The information explosion of the last fifty years has rendered one old product obsolete. We no longer need the crystal ball to see the future. I find it curious that this wealth of information is not consulted when politicians try to manage the economy.
Well before 2012 it will become painfully obvious that the stimulus programs and bailouts proposed and passed by congress have had little positive effect on the average American's life.
The last year of the Hoover presidency and the first years of The New Deal have been accelerated in the early days of the Obama administration. Businesses large and small are already paralyzed by fear. This palpable fear is rightly placed in government. The question on every business owner and manager's mind is, "What's next?".
If I were the president, a quick look through my history books would show that we are not in uncharted waters. Coolidge and Reagan both faced similar economic conditions early in their presidencies. And both responded with legilstative efforts to cut taxes and government spending. Coolidge of course cut much more spending.
The roaring twenties is a time often categorized as filled with greed and speculation. The truth is quite a bit different. Productivity soared in the decade and the Great Depression was not a result unfettered capitalism, but unfettered government.
My first step would be to grease the skids of productivity and supply. This can be accomplished quickly and easily. A lowering or elimination of the corporate tax would stimulate the economy immediately. Lower capital gains taxes have also proven to be stimulators. I would also overturn the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, HIPPA, the Family Leave Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Most of these ideas are well intentioned. But Sarbanes-Oxley didn't stop Madoff from pulling the biggest Ponzi scheme in the history of the world. Neither did it stop Fannie Mae from cooking the books and making bad loans. The cost is born entirely by consumers who must pay more for products from honest companies to implement Oxley.
Corporate taxes are also entirely paid for by you and I and every other consumer in America.
HIPPA, and other legislation conceived to "help" the middle class and add fairness, has simply raised the cost of health care and employment, thus putting further strain on the economy. The incremental increase in regulation over the past few years, coupled with a bubble in the house market caused this mess. To fix the problem, we must peel back the layers of regulation and let the economy rebound naturally based on the needs and desires of consumers. Increase in productivity and supply are a first step.
In my next blog entry I propose to show you your future. In early 2009 America is in a mild recession with a small decline in GDP, and a moderate rise in unemployment. By 2012, these will be viewed as the good old days.
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i will look it up- i just wanted to see which 11 D's voted against it.
Don't have one handy. All the R's voted no and all but 11 D's voted yes. Don't have the names though. Sorry.
well this is the first time i did well- but all other years it was really bad. ( i will admit to voting for Blago twice- although it really did bug me to do it). does anyone have a link to stimulus bill handy- or who voted for and against it??
Later all. Time to get a shower and get to the office. Have a good one.
I'm not good luck, that's for sure.
Smashey- you sound like you have a voting record like mine-lol
I can agree with that. And if my rep had voted for it, he wouldn't have gotten my vote again.
Then blame the idiots who voted them in. I have to be honest, I am not in favor of this new stimulus package, the idea didn't work last year, we're all just going to catch up on our bills instead of stimulate the economy with it, and the real target should be small businesses, not consumers. If my representatives vote for it, I'm going to remember it on election time, and it's going to be a factor whether or not I vote for them. I can complain all I want to about them, as will a whole lot of other people. What galls me to no end is that many of those who complain will turn around and vote for them again!
That is pretty much what I said in my response to Berni's post. Those businesses that do not look ahead and adjust accordingly will be in trouble, not 100% because they are greedy, but because they didn't have the forward thought to move with the industry they are in. I'm not saying there isn't greed out there. It's a proven fact that there is. I just don't blame every issue a company has staying afloat on greedy practices. There is such a thing as a poor business decision.
Bad business is not just padding a CEO's wallet and ensuring he has a nice big golden parachute. It also means lowballing labor and production costs in order to pay off stockholders. It means focusing on profits for this quarter without planning for the next. I will tell you, the reason why Southwest Airlines was going long and strong while other airlines were charging by the bag and finding new ways to make you pay more and keep themselves above water is because they planned ahead and bought fuel at a sustainable price before the meteoric rise in prices last year. They thought ahead, and they stayed ahead while every other airline was panicking. If anything, THAT'S the problem with American business today, it's all about here and now, how do we cut costs now, how do we raise our profit margin now, not thinking six months or a year down the road.
