Vernon's Drill Co; (was Dursley's bribed?, charmed? or afraid?)

[Tom Wall <thomasmwall@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50889


Tanya wrote:
Dagnabbits! I just might have to respectfully agree 
with you here, because I've just come across this 
passage (PoA/2) that reads: 
"...Uncle Vernon bored them all with a long talk 
about Grunnings, his drill-making company..."
*respectful grumbling* I concede.

Andrea replied:
I ... submit ... owning a company does not mean 
one is automatically disgustingly wealthy with 
a huge house. ...edited.. So I don't think it's 
necessarily a given that Vernon either IS or ISN'T 
the owner of Grunnings. ... He's definitely upper 
management at the least, though.

bboy_mn wrote:
Given what Ali said about the use of the term 'Director' 
in the UK, and looking at Dudley's birthday gifts, 
which I estimate at between us$800 and us$1,000, I'm 
inclined to give Vernon a promotion. He is not longer 
management but an executive; probably the equivalent of a
vice president.

And I reply:
Two things here -

1) $800-$1000 for the gifts? Again:

"...Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap
the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control
airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR. He
was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when..."
(PS/SS 22)

That's only 21 of his 39 presents, and frankly, I'm 
very skeptical of $1000 as an upward limit for the 
just the 21 gifts we have heard of from the passage, 
never mind the remaining 18, whatever they may be.  

I think we're talking at least double that 
($1500-$2000 U.S.) for the birthday gifts. Minimum - 
even that estimate may be low depending on how much 
the Dursleys give credence to brand names and so forth.

2) I don't want to be too nitpicky about 
Vernon's position, but canon (PS/SS 1) says that 
Vernon is "the" director, not "a" director. Vice 
presidents and managers come in groups. I think we're 
talking *minimum* presidency, maybe even part ownership... 
there's not necessarily any mention of the company
being public, so that would work. 

STILL, I want to say that I agree with Tanya (even 
though she conceded :-P) that I don't think that 
he's an owner - I really think that the distinction 
between executive and owner is so great that JKR 
would have said something to that effect if he was 
the owner. After all "ownership" implies more of an
entrepreneurial spirit than mere management. A spirit,
I'll throw in, that I don't really think Uncle Vernon
has.

And about the Dursley's home, I mean, we know that 
they've been there for at least, what, 14-15 years? 
Maybe they're moving up in the world and will be 
looking for new digs in one of the subsequent
books?

-Tom