Life would be much more simpler if we had massive amount of factory jobs around

[narwhalParticipant]

Beer wrote:

Would it really? Look at sneakers. New Balance are made in America…they cost the same as Nikes that are made in Vietnam…and the New balance is probably the better quality shoe.

That’s not the same situation though. NB cannot charge more for their shoes despite higher manufacturing costs as they still must compete with Nike and the others. They have to accept a lower profit margin, or cut expenses elsewhere…like marketing.

I think a better example would be what happens when the price of oil rises. The costs are always passed on to the consumer, across the board. Even food prices go up due to the rise in oil prices. Of course, they have to keep the price where the market will bear it, but they will pass on as much as they can to retain their profits.

Beer wrote:

Or like you mention smart phones…well let’s look at that…here’s a little article…

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/apples-iphone-6-profit-margin-at-least-69-per-cent-report-20140924-10ld37.html#ixzz45WzEnZGB

IHS found the costs range from $US200 ($225) to $US247 ($278) for iPhone 6 models that sell in the US for $US649 and $US849 without a contract. The more expensive models sport 128 GB of storage space, netting Apple a slightly higher margin.

They make 400+ dollars per phone. If a single employee could only produce 1 phone per day…they could pay that guy 20 dollars an hour and still make over 200 dollars a phone. The fact that they pay some Chinese guy less than they’d pay an American just means extra profit to them…it doesn’t mean they say sweet…if we made this in America we’d sell it for 450, but instead we’ll make it more cheaply in China and sell it for 275. They sell their various phones for a 200-300% mark up over manufacturing costs lol.

But the article stated that the cost estimate does not include marketing and distribution, and certainly doesn’t cover R&D or other overhead costs. As well, an employee costs more then they’re salary. They also pay taxes, perhaps provide benefits, etc. American unskilled workers can unionize and force a higher salary. I think the cost margin between American and foreign workers is greater then you think.

Regardless of all that though, a corporation isn’t going to leave money on the table very often. Stockholders aren’t usually satisfied with “Made in America” when they could make more money with overseas manufacturing.

That’s capitalism though and it’s all good. The problem is that our government has created an unfair market with environmental laws, taxes and such. I’ll I’d ask it to base tariffs on an amount that allows Americans to compete fairly with foreign markets. Compensate for the mess they made themselves.

As for illegal immigration, I am pretty much a hypocrite on that. I live in a neighborhood (in Texas) that’s under construction, and all of the workers are Hispanic. I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to afford the house I live in if it wasn’t for illegal immigration. And let’s face it, our taxes are not going to go down if we cut off illegal immigration. I doubt we’d even try and cut in to the deficient.

Ok. Then do it.

[Zuberi TauParticipant 10606]

It was no accident.
The factory jobs were shipped overseas with our tax dollars. You didn’t really need a degree to work at a factory and if you were impoverished, that job could get you back on your feet faster than working at McDonald’s.

[FearlessMGHOWParticipant 1928]

Factory jobs are great for when you’re young like me, but if you work for them even until you’re old, your body will wear out from all the labor. Just like construction jobs, they’re good while you’re young, but when you’re old, it f~~~ing sucks.

And older people are f~~~ed in getting jobs just as younger people are. The only difference is, older people can actually apply to things like SSI. Younger people don’t have much options in this regard. We either have to leech off our parents (like I’m doing right now) or be homeless.

As for my retirement is concerned anyway, what I plan to do is buy a rental property. Either a house or condo. Then, I’ll end up renting it out and living the rest of my days as a survivalist, fishing for food and hiking through the wilderness. That’s my dream goal anyway.

I’d never want to live out my retirement years in this f~~~ed up society. I’d rather spend my last days out in nature.

Men age like fine wine. Women age like milk. "One hundred women are not worth a single testicle." -Confucius

[Crazy CanuckMember 4215]

. The thing that sucks the most though is that we gen y people cannot really get these jobs anymore and now we might be stuck in juggling like 2-3 part time retail jobs with a lower chance of the jobs even being

unionized

over a factory job where the factory job also has stress free working conditions.

Unions killed factory jobs, so it’s either over seas or replaced with robots. Unions are still hurting the economy. I’m talking about all unions both public and private sector unions. Stupid Toronto police unions are creating high inflation. So are the TTC workers in Toronto. A person that works and collects fares earns up to $110 000. It’s only matter of time unions will cause further economic damage and cities will eventually be bankrupt too.

