Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Richard Pratt

So the court says that Richard Pratt's company Visy ripped off Australians to the tune of $700million by fixing the prices of carboard boxes.
This really ought to outrage you a lot more than it probably does. Just about everything you buy has travelled through one of his overpriced cardboard boxes at some stage, so you've been paying through your eyeballs for everything.
But then the powerless court fines Visy $36million. Quite a return on his investment for Pratt, isn't it? Make $700 million, lose $36 million...it's a no brainer. Pratt should be in jail for a long time (without the possibility of managing a company afterwards), and he should've had to return the $700 million plus about another $700 million and interest on the lot...and then to start prosecuting everyone else aware of what was going on.

What's ironic though, is that it is ultimately EVERYBODY ELSE BUT PRATT that will pay the $36 million, because Visy will simply put up the price on its cardboard boxes. Although I guess Pratt also has to buy things from Boxes so he probably pays a couple cents to himself.
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"A person today has no heart if they've never been a communist before, and has no brain if they're still one"

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