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Santa Claus Comes for Failed Business Executives
prospect.org ^ | December 22, 2007 | Dean Baker

Posted on 12/30/2007 10:44:19 PM PST by B-Chan

The Washington Post had a good story on the dealings of the electronics retailer Circuit City. Unfortunately, it was buried in the business section where no one will see it. It should have been plastered at the top of the front page.

The basic story is that last March, the wise men who run Circuit City came up with the brilliant idea of laying off their more senior salespeople, who get $14-$15 an hour, and replacing them with new hires who get around $9 an hour. It turns out that this move was not very good for business. One of the reasons that people go to a store like Circuit City, rather than buying things on the Internet, is that they want to be able to talk to a knowledgeable salesperson. Since Circuit City had laid off their knowledgeable salespeople, there was little reason to shop there.

Apparently Circuit City came to this same conclusion earlier this fall and tried to hire back some of the people it had dumped. In any case, things have not gone well for the bottom line. The company is now losing money and its share price is down more than 75 percent from its value earlier this year.

We all know what happens when you mess up in the dog eat dog world of big business -- you get retention awards (that's because your stock options aren't worth anything). The Post reports that Circuit City's executive vice-presidents will get retention awards of $1 million each. That's 35 years worth of pay for one of sales clerks who earned $14 an hour. And that's just the bonus.

This touching account of Santa Claus visiting Circuit City's executive suites belonged on the front page of the Post and every other newspaper. What better way to get in the Christmas spirit?


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: capitalism; greed; parasites; stupidity
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To: Democrat_media

In case you don’t believe my last:

Google Claims Conservative Website ‘May Harm Your Computer’
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1945568/posts


41 posted on 12/31/2007 12:07:45 AM PST by rottndog (And yet another year races inexorably to it's end, only to fall into eternity like so many Lemmings.)
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To: babygene

Well Honda has a fuel cell car .I’m sure other companies can have an electric car as I know many are out there already like the Tesla electric car.

http://www.gizmag.com/go/5898/
uly 21, 2006 It looks kinda like a Lotus Elise, tops 130 mph, has a range of 250 miles on a single charge, and is capable of 0-60 mph in about four seconds. Those are impressive figures and put it in the supercar acceleration class but the biggest thing the new electric Tesla Roadster which was unveiled overnight has going for it is cred. The kinda cred that comes when names like Elon Musk (PayPal founder and Tesla Chairman), Jeff Skoll (eBay), Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google) invest and when California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger calls past for a photo session. The kind of cred that earned it the headline such as “Electric sports car ready to challenge Porsche?” in C/NET and lots of ink in highly credible magazines such as Newsweek, Red Herring, Business Week and Wired before anyone knew anything about their product other than that it was an electric sports car. The superstar team seems to have lived up to the hype though as the Tesla Roadster is impressive (see details inside). Deliveries of the Tesla Roadster are expected to begin mid-2007 and though no price has yet been announced for the vehicle, the indications are that it’ll run somewhere between the US$80,000 of the Tango and the US$120,000 of the Hybrid Technologies Mullen GT and somewhat less than the US$580,000 of the Venturi Fetish.

http://www.gizmag.com/go/5898/

http://www.gizmag.com/honda-fuel-cell-fcx/8394/

November 22, 2007 It seems Honda is gearing up to be the one of the first major companies to bring a hydrogen fuel cell car to market – their FCX Clarity is set to go to production in 2008, in a move they’re hoping will break the catch-22 dilemma stopping motor companies from producing cars because there’s no hydrogen distribution, and stopping fuel companies from distributing hydrogen because there’s no cars that use it. To nurse consumers through the infancy of the hydrogen economy, Honda’s also attempting to decentralize the production of hydrogen through their Home Energy Station unit, which sits outside your house and reforms natural gas to produce enough Hydrogen to power both the car and the home’s energy needs at around 50% of the normal cost and with a 30% emissions reduction.

Honda FCX Clarity


42 posted on 12/31/2007 12:07:52 AM PST by Democrat_media (Democrats are communists/Socialists.Socialism is an economic disaster.)
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To: rottndog

That’s not true.

Government is oppressing corporations.

Corporations constantly get sued, taxed, regulated by government and those that use government laws to do this.


43 posted on 12/31/2007 12:10:33 AM PST by Democrat_media (Democrats are communists/Socialists.Socialism is an economic disaster.)
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To: Democrat_media

It’s corporate greed that seeks to drive down wages with unlimited illegal alien slave labor. Does Tyson Foods ring a bell?


44 posted on 12/31/2007 12:13:08 AM PST by rottndog (And yet another year races inexorably to it's end, only to fall into eternity like so many Lemmings.)
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To: rottndog

That’s not true.

Government is oppressing corporations.

Corporations constantly get sued, taxed, regulated by government and those that use government laws to do this.

I ‘ve had lots of debates with liberals and you sound just like one . you must be a michael savage ( michael Weiner) supporter.