Just for the record Arjay, no one I voted for on the Federal, state or local level won the last time around except for my state congressman who did what I wanted and voted no on this false stimulus bill. So no I don't blame myself, I blame the rest of the idiots.
Not patting them on the back as you are correct, they have issues as well. As do most retailers in this economic time. My point was that the greed may not be the driving force behind Circuit City's downfall. There were a lot of variables that contributed. To continue to blame everything on "greedy business" is not seeing the forrest for the trees.
But Erock and Smashey, you're blaming the government, a bunch of dweebs we as citizens have the power to vote out of office. This is a point that annoys me to no end, that you blame the government for everything, but you don't do your part in voting the crooks out who spend irresponsibly, who vote for never-ending wars which drain our treasury. Congress should be a revolving door right now, keep voting the bastards out till we get a few in there who are actually responsive. Not only do I not agree with you two, or anyone else on this, but I think you're shifting blame from yourselves, the American voters. If voters didn't look for buzzwords like freedom and conservative, if they didn't vote simply for the R or the D, we would have better respresentation. If voters were on top of things and paid attention to how their representatives voted, they'd vote the pricks out every time until they got someone who was truly responsible. You can't blame government, especially a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, for something you as a voter refuse to do. You vote irresponsibly, you're get representatives who do the same.
The choice of raising taxes to meet expansion only applies in a down economic time. I did not specify that in me previous post. In an up economic time, additional tax revenue is generated. Expanding in a down time requires spending more than is being taken in. Just wanted to clarify my own statement. :)
Don't break your arm patting Best Buy on the back. They're laying off by the thousands as well. They may only be a couple months behind Circuit City in the race to the bottom.
Erock, you make a hell of a point here. They are supposed to collect the tax money and spend it according to what they have taken in. As the government expands it's role, it needs additional funding to do it. The choice is to raise taxes so the funding you need is there, or to borrow and owe. When they are not held accountable for the deficit that expanding without the income to do so brings, we have what we have now. And you are correct, it is not the government that will pay for thier bad choice. It will be the American taxpayer.
The funny thing is that Americans used to form huge charites to help the really needy in this nation. Doctors used to make house calls and then work out on their own a payment plan with the paitent's family. But now we are used to regulation and to getting government money. O wait sorry its not government money its money you took BUY FORCE from someone else.
Berni, I have to disagree with your assumption. Circuit City may be going under but Best Buy remains. What did they do that Circuit City didn't? I blame Circuit City's CEO as well. Not for being greedy, but for not being able to do things as well as the other guy. Best Buy and Circuit City are basically the same business. One remains, one doesn't. Also, I think the recoed companies themselves will tell you that digital media on-line is what is killing thier retail sales. Lime Wire, I-Tunes etc. is replacing the CD. They need to get into that market or they will be out of business. The technology is shifting. They either can adjust or perish. I don't think greed is a factor. Failure to have the correct business foresight is.
But you said you would suspend any and all welfare. Sounds to me like you don't care whether or not the citizens under your dictatorship live or die or how much they may suffer under your regime. I could point to several African dictators who feel the same way.
I care about American people and those who want to be American citizens not taking care of ppl in other countries plotting our deaths and destruction who dont pay tatxes to us
What African dictator are you emulating this week, Jackie? There are plenty who don't give a damn about their people either.
If i were president i would suspend any and all welfare. Make the people prove that they in fact needed it and prove they are looking for a job then I would get us out of NATO and the UN and repeal any un-constitutional laws
I think the droids should have formed a union and demanded better working conditions. Did you see all the places where they were stored? The Jawa-mobile? The junk processing room at Cloud City? C3P0 was told to shut up all the time and never got the respect an interpreter deserves. R2D2 was doing all the dirty work in that X-wing fighter, but Luke got all the praise. That's what they get. C3P0, shut down all the garbage mashers on the detention level! R2, open this door! Never got a decent paycheck, not even a thank-you from their masters. You think Han Solo ever bought the droids a beer after work? Think Luke ever took R2D2 bowling? Think Lando Calrissian ever invited them over to his house for the annual Christmas party? Droids, unite!
