On Mon, 17 Nov 2003 16:59:38 -0500, "Tom Gardner"
wrote:

After following some of the links showing job loss and productivity gains,
it's quite depressing, I've come to the conclusion that one of my main goals
has been to eliminate employees' jobs. In the past year I have eliminated 3
people and outsourced semi-finished goods from other American companies at
least. But guess what? Boxes of parts don't have mood swings, PMS,
holidays, don't have to be heated or cooled, and NO SCRAP! They come in at
a set cost with out the variables. Kind of sad that I can no longer devote
the HR to barely breaking even ...on good days. But, specialized suppliers
can do so much better due to their economy of scale than I can.

But Tom, think positively. You are under pressure from customers
to keep your prices reasonable.
By becoming more efficient you can do that and employ say 10
people instead of 20, so 10 lose their jobs, which is a shame. But,
on the positive side, you are still employing and providing jobs for
10, whereas if you could not compete, you would go broke and not have
any employees, so 20 jobs lost and you would have no income for
yourself.
Alan
in beautiful Golden Bay, Western Oz, South 32.25.42, East 115.45.44 GMT+8
VK6 YAB ICQ 6581610 to reply, change oz to au in address