The “free-market” means that a massive American corporation, propped up and majority owned by US taxpayers, can now do whatever the hell it wants.
Thousands of the 25,000 workers from Opel’s four factories are gathered in Ruesselsheim to protest at GM’s refusal to sell its European operations.
GM’s U-turn came just days before the agreed sale of a majority stake in Opel and Vauxhall to car parts maker Magna and Russian bank Sberbank.
Under that agreement, Opel workers were promised no factories would be closed.
Sure, this is “good news” for workers in the United Kingdom, just as workers in South Carolina had some pleasant news recently, when Boeing announced it would move a 787 production line to the non-union state. We’ll see how it works out in the long run.
What’s not good news is that nothing changed in terms of fixing the fundamentally unsound financial sector, because it’s still out there operating as if nothing had happened. Workers are being screwed! Wall Street approves! The mammoth banks are screwing consumers and creating “innovative” financial products! Yeah! This is the system that led us to the brink of worldwide financial calamity, and the very same people are back at it again, because they’re still in charge. The real power doesn’t lie in the White House anyhow, I think we all know that.
Decisions like the ones made by Boeing and GM are rational in terms of the zombie neo-liberal system, which rewards chasing the lowest common denominator, but in the process many regular people are stripped not only of autonomy, but in many cases the ability to earn a living. Not every western democracy has abandoned the basic rights of workers, either in law or culturally, and neither has every western democracy been subjected to the idiocy of Fox Noise and the associated conservative movement hate speech on a daily basis. It’s possible that one or more of these western countries may decide to fight back.
It will be interesting to see how German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been played for an asbolute fool, reacts as the days go by. Sure, there will be strikes and such, but the biggest threat to the zombie economic order might be the regular people who don’t believe in it that much any more.
There have already been spontaneous rumblings such as the “credit card revolt.” Why risk getting bashed and gassed when there’s YouTube? BTW, there’s a plan afoot that would care of the troublesome tubes under the guise of “copyright reform,” but I digress.
But what if they threw an economy and nobody bought stuff? Seems to me we’re already half way or more to that point, with consumers de-leveraging in a nearly unprecedented fashion.
Speaking of the “Credit Card Revolt”:
I’m still outraged at CIT using taxpayer money provided under Bush’s bail-out (yep, before Obama even was elected) to buy up the credit card operations of lots of retail stores. CIT immediatly issued notices of huge interest rate increases and outragious penalty fees. We started getting notices by the handful of “Change to your Credit Card Agreement” from CIT, and I’m thinking “What??? We don’t have any credit cards from CIT!” Then after I track down the envelopes they came in I found out that now we do, indeed, have credit cards from CIT – for Sears, Home Depot, etc.
Okay, no big deal right? We pay off any credit card balances each month, except for a major purchase at Sears where we had a year of interest-free financing.
But shortly thereafter, we get a new bill from Sears. The current balance (aside from the deferred financing) is only about $150.00, from when we bought a pressure washer (my father’s day present). I start to put it aside to pay the bill the next week, when we do our monthly bill payments. But I happen to notice the due date on the bill. It used to be on the 28th, but suddenly on this bill it’s due on the 20th – which was yesterday! I call to complain, and they take my payment over the phone, and credit back the late payment fee of $49.00 which was being placed on my account.
But then I get the bill the next month. Sure enough, they credited the late payment fee back, and here was my payment. But there is a $2.00 “statement fee”, for carrying a balance. And a notice that my interest rate was being increased to 29.9% because I had been “in default” on my last payment.
Again, I go through the complaint process. They credit back to me the $2.00 statement fee. But they say they have to ask CIT to put my interest rate back.
Next month, I get a statement with a $2.00 credit for my statement fee. And another $2.00 statement fee, for sending me a statement which shows me the $2.00 credit. I call to complain, the guy on the phone says he will credit the $2.00, but there is nothing he can do about the statement fee, I will continue to get them each month “there is activity on my account.”
I also get a form letter from CIT, refusing to lower my interest rate. So now if I pay off the major purchase which was interest free for one year, and I miss the payoff by $1.00, I will get another bill for about $900.00 in interest for a year – plus that pesky $2.00 “statement fee”. What worries me is that $2.00 statement fee is going to cause them to argue that my payment was $2.00 short of paying off the entire amount. And if I pay $2.00 extra just to make sure, I might get another statement with a $2.00 statement fee because I have a $2.00 credit being carried forward.
We are paying off the major purchase this month. When we do, I’m cancelling the Sears card. We also aren’t going to use any credit cards again, except for my BECU Visa which I use for business expenses. I’ve never had a problem with BECU, so I’m switching everything I have to them.
Anybody who continues to use credit cards is asking to get screwed. Even if you think you are following all the rules, they will change them to get some money out of you. Some cards are even assessing “inactivity fees” – if you don’t use the cards, they will charge you. In short, they think they’ve got a God-given right to all your money, and they will try every scheme possible to get it out of you.
ATM cards are next. Now that they have everyone hooked on using ATM cards instead of cash, they will be assessing additional fees for using the cards.
[Deleted — see HA Comment Policy]
Considering how many self styled “progressives” seem to hate unions, I don’t see any popular outrage expressing itself and changing the relationships of economic power anytime soon. James Galbraith’s remarks about this being a very politically dangerous time in this country ring true.
Anybody else notice the trend where business has inserted itself into the process of charging us for something which used to be free?
1. Debit Cards – we used to carry cash or pay by check. Sure, we had to pay $5.00 a month or so to the bank for using checks, but lots of banks had ways you could avoid that. And most merchants accepted checks, because you could go to jail for passing a bad check. But as municipal services were reduced, police depts. and prosecutors put “bad checks” into the category of things which were never investigated or prosecuted, unless you had a large-scale scheme in place. Merchants started getting stuck with bad checks they couldn’t afford to pursue in civil actions, so they quit accepting them. Now merchants have to pay a fee for each Debit Card transaction. Soon the banks will start charging the customers, also. And if you try to get around it by paying cash, the banks have cut their branch locations and hours, so you will have to pay them an ATM fee to get your own cash.