LOL, Wiz. You are probably 100% right on the clones getting it on. The allegory is Christianity based.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/commen
taries/starwarspart1.html
This link leads to additional coverage of that.
Yeah the religious allegory was there. Some say the Jedi were fashioned after the Buddhist monks or Daoism. I think it was pretty much and anti-catholic movie series written by a well known mason. That the Jedi were the Knights Templar. And that the third movie was historical recollection of their destruction.
I wonder if they had don't ask don't tell in the Galactic emipire. Seeing that all the Stormtroopers were clones of Jengo Fett. It was all men all the time. Darth Vader was probably drinking during the first 15 years. Or high on oxycontin. It was probably hard losing your legs and penis to volcanic lava and also dealing with the death of your wife. I bet in a drunken stooper he probably told a couple of storm troopers to go fuckk themselves. And realized the irony of his statement.
hmmm.. Glad i am not the only one kinda confused with the transitioning. BUT, we all know that Star Wars was pure religious allegory.
It makes no sence to me either Demo. Its just more interesting than Eric Gurr for president. His Laisse Faire attitude towards his own bussiness seems to have problems. Yet he wants to be president. I wonder if we had the ability to impeach him that might happen.
Admittedly, I am not the smartest person on this site. BUT, I fail to see the transition between.. Eric Gurr for pres. to CEO mischief to Star Wars. Please help me out. Put it in the simplest and most basic terms please. :)
Well the whole thing was a cluster. Vader should have been running the show, but he wasn't even allowed to choke people during a board meeting. They busted his nuts for not getting the plans back from Princess Leias so called ambassador ship. Their was a total breakdown in communications. The tip off on Tattoine almost prevents Han Solos ship from leaving. Yet Vader was on the Cruiser that sent down the Garrison to find the droids. He gets back to the Death Star and didn't even notify the boarding party that he felt the presence of the Force. The dumbass in charge read the logs off Han Solos computer and actually thought that they had jettisoned the ship when only 5 minutes earlier had fired upon an incoming tie fighter.
LOL. Remember, though, they had no one in the control room, R2D2 and C3P0 were able to waltz in, get the information they needed, even shut down the trash compactors. Maybe the stormtrooper in charge was on a 15-minute break because the Empire demanded all workers working more than six hours a day get a mandatory break.
I didn't see any layoffs. Remember they has 2 stormtroopers guarding the bridge to the tower reactor junction that Ben Kenobi snuck around and turned off the tractor beam. I think they were bitchingg about the food in the commisary or something. Those guys were all union.
If Grand Moff Tarkin started laying off workers and stormtroopers just so he and Darth Vader could take an extra vacation at Tattooine every year, at some point you're going to have a lot of cats sitting around the Death Star with nothing to do. Just think, if they didn't fire all those Tie-fighter pilots, perhaps Luke Skywalker wouldn't have squirted through the defenses, flew down that crevasse, fired, and blew the whole damn thing apart. All because Tarkin and Vader were trying to skim a little extra profit by cutting its pilot force.
CEO is just a title. What you do with it is up to you. I guess you could have a company and call your self the Grand Moff. Like Grand Moff Tarkin, who was the worst CEO in the history of the universe.
Arjay, I think all of these greedy businesses are going to be going out of business and people more aligned with your beliefs are going to take their place. Circuit City is on its way out of business because it fired the top salespeople because they didn't want to keep paying them and divine retribution stepped in and closed them down. There is no more room for greedy companies to stay in business. That's also why record companies and other entertainment companies are and will be going out of business too.
The only problem I have with the flying car is, what happens when you're up there and you run out of gas? I am horrible at that. At least, with a terrain car, you're already on the ground.
