It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.

Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.

Thank you.

 

Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.

 

Social Speculation

page: 1
1

log in

join
share:

posted on Feb, 23 2011 @ 09:24 AM
link   
Let's assume for a moment that you have a large company and you want to increase your bottom line. That is your company is making a fairly good profit and you are able to live very comfortably.

One way which you could do this is to raise the prices of your finished products. Of course, there is a limit to which you can do this and the comsumers will no longer be willing or able to afford the items which you make. Another way is to find and employ workers who will be willing to work for lower wages. This would be even better if you could get them to also do the work you need done and not ask for all those pesky added benefits which help your other workers provide a better lifestyle for their families.

Another benefit to this will come in providing members of this same group as part of the work forces at other companies. This would help many of your business friends to increase their own bottom lines as well.

There does, however, appear to be a "fly in the ointment". As this plan begins to really take hold you are faced with members of a group which has already negotiated a "work contract" with your and many other companies. They are the ones who have been keeping you from being able to reduce the wages you already pay and they are the ones who are syphoning off much of the profits you want with those added benefits which I mentioned earlier.

You and your friends with other companies could simply move your production plants to other places. Many of which could offer even better wage scales and these workers may not even know about trying to negotiate better wages and benefits. Now, if you could get some of you own politicians help you pay for some of the expense of moving, maybe you can get the government of your new place to pay for the rest or even enough for you to make a profit by moving .

Now, you can really make some money.

After you have learned, how to work the system, you find out some of the politicians who helped you are trying to find a way to replicate what you have done. The only problem, the jobs which their workers are doing can't be moved. You go to these politicians and explain how you "did in" even those who had those work contracts. These are the ones who are now either sweeping floors or flipping burgers at minimum wage. They were forced to take whatever they could find after their unemploment benefits ran out. The politicians helped see to that as a side benefit while helping you before.

You tell your political friends to scream and shout about how the tax revenues are way down because no one is willing to work and the housing market has tanked. This is why they have no money. Of course, the housing market is a large part of the overall reason for the recession.

This should give them all the leverage they need to cut back on their work force and do away with any and all of those workers who may be members of organizations which have negotiated work contracts in the past. Once they are able to start cutting down on the wages which they pay, they can then hire workers from the same group of workers which you and your friends had hired earlier.

When tax revenues start to rebound, as more and more of these new workers become even more available, everyone will be in positions to really enjoy the fruits of their cunning. Because they can now proven just how well they have handled their offices during hard times, these politicians are sure they will be re-elected over and over. Thus insuring their hold on the power which they have worked so hard to gain. It also makes more certain they will continue to receive the campain donations from their business friends.

I can find but one very large problem with all this.

You remember at the start of this little tail, I mentioned the part of your companies problem with simply raising the sales price of your finished products.

Now that you are making you products in areas which will allow you to pay very minimal wages and surrender no benefits to your workers or their families, you are making tremendous profits because you did not lower your price to reflect this savings in labor costs. All these workers, which once worked in your factory for all those high wages, are now barely able to make enough pay to feed their families. Now they are no longer able to buy the products which you make and after a while you find your market, and profits, either back where you started or possibly even lower.

It has always amazed me just how short sited many of our seemingly intelligent business managers really are. Of course, during this time they have convienced their stock holders just how emportant they are to the company and have secured hugh pay packages and/or bonuses for themselves.

I can't help but wonder just how they and their childern will make it after the true events which have produced the present economy come to light. I have always been a believer in Karma and I know "you will one day reap what you sow". This would not seem to bode well for many people in places of power today. I do fear they will bring "bad Karma" back upon their families in the future. One of the main problems with this "pay back" is, it almost never comes back from where you sent it out.

It was not my original intent to go very far down this road, but let's follow this path a little further to get some sense of where it may lead and possibly get a glimps of it's destination.

There are some who would lay the current economic climate at the feet of those whom they term as "globalists". That is to say, those who have expressed a desire to basically level the living standards of all the laborers of the world. They intend doing this by lowering the levels of the wages in the more developed countries, rather than raising those in the poorer reagons. They seem to think since they have more money than the rest of us, they can simply wait us out and we will take any job at any pay in order to feed our families.
If I were prone to find a conspiracy behind every tree, some things may begin to look a little contrived and their outcomes a little to convient, right about here.


A large influx of a foreign population is allowed to increase the available labor pool.

General credit rules are relaxed and purchase borrowing is widely encouraged.

The financing of over valued housing is incouraged by those who are incharge of regulating the proper lending for such things.

After the consuming population has maximized the amout of money they have available to repay their obligations, the price of the basic energy source needed for them to maintain a reasonable income suddenly jumps dramatically.

This makes the cost of transporting goods and services increase over night, increasing the cost of production and reducing the demand for products to be delivered.

Thus started the rapid reductions in the general labor force, soon followed by the reductions of mortgage payments being made.

As the economy was heating up, many bankers began laying and taking "bets" as to which and how many of these mortgage payments would be made on time.