"If pussy was a stock it would be plummeting right now because you've flooded the market with it. You're giving it away too easy." - Dave Chapelle

[BeerParticipant 11832]

narwhal wrote:

But the article stated that the cost estimate does not include marketing and distribution, and certainly doesn’t cover R&D or other overhead costs. As well, an employee costs more then they’re salary. They also pay taxes, perhaps provide benefits, etc. American unskilled workers can unionize and force a higher salary. I think the cost margin between American and foreign workers is greater then you think.

People p~~~ and moan about health insurance companies ripping them off…when the average profit margin of a health insurance company is around 3.5%. Meanwhile those very same people will run out and buy an iPhone and what is Apple’s profit margin? Almost 40%! I think any company with a 40% profit margin and 200b in cash on hand could pay their workers more than 3 dollars an hour and remain healthily profitable…

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not against companies making a profit or trying to dictate who should make how much…I’m just using this as an example as why free trade deals are absolute s~~~ for us as a nation. We should spank companies that do this s~~~ with finished products with heavy tariffs so it becomes not so profitable vs just keeping jobs here. If more companies decide to just start manufacturing here again, awesome, if not, why not use tariffs on foreign production to lessen the tax burden on our citizens and domestic production…it would put more money in the average persons pocket, make our domestic companies more competitive here at home, and the lowering their tax burden would also make them more competitive abroad.

Obviously we can’t stop globalization with modern technology becoming what it is, and so many developing nations catching up to us in terms of being modernized…but right now it seems like the idiots in charge would rather accelerate our decline down to the lower standard of living of other countries rather than try to maintain what we have and let other countries play catch up to us.

[BeerParticipant 11832]

Crazy Canuck wrote:

Unions killed factory jobs, so it’s either over seas or replaced with robots. Unions are still hurting the economy. I’m talking about all unions both public and private sector unions. Stupid Toronto police unions are creating high inflation. So are the TTC workers in Toronto. A person that works and collects fares earns up to $110 000. It’s only matter of time unions will cause further economic damage and cities will eventually be bankrupt too.

I’m a firm believer public unions should be outlawed. Unions were started to fight for better working conditions and fair wages for workers who were employed by factory owners making a fortune while paying them a pittance while treating them like disposable, replaceable trash. Considering all the labor and safety laws we now have working conditions aren’t an issue a phone call to a OSHA or the labor board can’t fix, government workers aren’t working for some rich greedy guy, and if all else fails and you are truly wronged by an employer a good old fashion law suit will easily get you some money through the court system. Government unions are no more than a voting cartel that sells their votes to the highest bidder.

[narwhalParticipant]

@beer, I agree regarding tariffs, in case it seems like I’m not. I just don’t blame corporations for using foreign labor when it’s cheaper. I’d prefer tariffs over some other government regulation.

I should add too that I do think it would have a negative economic impact in the short term. I would not want to heavy tariffs immediately, but slowly ease into it.

@survivor. My ‘all good’ comment was referring to corporate behavior of seeking profits. When government starts mucking things up with taxes and regulation, I think they should at least compensate by keeping foreign entities that are not subjected to the same taxes and regulations under tariffs. As far as the quality of my arguments…ok.

Ok. Then do it.

[Enjoy The DeclineParticipant 1719]

So one person here says that unions are bad because it inflates people’s salaries, and another person says that public unions are bad because it is all about it being a voting system where people sell their votes to the highest bidder. That factory job I mentioned earlier, we had to pay a small union fee yet it was the company administrators that did something in fixing the vending machine while the shift union leader acted like it was out of his control. At least they cannot lay you off when you are in a union though, but they can give you a hard time to get you to quit if they think that you are a bad worker.

"Question everything" - Albert Einstein

[BeerParticipant 11832]

narwhal wrote:

@Beer, I agree regarding tariffs, in case it seems like I’m not. I just don’t blame corporations for using foreign labor when it’s cheaper. I’d prefer tariffs over some other government regulation.

Oh definitely…I don’t fault them for taking their business elsewhere either…I fault the idiots in charge who come up with the s~~~ty policies that have made it so easy for these companies to do what they do, and in fact, actually puts them at a disadvantage for trying to remain a purely American company.

Enjoy The Decline wrote:

That factory job I mentioned earlier, we had to pay a small union fee

What’s a small fee? The union I was part of got about 6 dollars an hour from my company for every hour I worked towards their health insurance fund and pension fund. It was a s~~~ty deal for me. Like I mentioned earlier…their pension fund was broke so I didn’t like paying into that. Additionally I had to pay the same for my healthcare as one of my coworkers who had 4 kids and a wife on his policy. Kinda sucks splitting the tab for a family plan when you are a single guy…I’d rather have had a single guy policy and the difference in my paycheck which is exactly what I have now without a union dictating what I get. The guy with dependents and a wife on his policy has to pay about 2.5x what I do.

