There probably isn't one of us whose life hasn't been touched, in a positive way, by what the labor unions have accomplished in this country. Child labor laws, 40 hour work week, salaries, benefits, etc.
However, many of these "improvements", particularly over the past 15 years, have been increases in wages and benefits without a corresponding increase in production. So if you pay more for the same output, where does the money come from.
This blogger gets sick and tired of hearing that BUSINESS (whoever that is) is the bad guy, the root of all evil, the cause of all problems. Well, BUSINESS (whoever that is) isn't perfect, but just where do the products that we sell come from without them? And don't ever forget, you can have the best bankers and teachers and librarians and road repair crews in the world, but if nobody has a product to sell, there isn't any money to pay them.
Unfortunately, when the unions were running around rallying people to demand higher salaries, better health benefits and more comfortable pensions; they didn't anticipate one key factor.... the globalization of the economy. Countless jobs that the unions "improved" in the USA can now be sourced overseas at a much lower cost. You can say it isn't "fair" all you want, but if you want goods produced at a price that you can afford, "business" has no choice. Believe it or not, business is in business to produce a product that will sell in order to make a profit. Profits are distributed to investors who believe enough in the product to take a risk and fork over some money to fund the business. The money the investors contribute are used to buy labor and materials to produce the product.
There isn't anything evil going on here until someone expects to get something for nothing. If I'm getting paid $1.00 for each widget I produce and the union convinces me I should get $2.00 each, we go on strike and the "business" caves and gives us $2.00. Where does that money come from??????? Raise the price, right? Nobody wants to pay that price and big bad business finds out that they can get the widgets built in Indonesia for $0.75 each. It's either buy them there or go out of business. In either case the people making $2.00/widget are out of a job.
How do we get out of this mess? The unions have done such a great job raising the quality of life here, they now need to do the same in all parts of the world where there is competition for labor. If everyone in the world gets $2.00 per widget, it will be much easier to keep the job here.
Get ready to pay $500 for that new pair of Nike's though!!
Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
FarmVille - Will We Ever Learn?
I just read an article in Business Week the growth of the business of buying virtual goods for social network games such as FarmVille, FishVille and Mafia Wars. In principle, I have nothing against buying virtual goods if that's what floats your boat. I buy loads of real golf balls for real golf, however, for as long as I keep them, they may as well be "virtual".
What really got me about the article was that there are companies out there (Boku, Zong, Kwedit) who are targeting people who don't have the money to pay!
Business Week reports: "Boku and Zong have created applications so gamers can easily pay for virtual goods via a mobile phone. They are appealing to kids who don't have bank accounts or credit cards.." Just maybe the kids should GET a bank account BEFORE they worry about buying a virtual helicopter for Mafia Wars.
Even more disturbing is that Kwedit, a Mountain View CA startup, has developed software that allows users to get game currency IMMEDIATELY, if they promise to pay for it later.
Whatever happened to good old fiscal restraint. Where did we loose sight of the idea that we just have to wait for some things. Put a dollar a week away and in 6 weeks I can buy a Helicopter. In the mean time, fantasize about how great it will be to have it, how you will use it, what you will save for next.
Greed and the desire for instant gratification (also spelled "overextended credit") to a large degree are what got us into the global economic mess we find ourselves in. When will we ever learn?? If corporate America won't take responsibility for reducing the glamor and ease of credit, we should take the lead ourselves, both in how we manage our desires and how we teach our children.
What really got me about the article was that there are companies out there (Boku, Zong, Kwedit) who are targeting people who don't have the money to pay!
Business Week reports: "Boku and Zong have created applications so gamers can easily pay for virtual goods via a mobile phone. They are appealing to kids who don't have bank accounts or credit cards.." Just maybe the kids should GET a bank account BEFORE they worry about buying a virtual helicopter for Mafia Wars.
Even more disturbing is that Kwedit, a Mountain View CA startup, has developed software that allows users to get game currency IMMEDIATELY, if they promise to pay for it later.
Whatever happened to good old fiscal restraint. Where did we loose sight of the idea that we just have to wait for some things. Put a dollar a week away and in 6 weeks I can buy a Helicopter. In the mean time, fantasize about how great it will be to have it, how you will use it, what you will save for next.
Greed and the desire for instant gratification (also spelled "overextended credit") to a large degree are what got us into the global economic mess we find ourselves in. When will we ever learn?? If corporate America won't take responsibility for reducing the glamor and ease of credit, we should take the lead ourselves, both in how we manage our desires and how we teach our children.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
How Did We Get In This Economic Mess?
There has been a lot written over the past year about who is to blame for the economic distress we are experiencing. I would like to propose that GOD, whoever or whatever that is to most people, is to blame.
A peculiar aspect of our civilization is that we begin to indoctrinate our children in the belief of the god fairytale almost from birth . This indoctrination is primarily performed by someone on whom they are completely dependent, the parents. In all other cases, from Alice in Wonderland to The Wizard of Oz, we teach our children that they are just stories. Yet we teach them that the God Story is real, not imaginary, not a fable with a message.
