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no corbin
I have and am doing a damn fine job of keeping a job.
posted by
kooka_lives
on September 21, 2006 at 4:03 PM
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"I'm not the one who has to worry about loosing my business."
Nope...you not....you're to busy worrying about trying to get and or keep a job.......
LOL
posted by
Corbin_Dallas
on September 21, 2006 at 1:45 PM
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G.D.
I know you believe you are trying to help me by showing me the error of my ways, but there is little point in you telling me what I already know and disagree with about the way things are being done.
I can't help but wonder what you would have told Henry Ford when he went against what everyone at that time considered to be the way you run a business? Or when he went away from what was being taught to those educated in running a business?
Now I am not trying to say I will be the next Henry Ford, since I really do not plan to ever get that big, but the truth is that real business is built on not following what everyone tells you is the way it is done. That has been proven time and time again.
I personally am 100% positive that I will do damn well once I get my business going. I have no doubt at all about that. Of course only time will tell and in the end I will either succeed or fail due to the choices I make when the time comes.
In truth all you can do is advise me and tell me what it is you have experienced. To try and say a new way of thinking will fail simple because it is not the way everyone is taught to think just does not work is only aiming for failure before it is tried.
I seriously am done wit this because both of us are relying on our personal experiences, knowledge and understandings and at that level we will see the business world differently There is no point to keeping this going. I really do understand much more than you think, but I see much of it as being the wrong way to go about things if you want economic stability.
If for once I am actually proven wrong when it comes to business, then so be it. Only time will tell. Of course considering that most of what I have said is how big businesses should be managed, I truly doubt I will ever get eh chance to try and see if my ideas will work. I already know that no one is willing to listen to them and give them a try. Of course since that is the cast I will never be proven wrong.
The number one thing a person needs to have to succeed in business is perseverance with being a risk taker and confidence as the 2nd and 3rd. Looking at those traits, I really believe I have what it takes and I will do it my way in the end.
posted by
kooka_lives
on September 20, 2006 at 7:30 PM
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kooka_lives - all I can say about your two lengthy comments is "wow"
As in: wow, your lack of business education and experience is showing. Recessions happen for a lot of reasons but primarly because of factors due to market saturation (everyone has one, no one is buying another one for awhile, what ever "one" may be, car, house whatever), money supply, lack of investment, interest rates and a host of other factors. The polarization of wealth is an aside to the natural cycle of recession but can be a factor in exacerbating market direction. Anyone who has no experience in business can dream up a plan that they think will work, as unkind as these words may sound; ignorance is bliss in this regard. The reality is that the massive economies of North America are extremely complex and the greatest business minds that we produce through our educational systems mold and shape these economies.
There are problems, of this there is no doubt, firmly entrenched and institutionalized systematic problems but there is no one solution, there isn't even a list of solutions. There are only reactions and adjustments based on knowledge. Experience will teach you this, business education will be broadened and its principles reaffirmed by this experience but until the time comes when you gain greater knowledge in both arenas, you are just another working stiff who thinks he knows. Again I don't mean to use cruel words but what do you think the chances are that an individual who has limited business education and has worked as an employee their entire life has of actually having a working solution to our economy's ills?
There was a reason that I brought up small business. If you are ever likely to shake your misguided ideas pertaining to big business and how they should be responsible for their employees, it is only likely to come from experience within your own small business. There is also a reason why I have engaged you in this dialogue; until you separate yourself from the "boys in the lunchroom" mentality, you do not have a hope in hell of ever making it in business.
I can guarantee one thing in that regard. The minute that it is your investment dollars on the line to operate any business, you will be astounded at how quickly you come to the realization how little you actually know about business.
posted by
gomedome
on September 20, 2006 at 2:38 PM
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Carbin, you are too funny for words
Now I will admit that most of what I said there was just to piss you off because I can not stand you in the least and really am just tired of hearing all the B.S. that comes from you. So I am not even going to try and be polite to you, since you are beyond belief what I am against in life
Two employees, you are well ahead of most of the small businesses owners I know and have talked to, who gained nothing at all from those tax cuts. As I have said in the past they actually are hurting because of Bush's crap. They have to pay for certain resources now, such as legal advice and such which had free programs for small businesses that have been cut because Bush had to find some kind of cuts to do so he could go to war and help out his buddies. I still think you sound like you are a middle sized business or an upper sized small business. Nothing you have once said makes me believe you are truly running a real small business.
