Wait until you hear about his plan to implement his new "Public Dining Option" for all those poor, deluded folks who haven't heard that the recession's been over since last year.
Posted on 10/31/2010 6:33:55 PM PDT by DaughterofEve
Tonight's candid "60 Minutes" report on the country's disastrous economy, focusing on Newton, Iowa. Must see!!
>“another salvo at defenseless Dems...”
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>Not so much, imho.
>
>The story that followed was a Reagan economic advisor that stated that none of the tax cuts should be extended.
I agree, actually.
The best tax policy, IMO, would be a flat-rate with *NO* exemptions, credits, breaks, vouchers, write-offs.
“I thought the spin was that it was as much the fault of the GOP as the donkeys, and therefore there is really no point in voting if you are going to vote for a Republican.”
I agree, the best they can do is spread the blame. This is the left’s way of admitting failure, without pointing a finger at Obama or the Dems, but by default, it blames all incumbents (mostly Dems.) It’s like the “Restore” Sanity” rally yesterday - the old ‘Hope & Change’ crowd, conspicuously minus Obama.
Those geniuses include Bill Clinton among them.
It hits closer to home every day around here. Not only do we have friends and family laid off, but we find ourselves having to do more and more service work pro-bono, and we are anticipating that we “might” break even when the first cold snap hits.
We run a family heating and air company, and more and more, we go to service a unit in a home, where folks just can’t pay the bill. Most of the time, we can’t out of good conscience leave a home with no heat, especially if there are elderly or infants involved, so we try and work out some sort of payment. These folks are maxed out on credit cards, our banks (we have 3 we deal with) will not give them credit for even $500 bucks, so we end up hoping that they can pay 10 bucks a month, but we know that in most cases it will be a “charitable donation” of which we are well beyond maxed out for on the year, and like I said, we haven’t even dipped below 0F for the season.
We were getting calls from some banks to go in and check mechanicals on foreclosed homes (plumbing, heating, cooling, electrical, etc) but that has since dried up as well, as banks are now just sitting on the foreclosures, they have given up hope on selling them. They aren’t even sending out weekly landscapers to pick up leaves, trash, mow the lawn, etc., and a few of our neighbors have organized a roving crew of lawnmowers just to clean up these properties in the area, to keep the neighborhood looking somewhat decent, and to give a somewhat appearance that the homes are lived in, hoping to discourage teen parties and homeless squatters.
I do not believe for a minute the 10% unemployment, not around here in Chicagoland. No way, not for a minute. And our elderly are getting hit really hard, property taxes have gone up AGAIN this year, even though homes are losing 40% of their value, and the elderly on fixed incomes just cannot take the inflation, higher taxes, higher medical bills, and their kids aren’t able to pitch in and help out, because they are broke as well.
Watch for real numbers to come out all over if the R’s take over house and senate. The old media will be reporting horrible numbers in an effort to blame the republican take over. Only then will we see real data.
“I do not believe for a minute the 10% unemployment...”
I just used a couple of part-time helpers. They both said that while they are not employed and are looking for work, they have not had a job for so long now that they are off of unemployment and are not counted as unemployed anymore!?
I did some work at a government site, where work is fairly steady (of course). My contact said that he knows that it is way different in the “real world”. He said the contractors that work there don’t use their company vehicles (HVAC, plumbers, etc.) to run errands to the supply stores anymore as they get mobbed by folks looking for even a day’s worth of work.
I am one of the under employed, I have a job working for $8.00 an hour. I lost my job that I had for over 6 years last August making $24.00 an hour. I am thankful to have a job in these times. I sold my home in a short sale that took 7 months to go through. Just closed it last week.
I belive that the unemployment numbers are much worse than what we see/read. A friend of mine with a plumbing business is working on his first set of plans for the year right now. Our econmic conditions are much worse than what is being reported.
“Why would stuff be so cheap from Chine unless there is a fix in somewhere.”
The cost to do business here in the US is astronomical. There is little legal costs in China I would assume, no EPA suing you for everything, no red tape from OSHA, you can fire people when you get slow, without having to pay them unemployment, you can fire people for being inept without being sued over it, you don’t need to have handicap access to everything, you don’t have to hire muzlims who won’t handle meat to be your butcher, you don’t have to hire muzzlems who won’t handle liquor at your liquor store, etc. You don’t have to worry about union shakedowns, union laws, political shakedowns. In a nutshell, I’ve heard China is more like the capitalism of our 1950’s.
The yearly pay we give our few employees (we are a small shop, myself, wife, a plumber, another service tech, and a tin horn and his helper) amounts to about half their real cost to employ when all is said and done, with benefits and goobermint involvement. Our overhead is staggering, because of liability, and we have been sued a half-dozen times over the last 6 years, not for work, but dumb-assery. We were sued 4 years ago for inadequate handicap access to our property (we settled), we have had 4 minor traffic accidents, that resulted in claims of serious injury (minor fender benders), and we were sued once for discriminatory hiring practice, which we are working currently resolving. All of this adds up to a very unfriendly, and unprofitable business climate.
On the financial side, I can’t begin to talk about those costs, our accountants and tax laws (which are now going to get much worse), a legal team on retention, advertising, gas (a HUGE cost to us), insurance, etc.
On the goobermint side, liability, workers comp, unemployment, licensing in every municipality we deal with for each of our employees (annually), taxes, ‘contributions’ to every politician that sits on a high horse in these municipalities, not to mention how many $50 dollar bills we lose during inspections from crooked building inspectors, who can make your life really difficult, forcing you to tear down a whole system and start over, for some inane code... or, you can drop a fifty somewhere where he can find it, and get signed off in an afternoon. Or forgetting to drop a fifty, and having your next install inspection stalled for a week or so because the inspector doesn’t quite like you as much anymore.
