Clearing The Air

Thursday, June 07, 2012

Smoking ban promoter, & chief funding source, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) today is in stark contrast with it's founder, Robert Wood Johnson Sr.'s ideals

http://www.rwjf.org/about/founder.jsp

excerpts:
General Johnson was an ardent egalitarian, an industrialist fiercely committed to free enterprise

Despite the intensity and determination he displayed in his role as a business leader,
General Johnson had a warmth and compassion for those less privileged than he. He was always keenly aware of the need to help others, and during his lifetime, he helped many quietly and without fanfare.

Robert Wood Johnson Sr. didn't cause the elimination of thousands of businesses & hundreds of thousands of jobs (anti-free market policies such as promoting smoking bans on PRIVATE businesses) unlike the foundation that now bears his name ....Imagine the compassion he would have had for those he put out of business and out on the streets as RWJF does so regularly and cavalierly today.

165,000+ job losses have occurred in the hospitality industry since smoking bans were enacted. At least 5,500 hospitality closings are chronicled in these five links: (at an average of 30 employees per hospitality establishment there's a minimum of 165,000 job losses since smoking bans were enacted)

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2007/02/smoking-bans-good-public-policy-or.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2007/01/100-bars-and-restaurants-put-out-of.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2012/05/michigan-has-seen-300-bars-restaurants.html

http://www.smokersclub.com/banloss3.htm

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2009/03/worldwide-economic-meltdown-and.html

RWJF and organizations funded by RWJF will one day have to answer to Robert Wood Johnson Sr's. ideals....we can't wait to see how they 'lobby' their way out of that.

The information above prompted one colleague to say:

I think many industrialist would cut off their heirs if they saw what they are doing with the trust and foundations they left them. The heirs are anti business and anti-free market, the very things that allowed them to sit on their lazy butts and hand out the founders hard earned cash for useless causes. .....