I'll ignore all the cruise stuff since I did say that to piss you off and it worked, so thanks for the entertainment. Some times conservatives can be real easy to manipulate. Of course I find it interesting that you seem to lack passion for your own business and that alone to me is a poor business practice. if you dislike cruises so much why would you run a travel agency, knowing you are going to have to go on cruises.
You told me one time that thanks to Bush's tax cuts (Which you now claim only helped small business out with thousands of dollars, which is actually not going to be enough to hire a new employee, since that would only pay for a few months. At the most that might help to get caught up in a few bills, but will do no lasting benefits for most small businesses) that you were now able to hire an extra person. What that say is thanks to government help you were not able hire an extra person. At some point you also told me that you never needed nay help from the government to get your business running. Then is the tax cut help from the government or not?
I understand that the business is always with you, but that does not mean you are always working. If you wish to lie to me and claim that while on those cruises you spent 16 hours a day, 7 days a week doing nothing but work then I will just have all the more proof that you are full of it. 53 hours is the average amount of work needed by a small business owner to run their business successfully, if you are doing it correctly.(Of course that knowledge comes from taking business classes that went over the facts about small businesses) If you are on a business trip of some kind you are still NOT going to be working 16 hours every day. You may be on call, but you are not working. And of course you are talking here about one to three weeks periods and not a true average. But of course you are a conservative, so facts matter little to you.
As for me being too good of an employee I was. I never even tried to make my bosses feel inferior, it just happened because they were not very bright which is why they made it so far in the company. I never bragged about my intelligence to anyone, it was just too obvious to all that worked with me. I was not any kind of distraction an that was proven to me when I went back tot eh store and was told by the guy who took over for me that he could not handle the job I had. Of course you have just told me all I need to know. If you have been a manager with Sam's Club then chances are you learned the same kind of crap management skills. Every single upper level management I dealt with I was smarter than and had a much better grasp of what needed to be done. I really never challenged them, but they were always proven wrong in the end. I never once overstated the flaws. At the most I would tell them what I felt should be done and if they disagreed I would let them have it and it would fail and only prove that it should have been done my way, not that I ever once said anything about it afterwards. Or I would just nod my head and do it my way and prove them wrong that way, since I never once failed by doing it my way and created more sales and profit than if I had done it their way.
I got fired because I was unable to stress out over the small stuff and kept myself calm, getting my work done effectively, running double digit increases for my department while the store itself was down in sales. The store manager who stressed out over every little thing and was a total wreck of a man wanted me to be as stressed as he was and really showed very often to me that it bothered him that I was a good at my job as I was. He kept trying to find mistakes in the way I was doing thing sand never could. All of the assistant managers who worked with me loved me because I made their jobs easier, while the store manager just was driven crazy by not being able to find flaws in my work.
I am unclear as to how a business man would not be paying attention to the economists who are talking about how the recession is about to really hit hard in the next year or so. And when that does do you really think a small travel agency is going to be one of the businesses that will not be dragged down by it all? Travel is about the greatest luxury out there and my guess is that we are going to see a huge drop in travel a year from now. But believe what you will. I'm not the one who has to worry about loosing my business.
posted by
kooka_lives
on September 20, 2006 at 10:29 AM
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Kooka....
You are truly clueless......
Having read your comments and posts, you own a medium size business owner, not a small business owner.
Really......well, bub, I have 2 count em........2 employees
I know small business owners, since I have been talking to many of them while I was working on putting together my own business plan. You see small business owners generally do not get to hire many people
Clueless example # 1......the figures come from the number of small business....there are millions of them.......
and do not get to take time of to go on cruises, since they are struggling to get by. And they do work their asses off.
You are a work of art..... it must be hereditary.........I was working on the cruise....I own a tour company....part of my job is taking groups of 30 to 150 people all over North America! I hate cruising!
They generally are not getting ahead and the Bush tax cuts were a joke with them since it really made no changes at all in their profits.
Uhhhh...the reduction of capital gains taxes alone saved small businesses thousands of dollars.......and the cuts in the estate taxes have and will continue to allow family businesses to be passed on......small and mid sized farms are family businesses to you know......
Unlike you, who made the claim that he could hire another person for his business (Which was very odd because it came after you claimed you needed no help from the government to get by in business. So then why did it take the help of the government for you to hire this extra person?)
For this one....one needs an interpreter.....
Also I know for a fact the average small Business own work an average of 53 hours a week. So stop making up B.S. to paint yourself as a harder worker than you are.
Do you think you leave your business behind when you walk out the door? It is with you all of the time......
If you are putting in 16+ days five times a week, then you are not running your business very well at all or you are avoid real life.
