Republicans...always have the common man closest to their heart.

Further proof that Texas is evil

God bless Texas officials and our prez

*/not

finally a step 2

Wouldn't it be more profitable for Texas to kill the teachers, strip what tooth fillings and organs they can (to be sold at profit) and melt the rest down into trace elements that can be sold to chemical companies?

Start looking at the big picture, people!

"It is outrageous that Rick Perry would try to put the state of Texas into the death business," said Charles Soechting.

Texas is already in the death business. Just not the wait-for-old-teachers-to-die-and-make-money-off-insurance-in-their-name business.

The democrats are probably upset that they didn't think of it first...

Hasn't this taken place in the corporate world for years? I heard about it on 60 minutes or something. I mean, if corporations want to do it, why shouldn't Republicans be all for it?

/be back later with research

Ghouls. "The company owns you. The company will always own you. Your life benefits us, and so will your death."

Where's the Soylent Corporation when you really need them?

What's more, in many thousands of years, the bodies of the dead teachers will turn into oil which the Texans can harvest to make even more money off of them.

Yeehaw! Merry Christmas teachers! Get out on the killing grate!

Time was when only two things were certain; death and taxes. Now it's death OR taxes, pick one. Thank God I live in the U.S. and not in Texas.

;-)

*This needlessly inflammatory post was brought to you by SherKhan who doesn't really mean the mean things he says*

FormlessOneGhouls. "The company owns you. The company will always own you. Your life benefits us, and so will your death."

Where's the Soylent Corporation when you really need them?



Texas Soylent is people!

Is this part of that "Texas Miracle" thing Dubya is always being credited for?

Wow, there's a lot of sources. Easier to find than I thought. First link to an article about Wal-Mart doing the exact same thing. Second link to a press release by a (surprise!) Democratic congressman from (surprise!) Texas about his bill trying to ban the practice of doing it in secret.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/12/10/1039379835757.html
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/tx29_green/nr020703.html

If I've got my HTML right, they should open in a new window.

Happens all the time, they're called corporate-owned life insurance policies (COLI). Big corporations have been doing it for a while. I guess the government wants a piece of that action.

Texas is like Bizarro Calif-- er, Kuhleefohrnya!!

And don't forget all that valuable human hair, BunkoSquad! While Gov. Perry is at it, they can mine the dead people's address books for possible soon-to-be-dead prospective windfalls. Think of all the money that could be raised and converted into massive corporate pay-offs and tax breaks for the obscenely wealthy!

...I'm sure Dennis Hastert is behind this somehow...

uncle_marcus
You beat me to it. I was going to mention how Wal-Mart has been doing that with its employees. I read all about it in Jim Hightower's latest book, "Thieves in High Places: They've Stolen Our Country--And Its Time to Take It Back."

Also called Dead Peasants Insurance, or Dead Janitors Insurance. Wal-Mart stopped buying these policies a while back after this was first publicized. (Not that I'd ever want to say anything positive about Wal-Mart.)

Homer: Marge, please, old people don't need companionship. They need to be isolated and studied so it can be determined what nutrients they have that might be extracted for our personal use.

Marge: Homer, would you please stop reading that Ross Perot pamphlet?

Maybe they should try that here, hell my Life insurance policy is double what a teachers salary is and they get summers off

They should take out policies on Death-Row Inmates. Or on regular inmates, and give out extra shaving kits.
Profit!

Texas Public School Systems... Investing in your death!

I can't accurately express how disturbing I find this.

Yikes! I'm with Smokahontas.

Phil Gramm is best know as the husband of Wendy Gramm. Former member of Enron's board of directors. Its great to find out they are not out on the streets.

Insurance companies sell life insurance at rates that will allow them to make a profit over the long run. Hence, you can't make money by buying insurance, only by selling it. However, if you are an insurance co. or broker with connections to the Texas legislature, you can add your campaign contributions (or possibly straight bribes, not sure how they work this in Texas) to your rate-setting structure and be assured of an even larger profit. There is no real downside, unless you count the waste of taxpayers' money.

Disgusting!