2. Over-the-Phone Payments – Phone banks which could handle customer service seemed a great idea. 24 hour service, and they could even handle payments! But in my debt counseling service I’m seeing more credit cards which charge a fee of between $10.00 and $20.00 just to take a payment over the phone. What to avoid that by paying by mail? Sure – accept you get your credit card statement ten days before the payment is due, and the fine print says “allow up to ten days for payment processing”. One fellow who used to work in the payment processing centers told me that that they would intentionally hold payments for ten days after receipt, and then process them on the tenth day. Some people might wonder why they would avoid the benefit of depositing those payments as soon as they are recieved, but think about it – they will get only a few percentage points interest on that money in the bank for a few days. By not processing it, the credit card company gets a much higher interest rate – sometimes as high as 29.9% – and they can access late fees as high as $49.00, and if the interest and late fees bump the credit card holder over their credit limit, another $49.00 in overlimit fees. It’s a no-brainer for them. And it’s all legal, as long as they have the disclaimer in their credit card terms which they mail to you occassionally.
3. Cable TV – You used to be able to put some rabbit ears on top of your TV, or an antenna on top of your house, and get free TV using the local channels. Then Cable TV offered much more – movies, specials, etc., plus the local channels. But then they started bundling it with phone service & internet access. You get a good deal for an initial period if you sign up for all three, but if you only want the Cable TV you have to pay out the nose – about $75.00 per month for basic cable at the “regular rates”, in my area. But if you try to go back to the antennas, you find you need converter boxes, etc. I got a much lower rate by simply calling in to cancel my TV service – no antennas work in my area.
5. Cell phones – It used to be that a cell phone was a luxory, only the rich or salesmen who were on the road had one. now everybody loves the convenience of a cell phone, and it’s nice to have free long distance (within certain limits). But I think we are in the “honeymoon period” where the rates are relatively low. I’m still paying $29.99 for each line (we have two phones), because that was our original plan. But it doesn’t include anything new – text messages, internet access, etc. That’s fine by me, I can use a computer for that stuff, I’m not going to bump up to $49.99 per line just to get those extras. But I suspect that soon we are going to have a “consolidation” in the cell phone industry, and once we have only one or two providers, the rates are going to go through the roof.
Anybody else notice ways in which Corporate America is finding new ways to get you to pay for something you didn’t have to pay for previously?
Jon
What you are missing here is that this is battel BETWEEN socialist systems.
GM is now an American Corporations (as is Boeing). Opel’s future and attractiveness to Magma depend on the German government’s commitment of billions of Es. The Magma puchase was a minority partner, most of the money came from a Russian State Corporation.
Nationalism LIVES on in the post capitalistic world!
I’m thinking that the German government is going to get involved in this issue. The unions in Germany and France are rather strong, compared to the U.S. Even the farmers have Unions – it was only a week or so ago that they held protests in Paris, dumping bales of hay into the streets and setting them on fire. They sure know how to get the attention of the government, proving that they can shut down major industries for weeks at a time.
That’s why my sources have told me that EADS has quietly assured those Unions that if they remain quiet about the Northrup/EADS tanker replacement being built in Alabama, they will later quietly shift production back to Europe as soon as it is politically convienient for them to do so – and call it a “cost-savings move” to consolidate production in one location.
What are all you HA Libtardos talking about? GM is still Obama Motors Corporation. Give me a break. Did you all forget who rules the roost there? Kenneth Feinberg
The seven companies under Kenneth Feinberg’s authority are AIG, Bank of America, Citigroup, General Motors Co., GMAC Inc., Chrysler Group LLC and Chrysler Financial.
Nuthin happens at the Obama Motors Corporation with out Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm and his disciples approving it. You are truly delusional if you think otherwise. Well being delusional is a HA Libtardo truth!
Yes TurboTax Cheat Tim Geithner is still at the helm.
“But what if they threw an economy and nobody bought stuff?”
Wow Jon! This is what I’ve been saying all along! What the Ayn Randies don’t get is an economy based on self-interest is a finely balanced machine, and like a high-RPM engine, it flies to pieces if you let go of the controls and it becomes unbalanced.
rhp6033
Ask Puddy about all that. They are HIS buddies. If he won’t answer you, I am sure Klynical will.
@3 The only “progressives” who hate unions are wingnut liars who call themselves “Democrats” or “progressives” or “independents.” That didn’t work for Suzie Hutchison and it won’t work for the rightwing union haters either.
@1, @4 – Here’s what’s going on. The financial industry made a killing — for a while — from origination fees and bundling/reselling “liar” loans but that money eventually dried up when the liars couldn’t pay their loans. So now the industry is trying to cover its losses and squeeze profits out of the only customers who have any money — the good, solvent, paying customers.
That’s right, in the eyes of the financial industry, you’re just the last sheep in the flock with wool after all the other sheep have been shorn and they’re going after you.
I suppose when they’ve looted every last penny from everyone else we’ll see them stealing from each other because there’ll be no one else left to steal from.
Expect the credit card “float” to disappear — interest will accrue from the instant of purchase. This is supposed to nab freeloaders like me who enjoy credit card services and collect reward points but never pay a penny of card fees or interest. Except it won’t, because when they do that, I’ll go back to purchasing with cash.
Expect free checking, free online account access, and free bill paying to disappear. Banks will charge for these services. When they do, I’ll shop around for a credit union or buy more stamps.
Bottom line, bankers have their hands wrapped around the flow of cash through the economy. They have us by the jugular and know it. Not one dollar can move in the economy without bankers taking a skim off the top. They don’t have to earn it, because they’re in a position to take it. And if we don’t voluntarily give it to them, they’ll simply help themselves.
But not me. I’ll defeat the bankers. I’ve lived as a minimalist my entire life. That’s how I got capital to invest. (Well, not exactly; over the years, I was able to claw only $15,000 from my after-tax earnings to save and invest with, but that was enough to build a six-figure stock portfolio; Wall Street gave me the rest for free. Two can play that game.) I won’t buy anything. I’ll hide my cash in the mattress or bury it in the backyard! I’ll barter! But I won’t let the bankers win. Fuck banks. We can destroy them if we have the will.
@4(1) I’ve never used debit cards and never will. They’re a super bad deal for consumers. There’s no 30-day float; the deduction from your account is instanteous. If you become a victim of debit card fraud (e.g., a crooked restaurant waiter with one of those card-swiping gizmos under his apron), there’s no $50 liability limit — you can lose everything in your bank account. Credit card issues will go to bat for you if you’re connec by a merchant; not so with debit cards, which are the same as cash, and if you get gypped you’re on your own. There’s absolutely no reason to use a debit card instead of a credit card and no rational person would do so.
@4(2) “you get your credit card statement ten days before the payment is due, and the fine print says “allow up to ten days for payment processing”.”