Well......in my line of work when you go on a 7 - 21 day trip you start at 6-7 AM and you finish at 8PM and it's 7 days a week because you are responsible for the people........I am not complaining about the hours...but you were making it sound like only "employees" had to work long and hard for a living.
I can't hold a job because I work to damn hard and too damn good. Trust me, most bosses do not want someone who is truly a harder worker than they are working for them. I learned that the hard way. Keeping a job has nothing at all to do with hard work and everything to do with kissing-ass and bowing down to idiot bosses who think like you do.
You really should read your comments......there's a distinct trend here...and you may not like hearing it...but your problem is within.........
First, the statement about bosses don't want someone who is a harder worker is lame......I started with a business just like a SAMS Club...a wholesale club warehouse.....I started as an assistant department manager and within 4 years I was running my own warehouse club....with 235 employees.......I did it because I always made sure the a person beneath me learned how to do my job as well or better than I could...then when a promotion opened up, the company couldn't say I couldn't be replaced from below.....
You see I have been told by many of my bosses that they knew I was smarter than them.
If they knew it....it was probably because you were telling it to them....or fellow employees who passed it on to them.........
I am also sure I intimidated a fair amount of them because I was too competent in my job. And in fact I was fired form my job of eight years because the store manager did not like dealing with me because I did not just bow down and tell him he knew it all.
Read this last bit you wrote very closely.........you're a trip.....I would have fired you, too. Not because you were smarter....but because it's quite apparent that you were a disruptive influence in the workplace.......I can see you now running from employee to employee on breaks and lunches...whining about how you're smarter than the boss....pointing out every flaw you perceive in how things are run...how you don't get what you deserve.......
And the irony here is that you actually did.....you got fired!
I am now positive beyond belief that you had some kind of head start to get where you are at. Should be interesting to see what happens to your business in the next few years as the economy really falls apart. After all a truly well run business would not need a tax cut in order to be able to hire the needed help.
Hahahahahahahahahahah! ROTFLMAO. Have you thought about seeking disability benefits?
posted by
Corbin_Dallas
on September 20, 2006 at 7:49 AM
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G.D. on to part 2 of my reply
Now for the second part of my reply.
I must thank you for the compliment in that you seem to think that once I start up a business it will right away become a Big Business. While I do believe that I will do well in business once I get the ball rolling, I can tell you that it will most likely be some time before I get to the level of being a Big Business, if ever.
You see my comments were about Big Business and you replied \with examples of small business operations. They are truly two different animals. Small businesses can not afford to pay as good of wages as Big Businesses. That is just logic and at no point in time have I said otherwise. You need to try and separate out the comments of mien that are talking about Big Business and the ones that talk about business in general, which are few.
As for the stock market I understand just how much our present economy is relying on it. And it does scare me at times. We are too reliant on it as far as I am concerned. Due to the fact that the stock market can easily be altered due to false profits and such and is very often not as accurate of what is taking palce as many would like us to believe, it has and does often screw us over. I will not pretend to have any better solution, just that I do not play the market. I have only one investment right now that is based on the stock market and that is a long term, 30 year deal that is of medium risk. Right now any and all short term investments are highly risky. We will most likely see a fair amount of people finding their futures destroy because they have put too much faith into the stock market (Well, we have already seen this). Given a few years after the economy recovers from all that is happening right now, I might have more faith in the market, but as it stands I do not wish to take such a high risk.
posted by
kooka_lives
on September 20, 2006 at 7:19 AM
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G.D.
I'm gonna break this down into at least two replies, but one would just be too big right now with all I have to say.
So to answer your first question, all of the business administrators of Big Businesses are right now doing it all wrong, and yes I do believe that I could do better if given the chance. This comes from eight years of dealing with the decisions being made by those guys and each and every time I ever felt they made a mistake I was proven 100% correct. I could not list the amount of times I knew better than they did and I was never once proven wrong.
Right now what you have running most Big businesses are a bunch of guys who have degrees but no practical experience at all. Any big company can be looked at as a boulder, sitting atop a nice flat plateau. It takes someone with knowledge and experience to get that boulder rolling. But due to the laws of physics any dumbass can come along and keep the thing rolling after it gets started. So it is real easy for any guy with a degree to walk in and get a CEO job and keep that company going because of the momentum that is already there. The problems become obvious at times when the momentum starts slowing down and the boulder is headed down the wrong path.
The truth is your way of thinking has not been proven to be fully effective. You have even admitted that you way of thinking is going to hit recession ever so often, claiming there is no way around it. My way on the other hand has not once been tried, because it would need for Big Businesses (Not small businesses) to step up and start acting responsible for the long term goals.
