On Jun 7, 8:17*pm, Molly Brown wrote:
On Jun 7, 8:43*am, "
wrote:
On Jun 7, 11:16*am, Molly Brown wrote:
On Jun 7, 7:18*am, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:
I saw a post, or two about shrinking food packages. The pound of spaghetti
is now 13 ounces, the 44 cookie Oreos are now 39.
With shrinking packs and price hikes, it's going to get a lot harder to do
much of anything. Like feed the family after home repairs. Anyone but me
feeling the squeeze?
What's next? A 100 ounce gallon of paint?
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
*www.lds.org
.
Probably what you’re really noticing is that your earnings aren’t
keeping-up with inflation like it used to or else you wouldn’t even
care and the reason for that is because you’re competing against
Chinese, Indian and South American workers. That’s what you get when
politicians give big corporate CEOs free trade policy and let them run
amok.
Of course you're ignoring the other side, which
is the positive effect. *Which is
today you can buy many products for a lot less than you could if
they were made here. *That translates into people having to work
less to earn the money to buy those products. *I've yet to see
a case where protectionism produced a better result than free
markets. *In fact, if you look back at a similar time, the 1930's,
economists generally agree that the protectionist trade measures
that were adopted made the depression worse.
When people pay me hundreds of dollars to go around replacing their
Chinese made light bulbs on their property every month it’s a positive
effect for me.
When people pay me to replace their leaking Chinese made flexible
water heater supply connectors it’s a positive effect for me.
When people pay me to replace their defective or overheating appliance
circuit boards that look like the guy soldered his p…. *hair on to it
and solenoids because its made of shorter copper wire it’s a positive
effect for me.
When my spouses laptop keeps burning-out hard drives every six months
and I have a three year extended warranty which is costing Vaio and
BestBuy six times their profit on their laptop and very little expense
to me it’s a positive effect for me.
When people pay me because their a garage door opener malfunctions
because an engineer (probably in India) didn’t design a washer to
protect the tuggnut retaining clip from the screw of the screw drive,
it’s a positive effect for me.
When I call customer service for a client and get someone practicing
their English in India and I have to tell my client that I need to
replace the whole thing, that’s a positive effect for me.
When I go to give an estimate and find that some farmer from some
Latin country South of the border installed a door that was two inches
narrower because he couldn’t figure-out how to install one of the
right width, it’s a positive effect for me.
When I have to tell the home owner I have to break their concrete
walkway and pour new concrete because it’s sinking and causing a trip
hazard where they can be sued because *their menso landscaper tunneled
(no not pressure hosed but actually tunneled) under it, it’s a
positive effect for me.
Now that I thought about it trader4, you’re absolutely right. Who
cares if my clients have to work more to pay me. It’s all good; for me
that is.- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
I don't disagree that a lot of what you say above is
happening. But I disagree that it's all because of free
trade and that govt has let corporations run amock.
In some cases, it's govt that has forced companies
to look overseas. Look for example at what the
current administration is doing to Boeing with it's
plant in SC. Boeing is trying to build in America and
the Labor Dept is suing them, telling them they can't
open the plant that will employ 2,000 because it's
retaliation for a strike years ago in WA. And in this
case it's not just a plant that the govt is screwing
with. That plant makes parts for the 787 which
involves jobs all across the USA and world. But
even in a poor economy, the administration would
rather defend an extremely poor to non-existent
claim by the union. That's a classic example of
where govt regulation gets you. Here you have a
great American company, one of our largest
exporters and the govt is screwing around with
them.
For the most part, those US companies
are doing what any business does. They are
responding to market demand. Put a pack of
fittings on the shelf that are higher quality and
they don't sell as well as the cheap ones. The
builder is too cheap to pay for them, many of
the plumbers will use the cheapest components,
as will homeowners. Companies focus where
they can make the most money, just like you.
The net result is that many products are now
made based more on price than performance.
The problem begins with us. And I don't see
how any more govt regulation is going to fix it.