When your credit card issuer starts behaving like this, it’s time to get a new credit card company. However, if that’s too inconvenient, there’s a way to beat this game. Simply keep track of your purchases (which is easy if the cc company offers online access to your account) and don’t wait for the statement to send in your payment. Just mail it with a brief cover letter explaining what it’s for. Note, this is extra processing work for them, because they don’t have the statement stub they sent you.
@4(3) I have the lowest cable rate of all — $0. TV sucks anyway; you’re better off using the time to read books. That’s what I do — I read 50 to 100 books a year, free, because I get them from the public library. (Well, not free, because I pay library taxes; but I pay those taxes whether I use the library or not, so might as well use it.) OK, my internet service sucks too — AOL and POTS — but it’s cheap and there’s no contract and if I need broadband I can get it at the public library. I don’t pay a fucking penny for anything if I can get out of it; that’s how you get capital to invest in stocks.
P.S., with the government $40 coupon, I got a converter box for only 15 books, and a coat hanger works OK for an antenna on my 9″ TV; sure, the signal cuts out every 30 seconds, but I can still see enough of the World Series to figure out who’s winning and occasionally I even see an entire play before the signal cuts out again.
15 bucks, not 15 books
I wonder if Goldy got rid of his edit function because I bitched about it so much. I doubt it; Goldy told me at DL a couple nights ago that he doesn’t read the comments. Btw, I didn’t see “maggie” at DL and I know for a fact she wasn’t there, because I was there from 8 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., there were only 2 females in the whole place and I checked their IDs. I have witnesses.
And some people think it’s a god given right to use credit cards to live beyond their means.
The people like you that are responsible have to pay more to pay for the others that don’t do as you do.
Think of it as a private company social program. Those that can pay more for those that don’t pay.
Actually, I was there from 7:30 p.m. to about 10:45 p.m. just before they closed.
@4(5) I have one of those no-contract cell phones where you buy minutes. Costs about 10 cents a minute, but it only takes 2 minutes to call the cops if a conservative thug jumps me, and I figure 20 cents a month for health insurance is cheap.
@5 “What you are missing here is that this is battel BETWEEN socialist systems.”
Of course it is. There’s no hatred like the hatred between Stalinists and Trotskyites. Republicans are the New Trotskyites. Just ask Leo Strauss.
What a tool X’ad is. They don’t pay my salary ya moron. When do you evacuate to the Philippines again? Good riddance!
Kinda like the old days when people paid cash or wrote a check before the banking industry was making so much money.
Maybe if people lived within their means the banks wouldn’t be so rich & powerful.
@7 Puddy, we all know you’d prefer to give American carmakers’ vestigial market share to the Japs, but it’s unseemly to brag about it.
@19 “Think of it as a private company social program. Those that can pay more for those that don’t pay.”
Gee Marvin, private companies operating in a free market are imposing economic socialism on us … who wudda thunk??!
Once again Roger Rabbit spouts BULLSHITTIUM
From Leftist WikiPedia… “Smith questions the link between Strauss and neoconservative thought, arguing that Strauss was never personally active in politics, never endorsed imperialism, and questioned the utility of political philosophy for the practice of politics. In particular, Strauss argued that Plato’s myth of the Philosopher king should be read as a reductio ad absurdum, and that philosophers should understand politics, not in order to influence policy, except insofar as they can ensure philosophy’s autonomy from politics.[26] Additionally, Mark Lilla has argued that the attribution to Strauss of neoconservative views contradicts a careful reading of Strauss’ actual texts, in particular On Tyranny.”
The BULLSHITTIUM Alert is still active for Roger Rabbit. Roger throws anything on HA Libtardos and the moronic class here continually drink his piss and eat his arschloch pellets.
I wonder why the obama administration is limiting the swine flu vaccination to poor women and children while –
Some of New York’s largest companies have received the H1N1 vaccine in the last week, BusinessWeek reports. They include Wall Street banks Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs as well as New York University and Time Warner.
Why does obama hate poor people?
Why does obama help rich people while poor people go without?
@24 “Maybe if people lived within their means the banks wouldn’t be so rich & powerful.”
Holy shit marvin! You and I actually agree on something! That’s a big step forward for you. Now all you have to do is figure out who the suckers are. Hint … it isn’t the egghead Ph.D.s, J.D.s, M.B.A.s, etc., who make up HA’s progressive readership. The dopes living beyond their means are, for the most part, the same dopes waving teabags and voting for politicians who make them pay all the taxes so millionaires don’t have to.
Roger@25 Farts again.
Nope you Dope.
Ford made a $1 Billion Profit. Why? They didn’t take the Obama Motors Corporation handouts and the American Peeps applauded them. Puddy drives a gaz guzzling Ford. Will buy another too!
What a Fool Roger Rabbit is!
@27 “Smith questions the link between Strauss and neoconservative thought”
Yeah well you loons also question the link between atmospheric CO2 and millions of smokestacks spewing billions of tons of CO2, but idiots “questioning” something doesn’t by itself give their skepticism any substance.
I love the way puddinghead uses the phrase “BULLSHITTIUM ALERT” to defend rightwing bullshit. It’s cute.
@30 “Ford made a $1 Billion Profit. Why? They didn’t take the Obama Motors Corporation handouts”
This shows how little you know about what’s going on in the business world. Ford didn’t make a profit because they refused to take bailout money. They refused the bailout money because they didn’t need it because they were in better financial shape than GM or Chrysler and had a better market position. GM’s red ink didn’t spring from taking bailout money. GM was in the red before the bailout money came along; and GM would now be dead if it weren’t for the bailout money. No, ignoramus, GM’s troubles spring from having the wrong products, building them poorly, and having a huge financial subsidiary tied around their necks like an anchor. All of that happened long before Obama or government bailout money showed up. You have got to be the most ill-informed troll on this board. Perhaps not the dumbest or least articulate; but it’s hard to imagine a troll who has a less accurate understanding of what’s going on in the world than you do.
Ford also has Alan Mullaly. Boeing would be in better shape if they had kept Alan. Boeing’s problems aren’t because of unions; Boeings problems come from lousy management and a string of terrible management decisions.
Ford did well because Mullally made a big gamble, and it paid off. He borrowed everything he could, even mortgaging the Ford name to do so. And he took it in cash, not lines of credit which could be revoked. When the financial crisis hit, he had enough cash on hand to ride through it. GM and Chrysler didn’t, they were toast as soon as sales dropped through the floor and the bankers revoked their lines of credit.
