Better Ingredients, Worse Math...John Schnatter is Costing Himself a Fortune

Math has become the bane of conservative "logic" over the last few months.  It seems that all of their rhetoric and lies are getting exposed by peons like me who simply do the math.  Here's a fun one for you.

Tonight I read an article from Forbes that showed how flawed John Schnatter's, the owner of Papa John's, math was on his per pizza costs for health care.  That was interesting, but what really caught my eye was the number of shares he owns and the stock price. 

According to the Forbes article, John owns 6,094,409 shares of stock.  On Thursday November 8, 2012 the stock price began at $51.70 and has been dropping ever since.  As of today, the stock price is now $48.69.  This means that John Schnatter's stock was valued at $315,080,945.30 last Thursday morning.  Right now that same stock is valued at $296,736,774.21.  This is a loss in value of $18,344,171.09.  While he was busy trying to screw his employees and save $5-8 million per year (according to his own estimates), he has lost over $18 million in stock value due to bad press (and a lawsuit he is facing). 

I love the power of social media.  If he continues to refuse his employees health care and threaten to reduce their hours, I hope the calls for boycotts spread like a virus.  I want to see his stock plummet well under $40 per share.  At $38 per share he would have lost enough money to have paid for his employees' health care for a decade.  Don't lose sight of what the public can do to these millionaires who try to hold us hostage to their greed.  We've already cost him what he would have paid over 2-3 years for health care.  Let's make him lose decades.  Continue the boycotts of Papa John's and every other business who plays games with the livelihood of their workers.  Let's end the American Aristocracy before it begins.

I haven't done it in a while, but this makes John Schnatter today's Douchebag Businessman!  Congratulations John!

Class Act Award: Will.I.Am

Today I feel like being positive.  I spend a lot of time pointing out negative things in politics and people, and it begins to wear on a person after a while.  So today, I’m going to focus on something positive – rap. 

No, not really.  I’m talking about a rapper:  Will.I.Am.  Over the last couple of years, it seems that every time I hear about him, it is because he has done or said something good.  Before writing this, I decided to look a little deeper into the Black Eyed Peas front man to see if my initial impression was correct.  With a little searching, this is what I found:

Will.I.Am gave almost $800,000 to The Prince’s Trust, a foundation that helps disadvantaged youth in the UK. 

Will.I.Am and Prince Charles

Will.I.Am paid more than $350,000 to help two families who were facing foreclosure pay off their homes.
I think the thing I love most in this video is Will.I.Am's face during the announcement.  This isn't a man who is basking in the glory of what he is doing.  It almost looks like he would rather not have the attention at all.  He's doing it because he actually wants to do the right thing for these people.

Will.I.Am started the I.Am Home Fund to help people who are in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure – with his own money.

I found very little that could be considered negative about him.  The only real criticism I found was that some people were upset that he tweeted while carrying the Olympic torch.  If that’s the worst thing anyone can say about a guy who has helped countless people with his own money then I would have to say he’s a great person.  He seems to be a generous guy who has fun with the opportunities that fame and fortune has brought him.  You can see this in his appearance on the Graham Norton Show (incidentally, Miriam Margolyes is now one of my favorite people ever...she cracked me up).

With the kind of money musicians make and the environment in which they live, it would be very easy to get caught up in trouble and set a bad example.  The fact that Will.I.Am lives in that world, but is able to set such a great example for his fans deserves a round of applause. 

In stark contrast to the Douchebag Businessman Award that I handed out recently, Will.I.Am has inspired me to create a new award:

So congratulations to Will.I.Am - the inspiration for, and first recipient of, the Class Act Award.

Check out Will.I.Am's new song This Is Love featuring Eva Simons:

You can purchase This Is Love on iTunes by clicking here.