Dieselgate: Sacrificial Lamb Found

Remember Dieselgate, the scandal where Volkswagen cheated on the emission tests? Well, an American court convicted someone for that recently: a top engineer. You were probably thinking the same thing that this guy commented:

“But the President who instantly retired the moment diesel gate broke. Took his 50 mil pension plan, walks away Scott free. Sounds legit.”

The anger wasn’t about the engineer getting convicted; rather, it was that the manager(s) weren’t:

“The engineer is the one who wrote the code (metaphorically, he pulled the trigger) and so it's not silly to prosecute him. It doesn't matter if he was doing it on orders. Just like how a hitman should be prosecuted for doing the hit, and it doesn't matter that he was doing it on orders. In both cases, the one who gave the orders should be prosecuted as well.”

Few had sympathy with the Nuremberg Defense (aka “I was just following orders” defense). While everyone likes to bring that up, what would have been the engineer’s options when asked to cheat the test?

-         Document the request; then refuse to do it; and then sue for wrongful termination? The problem with that approach is that such discussions happen face-to-face for exactly that reason.

-         Quit; and blow the whistle? Sure, that was an option.

While it’s easy to get moralistic about what someone else should have done in such a position, I think this comment nails why it is so hard to do that in real life (IRL):

“Sometimes it just sucks to be you, but that is life. I've not taken such a grand stand IRL, so I don't know the pressure.”

A tangential comment on this topic was very interesting. Referring to the conviction of Samsung’s heir (or was it top boss?) in South Korea, a country where the top business houses have the government in their pockets, here is what one guy had to say:

“It's sad times for America when South Korea is the one with balls while America just rolls over and takes it.”

I’d add holier-than-thou Germany to that list. The country that cries loudest when Trump quit the Paris environmental treaty doesn’t shutdown all their auto companies even though dieselgate was standard practice across all German auto manufacturers, not just Volkswagen. And yet, Angela Merkel is the one that left leaners, who also claim to love the environment, look up to take the leadership of Western ideology given the recent policies of the US!

(I neither approve of nor defend Trump on several of his policies, but still can’t help pointing out the hypocrisy of Angela Merkel and Germany when it comes to the environment).