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Home » xyzzy » Dungeon » Competitive edge
| Re: Competitive edge - too much nostalgia? [message #55967 is a reply to message #55966] |
Tue, 02 November 2004 09:38   |
Manualblock
Messages: 4973
Registered: May 2009
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Illuminati (13th Degree) |
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Well I see it as a quality of life issue. The myth that has developed; of the lazy shiftless union guys was very effective in turning the spotlight away from the real issues. Now we are in opinion territory here but it is well informed.
Are wages pricing us out of the market; or is the abuse of workers in third world nations acceptable.
The pollution and horrific envirenmental damage done in some manufacturing sites around these source areas of cheap labor will come to haunt us eventually and who do we think will bear the cost of the clean-up?
Two quick illustrations;
In the forties the government was faced with a choice whether to invest in the Railroads in respect to upgrading the rolling stock and lines and facilitating the modernisation of the ports and depots.
They chose to build the interstate highway system instead and fund that through tax dollars instead of profit.
With a modern shipping scheme we would have reduced cost to the manufacturers significantly.
The same time the steel industry chose to stay with the antiquated bessemer forges instead of upgrading and reducing cost.
My point; this country had the ability to support the working public and provide a decent standard of living and choices; for whatever reasons, were made not to persue that path.
Now we live in a time that allows for poorer counries to provide profits generated by many abuses but that will not last.
So when the case is made that we are wage priced out of competition, the chickens in the form of huge clean-up costs, civil unrest due to wage disparity, lack of basic health care, will and are coming home to roost.
That huge tax burden we all are victims of in terms of endless recycling of tax requirements would be minimised through co-operative wage and benefit policies; consequently we would not need to earn a 100k minimum to live in New York and 10$ per would suffice.
I just know deep down there is no free lunch, and every job shipped out of here results in a deeper burden placed on ther rest of us. So you tell me; are we saving money when the price of some item is 2$ less because a child in Shri Lanka makes it?
Around here nobody; and I mean that Nobody mows their own lawn, Mexican immigrants do it, and hey"It's only 20$ a week why should I do it"? Except when they use the emergency rooms at the local hospital for every need because the hospital; by law must treat them.
They send all their dollars home and spend nothing and don't pay taxes, but use the schools and facilities for free. I don't begrudge them a life but that 20$ is really 50$ in the end and that seems to illustrate what I am trying to say.
I know; big story for a simple question. I see you know your figures as a result of doing business and as a bright guy, how do you feel about your employees? Is it cost effective to hire for the long term or work on a just in time basis; which works better over the long haul?
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