When GM and Chrysler filed bankruptcy, a lot of buyers went to Ford because they were uncertain about GM and Chrysler’s future. After all, a car is a multi-year commitment. Heck, our last few cars were over fifteen years old before I got rid of them. (’85 Honda driven until about 2003, ’89 Chrysler driven until 2003, ’93 Ford driven until 2009, ’93 Subaru driven until 2008). Now I’ve got a 2008 Saturn, and I’m not real happy with GM killing off the Saturn brand and dealerships.
I only wish that Mullally had become CEO of Boeing, instead of going to Ford.
@13
if you get gypped you’re on your own
roger, is that the same as “getting jewed”?
Speaking of Opels, I owned a 1974 Opel Manta back in ’76. It was the worst car I ever owned, and I couldn’t believe that it had been made in Germany. Now that I see GM had something to do with Opels, I can understand why the car was a piece of shit.
Do yourself a favor and always buy a good used Toyota or Honda. Buying a new car is stupid, and buying an Opel is even more stupid.
the free market is a place where GM goes out of business.
you said ‘the real power doesn’t lie in the whitehouse’ but you’re wrong. the power is in the whitehouse and this is a very bad thing. gm and bank of america are prime examples of why the government should not be in bed with big corporations.
get your heads out of your big horse asses and look around!
Re the link about deleveraging … I predicted this a long time ago. Remember what I said even before the credit markets blew up a year ago? Here’s what I said:
American wages, adjusted for inflation, have been flat since 1970. All of the GDP growth of the last 40 years has gone to owners of capital, and most of it to the richest 1% of the population. But middle class living standards rose anyway. How was this possible?
Here’s how. First Americans stopped saving. Then they spent their savings. The next step was to spend the equity they had built up in their homes. Then they borrowed against credit cards. For the last 25 years, American consumers have been spending more than they earn, and this is unsustainable.
Then I said, now consumers not only must stop their excessive spending, they also have to pay interest on all the money they owe, and they also have to pay back the money they borrowed — a triple whammy. There will be a huge pullback in consumer spending for years to come. It’s inevitable. You can’t change the laws of math or repeal gravity.
I saw an article in this morning’s business news that says businesses are increasing productivity rapidly — and that’s bad news for the unemployed. Well, I say it’s bad news for business, too, in the long run. Fewer workers are getting paid less to produce more. Who will buy all that stuff? Businesses will have to sell it to each other, because pretty soon there won’t be any consumers left.
RR pointed out something I had forgotten – GM operates it’s own financing arm, GMAC. Sometimes this helps auto sales. But when a rescession hits, it hits them hard in both areas – they not only can’t sell new cars, and they have to deal with defaults and reposessions on cars they have already sold. It was particularly compounded this past year because the general financial collapse sucked out all of the money out of the system – GMAC didn’t have money to lend out for new purchases, so only a few could get financing from them.
Boeing used to have the same problem. They dabbled in having a financing arm – this was one of Stonecypher’s ideas. But they ended it pretty quickly, when they realized that in the cyclical airline industry where sales drop to nearly nothing in down years, the last thing they needed was to be repossessing aircraft which they had already sold, and losing money on a sale made several years previously. Now some “bright” guys at Boeing/Chicago are bringing up the idea again. You would think they would be smarter than that – but I guess not.
De-leveraging is not a bad idea. It’s a good idea to get out of debt entirely and as fast as possible. Pay cash for as much of the stuff you need as you possibly can.
Debt is poison.
This day in history….
By the way, if I have my calculations correct, today (Nov. 5th) is the anniversary of “Bloody Sunday”, the day 93 years ago when a shipload of workers from the IWW (“Wobblies”) was intercepted at the city dock by deputized thugs put together by the local lumber mill barons, with the cooperation of the Everett Sheriff. In the struggle which ensued, two ‘deputies” were shot dead, as well as five union activists. The union members were arrested for murder, but there was evidence the deputies died as a result of “friendly fire” from their undisciplined colleagues. The trial was transferred to King County, where the union members were acquitted by a jury when it couldn’t be proven who had fired the shots which resulted in the deaths. No charges were ever preferred against the Everett mill owners, the Everett Sheriff, or the “deputies” who started the fight as they used violence to prevent a peaceful and lawful demonstration by the Wobblies.
Stonecypher = stonecipher. I keep getting that wrong, because I once knew someone who spelled it the other way.
By the way, the Airbus A330 Freighter is making it’s first flight. It’s not exactly a leap in technology, it’s your basic old aluminum airframe with the windows taken out, cargo doors installed, and loading systems installed. Lots of companies have been making money on cargo conversions of what were previously passenger airplanes for quite some time.
But what struck me is that it’s a terrible time for a new freighter to be entering the market. Air cargo rates have plummeted, and although we have been seeing some recovery from the drastic lows of this time last year, it’s still below the cost of operations for most carriers. There are scores and scores of cargo airplanes now being parked in the desert because – well, there’s nothing for them to haul. If you want to buy a freighter, you can get a great deal on them right now – assuming you have an idea of what to do with them, and are able to handle the cost of maintaining a large airplane.
I also linked several times to a Business Week article that debunks the popular bromide that consumer spending is 70% of the economy. That figure is extremely misleading because it includes things like Medicare payments that never pass through consumers’ hands. In reality, consumer spending is about 40% of the economy. Here’s that link again:
http://www.businessweek.com/th.....-impo.html
So what does this mean? Well, it’s really bad news for average Americans, because it means workers and consumers are far more expendable than they would be if they accounted for 70% of the economy. It means that if you’re a worker or a consumer, business doesn’t need you.
It means you’d goddam well better learn how to become an entrepreneur because employment is becoming passe, a relic, a thing whose time has come and gone.
Journalists are in the front lines of this brave new economic world. There will still be markets for news, but the companies that provided an employment structure for journalists are going out of business, and njearly all journalism will be freelance in the future.
This model will spread, and is spreading, to other sectors of the economy too. Many IT people already are self-employed consultants or entrepreneurs. The legal, medical, and accounting professions have been largely self-employed for generations. Contrary to popular belief, most lawyers don’t work for giant law firms, only a small percentage do. Same with accountants/big accounting firms, and doctors/big HMOs.
In my view, even waitresses will become self-employed entrepreneurs. They’ll have to, whether they want to or not, because these days, restaurants come and go like rain clouds.
But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I contend it’s a good thing — waitresses should become self-employed entrepreneurs! The world is getting more complicated every day and even so-called “unskilled” jobs like waitressing increasingly require ever more sophisticated skills. With people like Stefan and his corporate lawyer wife and their rowdy kid running loose in society today’s waitresses need a college degree in child psychology and riot control training from a police academy.
