Scrooged! American Businessmen live up to the Stereotype

Every toddler goes through a period of temper tantrums.  They’re almost all rooted in the inability to share or when the toddler learns that everything in his world is not going to go his way.  You can always see it coming.  The tightening of the body, the look of intensity, and then the completely irrational explosion of nothing but pure emotion is typical of toddler tantrums.  Some of them throw themselves on the floor.  Others lash out and try to punch whatever is near to them.  Some just scream and cry bloody murder.  Then, others just get on TV and in front of their employees and tell them they’re all fired because their candidate didn’t win.  Oh, wait, that’s not a toddler doing that.  That’s a bunch of grown white men who just haven’t gotten past the toddler phase.

We’ve just learned how many rich old white men can throw temper tantrums for no particular logical reason other than they didn’t get their way and some one might tax a few of their toys. Boo Hoo!

Let’s start with Papa John who I shall now refer to as Toddler John. Toddler John has fired workers because he just doesn’t see why he should provide insurance benefits to people that work for him and the mean old supreme court, the President, and the congress are going to either fine him or ask him to do it. Toddler John has more than enough money and profits.  He just doesn’t want to have to eat his peas.  He’d rather we all pay for his sick workers when they show up at emergency rooms. Well, folks, we don’t have to eat his pizza either.

Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter said he plans on passing the costs of health care reform to his business onto his workers. Schnatter said he will likely reduce workers’ hours, as a result of President Obama’s reelection, the Naples News reports. Schnatter made headlines over the summer when he told shareholders that the cost of a Papa John’s pizza will increase by between 11 and 14 cents due to Obamacare.

“I got in a bunch of trouble for this,” he said, referring to the comments he made in August, according to Naples News. “That’s what you do, is you pass on costs. Unfortunately, I don’t think people know what they’re going to pay for this.”

Schnatter went on to say he’s neither in support of, nor against the Affordable Care Act, even admitting that “the good news is 100 percent of the population is going to have health insurance.” But he’s not the only one in the chain restaurant industry to admit that workers hours may be reduced, since Obamacare mandates that only employees that work more than 30 hours per week are covered under their employers health insurance plan. For example, Darden restaurants, the parent company of Olive Garden and Red Lobster, has already experimented with reducing workers hours in anticipation of the legislation.

Any one that lives in the New York region should also consider never eating at an Applebee’s again.  Apple-Metro CEO Zane Tankel, who owns 40 Applebee’s franchises in the New York metropolitan area is throwing a similar temper tantrum.  He appears to have a bad case of toddler behavior and scrooge ethics too.

An Applebee’s New York area franchisee is the latest CEO to go public threatening drastic plans to avoid costs associated with the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.

“We’ve calculated it will [cost] some millions of dollars across our system. So what does that say — that says we won’t build more restaurants. We won’t hire more people,” Zane Tankel, chairman and CEO of Apple-Metro, told Fox Business Network on Thursday.

Apple-Metro, which runs 40 Applebee’s restaurants, employs from 80 to 300 people at each of its locations. Obamacare mandates that any business with more than 50 workers must offer an approved insurance plan or pay a penalty of $2,000 for each full-time worker over 30 workers.

Most small businesses with 50 or more employees already do offer health insurance, notes John Arensmeyer, CEO and founder of Small Business Majority, a national small business advocacy organization. But restaurant chains typically are among the sliver of businesses not offering insurance to workers. Other food chains have commented publicly that they would take strong measures to avoid the effects of Obamacare, but so far none of them have taken that action.

Notice it seems to be the folks that have put themselves into businesses where they can exploit workers.  Oh, wait, here’s another one.  This dude not only throws temper tantrums but has holy temper tantrums.  We know that one well.

For the chairman and chief executive of Murray Energy, an Ohio-based coal company, the reelection of President Obama was no cause for celebration. It was a time for prayer — and layoffs.

Robert E. Murray read a prayer to a group of company staff members on the day after the election, lamenting the direction of the country and asking: “Lord, please forgive me and anyone with me in Murray Energy Corp. for the decisions that we are now forced to make to preserve the very existence of any of the enterprises that you have helped us build.”

On Wednesday, Murray also laid off 54 people at American Coal, one of his subsidiary companies, and 102 at Utah American Energy, blaming a “war on coal” by the Obama administration. Although that charge was repeatedly leveled during the election, energy analysts say that the coal-mining business is suffering because of competition from low-cost natural gas and rising production costs of coal, especially in the Appalachian region.

I’ve got a very long list of places that I boycott.  It includes Chick-Fil-A and Cracker Barrel for outrageous anti-GLBT policies.  It includes Dominoes Pizza and Mormon establishments like Marriot Hotels for their outrageous anti-women political donations. For some reason, some of the worst right wing nut cases run food companies.  But, there are more than that.  Make sure that your consumer dollars are not going to fund political movements that work to deny your humanity and promote unsafe, environment and people-damaging polices. Unfortunately, some are even sports franchises so you may have to give up a team.

Remember, reinforcing toddler behavior only encourages it. Just ignore their businesses and hopefully, the country can live in peace and quiet.