I don’t have time to list all the harrassing things like affirmative action, environmental laws, minimum wage , taxes and lawsuits etc. that oppress corporations .

If corporations were telling government what too do then why are corporations the most oppressed?


45 posted on 12/31/2007 12:13:36 AM PST by Democrat_media (Democrats are communists/Socialists.Socialism is an economic disaster.)
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To: Democrat_media

BTW, I agree that government over-regulates corporations, hence my reference to our Fascist form of government....at least the Fascist form of government preferred by modern Dumbocrats.


46 posted on 12/31/2007 12:14:51 AM PST by rottndog (And yet another year races inexorably to it's end, only to fall into eternity like so many Lemmings.)
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To: Democrat_media
I ‘ve had lots of debates with liberals and you sound just like one . you must be a michael savage ( michael Weiner) supporter.

LOL! Actually, I'm quite fond of Mark Levin.

I don't disagree that government has it's tentacles in far too much of our economy. But if you don't think that many corporations want it that way, than you are very naive. Farm Subsidies?
47 posted on 12/31/2007 12:19:35 AM PST by rottndog (And yet another year races inexorably to it's end, only to fall into eternity like so many Lemmings.)
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To: I still care; All
That strikes me as really stupid.

When I go to home depot, I expect a knowledgeable person in the aisle. If I don’t get one, I won’t go there.


I don’t, I just want Home Depot to have the stuff in stock and cheap.

If I want more knowledgeable folks I go to Lowes and pay more... That’s why a recent report put Lowes as more “women friendly”...:^)

Seems to be quite a reasonable system to me....

48 posted on 12/31/2007 12:21:42 AM PST by az_gila (AZ - need less democrats)
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To: B-Chan

I gave notice after 16 years on one job, when I found a much better paying job. the boss asked why I wanted to leave. I told him I didn’t, but felt I deserved better pay. He said, “Why didn’t you say something”? Give me a break, I know how much my efforts were worth to the company, he must have noticed. I told him I had promised to be on the new job in two weeks, sorry, I don’t break promises.
Two years later the business closed. He had a string of employees robbing him blind, chasing off customers and losing sales. If he thought I would beg when I got hungry, he thought wrong.
Yeah, he was Mr. Super Liberal Democrat too! Maybe I was supposed to ask Bill Clinton for money!
Some of my old customers still call me, after 13 years, for help with their problems, I took good care of them. They don’t call him!


49 posted on 12/31/2007 12:28:36 AM PST by SWAMPSNIPER (THE SECOND AMENDMENT, A MATTER OF FACT, NOT A MATTER OF OPINION)
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To: Democrat_media
Without jumping completely into the fray on this subject...I do take issue with this ridiculous point:

What is stopping any American from making more money by becoming an engineer, a doctor, mechanic, lawyer or starting their own business, inventing something so they can make more money?

That would be their I.Q.'s, sparky. Rather obviously, half of our own domestic population is below the "average" on the IQ scale. They CANNOT become doctors, lawyers, engineers...they do not have the intellectual capacity.

This ridiculous blathering about "more education" to compete with the Chinese, and other third-world slave labor nations is just that...ridiculous blathering.

The fools that say it, know it. They are simply greedy; the product of a completely self-centered generation. They are, figuratively, "looting the store" while they are able.

Continue on this track, and we will be completely Socialist within 20 years. We avoided Socialism, largely because even the "lesser lights" amongst our population had hope that they could have a nice little house, and wage that would support a family.

Take it away, and they will vote to make you pay for it.

50 posted on 12/31/2007 12:56:17 AM PST by garandgal
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To: Democrat_media
I don't think B-Chan is advocating government planning - but rather is advocating a system that doesn't result in the distortion of free enterprise that comes with modern corporatism. (Let's face it, the heads of modern corporations seem much more like Al Capone than Al Einstein.)

The problem with corporatism is that public corporations attract so much capital that the laws of supply and demand become distorted (maybe even perverted). One such manifestation is the type of crony-ism that puts political hacks in control of big blocs of the economy.

However, without the corporation we would probably never have developed the microprocessor, or a host of medical advances.

One way to make B-Chan happy, while preserving the benefits of the corporation, is to give a big economic advantage to local business - and one way to do that is to enact very large increases in taxes on fuel.

51 posted on 12/31/2007 3:23:20 AM PST by The Duke (I have met the enemy, and he is named 'Apathy'!)
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To: B-Chan

If you do not own stock or work for the company why should you care?
Should we care about all details of the affairs of others?


52 posted on 12/31/2007 7:35:10 AM PST by freeforall (Answers are a burden for oneself, questions are a burden for others.)
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To: B-Chan
I support a Distributist, Solidaristic economic model — an economic system centered upon small businesses, private enterprise, and a market regulated by guilds

Can you offer an example where such a system provides (or has provided) a better society than the one we currently enjoy in the US?

53 posted on 01/01/2008 9:19:12 PM PST by mwilli20
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