The job of “waitress” is obsolete. Today’s server must deal with an increasingly uncivilized clientele. In addition, she must buy her own health insurance, provide for her own retirement, and market her services as restaurants come and go like rain clouds. Like IT consultants and accountants, today’s waitress needs a stable of business clients to keep busy.
I contend that waitresses should become self-employed entrepreneurs. Why not, since they already are, effectively speaking. Specifically, they should become “hospitality consultants” and charge their business clients $50 an hour for their B2B services. That’s a very reasonable rate. You can’t get an IT consultant or accountant for that. Hell, that’s only about half the hourly shop rate that most auto repair garages charge. I think $50 an hour for professional hosting in a food service setting is extremely reasonable.
This approach will solve the problem of employers cutting wages because the consultant will have decision making power over what her income is, not a boss. This will help start the necessary shift of GDP from capital back to wages. Thirty years ago, labor got about 60% of GDP and capital got 40%; now, those percentages are almost reversed.
My entrepreneurial model of delivering labor-type services on a B2B basis will put more money in the hands of service deliverers and consumers, and that’s absolutely what we need to pull the economy out of its tailspin. An economy in which capital gets everything and labor gets nothing eventually becomes top-heavy with productive capacity, and that capacity eventually all goes idle, becomes there’s no consumer sector to produce for. My economic plan solves that problem by shifting income from capital back to labor. It’s the only way to save the economy.
Even the AP agrees with you. Of course they have a liberal agenda so you have to go down to paragraph 8.
Ford has benefited from consumer goodwill because it didn’t take government bailout money or go into bankruptcy protection, as General Motors and Chrysler did.
@42 They were lucky to be tried in Seattle instead of Chicago where, after the police riot known as the “Haymarket riot,” they simply grabbed the union leaders, held a kangaroo trial, and hanged them.
@40 Most people don’t realize how many jetliners are owned by leasing companies instead of airlines. There are efficiencies in this because the leasing intermediary is able to quickly and easily shift planes from airlines with too many planes to airlines that need more passenger carrying capacity. The leasing intermediaries also assume some of the financial risks that otherwise would be borne by the airlines or the airplane manufacturer, which helps smooth out the financing aspects of this always-turbulent industry.
@46 Ford has benefitted most of all from Republican-voting rednecks’ insatiable appetite for gas guzzling pickups even when gas is $4.50 a gallon.
Roger
I do not quite agree.
Yes, medicare moves through the govt but so does social security. The dollars flow into the healthcare system where they employ folks.
U would BET that the multiplier effect of healthcare dollars is a LOT bigger than defense dollars.
When the rest of the world is going to shit all around you, it helps to have a product that everyone still wants.
Of course, republican people supporting an american company.
I wonder why liberals decided against supporting gm.
Rabbit at 49
Ford benefits by putting out a good product that consumers want. My third Ford truck, like its’ predecessors, has been reliable to a quarter million miles. I have had minimal maintanance costs and the bull that Toyota or Honda put out better cars is just that. Bull. Well it’s also good advertising strategies, but largely American cars are every bit as well made as anything made in Japan.
Ford also benefits by a skilled and experienced CEO and a family based ownership dedicated to keeping the great tradition of Ford motorcars in business. Yes, they’re evil capitalists who sacrifice workers’ babies by the light of the full moon while raping their women, but they run a good company. Oops, sorry, that’s the liberal thinking about capitalism.
@50 SJ, the point is Medicare is not consumer spending.
This point is debatable, of course. The rationale for including in government consumer spending statistics is that it’s spending that benefits consumers. And that can be used as an argument for counting it as consumer spending.
But Medicare is not what most people ordinarily think of as “consumer spending.” The consumer never sees the money, and doesn’t make the decision to spend it. The money passes from the government to medical provider billing departments without any intervention or involvement by the consumer. So, you can argue with equal force that the “consumer” is merely a pawn in the Medicare spending game.
A huge point here is that Medicare spending isn’t affected by employment, wages, consumer indebtedness, or the willingness of consumers to spend. That’s both good and bad in economic terms. Medicare and Social Security spending, because they’re always there, are part of the economy’s unshakeable foundation. Social Security has rightfully been called the best depression preventer ever invented, because the clockwork-like issuance and spending of Social Security checks puts a floor under how far the economy can fall.
But because growth in Medicare and Social Security spending is tightly tied to population growth and inflation, Medicare and Social Security spending can’t provide stimulus for economic growth in the way that discretionary consumer spending can. To escape from recession, the economy must grow, but for the economy to grow, there must be an increase in discretionary spending. That’s the rationale for not counting Medicare and Social Security as part of the “consumer economy” that acts as the engine of GDP growth.
What the author of this article rightly argues is that this type of consumer spending is a much smaller part of GDP than most people believe, which makes it harder to get a GDP boost from consumers. When you realize that consumer spending is only 40% of the economy instead of 70%, then you see that it takes a much bigger percentage increase in consumer spending for each 1% of GDP growth.
@54 (continued) What this portends, of course, is a slower recovery and slower GDP growth, unless growth comes from somewhere else. And the “somewhere else” has to be either government spending or business spending.
RR @ 48: Yep, leasing WAS a big part of the airline market, at least until last year. The big player was International Lease Finance Corporation (ILC). But it was bought out by AIG Group a few years back, which is now in bankruptcy. Their is a question about ILC’s survival – it was unquestionably a profitable company, but nobody wants to buy it right now with the airline (and airliner) market being so depressed. The founder of ILC is making a play to buy back the company, we will see how that plays out.
As for GM and European unions, the unions can…sorry, unprintable.
European unions produced such masterworks of engineering as the Fiat and Renault. Don’t get me wrong, they kept millions of lazy Italians employed who otherwise wouldn’t have been making crappy cars. Sorry, how is this an advantage? Remember the stunning and high performance Renault Le Car. And the relliable and rust-free X19 was a great car. Yeah.
Did you libs know that the Parision high school students have a union? They occasionally strike against too much homework, or too strict dress codes (like-come to school looking like something other than a street walker.) This is the end result of the insanity of unions and the idea of power reversal and rule from below.
Re 55
Good! Slower, more stable and less driven by consumer debt growth would a long term positive.
Heavy government interference in the market with more insanely reckless Obama spending? Great idea! Who needs the dollar to have any value anyway? I can just move to my place in Italy and watch you liberals reap the rewards of silly and infantile fiscal policies. And laugh and laugh and laugh.