Why do recession happen? Because the wealth gets too polarized. If say a dozen or so of these companies who make multi-billion dollars in profit every year were to be responsible and not wish to have to suffer through a recession that very likely will hurt their companies, it actually would not bankrupt them and if done right would not bring down the value of the company, to put a few hundred-million dollars back into the hands of their employees. If this is done a billion dollars or so a year ends up back in circulation with-in the country what would that do for the economy? Sure it might take a few years to really have the lasting effect, but the more money that is out in circulation the healthy the economy is going to be. And the thing is most of those companies would find that about half that money would go right back to them. Now you add to that some kind of government incentive in the form a tax cut for those companies being responsible (Basically setting it up so that trickle down economics is actually taking place, instead of giving the tax cuts blindly and saying it will help out) and you have a real good deal that would actually benefit the companies in the long run and help to build up the economy for all.
Do you actually think this would not work?
posted by
kooka_lives
on September 20, 2006 at 7:06 AM
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kooka_lives - you should reread your last comment
It really does appear as if you are suggesting that all of the business administrators on the continent are universally doing things wrong. It also appears that you feel that you know how to do it right. These are the impressions I draw from what you have written. I can say that if you ever do start your own business, your attitudes towards all of these things but especially the responsibilities employers have to their workforce will change dramatically. If you ever do have employees, there will come a day when you hand them their paychecks and go home without one yourself because there is nothing left for you. When this day comes and it will if you go into business for yourself, the first inklings of what you can realistically do as an employer in regards to assuming responsibility for your workforce will be driven home.
I also sense a bit of a disconnect in your thinking in terms of the stock market. Are you not able to connect the dots from the stock market trading floor to your dinner table? The stock market will have its ups and downs but we had all better hope that the day when people stop investing in it never comes. There is no arguing that some of the nuances of the free market economy have been bastardized for short term gain. I have seen trends develop in the business world over my lifetime that have been detrimental for everyone involved in business. The universal extension of net 30 days being a prime example. I've gone to net 15 days and have deleted client accounts of those who have a history of net 90 days or more but I'm swimming upstream on this one. I can afford to lose a few lousy clients, but most businesses cannot and the reality is ever present that my stance does not make one iota of difference. The point here is that a free market is dynamic and the trends within it ever changing.
Employers can only manipulate the level of worker incomes to a very minor degree. The ceiling is determined by profit margins coupled with the availability of and competition for skilled labor, Unskilled labor is an entirely different matter. There is no compelling reason for any employer on this planet to pay anything but the lowest wage possible to an unskilled worker. This is a sad reality, if the worker has not taken the responsibility himself to elevate his skill level, he/she has written their own epitath in terms of ever finding a decent paying job. There are hundreds of millions of people on this planet willing to do anything to just make a living, this fact has put enormous pressure on the base level of unskilled wages.
Somehow in this, a business administrator is supposed to worry about maintaining the living standards of middle class America? You will find that the day you open your own business, you will have only one concern.....paying the bills and hoping that there is a little left over for you.
posted by
gomedome
on September 15, 2006 at 11:33 AM
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Gomedome
We are all limited by our experiences, I know that and I know I do not have the best knowledge of business practices. But I do also know that a fair amount of those who are running business have no practical knowledge right now, a great deal of them not having had to actually see things from the working class POV. If truly feel if these CEOs really knew what it was like at the bottom and saw just how the money flowed down at the working class level, they might make better decisions for all.
I have been doing a fair amount of research over the last year or so because I do want to open my own store. I've taken a few classes on opening a small business and business management,as well as looking all kind of information on-line. I have also always had a knack for making money when I put effort into it. The bartering and selling thing has been a natural thing for me. Now I will admit I have not been pushing myself in that direction for a little while now. I have so many ideas that I have not been following through with. I need to pull myself together and get something started up I know that.
As for the employment numbers you talked about. I am well aware that small businesses do employ more than big businesses, but small businesses do not make enough to have the greater impact of altering the standards. If Wal-Mart were to actually live up to the founding idea of the company that Sam Walton created the company on and paid fair wages to the employees, that would benefit Wal-Mart as well as all other companies, both small and large in and around Wal-Mart stores. That would then allow small businesses to pay more as well since they would be making more and it would become contagious as always businesses in the are were able to grow. Instead companies like Wal-Mart are finding ways to pay bellow the standards and are not doing what they should be to help meet the needs of the work force that is out there. I have seen several articles on this and have experience it first hand when I Was looking for a job this last year where most of those looking for jobs are being forced to take jobs bellow their level of experience and education. No company wants to step up and start trying to raise the bar, which is what really seems to be needed.
