More with Less...Where's the Breaking Point?

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

I just bought a bottle of Belgian Trappist beer....$24. Does that make me a 1%er? It is 11%, but I have been drinking since the AM. This one may do me in.

I worked in a construction supply warehouse with a guy who would talk about how in the town where he grew his uncle owned one of the two construction materials warehouses. He said that the two businesses were not cut-throat, that his uncle would actually send people whom he knew to be regular customers of the other business away to go do business with their regular supplier. He would laud the integrity and community mindedness of the old days and the old men. He talked about how wonderful it was that everybody worked together to provide an honest living for their family and their employees and people weren't just trying to screw everybody over to make the fastest and biggest profit they could.

Then he would go out into the yard to cut throats and make the fastest and biggest profit he could.

originally posted by: dfnj2015

There's no where a worker can move to in this country where the data analytics price fixing ensures everyone is broke and a worker can never get out of debt.

Except for all the people that aren't broke and aren't in debt.


As to the OP..

100% agree...In the constant pursuit of the fiscal responsibility more and more gets taken from the average person and coupled with the current trend of competition and wanting to win being viewed as negative traits because of feelings it's setting the world up for a disaster.

originally posted by: dfnj2015
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

When oil shot up to $140/barrel my local cost for a large plain pizza when from $8 to $13. My salary did not match the increase in prices! The price of oil has dropped but not the pricing of everything that shot up!!!

In NJ, a theater ticket costs $18 double the national average. I think the problem we have in this country is CEOs use data analytics technologies for evil purposes. It used to be companies provided products and services in order to "serve" people. Now everything is done to maximize return to shareholders at the expense of every other consideration. The system no longer "serves" the people, people are now slaves to the system.

There's no where a worker can move to in this country where the data analytics price fixing ensures everyone is broke and a worker can never get out of debt.

You can't blame one side of the equation. Customers also want cheaper prices and if they are willing to make their purchase decision based solely on price, then they are just as culpable.

People b*tch and moan about Wal-Mart, but yet they still seem to vote with their wallets and patronize the stores for cheaper prices than the mom & pop store.

Unless consumers are willign to put their money where their mouth is, they cannot complain about reduced service, etc.

We see this all the time with airlines. Airlines have fixed costs. Consumers always complain about lack of legroom, service, etc but the reality is the want the cheapest price.... period. They go onto whatever travel site and pick the lowest fare. The airline has no choice but the maximize the usage of the capital asset if they want to stay in business by squeezing as many people in as possible.

It ALL boils down to one statement "you HAVE to make a profit". Always have, always will be.
~The lie that starts everything because it encapsulates all the reasons on this post. Just why?
Well we're told if you don't make a profit you will stagnate and go under. Why can't you break even year after year?
Because the people at the top of the food chain (that includes management, owners and shareholders) want more and more and more. Hence you see multi billionaires with more and more money and it can only come from one place. I'll let you guess where that is.
Welcome to the American dream, free market economy. And you've only just realised the downfall for the man at the bottom.
Then you're told the biggest lies " pull you're socks up if BIll Gates can do it you can"," anyone can do it if you try hard enough".

Ahhh... a thread where my avatar speaks my beliefs... nice.

The U.S. is set up to be a citizen ran republic. The day companies were offered voting rights that are equal to or greater to a citizen's is the day these efforts started... and its been a long steady slope of regress ever since.

Let me use culinary practices as an example since the OP has a knack for the senses of taste...

A chef that cooks for their family does so with an elevated sense of love and compassion. If a particular ingredient is known to cause harm it has a high probability of being omitted from the recipe. Preservatives or GMO ingredients are an example of what I mean.

A chef that cooks for patrons of a restaurant is way less likely to have the same compassion towards their consumers. If a little extra salt, sugar, preservative, or GMO is in the meal it's fine and dandy. The goal of a chef in a restaurant is mixed towards getting patrons to return for another meal in the future... not love and compassion.

The facts that nearly 60% of meals are prepared for the common citizen rather than enjoying elevated senses of love and compassion by way of sharing meals that are better sourced towards the natural speak volumes as to the how little citizens WANT change.

Move these opinions to voting, and the patterns align. People want chefs/lobbyists to provide their satisfaction by allowing the ingredients of the common campaign a discount on the next vote.