Additionally they’d hit me for about 30 bucks a week in union dues and administrative fees. All together they handled about 25% of my total compensation package…that is hardly a small fee…

Enjoy The Decline wrote:

yet it was the company administrators that did something in fixing the vending machine while the shift union leader acted like it was out of his control.

Probably because the company contracted with the vending machine company to put the vending machine there. Your union boss fixing a vending machine would have been like you going to the local walmart and trying to fix a broken vending machine for them…not your job, not your responsibility, and not your property to be messing with in the first place.

Enjoy The Decline wrote:

At least they cannot lay you off when you are in a union though, but they can give you a hard time to get you to quit if they think that you are a bad worker.

I’ve seen a lot of guys get laid off even while union. If they don’t have work they don’t have to pay you to come in and do nothing…and even if it was just a slow day or a slow week they’d usually find someone willing to burn up some vacation time and go home.

Plus, at least in my experience, its not exactly impossible to fire a union employee. I’ve seen people fired on the spot for fighting, stealing, and failing drug tests and the union was powerless to get them their job back. Depending on how big of a dick you are on top of that…all it takes is a paper trail to fire you. If you get written up enough times for being late or doing dumb s~~~, you can get fired and your union has no leg to stand on while trying to defend you.

Of course I’ve also seen people that showed up to work, and just acted stupid and worked really f~~~ing slow and hid a lot so they could get away without doing as little as possible. They were just playing the game…they weren’t really doing anything wrong but they were s~~~ty co workers and s~~~ty employees…yet thanks to the union it was hard as f~~~ to fire them and they were smart enough not to do anything worthy of being written up for…like you catch them doing nothing and all they have to do is say they had to go to the bathroom and what can you do? Its a lawsuit waiting to happen if you try to regulate someones bathroom usage.

[IGMOW (I Go My Own Way)Participant 2572]

Rifkin’s End of Work addresses what is going on, eventhough there are criticisms related to it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_Work

One thing is you can’t be looking back. All you can do is adjust for the future. For myself, I am working a stable IT job now, trying to hold on to it, save money, and build a financial future. I deal with the issues of being a single man, but try to live below my means if I can, and get my debts paid off. One thing I do have is clothes are really cheap, if I don’t care I shop at the likes of Walmart, or buy clothes right as they are going out of season. For example, I got a shirt suitable for work, for under $4. I buy long-sleaved Polo shirts.

"I am my own thang. Any questions?" - Davis S Pumpkins.

[Anonymous 12]

Enjoy The Decline wrote:

Code Bunker (AKA “Stealthy Mgtow”) wrote:

Fatherless kids grow up to hate men.

Looks like you hit just about all the notes.

That would be one part they have failed completely on as it would seem that fatherless boys grow up to see women as whores and fatherless girls grow up to be whores.

[ResidentEvil7Participant 9540]

Well there was too many posts for me to read, so I just want to reply to the topic title.

Here in Illinois, especially in Chicago, we led the industrial era for over 100 years, but in the 70s, the Democrats destroyed those factory jobs by taxing them too much and making it to where they had to leave the state. Very sad. I blame the Democrat government for destroying those factory jobs in Illinois the past 50 years. I mean you’re right what some of you said; if you can get by with just a high school education, you can work a full-time shift long-term, make good money and not have the worry about having to college educate yourself while racking up debts that won’t stop following you around while not being able to find a job and living in your mother’s basement. Unfortunately those days aren’t with us anymore.

My plan to get ahead in this strange economy is to plan ahead, and keep educated without having to break the bank to do it.

Let’s take Best Buy (I know, I’m obsessed) and that interview I had with one of the locations last Wednesday. If I get the merchandising job, my plan is to get myself settled in, meet the people, show them what I’m capable of, make contributes to the company, and restudy the research courses I took last years on customer service which I’m hoping to land me a sales or customer service related job. Then build up customer service skills while doing that. Then while doing a sales position, I will and I already am starting (sort of) to go in for getting my A+ certification with CompTIA so I can go in for a Geek Squad position. While doing that, work my up to a supervisor spot, and go and take some classes for retail management so I can do that. So basically my career goal wherever someone allows me to land at is to build skills, plan ahead, keep educating myself, contribute, and establish myself; not entirely in that order.

By the way, my dad worked for a printing factory (one that made those Union 76 labels at those gas stations) for 20 years before behind laid off in 1994 and he said that working at a factory DOES suck. It could just be him and where he worked at, but he didn’t like it. Since then, he’s been a truck driver, and had to be laid off in 2010 where he was making $80K a year, and now works at another truck driving company making about 40% less than he did when his income peaked. It’s wrong but it happens.

https://themanszone.webs.com/

[Author]

Posts