No, the ONLY job of a CEO is to make a profit. Period. I don't think the cost of labor is a problem, I think greed at the top is. I fail to see how a CEO can cry foul about labor costs when he's making seven-digits a year, and for what? I don't think a living wage, a level of pay by which a man can support himself and his family, is a ridiculous notion. America built its prosperity in the 20th century on this belief. As to using my experiences as a cabdriver, that may work in a blog article before too long, because that's a job where capitalism is at its most raw and pure.
Yeah I seen that bernie. Before we have flying cars though we need to restructure the air traffic control system to be more automated. Before the FAA was inacted owning an airplane wasn't a big deal.
Have you seen the new car with wings to fly? $197,000 is all you need to be able to get around traffic and have a long-distance job that will be easier to get to.
Well you can do those things, but the number one job of a CEO is to sell product, make profits and keep a company in bussiness. One thing in this country we have as a problem is the cost of labor. That said, everything else is up in the air for cost savings. If you don't become more productive then you die. Another problem is that the cost of production is no longer affordable for the average man. You could have very well painted your car yellow and started Arjays cab service. I don't see why not. But then you wouldn't have access to the dispatch system, you would be driving around looking for thumbers.
Wiz, I would like to think I would be a little humane and understanding about it. I wouldn't be telling my workers their jobs are safe, and then one day, everyone has a pink slip the day the new machinery is wheeled in. I'm not a good capitalist, because I simply could not see myself raking in profits to maintain or improve my standard of living, while my actions cost other human beings, as worthy of life as I am, their livelihoods. I would like to think I'm the kind of boss who would assist in seeking jobs for those I lay off. I would like to think I would cut my own salary, or lessen stockholders' dividend checks, before I just kick a few men who worked their tails off for me to the curb, who did nothing but play by the rules. I would like to think, as a CEO, I wouldn't cut pensions just so I can make another couple of millions in bonuses. If this is what capitalism is, forgetting the humanity of labor, then you can shove it.
Arjay then you shouldn't run a company. If every other company was advancing themselves with technology while you decide to sit around and keep your specifically trained direct labor force doing those jobs that they would wholeheartedly give up to work for another company that was willing to train them with the new tools, then you would shortly find yourself a company that goes bankrupt. Everyone must recognize that their specific job in life is eventually going to end and they need to be flexible. Some day robots will be driving cabs. And you will complain about that....or will you be a cab route programer.
invented the car not the care..... damn fingers.
back when folks rode around in buggy's being pulled by horses the guy that made horse shoes, the guy that made buggy's and the guy that made whips, and reins well, they all had it made. And then some guy came along and invented the care. The poot buggy guy wasn't needed anymore...... he either starved to death or he learned a new trade. Progress... you can't stop it.
I think you may want to go reread your history there bub..... I tink you are part of the fantasy over fact crowd. FDR creation of social programs helped to get us to this point and will continue to work against us. What tax rate is fair to you? 35%, 45%, 90% How many more welfare programs can you create? At some point there will be noone left to earn the money to pay for your big government. I mean, if I work hard and the government takes 75% of my earnings to give to the guy down the street who is not working then I will stop working. Now you have to give me a check and the guy I was paying for. If you stop, and I mean STOP the watseful spending and let me keep my money then I will have some left to hitre the guy down the street and he will no longer need the government check. Now you can either continue living in your /fantasy world or face facts. This ain't rocket science.
This is where I'm going to differ from my capitalist brethren, this belief that as technology improves, the need for labor will lessen in certain fields, and people will lose jobs in the name of "progress". I don't think it's progress when real life people are tossed onto the trash heap for the sake of profits. This is where the bad old socialist is going to rear his ugly head yet again, but we have a saying, PEOPLE BEFORE PROFITS. This "sucks for you" mentality is part of the problem, this belief that human beings are expendible. I made the point a moment ago about productivity being misleading. It doesn't matter if productivity is high if it results in higher unemployment. That's one of many flaws in supply-side economics, because your productivity could be sky-high, but if no one has a job to be able to buy your goods, it's all for naught, isn't it?
