Meantime, in this wonderful Post-Religgion era (Mark Twain's spelling, when he was mocking fake preachers) we have an issue emerging.
NO ONE...tells the TROOF. No one tries to deliver value for value. Not insurance companies; not automakers or household durable-goods manufacturers.
Insurance companies offer absurd reasons to deny payment on medical claims or property damages. Automakers have cheapened their products to where they're DESIGNED to fail about the time of warranty expiration - and have made repairs FAR too costly to reasonably perform, in most cases. There is no reason why an engine should have to be removed to replace a (plastic) intake manifold when it fails...and it WILL fail, because plastic is not appropriate for something exposed to so much heat. Why should an engine be out to replace a camshaft timing belt? Why would a BELT be running through ENGINE OIL? I've done timing belts with a set of Kmart tools, a $30 replacement timing belt, and two days of fumbling. A professional would have needed two hours.
What it adds up is RIPOFF. Or, as the economists now say: "Wealth Extraction." Which is legal (thanks in part to lobbyists' valiant efforts) - but is it MORAL?
Remember, Ronnie - MORALITY is one's PUBLIC POSTURING. Religion is irrelevant, and so, even if an old fuddy accepts the Ten Commandments, it's how YOU INTERPRET your abidance to them. Not how closely you DO abide.
Situational Ethics, that's how we roll - here where God is dead, and public life and honest dealing, are all dying with it.