On Feb 7, 9:47 pm, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:
b wrote:

On Feb 1, 2:29 pm, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:

It is the consumer's fault that so much throw away crap is built,
because they are too stupid and too cheap to buy quality, repairable
equipment.

So your view of people is that they are 'stupid and cheap'? that's a
bit harsh. And, dare I say, very convenient, as it puts the blame
neatly on the citizens. You forget that demand is in part created by
supply. people will buy what is there, since their range of choices ,
i.e what's available, is dictated by accountants in the electronics
industry. It is they who ultimately decide what to put out into the
marketplace. And not every average Joe is a technician or
knowledgeable about consumer electronics, since it is not the sort of
thing taught in schools, it's hardly entirely their own fault is it?
more like a failure of the education system which does not equip
people with the skills to judge and think about what they're
consuming. Since there is little part from weak 'consumer
legislation' to force companies to put serviceability before profits,
what usually happens is, the formerly good brands end up cutting costs
to compete with the cheaper ones and the whole quality level goes
down. Oh, the joys of a free market...

had the IBEW try to unionize the cable TV company I
worked for. They GUARANTEED me $2.50 an hour less than I was making, a week's less vacation, no unwanted

And if your boss had decided to make those changes (very common in
non-unionized employer-employee relationships) then that would have
been ok, right? Time to trot out the old chestnut, 'oh, I'll just
find another job if i don't like it.'
Well one of the things about unions is that you can stand for
positions and later uses the democratic process to change what you
don't like... instead of asking what your union could do for you, you
could have asked what you could have done for your union ;-)

Don't try to put words in my mouth, stooge. You don't even have the
guts to use your name online, yet you are trying to preach your ignorant
unionism crap. My first job was in a TV shop when I was 13. I worked
full time at another shop (That also did industrial electronics) for two
years after I graduated. Then I was called up for the draft. I was
given five separate 4F ratings for health problems, but they drafted me
anyway, because of my electronics background. While in basic training,
I tested out of the three year course US Army electronics school at Ft.
Monmoth and was awarded the M.O.S. of broadcast engineer. I worked with
CATV headends, CARS, and weather equipment, RADAR, the world's first
emergency alert system that took control of 13 CATV systems around Ft.
Rucker and delivered emergency information on all 12 channels on all the
systems. I have built a TV station from an empty building, moved radio
stations, and built studios.

I worked as a broadcast engineer in both radio & TV, owned and
operated an industrial electronics repair business for years, repaired
computers to the component level, sold and serviced business radio
systems, did Quality Assurance in an electronics defense plant, and at
the end of my career, I worked as a production and engineering test tech
for the world leader in modular telemetry equipment.

thanks for sharing all that unsolicited biographical drivel with us -
NOT! None of which had anything at all to do with the argument. I see
that modesty is not to be found in your list of qualifications...

Have you ever done
anything but push unions? Do you know why it was so hard to remove car
radios for repair? The union fought the change to a through the dash
design that could be done by a single employee, rather than the six
people the current system used. That drove up the price of US built
cars, along with other stupid union labor intensive steps that slowed
production, lowered quality and allowed the imports to take over the
market.

You clearly feel it was more important for the business to emulate
exploitative practises which enabled those imports to be made more
cheaply, instead of setting a standard - don't you think that those
people had any right to defend their jobs? It's all about profit with
you people.


the only thing that this proves is you had a weak government who
allowed this shameful corporate behaviour to go on at the expense of
the citizens who elected it and whose interests it was supposed to be
representing. Funny how , in the neoliberal ideology, capital can
cross borders freely but people can't....

Allow it? They were all for it. They needed the radios and
shipboard RADAR equipment for the US military, and the idiot union was
determined to stay out for years. The idiots in the union told them
they couldn't be replaced, because all their jobs required VERY high
skill levels. Two weeks after the plant in Mexico opened, former farm
workers were doing quite well at their jobs.

yeah, i wonder under what conditions...? So you are suggesting that it
was better for the US plant to close costing jobs, and move to exploit
mexicans.

You truly are a
brainwashed union stooge.

BTW, you should be out there kissing Obama's union loving ass instead
of wasting our time on a repair newsgroup.

The only thing I have to respond to this abuse, which is neither
called for nor deserved, is that coming from an adult on a science
newsgroup, it's pathetic.

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.

Service to your country? service to corporate elites more like. one
day you might see that there are millions of workers out there whose
rights are in dire need of defending.

-B