Liar, Liar

The idea of psychological and ethical egoism states that we as humans are all naturally self-serving and generally unconcerned for the welfare of others. If this were true, it implies that any true acts of charity or selflessness could be simply acts attributed to guilt and a need for repentance or due to the pressures of society to conform and put on the face of moral riotousness.

Sounds pessimistic, doesn't it? Well, I'm not a subscriber to this set of beliefs but I will play the devil's advocate for just a moment because a belief of mine that I've held for a few months might have just been confirmed.

Most people have probably heard of the relatively recent waves of Toyota recalls that have dealt a hard hit to the company's sterling reputation for quality. The problems of sudden acceleration, faulty floor mats, steering problems and braking software issues became all the news would seem to cover for quite some time. When this news first came out, I was just as concerned as anyone, we own two Toyota products (none covered by the recall however) and could only imagine the damage this was going to do. As recall after recall rolled in and the news continued to jump on any tiny issue a Toyota developed, I began to notice a trend. You see, the news and it's watchers love numbers and there was one particular trend which caught my eye. Whenever CNN or NBC or whoever announced some problem with "X" number of complaints in the evening, the next morning, suddenly that number is 20x bigger than it was the night before. Suddenly, many more consumers suddenly have the same complaint. Maybe I was just in a negative mood that day but I remember thinking, "I wonder how many of those complaints are just the plans of selfish bastards trying to make a couple thousand off a troubled corporation?" That thought, however cursory at the time, stuck.

That thought perplexes me to this very day, I mean, how many people really would lie about something as serious as their car going out of control so they can make a few bucks. My belief? Many, there isn't to exact number, but many. All the ingredients are there, the economic recession has made people more desperate to find some source of money, big corporations are increasing made to look like the world's biggest evils, and they just happen to have a car that fits the description of such a recall. It would seem then that some, extra desperate or simply morally corrupt individuals would readily pounce on such a true golden opportunity.

The beauty of the plan is that those who do file a complaint are almost completely safe in terms of just telling their story as is. It can be as elaborate as they want and the government will listen. Big Bucks Car Company can't do anything about it either for the most part, sure a playground type dispute between two parties could be solved with a simple "prove it", but if Big Bucks Car Co. tried this, all hell would break loose as the Big Business bully is now picking on the little guy and making him or her cry.

So, what's big business supposed to do in the mean time as complaints continue to pile up? Hope and Pray that something comes up that will finally work in their favour, and for Toyota, this may have just arrived. According to recent news a man who had claimed to have been in a runaway Prius, reaching 94 mph on a San Diego highway (is that even possible in San Diego?) had called 911 and spent 23 minutes on hard braking, being afraid of shifting into neutral and before coming to a stop, may have lied about the entire thing. Apparently, a joint investigation by Toyota and NHTSA found that his story could not be replicated and that brake wear patterns did not match up with his story.

This is where things link back up with the initial claim. Are we as humans motivated by self interest and greed? Well, according to the wife of the man involved, the answer is "no". Money and publicity were not a goal of this media frenzy, that the couple has even received death threats (yes, the death threat card), and that their lives have been ruined because of this incident.

So, how should this whole debacle be interpreted?Well, I've held my beliefs from the start that one day someone would eventually be caught in the act of lying and that day might have come. Have I lost all hope for humanity? No. If anything, this incident just goes to show that karma can be a bitch if you don't proceed with caution. I'm all for the little guy, but by planning to study business, I realized that sometimes the little guy doesn't win, and rather, just like in the playground reference earlier, the little guy just gets his @$$ kicked.

Wasn't that such an uplifting story? haha. Well, just some food for thought. I haven't really delved much into my personal life in quite a while so I'd thought I'd provide a few updates. First, my posting regularity has gone down quite bit, it has to do with me becoming more busy with homework and now on-the-water crew practice and feeling less of an obligation to post quite as regularly for now. Hopefully things will pick up again in the future however and the blog world as a whole will liven up again as the Northern Hemisphere at least sees Spring get into the swing of things. I recently had another 2K and set a new personal record of 7:30.2 which I'm more than happy with. Hopefully I'll break the 7:30 mark if there is one more this season, that would be very exciting. Finally, it's only two more weeks until college letters start coming in!! I'm excited yet terrified since I have no idea how things will pan out, but hopefully it will be for the better *fingers crossed*

Alright, that's all for now folks.

All the best,

JP