A Word About Charities, Two Interesting Columnists (Brooks and Gerson), "Persona" Defined and Why NOT to buy a Hyundai

                                                        

The American Dream

What ever happened to the “American Dream”?  Donald Trump has said that it is dead.  Bernie Sanders says it has become a nightmare.  Michael Gerson, renowned conservative voice, recently tried to find the answer in his Washington Post column.  Regardless of your politics, It is well worth your reading.  Just click here to read it. You will be wiser for doing so.

Jack Lippman

                                                         

It's a Matter of Manners




In another recent column, New York Times conservative columnist David Brooks talks about how Donald Trump brought the manners prevalent in professional wrestling into the political arena, and perhaps why they appeal to many “silent segments of society” just as they appeal to professional wrestling fans.  Brooks points out “in respectable politics, as in respectable society, there is a certain code of refinement.  It is through this code that the educated class defines what’s proper and improper and imposes an invisible social power on society” and goes on to discuss how “Trump smashed through that and created a riveting spectacle.”  Sounds a bit elitist to me, but please,  read the entire fascinating column.
JL
                                          

"Persona" 

The full “dictionary definition” of the word “persona” reads as follows: 

1 -  a character assumed by an author in a written work

2 - a plural personas [New Latin, from Latin] :  an individual's social facade or front that especially in the analytic psychology of C. G. Jung reflects the role in life the individual is playing — compare anima b :  the personality that a person (as an actor or politician) projects in public :  image

3 -  plural personae :  a character in a fictional presentation (as a novel or play) —usually used in plural

 In this Presidential election year, we must be very careful not to confuse the “persona” of the candidates for both the Republican and Democratic nomination with whom they actually are!  Americans should not be voting for “the personality that a person (as an actor or politician) projects in public.”  We should be voting for whom that candidate really is, and not their projected "persona."

 Off the top of my head, right now, I detect a significant differences between the “persona” of the following candidates compared with whom they really are:  Trump, Cruz, Rubio and Clinton.  

As for Jeb Bush, Bernie Sanders, John Kasich and Chris Christie, I see very llittle difference between whom they really are and their slightly different “persona.”  With these four, you pretty much “would get what you are seeing.”

JL

                                                     


Charity Begins Somewhere

It’s that time of year when folks are starting to assemble the information needed to file their income tax returns.  Charitable deductions are important items for those who “itemize” in filing their return.  With that in mind, I am reminded of Charity Navigator, an organization which describes and evaluates many charities. 

Quoting from that group’s web site, www.charitynavigator.org, “Founded in 2001, Charity Navigator has become the nation's largest and most-utilized evaluator of charities. In our quest to help donors, our team of professional analysts has examined tens of thousands of non-profit financial documents. We've used this knowledge to develop an unbiased, objective, numbers-based rating system to assess over 8,000 of America's best-known and some lesser known, but worthy, charities. from a statistical standpoint.”

I suggest that all who donate to charities review that web site in choosing what groups to support financially in 2016.  As a sample of the kind of information available, I include the “percentage of the charity’s expenses spent on the programs and services it delivers”  for some organizations with which you may be familiar.  But please, go to the web site and do your own research. 

American Heart Association                            78.1% 
American Cancer Society                                60.6%
Lymphoma and Leukemia Society                    73.0%
Alzheimers’ Association                                  73.3%
Alzheimers’ Foundation of America                  84.5%

Wounded Warriors Project                               59.9%

Disabled American Veterans                            96.5%

Hadassah                                                       74.8%

Father Flanagan’s Boys Town                          82.2%

My conclusion, based on this particular criterion, is that charities that spend about 25% of their expenses on administration and advertising are doing a good job while those that spend more may not.  And that those that spend even less on these things may be more efficient.  But don't forget that those that spend more on administration and advertising may as a result, raise far more money for their programs and services than they otherwise would.   (The Wounded Warrior Project in fiscal year 2014 raised more than 65 times what the DAV raised, so spending for advertising and administration paid off for them.)  Charity Navigator does give you enough information to make this determination.  Check out the web site and make your own decisions. 
 JL

 

                                                  

Why I Would Never Buy a Hyundai (nor a Kia)

 

Hyundai automobiles are extremely well-priced in comparison with their competitors.  Let me reassure readers that Hyundai automobiles are entirely made in the United States or South Korea.  But there is a big caveat of which purchasers of such automobiles should be aware.  For years, there has been a cozy relationship between the South Korean Hyundai conglomerate, of which the Hyundai Motor Company is a part, and the Peoples Republic of North Korea (the same rogue dictatorship which tests nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles and whose President, Kim Jong-un, threatens to use them against the United States). 