I look at the big picture and see what in my mind is going to be best for the future of the economy, not just what will get a few companies their big bucks here and now. I dislike stocks greatly since going public has destroyed more than its fair share of companies and right now with economists saying that we are about to really get hit hard by the recession, it is also a very foolish thing to be invested in. I am betting you that we are going to see a major drop in stock prices and some very intense and surprising business failures in the next year or so. And it could have been avoided as far as I can see. The polarizing of the wealth is always preventable.
In truth chances are my concepts are not fully correct, just as the ideas you expressed are not. As is the norm, there is most likely a level in between that needs to reached for the best effect. Right now the problem is that we are over too far into the area you talked about where the push to get the quick profits to please investors here and now is all that matters.
posted by
kooka_lives
on September 15, 2006 at 8:23 AM
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kooka_lives - you've missed a couple of my points
I never said that Big Business has no responsibility in stimulating the economy, I said that they have no responsibilities outside of their day to day business or within the realm of their business activities if you prefer. There also seems to be a reality that escapes you, Big Business is not the largest employer in any modern day economy, not by a longshot. Small businesses and sole proprietorships employ far more people than any other segment of the business world. We can go on back and forth but there is one thing that is painfully obvious and I do not mean this as an insult but more of an observation: Your conclusions are lunchroom conclusions, the kind of things my employess came up with back when I had employees. They are the words of someone who has never invested in business and have gleaned their information from sources other than any investment experience.
Paying good wages is not as simple as just giving everyone a raise. No single employer, no matter how large, can set wage and benefit standards. These things are determined entirely by the marketplace, specifically the supply and demand of skilled labour and the price competition amongst trade goods. Any employer large enough to affect a regional economy will have shareholders and their first responsibility has to be to those investors or the company would not exist in the first place. In this however, you have identified one of the glaring deficiencies of a free market system in the constant need to show short term gain. Quite often at the expense of long term vision, there is no doubt about this but this too is another reality that must be dealt with.
In my comment, I was not suggesting that you attempt to start your own business, I was suggesting something a little different. That you find a means to supplement your income. Simple buying and selling, bartering and salvaging, have been the beginnings of many successful enterprises.
posted by
gomedome
on September 14, 2006 at 9:10 PM
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gomedome
That is one are that I have never agreed with. Big Business DOES have a responsibility to helping to build up the economics, because if the economy of an area fails, then Big Business is pulled down and ends up NOT providing for its investors/shareholders.
The circulation of money is one of the true keys to a good economy. If money is not circulating, then you have a failing economy. Right now money is not circulating. Tax cuts have already been proven to not work because there is no incentive to get those who gain from the tax cuts do not use the money as it is meant to be used. Big Businesses are making huge amount of money and less and less both percent wise and actual dollar amount of it is going back into circulation. I worked at Wal-Mart long enough to see what kind of game they played in screwing their employees over. When a company reports record profits each and every year and each and every year they give out less in way of raises and benefits, that is a cause of the failing economy, not an effect of it. Also, not paying fair wage has never been the way to build up a business, but has been very much part of a good deal of business failures.
I will once more use Marvel comics as a prime example of how this works. Marvel comics is a long lasting company that was always doing well. Then it went public and things got bad for it. By having to worry about short term gain here and now Marvel Comics came close to going under. Comicbook companies do not last long if they are worried about short term gain. They burn out real fast. They survive off of long term planning and making sure the company is stable. Marvel had to do a lot of reworking company wise to survive.
While the government needs to be finding ways to create incentives for Big Businesses to be responsible, Big businesses need to be thinking about the long term, since the if they only focus on the short term there is a good chance of burn out and that would not be providing for investors/shareholders. We have seen companies like JCPennys go from a strong stock price to next to nothing because of the kind of thinking you are defending here. History has shown that if all you focus on is short term gain here and now it will come back to bite you. Just look at all the big companies that have gone under in the last decade or so A well run, healthy business that wants a long life needs to be thinking about how it can help the working class stay healthy in order for its own survival, and that means paying fair wages and giving good benefits.
Do I blame Big Business or the government for the situation I am in right now? No, I know what happened to get me where I am in life,. Yet I am very much aware that Big Business and the government are NOT doing what they should be doing if they wish to actually make things better. As for doing all I can to get out the situation I am in? I am working on it, but due to where we are and that it is clear that we have a few more years before things start to improve, I have to be rational and realize that if people do not have money to spend then starting my own business would be foolish at this time.