Once the bankers realized there was a case to be made about the possibility of their loosing money from the bets which they had made, they immediately set upon the politicains for the use of taxpayer money for protection.

When the mortgage payments stopped, the value of the houses and property declined and less property taxes were paid to the local governmental bodies.

Since many people have been laid off from work, they buy less and no longer pay much in the way of sales taxes which also impacts the revienues of the local governments.

This is the cause for many politicians to now be calling for measures which include the revocation of the collective bargaining groups which work for their various governmental bodies.


There have been many movies made showing how man is reduced to living hand to mouth in very squalid conditions after some supposed apocaliptic event. It would appear such an event may not be necessary "if" these globalists have enough patients and continue to wait us out.

Once the trade unions are done in and collective bargaining is deamed illegal, it should only be a short time before any minimum wage laws will be struck down. By implimenting regulations restricting the activities of those who would work to reinstate such programs, all wages of all workers can be "dictated by market forces". This means, an employer can pay workers as little as they wish and the workers should be glad to get it. Otherwise the employer can just fire them and hire a replacement, whom they will pay a little less, and the new worker will accept it.

This may seem to some as an extreme view but without any restrictions, who, of us, will be willing to lay out more money for anything than is necessary. And so, begins the slow downward spiraling of the worlds working class.

After, or maybe along with, this de-regulation of wages; this same group of people, who are now in charge of both the business and political sectors, can also remove any and all regulations which involve the manufacturing of their products. This will mean there would no longer be any assurances of the safety or effectivness we have come to expect in our food or medications. This would also bring about an "open season" on our environment. Without any regulation by oversite agentcies, manufactures will be able to release any number of toxins and pollutants into the air and water. With such pollution on a global scale, life on earth will not be what it once was.

I am not in a position to give any type of timeline concerning these events but it would seem they are beginning in some areas as I write this piece. I would also caution those who would try to find any conspiratorial planning behind these events. We all know the "global elitests" would never let things get as bad as I have stated. They would be the first to insist upon there never be such a division among people as to have one group of "super wealthy" bosses and all the rest of us.

After all, who could concieve of a world divide between those of the "country club set" and their "servants" groveling in the waste for whatever table scraps they can find?

As I write this piece I am listening and watching various news programs. They are discussing the current events taking place in several countries around the world. It would seem the general populations in these countries have found reasons for grievence against their leaders. It would appear many of these leaders have failed to count how many people make up the general population in their respective country. Also, in the event the army should not remain loyal, they may have failed to stockpile enough armaments to keep themselves in power.

Of course such an armed conflict can be avoided by a leader, or politician, by simply keeping the large imbalance in numbers in mind as they deliberate whatever actions they take which will impact the general populations of their respective countries. It has never proven wise to only take the short term view of problems and their solutions. I think most of us have heard it said that when we act in hast, we often repent in leasure.

I will not proport to have any idea of how to institute solutions for our current economic problems. I will, however, atempt to speculate that simple time will bring about a far better and long lasting solution than any of the proposals which I am hearing from most politicians today.

As to the "power elite globalists"; I could not stress strongly enough for those of us who make up the general population to keep in mind those things which we believe are in our own best interests. I hope we will not allow any threats or events stampede us into giving up our power as a group to others and receive in return only the hope they will protect us from ourselves. Who then will protect us from them?

I do appreciate those of you who have taken the time to read my thoughts on this subject and would like to read your comments. Even the naysayers who "know" I am entirely wrong. I get this a lot. I have even been told my opinion had to be wrong because it was me doing the thinking. ( Figure that out!!)



posted on Feb, 23 2011 @ 10:16 AM
link   
I like your thoughts. They are written in a nicely flowing way.

I'd submit the following for further thought:

An old accountant told me once that most CEOs and CFOs only think one or two fiscal quarters into the future. What might happen two, three, ten years down the road goes unaddressed.

Unions once had a role in the business community. they have outlived their usefulness.

businesses and trades are no longer subject to the great equalizer - market pressures. what used to be taught in basic econ 101 is no longer considered valid because all the MBAs believe that they are smarter than and can outthink the market. they are wrong.

the lie that market forces no longer apply are perpetuated in part by central governments believing they can engineer profits, along with "fairness", with laws and regulations. its a false belief. all they can do is monkey around with a machine far too complex for them to understand.

we will see sooner rather than later, i think, what happens when enormous economies are constantly tweaked and poked by narcissistic know-it-all central planners.





posted on Feb, 23 2011 @ 11:40 AM
link   
reply to post by MMPI2
 


Thanks. I can hardly believe someone might just agree with me on this point.

As to the usefulness of unions:

There was a time, and I'm afraid it is returning, when labor was treated by business as a commodity rather than simply another cost of doing business.

The difference being the variable expenses involved with a commodity and the inclusion of labor within the price of any products or services produced.

If labor is allowed to be bid lower and lower, like a commodity, everyone will loose in the end.



new topics
 
1

log in

join