And if that sounds like a croc, try doing business in convention centers. We used to do the sheet metal fab for them, and it’ll cost you a couple hundred just to have a union electrician plug in an extension cord (cash of course).
Then, we add in our sponsorships, little league, hockey league, girls soccer, 2 ads in 2 churches, VFW, American Legion, Masonic Blue Lodge, Shriners, Kiwanis, Eagles Club, Elk and Moose, Chamber of Commerce, BBB, as I’m sitting here writing this, more and more costs just keep coming into my head, and it is getting me depressed. Of course the above mentioned are discretionary, and many of them are going to have to be cut this year or the next, we just can’t afford them anymore.
On top of all that, my guys have to be enrolled in continuing education, as mandated by my state licensing for their respective fields, plumbing, electrical, and our NATE and RSES certifications. We eat those costs as a employer, though we could ask our guys to pay that, but we don’t. So, we have on top of all the above, continuing education in our colleges, which is a few thousand each year per employee, and a few thousand each year for our guys to get manufacturers education, for seminars from TRANE, Carrier, etc, for all their new products (There are several they go to each year, those are just 2 that were the most recent).
China just doesn’t have these costs.
“contractors that work there don’t use their company vehicles (HVAC, plumbers, etc.) to run errands to the supply stores anymore as they get mobbed by folks looking for even a day’s worth of work.”
21twelve, I have to tell you, your contact speaks the truth. Our guys fill up their trucks on monday morning, our supplier meets us here at the shop and restocks them, but they have to make runs for non-inventory parts during the week, and I bet you, 1 out of 5 runs results in a call to my wife asking “hey, some guy here wants to know if we are hiring, he’s got 20 years in the trade....”
etc, etc.
We get all sorts of calls of guys willing to work for $10 bucks an hour cash, all very qualified folks.
The ONLY reason we are in business right now, is because we are a merit shop, non-union. Despite the efforts of all our surrounding municipalities to require us to be union, our guys work year round, we pay them year round, and we get repeat business based on our reputation.
They may not be doing their chosen field year round, right now our tin guys are doing work on one of our vans, exhaust, brakes, and new tires rims. Sometimes they sit around tearing apart all the old A-coils we stockpiled from old installs to take to the recycler. We painted the floor to our shop (small building, 5,000 square feet) and built wooden shelving a couple weeks ago. But, if we were union, they wouldn’t be allowed to do that, and they would have been laid off.
There is also a downside too, if the crew takes too long on an install, I don’t pay them overtime if it is because they forgot parts, or they had to redo something because of their mistakes. Its straight time. But at the same time, if they get a job done fast, and the job was quoted as say an 8 hour install, I pay them 8 hours, and let them go home early to their kids, or make dinner for their wives, or whatever.
I say this, because many of the folks we encounter who want to do “cash work” are union members who are laid off, and we want nothing to do with them. They are bad apples, who once hired, no matter how desperate now, will likely spread their infectious union rant to other employees, and with the Card Check thing looming, if our guys ever voted to go union (they wouldn’t at this point), we would just close up the doors, and they too would be out at the suppliers begging for work.
Yeah, my wife and I are real jerks some here would say, oppressive types, who think our business should be OUR business, not the unions, but our guys make more hourly than the union slackers, and more yearly. The only difference is we offer Blue Cross Blue Shield (not as good of a health plan as the union), and we offer a 401k as opposed to a pension. Its up to our guys to invest their money.
For sure!!! Hillary is ever bit as sorry as Obama, she just wears colored pants suits!!!
My wife read my post, and said I forgot our number 1 cost, Healthcare. Our healthcare costs are enormous, even with the moderate plan we offer our guys. We expect this to increase after the 1st of the year as well.
Jobs are not going oversees because of “free trade” treaties.
Jobs are going oversees because of high taxes, intrusive government regulations, environmental wack-ism and unions.
Oh, and I forgot trial lawyers...
No. The geniuses who hamstring wealth-creation in America with over-regulation, massive legal vulnerability and crushing taxation - those are the ones who have put industry into a death spiral.
Free trade (on the other hand) is the only thing keeping Americans’ heads above water.
Socialists like you want to stop people trading with whomsoever they wish, and force us all to buy garbarge from featherbedded domestic manufacturers. No thanks!
Henry Ford paid his factory workers $5/day to build Model Ts, which was probably their total compensation - no vacation, sick days, health-care, FICA, UE, etc.
That $5 would buy a quarter-ounce of gold.
Today, that same quarter-ounce of gold would be, looking at the average price over the last few years, $250-$300, "or so".
Union/government mandates have put the actual costs of keeping a worker on the payroll at twice that.
So, if you back-out the union/government costs, the comparable worker could reasonably expect to be paid $250-300.
How is someone who gets paid $250 a day supposed to compete with a Chinese worker who gets paid $250 a month?
Mexican workers - $5/hour.
Chinese workers - $5/day.
Godspeed, tough guy.
Wait until you hear about his plan to implement his new "Public Dining Option" for all those poor, deluded folks who haven't heard that the recession's been over since last year.
>I smell Hillary calling in some favors at CBS. How opportune.
Me too. They need to damage Obama enough to knock him out in 2012, but not so much as to completely destroy the party.
for later
There is a foreclosed house up the road from me that the city had to break into. The bank (won’t tell you which one) didn’t shut off the water, and the pipes froze. The basement was 4 feet deep with water.
That house will never be sold. Some are thinking of torching it.
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