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Post by aquaduct on Jul 20, 2022 13:52:12 GMT -5
Just sayin'.  That's so ridiculous it's clear you've never run a business in your life. |
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Post by Russell Letson on Jul 20, 2022 13:56:57 GMT -5
Except for the one I started when I lost my teaching job. Or the 35 years of self-employment. Or my decades of friendships with small-business owners. Your crystal ball needs some Windex.
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Post by theevan on Jul 20, 2022 14:05:59 GMT -5
It is neither funny nor informative. No basis in reality whatsoever. Doesn't even work as satire...too far from reality.
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Post by theevan on Jul 20, 2022 14:10:44 GMT -5
Meanwhile, back to the subject at hand, if I were king of the realm:
1. Secure the borders first. Build the wall, monitor, however it can be done, do it.
2. Create a sensible, streamlined, easy-to-navigate immigration process.
I have two permanent resident employees (Congo and Dominican Republic) that got here legally. It took the Dominican over 7years and another 4 years or so to get his wife here. The process is incredibly Byzantine. NO WONDER illegal immigration is a thing.
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Post by aquaduct on Jul 20, 2022 15:03:21 GMT -5
Except for the one I started when I lost my teaching job. Or the 35 years of self-employment. Or my decades of friendships with small-business owners. Your crystal ball needs some Windex. So did you sell out your employees like the idiot in the cartoon. Did your legendary friendships? |
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Post by david on Jul 20, 2022 21:05:29 GMT -5
It is neither funny nor informative. No basis in reality whatsoever. Doesn't even work as satire...too far from reality. I have a different takeaway than you. I think Hondco, the corporation, likes big profits. It likes capitalism when it benefits it and cares not about inflation, as long as it profits, just like a couple local grocery chains in my area. When asked to share profits with its worker, it doesn't want to. Ducky sees the corporation making huge profits and wants part of the action. It is human (duck?) nature. If the corporation is forced to share its profits in order to obtain workers, it could try to lobby for legislation to make workers more desperate. If the legislation works and causes unemployment, then the corporation would need to start paying unemployment benefits. Again, causing disappointment for the corporation, because it again does not get all its profits. Lucky Ducky is just trying to get money, just like the corporation, but without the lobbying might. I have formed and/or represented maybe 200-300 corporations and all have been in it for the money. Some treat their workers well and some don't, but their overriding motivation is to make money. And the wheel goes round and round. Everyone wants his piece of the pie. With inflation, I raised my hourly rate. I sold my boat for more than I paid for it three years ago. You do what you need to do to keep up. |
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Post by david on Jul 20, 2022 21:22:59 GMT -5
If you don't think businesses lobby to keep their profits, you just have not paid attention. Our local paper, "The Oregonian" recently published this article:
Rising prescription drug prices contributed to 49% jump in Oregon healthcare costs over 6-year period: report
Published: Jul. 20, 2022, 6:03 a.m.
Oregonians’ healthcare costs rose 49% over a six-year period, with the increase largely driven by a huge jump in drug prices, according to a new state report.
Prescription pharmaceutical costs “grew the most of any service category from 2013 to 2019, driven by a 20% annual growth in Medicare” drug costs, according to the report issued by the Oregon Health Authority.
Prescription drug costs rose 185% over the six-year period for patients on Medicare to more than $2,200 per person, annually. Prescription drug costs rose 92.8% for people with commercial insurance and 79.4% for those on Medicaid, according to the state.
. . .
Last year, lawmakers in the Democratically controlled Oregon Legislature considered a proposal to set upper limits on how much companies could charge for prescription drugs, but ultimately gutted the plan after the pharmaceutical industry spent nearly $2 million lobbying against it.
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Post by Village Idiot on Jul 20, 2022 21:30:39 GMT -5
I tried to make heads out if this. Then I tried to makes tails out of this. I couldn't do either. Unless there is a very large demographic whose collective life desire is to remain perpetually unemployed and has formed a PAC strong enough to be able to change the federal government's cooperation in this endeavor the cartoon doesn't make any sense.
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Post by epaul on Jul 20, 2022 21:51:28 GMT -5
It's explained in the first panel of the cartoon: forget everything you've heard or read or reasoned concerning the causes of inflation, inflation is caused by greedy companies raising their prices so that they can make even more money than the record amounts of money they had already been making. Simple really.
If these new gouging profits are threatened by workers asking for a raise to keep up with the inflation caused by the greedy companies jacking up their prices, the greedy companies go to Washington and convince their lackeys the government to do everything possible to put workers out of work and create high unemployment, thus making workers so desperate for work they do so for peanuts. Simple really.
