Posted on 10/28/2002 12:17:35 PM PST by Willie Green
I hear this a lot but the other side of the equation is never mentioned. Consider this scenario:
A company employs 100 people who make an average of $40,000 a year to sell a widget that retails for $100. The company sells 100,000 of these widgets a year. That's an annual payroll of $4,000,000 a year but the consumers have to pay a total of $10,000,000 for these 100,000 widgets.
Now the company moves the factory overseas to take advantage of lower labor costs and that widget now retails for just $40. So while $4,000,000 a year in local income is lost, consumers now have an extra $6,000,000 in their pockets to spend on other things because they are paying 60% less for these widgets. That extra $6,000,000 a year could be used in local restaurants, home improvements (putting contractors to work) or to buy boats (putting more boatmakers to work).
This is a simplistic scenario to be sure but bottom line is that cheaper consumer goods is not always a bad thing. And the money saved by cheaper consumer goods is often spent someplace else (or invested). Imagine how much more expensive everything would be if all consumer goods were manufactured here in the U.S.A. by factory workers at union scale.
I would prefer that manufacturing stay in America too. But between government taxation and regulation, not to mention the artificially set wages forced by unions, you can't really blame them all that much.
Thank you. Well said.
My salary got downsized by 1/3 in the 1990 recession. I was able to continue working without missing a pay check which helped a bit. My pay got back to normal within a couple years. It didn't take me long to figure out to have a rainy day reserve fund..
I'm one of those fools! In 1999 I spent close to $11,000 on my MCSE at Boston University. Two nights a week and Saturday mornings in school for nearly an entire year and a whole lot of cramming in between. Just looking at those MCSE ExamCram books sends shivers up my spine!
When I graduated in early 2000, I was very fortunate to realize that the house of cards was coming down and I held on to my current job.
Can't say the training was a total waste though as I have occasion to put it into practice at work and it definitely has made my position there a little more secure. But I still can't look at an MCSE ExamCram book without cringing and regretting all the money I spent on it.
Aside from a handful of high profile business schools, the MBA is objectively worthless. And what makes a degree from Stanford, Wharton, or Harvard valuable is not the content of the coursework, but the fact that all the "right" people attend, so you get to rub elbows and exchange business cards with the optimates.
I once attended a w(h)ine-n-cheese gathering of the alumni from my business school and the desparation was palpable. It reminded me of a singles bar in the '70's at 3AM on a Sunday morning. The room was filled with people who were all at some level aware that they had just wasted two or three years of their lives and an equivalent tens of thousands of dollars, yet they hoped to be discovered like starlets at the soda fountain. Pathetic.
If ever you feel tempted to purchase an indulgence, or enroll in an MBA program, drop me a line and let me dissuade you. Your money would be better spent in day-trading or as seed capital to set up your own business. Or if you want to really improve your chances in the business world, spend the money on golf lessons and get yourself a membership in a toney country club.
My degree was a double major in management and information systems. At this point, I am so disgusted with the job hunt that I am researching the possibility of going into business for myself . . . as a tailor and costumer.
Reality!
Thank you, FDR.
There will be no revolution, the black segment has already been replaced by the hispanics as a voting block to be catered to. The white americans will also become a minority of insignificance at election time, and certainly in no position to start a revolution - they will be so outnumbered by the year 2100, that it would be a joke. The old European customs and religions will die off in America along with the old white guys.
Massive immigration keeps prices low, profits high, and labor cheap. The true price of labor, is far far below what our previous closed economy used to have to pay. American companies no longer have to pay an inflated wage, and they wont. No company in their right mind will pay more than the world price of labor. In all likihood, unions will all but disappear except for the service industry, e.g. teachers, police, etc, and manufacturing will soon disappear entirely from the American continent.
There are hundreds of millions of workers in INdia, China, Mexico, and Eastern Europe that are ready and willing to take the jobs that Americans do not want. The Republicans and the Democrats are both for huge increases in immigration to take these jobs. The immigrants seem to have no problems at all finding plenty of work, thousands of them come here each day , each week, each month, day in and day out. By 2050, with current trends continuing, America will have 400 million people, and by the end of the century it will have a billion.
There are currently only a very few people who want to change the way we are headed, and each year they are even more outnumbered. The days of young americans earning $100,000 are gone forever.
A point well taken, and deserves repeating. Whoever is blessed enough to have a job in this current economy is a fool if they aren't socking away every extra dollar they make.
I have a steady job, and my wife and I are putting away a 9-12 month supply of cash in a separate savings account (this ENTIRELY apart from the 401k, IRA, etc). We are nearly 2/3 of the way there. Until we have that in place, we are not buying ANYTHING we don't need. No dining out except special occasions, and no movies or magazine subscriptions. We get videos from the library and live on the cheap. I've forgone buying a new TV to replace our 12-year old model, and we are buying our clothes from TJ Max and Ross Dress for Less. In today's economy, you are a fool not to save.
As anyone who remains in the field can attest to. The attitude has changed significantly from one of security to one of gratitude.
In some was that is not a bad thing.
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