I've heard this all before and I don't buy it because it has already been shown to not really work. Big Business has to be responsible for helping to build the economy if it wants to be able to survive. it is stupid and foolish for them not, but I guess they want to vanish once the recession gets to its worse, which should be in the next year and half from what I have been reading. This last few years we have seen many well established companies go under, next year I am betting it will get worse. Why? Because Big Business was thinking about short term profit and not about long term stability.
posted by
kooka_lives
on September 14, 2006 at 8:00 PM
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kooka_lives - where do you get stuff like this from?
"If Big Business really wants to help the economy out they need to build up the working class and fix things for long term stability above short term gain."
Big Business has a responsibility first and foremost to its investors/shareholders to make a profit. While doing so they are obligated to be good corporate and community citizens. Both in a legislative sense and ethically. But they in no way have an obligation to attempt to influence regional economies other than within the realm of their day to day business activities and with always keeping the health of the company itself paramount.
There are only 3 levers to pull for economic stimulation and these levers are controlled by government. They are 1. tax incentives 2. interest rates 3. opening the money spigot which inevitably leads to currency devaluation. Unfortunately lever 1. can only be capitalized on by a small percentage of the populace, while levers 2 and 3 are closely linked together. A government can only use incentives to stimulate an economy, it has been tried countless times throughout history to spend out of recession and it never works. Life is now economically tough for some segments of society but it is only going to get tougher. The glory days of the American empire are long gone, the trick for those administering government today is to determine exactly at what point in the larger historic economic cycle we are currently at.
All of the 3 levers have been pulled to their max, your country is an oil based economy and a net importer, the decline is in its advanced stages. At this stage wealth becomes more polarized (the rich get richer) with that polarization accelerating. This is how economies rise and fall, these are facts as immutable as the laws of nature. As a working man supporting a family you have but 2 choices. You can blame big business, government or whomever, or you can accept these realities and make attempts to remove yourself from your situation.
posted by
gomedome
on September 14, 2006 at 6:16 PM
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gomedome
I am well aware of just what you have done to get were you are in life and I am not at all devaluing hard work. But the truth is that right now I am seeing it more and more. It is not the hard work that really counts. Collage degrees are meaning less and less. Decades of experience in a field is very much ignored. You can work hard and do all of it right and still find yourself broke and having to struggle to get by.
Basically the truth is the system is not rewarding where it should be. Bush's tax cuts were done wrong and did not promote any real growth. Nothing is being done to encourage new businesses right now and everything is being done to help the big businesses get bigger and more powerful, making it even harder for the average working class person to get by.
This is not bitching about ho unfair it all is. The true point is that it is actually poor business sense to no pay fire wages and take care of employees. It is only short term profit and will end up costing more in the end because people will have less and less money to spend and the sales will go down, the profit will go down.
If Big Business really wants to help the economy out they need to build up the working class and fix things for long term stability above short term gain.
You should realize I kept myself out of debt and worked hard, never late for work always getting my job done, but I got laid off because one boss had issue with me and now I have fallen greatly into debt that is not getting paid off. I have education and experience that should get me a good job, yet because of the sate of economy those who have more experience than I and better education are getting the jobs at the level I should have. As the more educated and experience have to take away jobs from a level or two down form where they should be at, that pushes those like me even farther down the scale. I learned all of this during this last bit of being unemployed where I was being told that even though I was more than qualified for the jobs I was going after, there were people who were much more qualified applying as well. People who should not have been settling for that level of job.
posted by
kooka_lives
on September 14, 2006 at 4:10 PM
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Corbion
Having read your comments and posts, you own a medium size business owner, not a small business owner. I know small business owners, since I have been talking to many of them while I was working on putting together my own business plan. You see small business owners generally do not get to hire many people and do not get to take time of to go on cruises, since they are struggling to get by. And they do work their asses off. They generally are not getting ahead and the Bush tax cuts were a joke with them since it really made no changes at all in their profits. Unlike you, who made the claim that he could hire another person for his business (Which was very odd because it came after you claimed you needed no help from the government to get by in business. So then why did it take the help of the government for you to hire this extra person?)
You obviously have no understanding of what is going on in this country right now. There was a increase in jobs recently, but those jobs were poor paying and did not meet the needs of the work force. Basically a collage degree became worthless, experience became worthless and hard work became worthless.
Also I know for a fact the average small Business own work an average of 53 hours a week. So stop making up B.S. to paint yourself as a harder worker than you are. If you are putting in 16+ days five times a week, then you are not running your business very well at all or you are avoid real life.