Bribes are legal in Texas as long as they are declared "campaign contributions", with the exception of the State House(that has been in effect since 1989 when Bo Pilgrim handed out $10k checks to legislators while they were voting got voters a little upset that perhaps the legislators didn't have their best interest in mind when they voted.).


http://http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/marshall/1903996

"It is outrageous that Rick Perry would try to put the state of Texas into the death business," said Charles Soechting.

Texas is not in the death business? Amnesty International begs to differ...

http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/2003/usa04112003.html

Thanks for clarifying that, HempHead.

We need a Texas tag!

Make it a voluntary program. Teachers sign up, the state and teachers split the insurance payments. When the teacher croaks, the money goes into a general fund that fills the hole that will be created when Robin Hood goes away.

The Corporations get money (the only way to get our current government to agree to anything), the school system gets a little slush fund, and the teachers feel like they're at least accomplishing ONE good thing.

This sort of stuff is why we need for most schools to be privately run. Get the government out of it and probally most everything will improve.

Why is it in Texas that companies can buy life insurance on their people? that's just sick. Like Walmart when it did that.

Do we really need more proof as to why Texas should be given back to the Mexicans?

Is anyone else really sick of that cliche? This moron didn't even use it properly.

1. Use it ONE MORE TIME...
2. ??????
3. Beatdown

I thought the reasoning behind these dead peasant policies was that life insurance payments weren't taxed. Corporations would simply be investing their money in an insurance company (who then invests it elsewhere) and then wouldn't have to pay capital gains tax on the eventual profit. Now, why precisely would the government need to avoid the tax hit?

Also, if they're going to use the proceeds to shore up the "Teacher Retirement System," then why not simply make the payments to that system? I suppose the insurance companies make better investments considering that the "Teacher Retirement System" probably doesn't spend as much money lobbying legislatures.

ENOUGH ALREADY! OUR PATIENCE IS AT AN END! WHERE IS THE "TEXAS" TAG?!!

This sort of stuff is why we need for most schools to be privately run. Get the government out of it and probally most everything will improve.

Are you farking dense? They got the _idea_ from private companies doing the same thing.

Hey, what a great script for a movie of the week.

Val-Mart the mega-superstore chain takes out life insurance on all of its workers, and then they start dropping like flies. Big box of Bisquick falls on Julie's head one day. Freak propane accident in aisle 12. It would be great.

When hearing about this, does anyone NOT think that the practice of dead peasants insurance shouldn't get you a trip to Federal Ass Pounding prison?

I remember recently about this practice in Michael Moore's new book, Dude Where's My Country?

I realize that many of you ultra-conservatives must think me some Commie freak for even bringing it up, but when Michael Moore wrote about dead peasants insurance I thought, "this smells like bull."

Of course, as usual, he was right. And the same a-holes that do this are trying to do this in Texas.

When you think about it, if this is the way Texas conservatives run the system, and Bush, Enron, Dead Peasants insurance, The Saudi Royal family's other home, and the oil jerks that started all of this mess ALL come from there, I would like to put forth the radical notion that Texas conservatives are TRULY EVIL.

Just thought I'd let you know that.

I think the bottom line here is that you'd hope that when so many people think this smells so bad we wouldn't have to worry about it. Some would say freedom is letting business (or the state) do stuff like this, I think it's being sure they won't.

El_Camino says:
"When you think about it, if this is the way Texas conservatives run the system, and Bush, Enron, Dead Peasants insurance, The Saudi Royal family's other home, and the oil jerks that started all of this mess ALL come from there, I would like to put forth the radical notion that Texas conservatives are TRULY EVIL."
_______________

As a native Texas, let me assure you that yours is not a "radical notion" - it's more like common knowledge.

Sorry, if fark had a "Texas" tag, it would also need a "Massachusetts" tag, a "California" tag, a "New Jersey" tag ad, well not infinitum, but ad quinquegintium if I remember my Latin correctly. Hey, it would be more fun to enumerate the states that DON'T deserve their own tag. Ohio? New Mexico? Just where is the "Common Sense" state?

I am sitting in an office about 4 blocks from Rick Perry. I'm going to boo at the governor's mansion, again, on my way home for this one.

I am pretty much a hardcore conservative, but even I think this is stupid. FYI...notice I said conservative, not Republican...and no...I did not vote for Perry!!!