OK Solberg: 00:01

I wanna again welcome you to The 405 Coffee Break. Guys, get you a cup of coffee, glass iced tea, beautiful day, bottle of water. Let's see what's happening.

OK Solberg: 00:09

Spring wheat $6 on the nose. I like it. Easy to remember. It's going up. 550lb steer calf. No kidding. $5.26 a pound. What? No kidding. PAYS Billings 9 head, April 15, not that long ago. Nine head weighed 552lbs, $5.26 a pound, equates to $2,903 for a calf that's not halfway to slaughter weight. And a 100lb fat lamb in Billings at $3.05 a pound, but guys, there's more, much more.

OK Solberg: 00:52

Okay. Okay. Did you hear the program yesterday? If you did, you know that I shared about General Motors and their automobile called the Corvair, and we spoke of a man named Ralph Nader who is still alive to this day. Now I wanna pick up on that story again because it's really fascinating.

OK Solberg: 01:16

And that right after our bible verse for the day. Now listen. It's from Isaiah, Old Testament. Right? Isaiah 5:20 And it says, woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Again, that was Isaiah chapter five verse 20.

OK Solberg: 01:48

Do you know anyone that called evil good? Let me tell you more of the story about Ralph Nader's. Ralph Nader, General Motors, and the car called the Corvair.

OK Solberg: 02:01

In 1965, Ralph Nader came out with a book that I ordered from our local library, and I'll be reading it soon. But it came out in November in 1965. Ralph Nader published this book, and it was titled unsafe at any speed. And in that book, he specifically identifies GM's Corvair claiming they were unsafe. Now after Jay heard Jay and Joe's Motor Monday, he texted me that he thought it was a famous person who died in a Corvair car crash.

OK Solberg: 02:38

You were absolutely correct there, Jay. His name was Ernie Kovacs, and he died driving that Corvair on 01/13/1962. He was a comedian and well known in Hollywood and New York. And when he died, some of his pallbearers were Jack Lemmon, Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin to name a few. So death in a Corvair in 1962, then in November 1965, Nader's book comes out.

OK Solberg: 03:15

Well, this got General Motors up in arms, and they had a meeting, a meeting to decide what to do. Did they decide to correct some of the problems? No, sir. They did not. Instead, under the advisement from their legal department, they decided to tail Ralph Nader, get dirt on him, ask his neighbors about his private life, and even hired some girls to put the moves on him to get him trapped into a compromising situation.

OK Solberg: 03:49

Well, guys, it backfired. And when you do this kind of thing, you better not let it backfire, especially when you're tailing a lawyer in March 1966. Ralph Nader being a lawyer. In March 1966, General Motors president James Rock made the public apology. Mr Rock stated, I hold myself fully responsible for any action which is the kind of harassment to which Mr Nader has apparently been subjected.

OK Solberg: 04:27

But guys, here's the deal. The book came out in November 1965, public apology in March 1966. Count the days, count the months, that's only four months later. Do you know what this means? It means that General Motors was caught with both hands in the cookie jar at the same time.

OK Solberg: 04:52

Or believe you me, there never would have been a public apology. Oh, and PS, where did the suggestion to tail Nader come from? GM's legal department. I thought thought the legal department was supposed to follow the law. Woe unto them that call evil good.

OK Solberg: 05:17

But the big corporations always do this when the chips are down? You might wanna think yes, but that is not true. I'm happy to report that they do not always stoop to dirty pool. Now anyone out there remember the 1982 Tylenol scare? If you remember in the Chicago area, and it was on radio and TV all over, we heard about it even in Malta, Montana.

OK Solberg: 05:46

In the Chicago area, bottles of Tylenol had been tampered with and cyanide laced capsules were the culprit and seven people died. Listen to what Johnson and Johnson did. Even though it was no fault of their own, someone had purchased some, laced them, put them back on the shelf. It was no fault of their own. They recalled 31,000,031 bottles of Tylenol.

OK Solberg: 06:16

Cost them over a $100,000,000. They pulled them all, they disposed of them, and they redesigned the product, introducing tamper evident seals, triple layer protection, packaging that's still used today 44 years later. Two big public scandals. One corporation cheated and lost. Another corporation ponied up and kept the public safe.

OK Solberg: 06:45

Both scandals helped the consumers, and that's us. Seat belts required in all cars after Nader's lawsuit. Also, in cars, they had padded dashboards, headrest, shatter resistant glass, and padded steering wheels. And from Tylenol, a tamper resisted resistant packaging in the field for over the counter medicine. Just thought you'd like to know.

OK Solberg: 07:15

So until next time, as you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.