Employment Health Rules

Via Steve Gilliard comes this:

Four workers in the United States have lost their jobs after refusing to take a test to see if they were smokers.
They were employees of Michigan-based healthcare firm Weyco, which introduced a policy banning its staff from smoking – even away from the workplace.
The firm says the ban is to keep health costs down and has helped 14 staff to stop smoking, but opponents say the move is a violation of workers’ rights.
. . .
Weyco gave its staff a stark ultimatum at the end of last year – either stop smoking completely on 1 January or leave their jobs.

I’m a non-smoker who thinks that everyone would be better off if they didn’t smoke. But I don’t think employers should be mandating this kind of lifestyle choice on employees outside the workplace.
If the employer wants to have a smoke-free workplace, that’s fine. I’m even okay with the employer charging employees extra to cover the higher health care costs. But at some point the employer’s control should end and employee’s rights should begin. And I think off-hours health choices which don’t affect work performance are in the latter.
As the article points out, if this is okay we don’t have to travel much farther down the slippery slope to the point where employers regulate employee’s diet, exercise, and sleep. Do we want to go there?

Bigger And Better

Another huge corporate merger.
I sometimes wonder how long it will be before every commercial interest in America is owned by Wal-MartExxonMobilGeneralElectricRoyalDutch/ShellGroupCitigroupMicrosoft
GeneralMotorsSiemensSonyAllianzIBMDellCocaColaMcDonaldsGlaxoSmithKline
HPBankofAmericaPfizerAlcoaWaltDisneyDuPontBoeing.

Super Citizens

I learn something new every day:

The facts in America today are that homosexuals have been elevated to be America’s Super Citizens, above the law to the point where their psychological need for acceptance trounces even the most basic Constitutional rights of others.

This Super Citizenship sounds like a pretty good deal. I wonder if there are other ways of obtaining it besides homosexuality?
Via Sadly, No!

Currency Plays

Dollar vs. yuan:

China has lost faith in the stability of the U.S. dollar and its first priority is to broaden the exchange rate for its currency from the dollar to a more flexible basket of currencies, a top Chinese economist said Wednesday at the World Economic Forum.
At a standing-room only session focusing on the world’s fastest-growing economy, Fan Gang, director of the National Economic Research Institute at the China Reform Foundation, said the issue for China isn’t whether to devalue the yuan but “to limit it from the U.S. dollar.”
. . .
“The U.S. dollar is no longer – in our opinion is no longer – (seen) as a stable currency, and is devaluating all the time, and that’s putting troubles all the time,” Fan said, speaking in English.
“So the real issue is how to change the regime from a U.S. dollar pegging … to a more manageable … reference … say Euros, yen, dollars – those kind of more diversified systems,” he said.

With that kind of talk, it doesn’t appear the dollar will be making major upward headway any time soon. Which should help reduce America’s trade deficit. But if foreign investors reach a breaking point with the dollar and put the breaks on financing U.S. debt, it won’t be pretty for the economy.

Moving The Goalposts

President Bush, this morning:

Millions of Iraqi voters will show their bravery, their love of country, and their desire to live in freedom.

Then later:

I know thousands and thousands of Iraqis want to vote. I know they cherish the idea of being able to vote, and I hope as many Iraqis vote as possible.

Wow. “Millions” to “thousands” of voters in just a few hours. By the end of the week we’ll be hearing how remarkable it is merely for someone to set out the ballot box.