I can't hold a job because I work to damn hard and too damn good. Trust me, most bosses do not want someone who is truly a harder worker than they are working for them. I learned that the hard way. Keeping a job has nothing at all to do with hard work and everything to do with kissing-ass and bowing down to idiot bosses who think like you do.
You see I have been told by many of my bosses that they knew I was smarter than them. I am also sure I intimidated a fair amount of them because I was too competent in my job. And in fact I was fired form my job of eight years because the store manager did not like dealing with me because I did not just bow down and tell him he knew it all.
But you are clearly clueless about such things and do not know me in the least if you really think all that about me.
I ma now positive beyond belief that you had some kind of head start to get where you are at. Should be interesting to see what happens to your business in the next few years as the economy really falls apart. After all a truly well run business would not need a tax cut in order to be able to hire the needed help.
posted by
kooka_lives
on September 14, 2006 at 3:57 PM
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kooka_lives - I can't think of another time that I have disagreed with one
of your posts more than this one.
For the record, I was not born wealthy, far from it and my "luck" in life came from one source, hard work. The harder I worked the luckier I got. There is a lot of truth in saying that things are not the same as they used to be. Times have changed, everything costs more, it is a lot tougher to get ahead these days than it was just 2 decades ago....but it is all perspective. You live in what is still the wealthiest country in the world. Where times have changed from a perspective of someone who is actually getting ahead; is that in North America we are no longer waist deep in gold littering the ground....it is only knee deep now. But opportunities still abound for those who are willing to work for it. There is no law anywhere that says we must all be provided with a good living if we can only find and hold a job, they tried that in Russia a few years back. We live in a free market economy, conditioning one's self and one's thought processes to instill the disciplines necessary to get ahead is the key. The other choice is to spend one's life bitching about a reality that only we ourselves can change.
posted by
gomedome
on September 14, 2006 at 3:48 PM
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"I know this because I have been smarter than just about all of my bosses"
Hmmmmm? Could we be seeing a source for your problem?
I love the line you on the left give that working people can't get ahead......what in the hell do you think the millions of small businesses in this country do? Nothing? We're not working our asses off? If something goes wrong....who has to take care of it? 16+ hours a day.....but it's mine and I'm damned proud of it! I get tired of hearing whinny assed people who can't hold a job because it's "not the level they're deserving of". You earn what you get in this world.....and unfortunately to some.....it's just to much work and bother.
You and you father have a very twisted sense of our economic system. There are more people working for small business than the big guys you all seem to be soooooooo jealous of.................
posted by
Corbin_Dallas
on September 14, 2006 at 3:35 PM
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Corbin
Wrong, as always.
The ass-kissers, those who were born wealthy and those who are just lucky are the ones who are getting ahead right now.
The smart ones are normally screwed if they have any sense of morals and integrity. I know this because I have been smarter than just about all of my bosses I have ever worked for and most of them got where they were by kissing-ass and showing no morals or integrity. In fact to be considered a good Business man now days it seems that you have to abandon morals and integrity fully and become just like Mr. Bush, who lacks both and is worshipped by those like him who believe that money is more important than anything else in life.
posted by
kooka_lives
on September 14, 2006 at 3:23 PM
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Rarmcwa
You misunderstood, I am employed now. I have had some recent gaps where I was unemployed, but I am working right now. of course I am being paid much less than my education and experience are worth, but I learned that the Big Businesses you are defending are paying less and less out to their employees in order to show higher profits here and now.
And you really missed the whole point of the post itself.
The problem is that Big Businesses are NOT paying fair wages or good benefits and are every year finding ways to pay less and less. This causing the working class to not have disposable income. According to the republicans, the Tax Breaks Bush gave out was suppose to get Big Business to start paying better and get more jobs out here, and this has NOT happened. The tax cuts did nothing more than allow Big Businesses to have more profit that went into the hands of those who were already making a fortune off of the company. Wages are NOT going up at a reasonable rate compared to the cots of living increases.
If Big Businesses actually wanted long term stability and not just quick short term profits, they would be smart to start paying better and helping the working class to not be struggling as much.
I just want this country to not fall into the hands of Big Businesses who will do nothing more than ruin it all so my children will have no hope at all because they were not born wealthy, which is what is happening right now. I just care too much about the future to believe that our present system of business is doing anything at all correctly.
posted by
kooka_lives
on September 14, 2006 at 3:19 PM
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To answer your title......