There are two main effects of this. First, we teach our children that their senses and ability to reason are defective. Even though the concept of a supernatural god makes no sense, they are asked to suspend our disbelief and have "faith". Second, we teach them to place an inordinate amount of trust in the leadership of whatever religious organization we belong to.
There is a third, but more subtle issue as well. This is that, because of our early training, we are predisposed to ignore the facts when they do not correlate with what we want to believe. For example, if our religion says that the earth is less than 5000 years old, we look to our religious leaders to provide an explanation that twists the scientific facts around in totally irrational ways to show that the young earth claim is valid. And millions of people believe it! On the other hand, many religions simply change their dogma to be consistent with the science and millions of followers nod their heads and pray. Don't they realize that yesterday they were claiming that god told them the earth was created 5000 years ago? Did god change his mind? Did he make a mistake? Did the people interpreting "god's word" make a mistake? How many more mistakes are they preaching?
My point is that our training to ignore facts that aren't consistent with what we want to hear flows into other areas of our lives besides religion. We see a house that we really want. The facts are that it's over priced and it costs far more than we can afford. We are offered a variable rate mortgage with an initial payment that we can afford. What do we do? We ignore the "facts", just as we have been trained to do since birth, and we buy the house. Unfortunately, when the payment is adjusted 5 years down the road we can't afford it anymore.
Oh, so the banks are the bad guys for offering this low introductory rate. Remember, most of the bankers, from the clerks to the executives, have been indoctrinated the same way from birth. When the Rev. Rick Warren tells them that god wants them to be successful so they can give mega-bucks to the church, they take it to heart. So, the banker understands the fact that he is overextending credit, yet he sees himself becoming more "successful" and he is blinded to using reason and he reacts based on his early childhood indoctrination.
Until we begin the education of our children with a respect for understanding and reason rather than wishful thinking, we will continue to struggle with making decisions in a rational manner. I think most humans are intelligent enough to be able to think through fundamental day-to-day moral issues within the framework of the human species and the environment that surrounds us without the need for fabricated sacred stories that are interpreted by a special few.
Perhaps if we teach our children to think for themselves, they will become more responsible consumers and distributors of information and resources.
If you are one of the many who have doubts about your religion and are seeking a change, you might want to check out a Reasonable Alternative.
A peculiar aspect of our civilization is that we begin to indoctrinate our children in the belief of the god fairytale almost from birth . This indoctrination is primarily performed by someone on whom they are completely dependent, the parents. In all other cases, from Alice in Wonderland to The Wizard of Oz, we teach our children that they are just stories. Yet we teach them that the God Story is real, not imaginary, not a fable with a message.
There are two main effects of this. First, we teach our children that their senses and ability to reason are defective. Even though the concept of a supernatural god makes no sense, they are asked to suspend our disbelief and have "faith". Second, we teach them to place an inordinate amount of trust in the leadership of whatever religious organization we belong to.
There is a third, but more subtle issue as well. This is that, because of our early training, we are predisposed to ignore the facts when they do not correlate with what we want to believe. For example, if our religion says that the earth is less than 5000 years old, we look to our religious leaders to provide an explanation that twists the scientific facts around in totally irrational ways to show that the young earth claim is valid. And millions of people believe it! On the other hand, many religions simply change their dogma to be consistent with the science and millions of followers nod their heads and pray. Don't they realize that yesterday they were claiming that god told them the earth was created 5000 years ago? Did god change his mind? Did he make a mistake? Did the people interpreting "god's word" make a mistake? How many more mistakes are they preaching?
My point is that our training to ignore facts that aren't consistent with what we want to hear flows into other areas of our lives besides religion. We see a house that we really want. The facts are that it's over priced and it costs far more than we can afford. We are offered a variable rate mortgage with an initial payment that we can afford. What do we do? We ignore the "facts", just as we have been trained to do since birth, and we buy the house. Unfortunately, when the payment is adjusted 5 years down the road we can't afford it anymore.
Oh, so the banks are the bad guys for offering this low introductory rate. Remember, most of the bankers, from the clerks to the executives, have been indoctrinated the same way from birth. When the Rev. Rick Warren tells them that god wants them to be successful so they can give mega-bucks to the church, they take it to heart. So, the banker understands the fact that he is overextending credit, yet he sees himself becoming more "successful" and he is blinded to using reason and he reacts based on his early childhood indoctrination.
Until we begin the education of our children with a respect for understanding and reason rather than wishful thinking, we will continue to struggle with making decisions in a rational manner. I think most humans are intelligent enough to be able to think through fundamental day-to-day moral issues within the framework of the human species and the environment that surrounds us without the need for fabricated sacred stories that are interpreted by a special few.
Perhaps if we teach our children to think for themselves, they will become more responsible consumers and distributors of information and resources.
If you are one of the many who have doubts about your religion and are seeking a change, you might want to check out a Reasonable Alternative.
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