Put on your 60's hat. Channel your inner Abbie Hoffman. It will all become clear. It is so simple. If companies never ever raised their prices there would never ever, could never ever, be any inflation. Couldn't be simpler.
'
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Post by aquaduct on Jul 20, 2022 21:56:00 GMT -5
It is neither funny nor informative. No basis in reality whatsoever. Doesn't even work as satire...too far from reality. I have a different takeaway than you. I think Hondco, the corporation, likes big profits. It likes capitalism when it benefits it and cares not about inflation, as long as it profits, just like a couple local grocery chains in my area. When asked to share profits with its worker, it doesn't want to. Ducky sees the corporation making huge profits and wants part of the action. It is human (duck?) nature. If the corporation is forced to share its profits in order to obtain workers, it could try to lobby for legislation to make workers more desperate. If the legislation works and causes unemployment, then the corporation would need to start paying unemployment benefits. Again, causing disappointment for the corporation, because it again does not get all its profits. Lucky Ducky is just trying to get money, just like the corporation, but without the lobbying might. I have formed and/or represented maybe 200-300 corporations and all have been in it for the money. Some treat their workers well and some don't, but their overriding motivation is to make money. And the wheel goes round and round. Everyone wants his piece of the pie. With inflation, I raised my hourly rate. I sold my boat for more than I paid for it three years ago. You do what you need to do to keep up. Duh. Businesses like profits. No shit. Of course they do. That's why they're in business- to try to stay in business. And depending on the business and the competetive climate they are in, different profit margins and different strategies come into play. Nobody in their right mind cuts staff unless they have to. Profits are so good we'll just cut staff to keep them going only lasts a very short time until you're not able to produce and the whole charade falls apart, drastically. Yes, the cartoon is unapologetically stupid to the core. Written by a moron. Period. |
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Post by david on Jul 21, 2022 22:27:38 GMT -5
I have a different takeaway than you. I think Hondco, the corporation, likes big profits. It likes capitalism when it benefits it and cares not about inflation, as long as it profits, just like a couple local grocery chains in my area. When asked to share profits with its worker, it doesn't want to. Ducky sees the corporation making huge profits and wants part of the action. It is human (duck?) nature. If the corporation is forced to share its profits in order to obtain workers, it could try to lobby for legislation to make workers more desperate. If the legislation works and causes unemployment, then the corporation would need to start paying unemployment benefits. Again, causing disappointment for the corporation, because it again does not get all its profits. Lucky Ducky is just trying to get money, just like the corporation, but without the lobbying might. I have formed and/or represented maybe 200-300 corporations and all have been in it for the money. Some treat their workers well and some don't, but their overriding motivation is to make money. And the wheel goes round and round. Everyone wants his piece of the pie. With inflation, I raised my hourly rate. I sold my boat for more than I paid for it three years ago. You do what you need to do to keep up. Duh. Businesses like profits. No shit. Of course they do. That's why they're in business- to try to stay in business. And depending on the business and the competetive climate they are in, different profit margins and different strategies come into play. Nobody in their right mind cuts staff unless they have to. Profits are so good we'll just cut staff to keep them going only lasts a very short time until you're not able to produce and the whole charade falls apart, drastically. Yes, the cartoon is unapologetically stupid to the core. Written by a moron. Period. Other than you and your wife's music thing, have you run your own business? Have you had your own employees? |
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Post by aquaduct on Jul 22, 2022 8:00:01 GMT -5
Duh. Businesses like profits. No shit. Of course they do. That's why they're in business- to try to stay in business. And depending on the business and the competetive climate they are in, different profit margins and different strategies come into play. Nobody in their right mind cuts staff unless they have to. Profits are so good we'll just cut staff to keep them going only lasts a very short time until you're not able to produce and the whole charade falls apart, drastically. Yes, the cartoon is unapologetically stupid to the core. Written by a moron. Period. Other than you and your wife's music thing, have you run your own business? Have you had your own employees? No, but I've managed them. Are you honestly saying you chuck your employees to save the extra profits for yourself? |
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Post by John B on Jul 22, 2022 9:00:41 GMT -5
Other than you and your wife's music thing, have you run your own business? Have you had your own employees? No, but I've managed them. Are you honestly saying you chuck your employees to save the extra profits for yourself? Umm, that is pretty much an annual thing in public accounting. Replace higher-paid employees with lower-paid employees (or just cut employees), hope that the savings offset the cost of doing so. A really really big diesel company in town is known for their RIFs, even when the company is doing well. It's all in the name of increasing efficiency and lowering costs. Which can be painted with a broad brush any way you choose. |
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Post by dradtke on Jul 22, 2022 9:12:01 GMT -5
I don't believe Bill Gates ever once voted for anything that wouldn't be advantageous to the monopolistic corporation that he founded and ran. Now he's out of it with a lot of money, good for him that lately he's been investing in helping people. Andrew Carnegie couldn't have been a robber baron, he built all those libraries. Rockefeller must have been a Democrat, he donated so much of his personal Maine seacoast to be a national park. Can't argue against logic like that, and it sure convinces me.