Only the smart ones.........
posted by
Corbin_Dallas
on September 14, 2006 at 12:44 PM
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From one unemployed worker to another ...
I am a local-market reporter who was canned in May for pursuing some investigative journalism pieces that stepped on too many toes, specifically some heavy-hitter advertisers at my newspaper. So I sympathize, but here's the deal: Big Corporations and the rich pay about 90 percent of the taxes in America. Look it up: families who make less than $40,000 a year, especially if they have the earned income tax credit from having children, pay nothing except payroll taxes (FDIC, Medicare) and state/local taxes (real estate, sales tax, business license tax, etc.).
And all this is true even after W's "tax breaks for the richest Americans." Look it up: the top 10 percent of American income earners pay nearly 70 percent of all federal income taxes. So I'm not mad at them; if they weren't paying the freight, either my taxes would be a lot higher or my government services would be a lot lower. I'll let them keep their money and their hulking tax bills and I'll keep all the good things government provides (military, police, fire, schools, etc. etc.).
And adding tax burdens to Big Corporations is just a sneaky way to take the money out of the pockets of their workers, investors (which we all are, whether we own stocks and bonds or not ... the only reason I can afford auto insurance is the company takes my premium payments and invests them for capital gains and dividends) and customers. So when they get charged more taxes, in order to remain in business and keep their workers employed, they have to increase prices or freeze wages and benefits. Bottom line: we wind up paying those taxes in lost wages and higher prices, and the legislators who hiked corporate taxes get to brag to us and say all those tax dollars are coming from somewhere else.
We'll both work again, and at better wages than the job we lost. But wanting to sue the whole country is shooting yourself (and the rest of us) in both feet.
posted by
Rarmcwa
on September 14, 2006 at 11:07 AM
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janes
I agree fully that greed is the real problem. if some of these idiots who are being overly greedy would actually stop and think they would see that they are hurting themselves by doing what they do.
And to call a Democrat a liberal is practically a joke any more. More and more the democrats are becoming just as conservative on the business front as the Republicans are. Both sides are actually rewarding the greed of Big business because both sides are making a lot of money from it at the expense of the working class.
As for your example, it is a good one. That is what happened with Wal-mart actually. Sam Walton did not build up the company by screwing over his employees. that took place after his death. I have talked to many who had worked when Walton was in charge and they say the company treated its employees a whole lot better. The truth is you do not build these giant, multi-billion dollar companies by being greedy and screwing over your employees. That alone should say a lot about why employees should be paid fair wages and given god benefits. it is how you huge companies got that way, not by hiring those who will work for next to nothing.
posted by
kooka_lives
on September 9, 2006 at 12:18 PM
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kooka_lives, Good post. There are way too many good and responsible people having the same problems that you are facing. Things are so different now from what it was like in the 60's when we raised our children. Greed has really taken over and the gap seems to continually widen between the have's and the have not's.
posted by
TAPS.
on September 9, 2006 at 11:49 AM
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Kooka, I actually agree with a lot you've said,
but don't think you can neatly buttonhole the problem as purely conservative/Republican issue. I think you have to call a spade a spade and call the problem GREED.
Case in point. I live in Michigan, and in my city there was once a conservative, Christian owner of a large company employing thousands. It was an excellent company, the employees were well paid, great benefits, people lined up to work at this company. One day the Christian owner had a massive heart attack and died. His family was not able to run the company, so they sold out to a larger, publicly owned company that they thought would continue his legacy of care for employees. Well, a few years down the road, in spite of the fact that the company was doing very well financially, they decided to out source jobs to Mexico, in order to make the share holders even happier. Thousands of jobs were lost in the process where I live. The widow of the previous owner went on the record as being very upset with the decisions made.
And wouldn't you know, but the CEO of this public company . . . is a registered Democrat who has given generously to liberal causes. So you see, it's not as cut and dried as you would like to make it. Whether Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, it's about greed, and not caring for our neighbors as we ought to.
And regarding your own dilemma. Just keep paying a little extra on your debt each month and you will climb from the hole. It takes time. I've been doing it for years and am now seeing light. Good luck to you!
posted by
JanesOpinion
on September 9, 2006 at 8:55 AM
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kooka
How very true and sad this is. It's like a never ending battle.
Being a single mother, it's hard for me to even imagine getting caught up, let alone ahead, ever. Things are just not set up to help people. It seems almost that you have to have one job each to care for every member of your family. So having two kids, I'd nearly have to work 3 jobs, just for us to live comfortably.
posted by
Afzal_Sunny7
on September 8, 2006 at 6:29 PM
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