@53 My late model Ford pickup is a piece of shit. If I leave it parked in my driveway for more than 3 days I have to disconnect the battery to keep it from going dead. It’s been like this since the day I took delivery and repeated trips back to the dealer have failed to fix it because no one can find the source of the current drain. In addition, the thingee the door latches into protruding from the roofline of the open door has cracked my skull I don’t know how many times. I also have a Ford sedan that has a horrible windshield configuration that fogs up when you get in the car in any temperature below 55 degrees. This car has only 25,000 miles on it, but it’s already behaving like a wornout car with 150,000 miles. The driver’s seat belt is continually jamming. The “door open” light is on half the time and the interior light won’t go off when you’re driving because a defective sensor wrongly thinks a door is open. In both of my Ford vehicles, you can’t read the gas gauge and some of the other gauges in the dash after dark because a bulb in the dash has gone out and there’s no way to replace the fucking bulb without paying the dealer over $1,000 to disassemble the entire dashboard. Ford’s are CRAP. But I won’t buy a Toyota because the fucking Japanese are murdering whales and dolphins and I’ll keep boycotting Japanese products until they stop that shit.
Yes, Ford makes such terrible cars that police agencies all over the country have been using them for decades. Farmers and construction companies don’t need reliable trucks so they buy them to watch them break down.
Probably the dealer saw you coming and reacted to your personality by selling you the lemons.
Yes, Ford makes such terrible cars that police agencies all over the country have been using them for decades. Farmers and construction companies don’t need reliable trucks so they buy them to watch them break down.
Probably the dealer saw you coming and reacted to your personality by selling you the lemons.
@57 “European unions produced such masterworks of engineering as the Fiat and Renault.”
Typical union-baiting horseshit. Unions don’t design cars, you goddam idiot, companies do! Unions built America and union wages created America’s middle class and the prosperity that benefits all businesses, especially small businesses. The only people who could possibly benefit from hating unions are greedy managements who want to take even more of the economic pie for themselves, and in the long term they’re only shooting their own balls off, because after they’re destroyed the unions and reduced everyone’s wages and eliminated all the benefits their businesses will have no customers left.
By the way, you can kill a dolphin or whale. You can’t murder one. They’re animals. Animals.
Sorry, what was the powerful Japanese auto making union that “made Japanese industry.” Oh yeah, they don’t have one.
Your thesis is utter untenable nonsense. The cars’ design and the execution of it are separate things. Lazy union morons put out garbage because you can’t fire them for it, or reward them for honest work. Lazy union morons drove industry overseas. Is this what you mean by making American industry, Rog?
Idiot.
@58 “Good! Slower, more stable and less driven by consumer debt growth would a long term positive.”
Well, now we know what the wingnut economic agenda for America is: Slow growth. Why would anyone vote for you guys?
And who said anything about “consumer debt growth”? Any HA reader who isn’t comatose can’t fail to notice I’m against debt, because I indefatiguably rail against debt! Which leads to the conclusion that you’re comatose.
You just don’t want to admit that economic growth requires higher, not lower, wages because you’re a fucking CHEAP LABOR CONSERVATIVES who hates workers for no good reason but simply because you’re an asshole.
And how long have you owned this truck?
I’m interested to see how long you have suffered with a fixable problem.
You understand the “thingiee” is an inanimate object and does not intentionally jump into the path of your skull.
How many knocks in the head must a rabbit take until he learns?
@61 “Probably the dealer saw you coming and reacted to your personality by selling you the lemons.”
That fact I, not the dealer, chose these vehicles blows your theory out of the water. And what are the odds of getting two lemons in a row, unless they’re all lemons, or a high percentage of them are?
You do know what “FORD” stands for, don’t you?
Fucker
Only
Runs
Downhill
Or another sign of your dementia.
“Well, now we know what the wingnut economic agenda for America is: Slow growth. Why would anyone vote for you guys?”
Yes. Absolutely. Anyone with an iota of common sense knows that rapid growth means rapid decline or stagnation in the end. I’d rather have healthy and steady growth based on real productivity than government induced fever creating another bubble. Adults vote for policies like this. Overgrown liberal babies don’t.
Simple fix, Rog. Don’t buy a Ford. Probably the dealer is sick of you and your whining anyway. I’ve had customers like you in construction. Basically I walk away from the contract with whatever loss I’ve taken and count myself lucky. The poor sap who finished the job will be talking to the client for years about ‘defects’ and problems. I’m out of it and well out of it.
@66 The truck has about 35,000 miles on it. And yes, I expect the designers to do better than leave a metal strap sticking out right where people have to duck their heads to get in and out of the seats. I shouldn’t have to remember every time I use the vehicle that thing is there. It should be there in the first place. Other manufacturers have made millions of trucks without that thingee, so why can’t Ford? I paid them good money* to design a good vehicle.
* Actually, I didn’t pay them good money for this vehicle. The dealer made about $25 on it, and Ford probably lost about $2,000 on it. I don’t pay full price for anything. It was the truck the dealer’s fleet manager couldn’t sell to his business customers because it had an off-road package with a lower gear ratio in the rear end, which makes it eat gas. I got it for less than cost.
correction, it shouldn’t be there in the first place
@68 “Or another sign of your dementia.”
This argument has merit only if you start with the premise that you’re demented.
First
On
Race
Day
Just because smooth talking salesmen take advantage of you, don’t blame FORD.
So it speaks more about your incompetence picking vehicles than smooth talking salesmen.
@69 You didn’t say you’re for steady and healthy growth. You said you’re for slow growth.
Let me ask you this. How do you CHEAP LABOR CONSERVATIVES think the economy can have “steady and healthy growth” by beating down wages and sending American jobs overseas? Where will that growth come from if workers have less money to spend?
@70 My remodeling contractor likes me. He called me yesterday asking if I can give him more work soon. I gave him a jug of Jack Daniels after he finished my last job and the hangover must have worn off.
@70 (continued) Actually, the fleet manager who sold me the truck for a $25 profit has left the business because he couldn’t make enough money selling cars. Last I heard, he was a mortgage broker. I haven’t talked to him for a while … I wonder how that’s working out for him?
@74 And we all know race cars are production-line vehicles that are pulled off dealer lots and put on racetracks without super expensive custom modifications, don’t we Marvin?
If Ford wants to sell me a Formula One racer for what I paid for this truck I’ll gladly take it, metal straps and all. I’ll just get me a good helmet and fireproof suit and everything will be fine.
“Yes, Ford makes such terrible cars that police agencies all over the country have been using them for decades.”