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Post by dradtke on Jul 22, 2022 9:14:19 GMT -5
No, but I've managed them. Are you honestly saying you chuck your employees to save the extra profits for yourself? Umm, that is pretty much an annual thing in public accounting. Replace higher-paid employees with lower-paid employees (or just cut employees), hope that the savings offset the cost of doing so. A really really big diesel company in town is known for their RIFs, even when the company is doing well. It's all in the name of increasing efficiency and lowering costs. Which can be painted with a broad brush any way you choose. I worked for a large corporation for fifteen years, and that happened every year like clockwork. Eventually it got me, too. |
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Post by TKennedy on Jul 22, 2022 9:18:32 GMT -5
I hired my secretary when she was 20 and just out of the general and medical secretarial course at the local tech school. She worked for me for 30 years and stayed on after I retired. She just retired after 45 years and they were sad to see her go. We did everything we could to retain good employees.
I guess we were outliers.
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Post by Cornflake on Jul 22, 2022 9:41:02 GMT -5
The 2008-09 recession hit Phoenix harder than other places and lasted longer. Most law firms laid off staff. Many laid off associates (i.e., lawyers who weren't partners). That left more money to be divvied up among the partners. One thing I'm proud of is that we didn't lay off anyone. In many of cases our employees were the only source of income for a larger household. The partners all accepted smaller paychecks as the cost of achieving that result.
But we were small enough to be a family. Big firms aren't like that. There aren't many strong personal bonds. They do whatever's best for the bottom line.
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Post by John B on Jul 22, 2022 9:44:31 GMT -5
The 2008-09 recession hit Phoenix harder than other places and lasted longer. Most law firms laid off staff. Many laid off associates (i.e., lawyers who weren't partners). That left more money to be divvied up among the partners. One thing I'm proud of is that we didn't lay off anyone. We kept about 25 employees and their dependents supported. In many of their cases we were the only source of household income. The partners all accepted smaller paychecks as the cost of achieving that result. But we were small enough to be a family. Big firms aren't like that. There aren't many strong personal bonds. They do whatever's best for the bottom line. On the flip side of what I posted about public accounting, I do recall in 2008 that the partners at the firm where I worked (one of the largest firms in the world) took about a 40% cut in distributions (equivalent to a 40% pay cut) in order to minimize staff cuts. |
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Post by Cornflake on Jul 22, 2022 9:51:12 GMT -5
John B, I overgeneralized. I’m glad to hear that about your accounting firm. I had worked for two of the largest law firms in town and they weren’t like that.
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Post by Russell Letson on Jul 22, 2022 10:23:49 GMT -5
I've been reading about and observing and living through boss/labor relations for since high school--my father worked for GE, on both sides of the union-management divide* and in high school my attention was caught by Clarence Darrow for the Defense and labor history. I've watched cycles of layoffs, first at GE** and later in my own work history in public universities, and I think I understand the dynamics pretty well.
Sometimes layoffs and plant closings are rational and inevitable, and sometimes they're driven by the desire of ownership/management to preserve their own positions or to "maximize shareholder value" (which amounts to the same thing). What makes the news is a company that refuses to downsize during hard times, and it's just about always a small, privately-run outfit that decides to minimize, say, recession damage rather than cut workforce. (As in Cornflake's example.) Not every company will be able to manage such a strategy, but those that do clearly see the enterprise less as a machine for generating owner advantage than one for providing livings for all those who make it go.
There are assumptions about the nature of productive enterprise*** that we often do not examine very closely, but that were much debated once the industrial revolution got rolling. What exactly do we mean by "capitalism"--the assembly of resources needed to start and run an enterprise, or the assertion of ownership and complete control of those resources? What is the value of labor, and is it entirely fungible? Is there a point at which the principle of private property comes into conflict with public good? What is the line of descent from feudalism to, say, robber-baron capitalism? How free is a "free market"?
* And even after he was promoted to a white-collar position, he would say, "The working man wouldn't have shit without the unions."
** Which also included selloffs of whole divisions, resulting in the offshoring of thousands of jobs.
*** And extractive enterprise is even more of a problem.
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