Hawk, I know you're part of the "faith over facts" crowd, but read your history book. I mean, Hoover tried to keep the government out of the Depression. Hoover sat on his ass and did nothing and the Depresion kept getting worse. FDR's polciies ended the depression. That's historical fact.
imagine said..... it took FDR with the creation of social programs and big government to sort out the depression.
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This is going to be the problem over the next four years! These folks think governemnt is the answer to all of their problems. They have zero faith in themselves and zero faith in their fellow man. Government will take care of your every need from cradle to grave. Imagines statement makes me sick to my stomach. I love this country, not because I can get free shit from the government but because, if I work hard and apply myself I can achieve anything. I am in control of my own destiny. Sure its tough sometimes, I had to work three jobs in the late 70's and early 80's just to pay my bills and care for my family. But... That hard work paid off, I kept getting better jobs and moving up, I never quit, I never ask my fellow tax payers to pay my way and today I have a great life. ..............Now go back and read imagines comment again.. He actually believes that social programs and government spending will save us! This view is held by to many Americans. Give me back a portion of my monoey, keep what you need to do the things the federal government is supposed to do and I will do my part to stimulate the economy!
It was only about 8 years ago that the job of draftsman was finally phased out. No longer did you have an office of drafting boards and talented people drawing prints. Autocad and solidworks came into play. Three guys can do in a day what it took 20 or 30. Those guys that couldn't use a computer lost their jobs. That is the price of productivity, but it is also progress. Ya don't need 10 secretaries to type your letters anymore. Direct labor comes in at tha machine level. I think we have reached an apex of that level of productivity. An individual can do more, because they are able to an not because they want to or are forced to.
I don't think anyone will ever doubt the productivity of the American worker. The problem is, the figure is misleading. Productivity is based on labor, the more you can squeeze out of every man labor hour. Always be leery when someone talks about how great productivity is, it usually means they're producing the same amount with less labor. It's an excuse for layoffs. It's a validation for higher unemployment. Having said that, it always takes a bit of guts to step out on a limb and put yourself in a position to take criticism.
LOL Eric Gurr could have the U4prez talkies.
Productivity happens with or without government intervention. I don't think getting back in the time machine and going back to the "roaring 20's" is gonna be a good bussiness model.
So basically you would create tax plans that favor the rich and leave the middle class high and dry, and cut programs to help the poor? Great idea. Oh, wait. No it's not. And as far as your refference to Reagan cutting taxes to help the economy, I don't know whether to laugh or scream. When Reagan came in in his first term and started cutting taxes and the economy got worse for the middle class. By cutting taxes and raising spending, he drove upa record deficit. And Reagan also RAISED taxes. And further, Coolidge sucked altogether.
I know it hurts the feelings of the "faith over facts" crowd, but Reagan wasn't God, and cutting taxes on big busniess while screwing over on the poor only makes the economy worse. These free market fiscal conservative principles are why we're in this mess in the first place. Your history book would also show that Hoover's conservative economic policies made the depression worse...mostly because he sat on his ass and did nothing, it took FDR with the creation of social programs and big government to sort out the depression.
He's not right , he's so wrong he's way Right, just like you on a lot of issues .
Bull, Gurr is in the right on this one
Gurr is a crapitalist nut. You think the economy is bad now? Gurr would give it the rest and take us back to at least to the 1920s. The income gap would rise to levels not even seen during the Great Depression and the middle class would become nonexistent.And repeal the Americans with Disabilities Act?!! Give me a break, I don't want to be considered part of the decay of Western society thank you very much.
D.K.
i think he should pick me- i can help balance out the ticket-lol
Gurr/(whomever he chooses) 2012!!!!!! Intralink can fund the campaign. He has my vote.
Yeah he might take your welfare away.
Thank God Gurr will never be president!
If this is mild (see unimployement skyrocket this week) God help us in the future.
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