The punch line is the same as for the joke that starts, “What do you call 100 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?” (Answer at bottom of post)

The head of the Indian operations of Graziano Transmissioni, Lalit Kishore Choudhary, was beaten to death by employees he had sacked.

I have said on a number of occasions that if you want to go postal, go after upper management first, and it seems that these employees were of a like mind.

The quotes regarding this, show just how callous people are:

A spokesman for the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry said: “Such a heinous act is bound to sully India’s image among overseas investors.”

That is an unbelievably cold statement. Some dude got beaten to death, and the only comment is, “It’s bad for business.”

Of course, being the Times of London, they are wringing their hands over this, and note the violence at the location selected by Tata for a factory to manufacture its ultra cheap Nano, but refuse to mention the fact that the land in question was stolen from the peasant farmers who had worked it for hundreds of years.

Meanwhile India’s Labor Minister has apologized for saying that the murder of Choudhary should, “serve as a warning” to managers to treat workers compassionately.”

He was right the first time.

If you want to read a more full throated, and more eloquent endorsement of actions that might make senior executives think twice, you need to go no further than Exiled Online

Live by heartless officialese, die by heartless officialese plus a hammer upside the skull. Nothing could be fairer than that. Proceed with the mob beatifications as soon as we get their names. And somebody find that f@#$-you-Mr.-Cheney guy’s name too while you’re at it. Something about the politeness of the “Mr.” right after the “f@#$ you” really enchants us. This is a guy who understands the importance of human dignity. No doubt, with a little encouragement, he could put together a nice mob.

Damn good writing, and you should read the rest right now.

In conclusion, the philosophical foundation driving our current system is that the “entrepreneurial class” should be able to operate without any external limits on their behavior, and that they should operate without conscience or empathy, and this is a psychotic world view.

As to the riddle at the beginning of the page? The answer, of course, is “A Good Start.”