The Drive For Economic Power. Really?

It is high time I v/blogged on this subject. Earlier in 2011 I had the itch to respond to Ryan Comerson's video known as "VRS Our Economic Power?" but apparently the itch was not strong enough for me to respond until now. I've been observing recent developments such as 1) Sentences that were given to Yeh brothers. 2) The cheering of some people who were glad to see that the justice has been served for the Yehs. 3) Blame game that went into every imaginable directions. 4) Noticeable behavioral changes in VRS industries. 5) VRS Employees and VRS loyalists (users) are going out of their way to defend their employers and VRS service providers by trashing other VRS companies. 6) Conspiracies and accusations flew around the rooms through out the nation about the possibility of profiling and oppression against deaf VRS owners while hearing VRS owners got away with mere financial penalties.

The list goes on and on. And it is rapidly spiraling out of control. Out of control? You bet it is. I have read some of the latest blogs out there and saw some of the devastating trends. Some of the anonymous comments went so far to spill out somebody personal name and information and asked "what about this person who has done the same crime but has not been caught". Ugh, I said to myself. Well, if this person knows something about a specific person committing a crime then why has not it been reported to the FBI already? Why wait until now and spill the information in somebody's personal blog site? Does not this person realize that it's against the law, as in an accomplice, to be aware of a crime that was committed but yet did not report it?

And then I realized something recently. The Yeh brothers were one of the first people that were caught. And then the investigators along with the prosecutors eventually learned that it was not an isolated case. They learned about numerous other people and VRS industries who were doing the same thing. So, what did they do? Did they go after everybody and prosecuted them as criminals? No, they didn't. They made a strategic decision to turn Yeh brothers and their company along with sub-contractors and employees into a model of what will happen to you if you committed the same crime against FCC. They gave Yeh Brothers severe punishments and turned them into models of what will happen to you if you committed the same crime. The other way to put it is they have become scapegoats.

The Viable fiasco was picture-perfect for FBI, FCC and the Judicial system because numerous Viable's deaf employees were not savvy people. They were not business savvy people. They were not financial savvy people. Numerous of their employees have below than average English literacy skill. Many of them could not read and understand FCC regulations well enough to follow the rules, let alone defend themselves. That is why I said ASL failed and disintegrates in one of my older v/blog seen here at this link. I'll say this again for those who did not see my v/blog on this subject. ASL is convenient, faster and easier to use. That's true however it also has dire consequences. People become lazy and too comfortable with ASL and do not push themselves to excel secondary and primary language, that of English. This much is evident every where. Don't mark my words. Better yet, go out look for signing deaf people and make an effort to communicate with them. The more you meet the more you will realize how poorly they understand English language. Getting back to the point I was trying to make here... Viable was no different. The CEO was an immigrant from Taiwan. ASL was his second language and English became his third language. I know for a fact that John has never excelled English language to a level whereas he would be able to read and understand these FCC regulations. Neither did numerous of his employees who he depended on for ideas and advice.

Having said that, numerous Viable employees left behind hard evidences, for instance, paper notes, videos, email, and texts. It happened because they were their only source of communication. It was how they communicated. Now compare that with VRS companies run by hearing executives and employees. Do you think they would use the same communication techniques when they cheated the FCC? Evidently not. Some of them were caught with excessive billings but they had nobody to pin these evidences onto. So, about all FCC could do about it is to impose penalties and make these VRS companies pay the money back. Is that fair? You decide.

What is clear here is hearing executives and employees with different VRS companies got away, scot-free. The deaf executives and and employees did not. The reason is clear. They both use different method of communication. One method was detectable and the other was not.

I remember receiving a Christmas card from John Yeh from many years ago after he sold his older company and while he served as Trustee of Gallaudet University. In his Christmas card he wrote, 'How is you?'. I sat down, in great disbelief because he was a truly remarkable and successful man but yet his English was far from perfect. It told me one important thing that made all the difference for me. It told me that America was the land of free and the land of opportunities. But yet, such language deficiency is why he got into trouble with the law. I was going to make this point in my characteristic letter for Yeh brothers but I was told that I should not question the court's intelligence. About all I could tell the court was how great of a man he was and what he's done for me and the deaf community. Thinking back I wondered if it would have made any difference if the Judge understood the factors behind linguistic deficiencies. Would it have made any difference if the Judge realized why deaf executives and employees were caught, red-handed, and why the hearing executives and employees got away, for all the same crime that was done? I have to wonder.