Yep, Fords and Chryslers. That’s because Ford and Chrysler have long created cars specifically designed for police use in the U.S. They are big enough to hold two officers up front along with radios & computers, etc., comfortably, and two suspects in back (less comfortably, since they are usually handcuffed). Their trunks easily hold an M-15, extra ammo, and other accouterments of the trade. They have big engines so they can get from zero to 90 mph in a hurry, and lots of weight so they can force a fleeing car into a spin or a nearby ditch. Police forces also get special “fleet discounts”.
Of course, police forces beat the hell out of their cars for a few years, then sell them. I’m not sure how long they consider the life span on the cars, but I would be surprised if it was much longer than four years. After that, the cost of ongoing maintenance outweights the extra cost of buying a new vehicle. Of course, most basic maintenance on police cars is done by city employees. After that, taxi operators buy the cars at government auctions – they like the size.
So if you need to buy a really big car in units of 50 at a time, that can go from zero to ninety in a few seconds, is wired to handle lights, radios, and computers, and gets about six miles to the gallon, and plan to replace it within four or five years, go ahead and buy a Crown Vic. Most people don’t fit in that catagory. Hey, at least you know nobody will cut you off on the freeway.
As for myself, I hated the Chrysler I drove for a while. It was a certified piece of junk, obviously not built to last more than five years. But the price was right – it was nine years old, and I bought it for $50.00. It was probably worth a little less than that, but it provided basic transportation for a few years.
As for my Ford Explorer, I really liked that car. The ’93 was smaller than later version, had a great turning radius (better than the Honda!), and I could fit just about anything I needed to haul in the back, and it did great in snow. But it was accumulating maintenance issues – dashboard lights going out – same problem as RR, the 4-Wheel drive wouldn’t engage, and the air conditioner needed to be replaced, and the steering was off (it needed more than a mere alignment adjustment). I was debating whether to put the money into it when the engine gave out. I guess I shouldn’t complain – I had 188,000 miles on it when it died. Too bad it didn’t last another six weeks, though – that’s when the “cash for clunkers” went into effect.
Well, enough of this. I’ve got work to do.
Sorry about the personal slurs, rabbit. The argument has weight or doesn’t and personal attacks don’t help.
In regards to 76 though, I don’t want jobs to go overseas. But they will and must so long as American unions demand irrational pay and benefit packages. So long as American liberals want to tax the productive and pay for the lazy the productive will go elsewhere also, or just retire and stop producing.
Yes workers have a share in American productivity, but not nearly as large as those who run and capitalize the companies for which they work.
Do you have a smaller vehicle, something lower to the ground?
Is it hard for you to remember when getting into it to duck and bend down instead of stepping up into an off road truck.
Karma.
@75 “So it speaks more about your incompetence picking vehicles than smooth talking salesmen.”
So your argument is the world is full of excellent cars designed by competent engineers and I got a bad one because I’m an incompetent customer?
Typical wingnut bullshit — blame the customer.
This is how you guys operate in the health care realm, too. If a doctor fucks up and kills the patient by slicing into the wrong blood vessel you want to protect the doctor from being sued by the dead patient’s evil relatives. It’s the dead patient’s fault because he should have picked a better doctor.
Why would any patient (or his relatives) vote for you guys?
Well, we had an election 2 days ago, and we saw how well the Republican agenda played with voters here in King County and Washington State, didn’t we?
HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR
# 64: You obviously don’t know anything about how Japanese companies operate, and their relationships with the workers. It’s difficult for most Americans to understand, it comes from a completely different mind-set. There simply isn’t time to go into the details in this forum.
The union-employer relationship in Japan is quite different from here in the U.S. It works over there because the culture is different. It wouldn’t work over here, from either the employer, the union, or the employee standpoint.
Roger Pelleted
Fool, that was from the leftist WikiPedia.
Once again your swill is EXPLODED!
@83 “Karma.”
You’re one superstitious s.o.b. It’s obvious you guys depend on superstition and supernaturla intervention to make your economic theories work. How’s that working out for you so far?
Prayer is not a substitute for competence.
Basically these guys vote for someone like Bush and then go to church every Sunday and pray for God to bail out their president.
Another Roger Dumb Bunny Fallacy. If you had been paying attention, one of my relatives worked at Ford Dearborn as a very high level executive. Ask the arschloch ylb arschloch. He can give your the original PuddyLink. Go ahead Dumb Bunny, grow some balls and ask him. It seems no one has balls here! Since Puddy gets his info first hand and you get it from left wing horseshit rags, Puddy will trust his source.
There were too many strings attached and Mullaly didn’t like them. Now we all see the strings from the Pay CZAR.
Stay stupid Roger.
Keep copying other sites and rewording them as “This is how it works” entries.
At least Puddy laughs at you too!
@88 You haven’t exploded anything except your own bubble of irrationality.
My swill is better than puddy’s swill. Sure I’m a propagandist, but so he is, although that doesn’t make us equal. I shill for pragmatic policies that works; he shills for a stupid ideology that leaves human, economic, and social wreckage in its wake wherever it goes. All propaganda is swill, but my propaganda is high quality swill that you can take to the bank, while puddy’s propaganda is cockroach piss.
Wow rhp6033 what an epiphany, since Puddy placed it in post #7.
Stay stupid… you’re doing a great job of life imitating life!
Puddy @ 92: As usual, you’ve got the chicken and the egg confused. Yep, the bailouts came with strings attached. Good thing, too – we all saw how well the financial industry did when Bush gave them cash with no strings attached, and they simply used it to buy up other firms and give themselves big bonuses.
Ford didn’t take the money because they didn’t have to. GM and Chrysler needed the money to survive, and had no choice. And I don’t see any need to apologize for the new stockholders (the American taxpayer) limiting executive salaries when they are being paid with taxpayer money.
@92 I’m sure Mullaly is a good enough businessman that he would take free money with no strings attached. But all money comes with strings, doesn’t it? There is no such thing as free money, except in the stock market.
Puddy @ 95: I don’t read all your posts, silly. There’s only so much time I can devote to drivel.
@92 “one of my relatives worked at Ford Dearborn as a very high level executive”
It’s clear none of his knowledge or smarts rubbed off on you, so what does this have to do with anything posted in this blog?
Shopping for a new car a couple years ago I did note that Ford had some good ones. Alas, I went with a made-in-Japan Mazda.
Old white folks in D.C. today chanting “Down with government-run healthcare!!” Can’t we just remove these people from Medicare and let them face the corporate death panels as they so desire?
Nothing like that good old liberal bias…
One story says –
Nine arrested in Hart Building ahead of health care protest
Updated 12:51 p.m.