North Korea claims they have ICBMs capable of carrying nuclear weapons, which they say they have.

At the funeral of the present North Korean President’s father, Kim Jong-il, the chairperson of the Hyundai group of companies was one of the very few South Koreans to attend.  According to Wikipedia, there is a significant relationship between Hyundai and North Korea.  Some excerpts follow.  As is the case with all Wikipedia material, it is open to correction and interpretation.

Hyundai Asan is an arm of the South Korean conglomerate Hyundai Group and a major investor in North Korea. The company manages a number of projects, including the resort at the Mount Kumgang Tourist Region and road/rail building operations. It is also involved in the Kaesong Industrial Park project.

The family-controlled Hyundai Group, which used to be South Korea's largest Chaebol, was split into three sub-groups after the Asian financial crisis. Chung Mong-hun was involved in a power struggle with his elder brother, Chung Mong-koo, who heads another part of the Hyundai Group, the automaker Hyundai Motor Company.

Hyundai Asan has faced accusations of being a vehicle for illegally transferring US$100 million to North Korea from the government of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung. The money was supposedly used to persuade North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to attend the inter-Korean summit in 2000. Hyundai Asan is building an industrial park, cross-border roads and railway lines in North Korea. The delay of the projects, due to political difficulties, put severe financial strains on the company. The head of Hyundai Asan, Chung Mong-hun, faced corruption and embezzlement charges. Chung was tried on charges of manipulating company accounting records to hide the secret transfers and embezzling more than twelve million dollars of company funds to pay bribes. On August 4, 2003 he committed suicide by leaping from his 12th floor office.^[1]

Kaesong Industrial Park is being developed in North Korea, with the planned participation of 250 South Korean companies, employing 100,000 North Koreans, by 2007. Three companies started operations in March 2005, in the park’s pilot phase.

The United States - Korean-American Free Trade Treaty is unclear as to what constitutes “made in South Korea” items.  It enables some goods made elsewhere to fall into the category of “made in South Korea.”   Aside from the involvement of Hyundai in a resort and railroads in North Korea, as the Wikipedia site mentions, and the condolence visit paid by Hyundai’s chairperson at the previous President’s funeral, the biggest role presently being played by Hyundai in North Korea is the Kaesong Industrial Complex. 

Although the Hyundai Motor Company doesn’t have a plant there, the entire Kaesong operation is managed by a sister company in the Hyundai Group.

Part of Kaesong Industrial Complex

Located in North Korea on the border with South Korea, it enables South Korean manufacturers to build plants there, employing North Korean labor at wages far below what workers receive in South Korea or China.  In the approximately 200 plants there, there are over 50,000 North Korean workers, and North Korea is paid for their labor in U.S. dollars.  As I have said, the entire Kaesong Industrial Complex is managed by Hyundai for their North Korean friends.   I have been unable to find any indication of parts being made there for use in Hyundai vehicles sold in the United States, but there are indeed plants there making automobile fuel pumps and dashboards, which conceivable are used in Hyundai vehicles sold elsewhere, in India for example.  Hence, Hyundai profits produced elsewhere very well may enable their North American automobile pricing to be extremely competitive.  

Hyundai Asan, part of the Hyundai Group which also includes the Hyundai Motor Company operates in North Korea, at Kaesong.

Occasionally, in periods when there is tension between the two Koreas, Kaesong is shut down, but it always has reopened when things cool down.

It should be noted that Hyundai’s founder and chairman until his 2001 death, Chung Ju-Yung, was born in what is now North Korea and apparently, the family connections remain.

As for Kia automobiles, both Hyundai and Kia maintain that they are independent entities despite the fact that they share certain facilities and expertise.  Both carmakers are part of the family-owned Hyundai conglomerate in South Korea, so draw your own conclusions.

As for myself, I wouldn’t even consider purchasing a Hyundai or a Kia vehicle.  I recall that in the years immediately following the Second World War, many American Jews were reluctant to purchase German automobiles when they came on the market.  They remembered the Holocaust.  The present situation with Hyundai, however, is not “after the war.”  It is potentially “before the war,” and patriotic Americans should not purchase either Hyundai or Kia automobiles, despite their tricky corporate structure which separates the car makers from that part of the Hyundai Group which might, for all we know, be working hand in hand with Kim Jong-un’s nuclear and missile aspirations.  We do know that railroad and highway projects in North Korea were managed by Hyundai.  And railroads and highways are necessary to transport Kim Jong-un's dangerous "toys."

JL

                                           

 

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