I'd like to move onto the main topic of this v/blog, that of "VRS Our Economic Power" by Ryan Comerson, who made an excellent presentation. With respect to Mr. Ryan Comerson, I have never met him or spoken to him. I've never heard of him until he surfaced into vlog-sphere. He raised numerous valid points in his video however I respectfully disagreed with some of them. Is VRS industry the answer to our quest for economic power? The honest answer would be no. Look at Viable and numerous other VRS industries. They're struggling, financially and strategically to a point where nearly every one of them stooped down to an unimaginable level and cheated on FCC. If the economy power was really there then none of them would be using some kind of 'cheating tactics'. The cheating tactics did not have much to do with people's greed. It had more to do with keeping their companies afloat instead of sinking into red (bad debts). The Yeh brothers made it abundantly clear, numerous times, on how much money they actually made from Viable. They made less money than their interpreters did. They did not rake profits and took them home. Instead they reinvested into research and development. They reinvested into new technologies because they had to maintain competitive edge over other VRS companies who were probably cheating as well. And then some of them were caught. The differences were; Deaf executives and employees are going to prison because they depended on visual communication methods, which were highly detectable and collected as evidences while hearing executives and employees used invisible communication methods, that of oral communications via phones. Thus no hard evidences of personal wrong doings against hearing people.

And no, I'm not questioning the court's intelligence. I'm only sharing some really important factors here.

Is VRS our economic power? Unfortunately it didn't really exist in the first place. It was only an illusion. People hit the calculator and calculate the potentials and said wow... let's get into VRS industry and make our fortune. Everybody got into this dark room in search for several pans of delicious pies. Guess what? Only few found it and hung onto them. The rest of them stumbled upon each other and got hurt. And there was some cheating going on. Somebody pulled out a flashlight and caught a glimpse of who had the pies. And when everybody saw the spotlight they all went into the same direction. That's why you see people attacking Sorenson Communication. They wanted a piece of the pie too but the trouble is everybody want a piece of pie too. But if we think about it, there are not enough pies for everybody. So what do you do? Get out of the room for your own safety! The demographics of signing deaf population is very small and that's a fact.

Furthermore this so-called VRS economic power has become smaller and smaller in the recent years. FCC made some recent moves and cut the budget for VRS industry. In short, there are fewer pies and they're also smaller pies than what were originally out there in this dark room full of pioneers who didn't know what they were getting into.

Bottom line, do you really believe that these VRS industries would go to the trouble of cheating FCC if the economic power was really there. The answer is no. They cheated because they 'financially' had to. The cheated because the economic power was not there and because they were already financially committed. It's not something they could just walk away from and say, we can't afford it. To do so would be equivalent to financial suicide. In theory, do you accept death when you could no longer earn enough money to feed yourself? Have you ever experienced it? What if the field was full of hungry people competing for the same batch of food? Do you sit back and say 'dang it' and accept death or do you grab and pull something out to eat in order to survive, with hope that others will understand your desire to survive? Many business people have the same mentality when they committed a lot of time and money into a project only to realize that there are not enough pies for everybody. I know that it still does not make things right but that is what happens out there in this business and financial world. They are no different from a hungry man with a driving desire to live.

On a final note, I'd like to share something, a mere common senses, with you. So, where is our economic power, you ask? The answer lies within outside of your confines. By this I mean it's not uncommon to find deaf people trying to sell something, whether it be goods or services, to other deaf people. In essence they're circulating old money. Think about it. The same dollar probably passes around from one deaf person to another so many times. How do you expect to build economic power this way? You just can't. One does not build economic power by becoming employees either, due to nasty tax brackets. Instead we build economic power by building companies and making solid investment decisions. And more importantly, we build economic power by marketing our goods and services to the public at large. Forget deaf people. They carry same old money that you don't want. Forget VRS industry. It's a very competitive field and it's heavily regulated by FCC. Spell FCC and red-tapes in the same breath and you'll get the gist of it. Forget deaf education because nobody becomes rich from it. Forget ASL courses because you're making the colleges / universities richer. Both fields will not help and build economic power for our community. So what do you do?

Start thinking about developing technologies, services and goods for hearing consumers. That is when you'll begin to build economic power for deaf people and their communities. I, for one have never made a single pretty penny from deaf customer. I've never sold any kind of deaf-related goods or services to deaf people. The reason is simple. Their economy base is way too small. They carry old money. I don't want anything to do with their money because it won't get you very far in this world. I see all the same stuff at some being sold at these deaf expos, which is why I don't attend any more.

The point here is, people like Ryan Comerson are why some deaf people went into this dark room in search for several pans of pies and got hurt. They actually believed that VRS industry was our opportunity to build economic power. It never occurred to these people that there simply were not enough pies for everybody. I've had my fair share of opportunities to get into VRS industry and when an opportunity came up I declined because I knew there was not going to be enough room for everybody. Something also smelled funny. I figured it was going to evolve into a competitive cutthroat industry where only few giants would be able to survive. And I was right about that. But I never thought I would see it all come down to this nasty outcome.

Ryan, I appreciate the work that you've put forth into your presentation. They were sound presentation and quite logistic. However what it lacked was experience and expertise in business world and economics and marketing that goes with the territory. It was just not there. Business and marketing is clearly not your field and I meant no disrespect when I said it. I know you have much to offer and I look forward to your further videos in the future.