Sure it may cost extra to eat cleanly and organically... which is sad in and of itself. Natural should be the cheaper option over the science experiments, yet here we are paying 30% more to eat cleanly.

In the grand scheme of it all, the common citizen will have to act on what they want to see happen for future generations for change to occur. What one desires for themselves will always be passing the buck per se... leaving future generations a taller and taller mountain to climb.

The common missing link between wanting more for less at all turns in the road and a possible path towards reconciliation you may ask? Well that's easy... adding love and compassion for others while removing value of how one self perceives the masses and their own place within it is the fulcrum of relevancy here.

The common citizen is not willing to trade pain for numbness as it so seems from reading this thread at least. The longer people wait to rip the band aid off, the more its going to hurt when it gets removed from the wound.

Breaking points of these factors remain a problem that individuals must remedy selflessly... when and where is of their choosing as well. It is a certainty that each citizen is the center of their universe... it's the understanding that the rest of the universe does not revolve around us that may prove most effective.

Just exactly what is it that we're preserving by subletting duties of citizenship to businesses is my main question???

originally posted by: crayzeed
It ALL boils down to one statement "you HAVE to make a profit". Always have, always will be.
~The lie that starts everything because it encapsulates all the reasons on this post. Just why?
Well we're told if you don't make a profit you will stagnate and go under. Why can't you break even year after year?
Because the people at the top of the food chain (that includes management, owners and shareholders) want more and more and more. Hence you see multi billionaires with more and more money and it can only come from one place. I'll let you guess where that is.
Welcome to the American dream, free market economy. And you've only just realised the downfall for the man at the bottom.
Then you're told the biggest lies " pull you're socks up if BIll Gates can do it you can"," anyone can do it if you try hard enough".

You are free to start a business that only breaks even year over year.... let us know how that works out for you.

Even non-profits still need to be able to cover their operating expenses.

Public companies do need to grow because that is what shareholders demand. Shareholders are not just big institutions, but also your granny's pension and individual stock holders. People don't invest in stocks to not have the stock go up in value. Stocks go up in value because the company is growing and generating more profit.

With that said, private companies can and do have more leeway in regards to needing to "hit their numbers" every quarter. However, they still need to make money and there are still investors often times behind the scenes.

The reality is that companies have to make money or they will eventually go out of business.

a reply to: crayzeed

I can leave my money under a mattress and break even.
Why would I risk an investment if I dont expect a return?

a reply to: DBCowboy

Throw out that kuerig bro.

It's a huge huge waste of money for snip coffee.

And all those disposable cups..not good.

Get a Bunn..full pot in half a minute..Hot.

homecatalog.bunn.com...

We have had ours for over 15 years.

Respectfully,
~meathead

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: crayzeed

I can leave my money under a mattress and break even.
Why would I risk an investment if I dont expect a return?

I'm convinced half these political debates would cease if more people had better grasp of economics and financial literacy....

a reply to: Edumakated

Haha, yup...

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Two pages of ranting basically. Ranting about it but not mentioning it by name... So,,, I will and incur the rath of it's defenders. Capitalism

Each and every complaint above and throughout the thread is a direct result of the defense of capitalism. Even the attempt at defending it by calling some of it ''crony capitalism'' or ''vulture capitalism'' or what ever ''kind of capitalism'' one feels will save the whole concept it is still ''capitalism''.

But you know what? Capitalism won and socialism lost. That boat has sailed. What we are stuck with now is every last drop of freedom squeezed out of the system. Squeeze one chip from a bag, one inch from the seat in front of you, one penny from your check. I'ts over and we are stuck with it until the whole thing implodes and we all go into a screaming tizzy and fight each other for the last crumb that has fallen from the corporate table.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
Just shave an .oz off the bag of chips
Just cut the gasoline with a bit more ethanol (note - I could do a whole rant on just this!)
Just add a little more corn syrup to the (insert product)
Just add a little more poly-unsaturated x into y

That is how they hide inflation..



The world's wealthy knows that one elusive secret:
Your cash dollar will never be worth more than it is right now.. it will still be a dollar.. but it's purchasing power declines every day..

If you stuck 10 grand under your mattress twenty years ago.. yes you still have the ten grand... but you could have gotten a lot more for your dollar had you spent it right away..