By Philip Rucker
As thousands of activists converged on the lawn of the Capitol for a midday rally against Democrats’ health-care reform legislation, Capitol Police arrested nine protesters Thursday morning in the Hart Senate Office Building.
It talks about the arrests but leaves out which political side the protesters were. Well, they said it was a rally against the democrats healthcare reform so that would give liberals the impression it was right-wingers arrested.
So you have to google it…
At least usatoday told the truth –
reports that the protesters were members of Code Pink, a liberal group, and that the protest was over health care.
And Lostinaseaofblue exploded that shill swill regarding Fiat vs Toyota.
KABLAMMO
Then you are dumb life imitating stupid life. Puddy reads every post. How else can Puddy identify Roger Dumb Bunny BULLSHITTIUM? How else can Puddy identify ylb arschloch chronological inadequacies? Oh wait a minute… ylb arschloch is naturally inadequate, he’s unemployed!
Ummm Roger Dumb Bunny… not even a couple of hours and moronic memory malady has struck. It was your comment over Ford, stupid dumb bunny!
Puddy noticed Carl Left Foot Grossman hasn’t sent any virtual oxygen bottles lately. Are you doing MJ again?
88. Puddybud brags about plagiarism
@92 where PUddy got his balls …
@103 Puddy
Seems as if Pussy has too much time on her hands.
RE: Leasing aircraft
If you look at the balance sheets of most of the major carriers, they almost always lease their aircraft. You can tell by looking for a large “Capital Leases” on the assets side and a “Capital Lease Obligations” on the liability side of the balance sheet.
If it weren’t for the accounting rules governing leased equipment, you’d never know that most airlines technically don’t own any airplanes: they lease them because it’s a tax-advantaged move.
SeattleJew,
Puddy can work and scan HA Libtardos too. Other times Puddy has to disappear for long periods.
its funny how rabbit can use racial slurs liked gypped and redneck and you assholes say nothing.
replace ‘free market’ with merchantalism and you would have a great opening paragraph.
106: re: Aircraft Leasing:
There may be tax advantages to leasing aircraft in the U.S., but overseas it’s usually for different reasons. And make no mistake about it, the U.S. carriers haven’t received any new wide-body aircraft over the last few years. If you go up to Paine Field, try to find the livery for a U.S. airline on the Boeing flight line. If you find one, it’s a miracle. The new aircraft are all going to foreign carriers, whether purchased outright or leased.
Depending upon the carriers’ business model, aircraft leasing may or may not make sense for reasons other than tax advantages. Some foreign carriers (especially the Japanese) like to buy their planes new and fly the hell out of them until they are life-cycle expired, and essentually used up. Few carriers want to go through the major maintenance expense required to recertify the airplane at that point. In those cases, the carriers usually purchase the airplane rather than leasing it. There may be some exceptions, based mainly on whether they want to preserve their capital for other purposes.
Some narrow-body customers, like Ryan Air, like to buy their aircraft new, fly it for a few years, and then sell them. This allows them to avoid major maintenance expense, because they get rid of the aircraft before they face a “C” check. It also allows them to get bigger discounts from Boeing because they buy so many new airplanes. But in a down-cycle like we see today, they could get stuck with holding onto aircraft far longer than they expected. For them, they could either buy or lease, but usually they buy.
Then you have the carriers that just don’t want to take a risk with the market changing, leaving them stuck with aircraft which doesn’t meet their changing route structure, or which is less fuel efficient, or which leaves them with over-capacity in a down-cycle. These customers may prefer to lease their aircraft, so they can unload unwanted aircraft and pick up new ones which better meet their needs at the time.
One of the stranger things in the market right now is that 767’s are in demand, even though just about everything else is in surplus. With everyone waiting on 787’s to come out of the factory, they are having to make do with the 767’s for longer than they expected. Right now everyone who operates 767’s are reluctant to let go of them, because they don’t know for sure how long it will be until they can pick up their 787 orders. But once the 787 production gets up to speed, expect to be able to buy used 767’s for next to nothing.
You might think that’s a good opportunity for the Air Force – instead of buying an entirely new airplane, they could convert a passenger model into a tanker, instead. But that doesn’t hold true – the costs of conversion would be very high, and since the Air Force keeps their airplanes for a very long time, the last thing they want is to buy an airplane that already has a lot of cycles on it.
@36 you’re a pig
@82 “I don’t want jobs to go overseas. But they will and must so long as American unions demand irrational pay and benefit packages.”
Strange how you can criticize $50k a year as “irrational” while saying nothing about CEO salaries of 1,000 times as much.
“So long as American liberals want to tax the productive and pay for the lazy”
American liberals have cut the top tax rate from 90% under Eisenhower to 35% today.
If you don’t want to tax the “productive,” then you’re in the wrong party, brother. The people who actually produce are the millions of ordinary workers who go to jobs and work hard to make money for their bosses every day. And they’re getting screwed by the tax system. Bush and a GOP Congress had years to enact tax relief for the “productive” but their idea of tax “reform” was that workers should pay all the taxes and people who get their income by owning assets should pay none.
“the productive will go elsewhere also, or just retire and stop producing.”
There’s truth to this — that’s what I did. I retired and stopped producing. Why should I work for what I was getting paid and then pay 3 times as much taxes as guys making money by flipping stocks? Under the tax system we have now, it doesn’t make sense to work.
One thing I am sick of is hearing how a union worker is automatically better than a non-union worker. Iis just garbage.
@112 not sure why you are under the impression you pay more money in taxes than the guys on wall street. the truth is, they pay more money in taxes than you earn.
i believe in the free market and anarcho-capitalism as described by ludwig von misus. no, i don’t believe in bushism or reaganism because i think they were fascists.
please read into tom woods of the von mises institute. it might blow your mind.
“There’s truth to this — that’s what I did. I retired and stopped producing.”
Yes, his former career called for him to produce enough body weight to hold an office chair to the floor in a hurricane. He was good at that job but not much else.
I am forwarning everyone pay off GMAC credit cards as fast as you can if you have a balance because they will raise your interest rates. I have always paid my account more than what they ask never late! Then I find out they have authorized a company to charge my account for rewards, (attorney general’s office is going after them) which I never authorized or asked for. I didnt even know what this company was. The charge appears as CPC inc. This they do after your card has expired and it allows GMAC to raise your interest rates because they are sending out letters telling you if you use your card your interest rate will increase. This is how GMAC is raising your interest because now it shows you are using their card. DONT BE TAKEN LIKE I WAS! Just pay off your card and close your account. This is my opinion!