it. Now let's say the brakes went out on your way home. And let's say that after narrowly averting a colossal tragedy, you arrived home to see on the news that Ford had recalled that very same uber-hyped vehicle because of a problem with the brakes.

Who would you expect would pay for that recall? Who do you think would foot the bill to fix your brakes? Ford would pay for it, of course. As well they should!

But replace Ford in the story above with Lockheed Martin, and replace your hypothetical new ride with an F-22 Raptor, then change out the potentially fatal mechanically-flawed brakes with an oxygen delivery system with a deficiency that's allegedly behind at least 20 American fighter pilots passing out in the skies over America and you might be surprised to find YOU are stuck with the bill. Again.

That's right. You, the American taxpayer, bought a bunch of these "next generation" fighter jets - regardless of the fact you neither asked for them nor need them - to the tune of $66.7 BILLION. And when you got the jets, they exhibited a flaw so serious it could destroy the plane and kill the pilot you paid to train - not to mention any unlucky civilians at ground zero. Maybe you. What an ironic twist that would be, eh?

The cost to fix the defective system? $24 million. Oh, yeah - you're paying that, too. Not the defense contractor swimming in America's billions. Just because it's their fault, why should THEY pay to fix their own error? Everyone deserves a second chance, and corporations are people, too. Right, Mitt?

So our country iss supposedly broke.  We, The People can't be convinced we should wrest our own health care away from the clutch of private, profit-driven corporations, even though it would cost us all less in the long run and provide a system that truly tried to make us well instead of keep us chronically in poor health so we need medications, procedures and extended hospital stays.  And that same populace shells out TRILLION$ on killing machines.

We don't want to take care of our brother, we want to kill him. But the assbackwardness of our civilization's priorities is a topic for another blog.

If the hypothetical Ford recall above fell to the individual consumer to pay to fix their own brakes, lawyers would be all over that class action lawsuit!  And that's what we need to do here now. Enough is enough. No, we will NOT pay to fix these planes!  We demand Lockheed Martin make it right.  On THEIR dime - or rather, the dime they already got out of us.

I ask you to call or email your senators and congresspeople to remind them they are elected to serve the people of this country, not the interests of industry. They must stop payment immediately and force Lockheed-Martin to fix the planes because it's the right thing to do. After all, Lockheed Martin's own slogan is "We never forget who we're working for." Maybe it's a mistake to assume they mean us.

I'll make it easy for you. Click here.

Then, enjoy the sage and always eloquent Cenk Uygur on the matter.



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