Respectfully,
~meathead

originally posted by: dfnj2015
Good for you. I'm glad you are doing so well.

DB and I are always looking for new interns to abuse if you need a new gig.

originally posted by: lakenheath24
I just bought a bottle of Belgian Trappist beer....$24. Does that make me a 1%er? It is 11%, but I have been drinking since the AM. This one may do me in.

You are 100% tiger blood winning.

originally posted by: Mike Stivic

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
Just shave an .oz off the bag of chips
Just cut the gasoline with a bit more ethanol (note - I could do a whole rant on just this!)
Just add a little more corn syrup to the (insert product)
Just add a little more poly-unsaturated x into y

That is how they hide inflation..



The world's wealthy knows that one elusive secret:
Your cash dollar will never be worth more than it is right now.. it will still be a dollar.. but it's purchasing power declines every day..

If you stuck 10 grand under your mattress twenty years ago.. yes you still have the ten grand... but you could have gotten a lot more for your dollar had you spent it right away..


Respectfully,
~meathead

Or if you invested it right, you'd be wealthy.... that's the other thing rich people understand. You don't keep money under a mattress. Amazon went public in 1997... had you put $5,000 in Amazon on the first day of the IPO, it would be worth about $3 million today.

a reply to: Edumakated

Yup I left out the investing on purpose..

I was talking about the people who think hiding cash under their beds is a smart way to hold on to money..

So yes we agree..




Respectfully,
~meathead

How much cash is Buffett willing to part with?
To be perfectly clear, Buffett loves having lots of cash on hand. Being a cash-rich company has allowed Berkshire to make some particularly savvy investments when times get rough, such as its financial-crisis-era investments in Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC).

However, even Buffett doesn't want too much cash. It's bad for profitability to keep an unnecessarily large amount of cash on the sidelines instead of it being invested and generating returns.

www.google.com...

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Employee sacrifices must be made to the gods of Wall Street to keep the stock growing.

The breaking point already happens; it’s baked into our financial system. Let me explain, when a publicly traded company ceases growing its stock at stock analysts’ forecasts, it will need to increase revenue or income in ways that don’t serve the core business of making widgets.

An example is Hewlett-Packard. It had the reputation as one of the best companies at which to work. But over time, the stock stopped growing — even though the company was profitable and had a stable business. Since shareholder needs trump employee satisfaction, the company went through a series of CEOs to try and increase revenue growth.

Mark Hurd became the CEO of HP and was credited with increasing the top line number. He did this by selling real estate holdings, laying off scores of employees and saddling people with unreasonable expectations.

Wall Street was thrilled. Hurd was a darling of the financial media. Women and men alike swooned.

Then then company ran out of real estate to sell. It had to lease buildings it once owned, which came at a high cost. More employees were let go. The stock wasn’t growing so Hurd was shown the door.

HP has never recovered from the years when the company was torn apart. Or from Carly Fiorina’s acquisition of Compaq, but that’s a story is for another time.

Back to the big picture. Publicly traded companies will reach the point of where there’s nothing else to cut. CEOs will leave with their obscenely large golden parachutes. All the while, employees feel the day to day brunt of leadership decisions.

In my opinion, I think there should be perceived value in stable companies that take care of their employees. While the stock may not grow, business could do well and employees kept satisfied.

But that’s not how capitalism circa 2019 works. I think it’s only going to get worse.

Those companies are valued... they have stable share prices and pay dividends. They just don't have the blistering growth or get rich over night type growth.

I do agree that there is too much focus on quarterly earnings /growth and it causes short term decision making since that is what the executives are being measured on.

a reply to: icanteven

This is an excellent synopsis!

And, you are exactly right.

I could walk you through almost an identical story from my own personal experience! Oh, and the HP purchase of Compaq? Well, I already covered this on page 1. The greed machine runs out of meat so the only solution left is to buy up another mammoth company consolidate the overlap, take the profits and run.

Incidentally, this is how the hedge funds roll, this is their turf. What's left is a crippled giant with nothing left to sell which nobody wants. The whole truly is less than the sum of the parts. But they don't care; they got their money and they're down the road.

Watched it happen with my own two eyes.

And it still doesn't end...