Thought For the Day

[glenn kangiser]

You are right on that.  It would be nice to be able to buy American all of the time but with Corporate America selling us down the river by sending our jobs overseas, many times the only choice is to buy the imported stuff.

I'm a bit sympathetic with Unions and again not.  They got some of the wages up, but they also have made it so jobs for public agencies cost 10 times as much - Yeah -- I charge the price on prevailing wage jobs, but it comes back to bite every taxpayer. 

They don't like me because I am self-employed -- and owner operator and I can and do take jobs from them -- for a price similar to theirs - sometimes more -- but they love to file complaints against me or anything they can do to keep me from making a living...but I am an American -doing an American job and making things in America.  Note that I never have customer complaints.

[Redoverfarm]

Glenn the current "toy" problem is just a prime example of what happens when the companies send their production overseas.  What ever they made in that decision was just lost in the recall and loss of public trust in their company.  But the goverment is partly to blame with creating an atmosphere to where a company has to find a cheaper way to stay in buisness. Workmans Comp and the like.

But really gets under my skin is the CEO's.  There is not one person that is worth the amount of salaries and bonus's that they are getting.  When Exxon came out and stated that there multi-billion dollar profit for a quarter(Just 3 months) I quit using exxon.  Then Chalvez who owns CITGO said what he did about USA and in the same breath imports 25% of his gas to us I quit buying Citgo gas.  Do you know anyone who has a good used horse for sale. If I keep going that is what I will need.  Because if the truth is known they are all probably the same.

[glenn kangiser]

Not sure but I think one guy owns them all -- nearly every company has combined with one or the others or swapped with others on my credit cards in the last 5 or so years.  There is no escape if you want to use oil and gas.

[MountainDon]

Why is it I sometimes feel compelled to open my mouth when I know I should remain silent.  But as an owner of past and present businesses, I can not. 

I don't like paying high prices for things, any things, I buy, just like everyone. Had to say that.

No matter what the business is one should never think of the profits in absolute numbers of dollars, but rather one should think of the profit margin. That is how much the company makes on every dollar of sales. That's important because the actual number of dollars of profit can increase, while the actual rate of return decreases. That's not a good position to be in. Why you ask? (It's like working harder and getting paid less.)

Let's consider Exxon Mobil, McDonald's and Coca-Cola. These are all big companies, all traded on the stock market. When you look at some recent figures, Exxon Mobil made about 9.8 cents on every dollar of sales, a profit margin of 9.8%. McDonald's made 13.8 cents per dollar, a margin of 13.8%. Coca-Cola earned 21.2 cents or a whopping margin of 21.2%.  You should be outraged that Coke is getting rich every time you buy flavored sugar water. But you're not. You don't hear about their profits because the overall dollar amounts are low compared to Exxon Mobil. Exxon Mobil's profit in dollars terms is so high because price is high and we use a lot of their product.

As the margin a company makes goes up the dividends paid to the stockholders go up as well. If you have money to invest where would you put it, given the above figures? Coca-Cola would be my choice as the best investment of the three, based solely upon performance. You the investor stands a better chance of getting a greater return on your money. Even folks who don't invest in company stocks directly, using mutual funds instead (to spread their risk out) will want their mutual fund managers to make the best money they can for their dollars. Buy coke, not gas, maybe Big Macs.

So if the government was to place price controls on the profits any company can earn, that companies profit margin is almost guaranteed to go down. That'll cut returns on investment even more. Investors will be pi$$ed and sell their shares. The company could go down the tubes. Who knows what would happen then. The government take over the oil production, distribution and sales? I wouldn't want to go down that road.


Or, let's say I have a company making widgets, and the guy across town makes a competing widget. We both sell our widgets for $10.00. I make $3.00 for every widget I sell. That's 30% margin. I use slave labor in a third world country, employ illegal Mexicans here for my distribution and I pay no benefits at all. I sneak in cheap lead based paint at every opportunity. I use compulsory overtime. I sell 100,000 widgets and have a profit of 100,000 X $3 = $300,000.

My competitor makes an excellent widget. He uses American Union labor in a local factory. He pays for health insurance, offers a low cost company day care and offers free lunches for everybody in the factory. He only makes a profit of $0.50 on every widget. That's a margin of 5%. He sells 2,000,000 of his widgets. 2,000,000 X $0.50 = $1,000,000 profit. Is he a worse person than I because he makes more dollars than I?

[glenn kangiser]

I don't think so --in fact -- it looks like you may be the bad guy, Don. ...but it appears that your competitor is not satisfied with the .50 he is making on his widgets when he looks at the $3.00 each you are making, so it appears he has just sent out termination notices to all of his union labor. 

Grown men are crying, wondering how they will ever feed their families when their whole life has been spent learning to be the best specilized widget maker in the United States.  Trouble is -- In order to keep up the CEO's 200 million dollar salary, they have had to farm out all of the widget makers jobs to India where they can do it for $.15 on the dollar.  This assures the CEO of his continuing massive salary, stockholders dividends and everybody is happy.  All except the blue collar worker who was layed off, is out of unemployment money because he can't find another job making widgets, and since he has never done anything else, his prospects are very grim.

[MountainDon]

Oh! CEO's do not, repeat, do not, deserve, nor earn those mega dollar salaries. It does especially gall me when a CEO is forced out due to mismanagement or even illegal activities, and is rewarded with the golden parachute millions.

[MountainDon]

Maybe I can get government aid to build a start up factory in the Sudan?

[glenn kangiser]

Nothing is beyond believability, and there is a very cheap labor force.  Profits should be good.

[glenn kangiser]

Themes from the book, Lord of The Flies,  William Golding 1954

    *  People will abuse power when it's not earned.
    * When given a chance, people often single out another to degrade to improve their own security.
    * You can only cover up inner savagery so long before it breaks out, given the right situation.
    * It's better to examine the consequences of a decision before you make it than to discover them afterward.
    * The fear of the unknown can be a powerful force, which can turn you to either insight or hysteria.

I read it in school -- thought about it today.

When will they rescue us from the island?hmm

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

My thought for the day.... whoever wrote "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow" must have been from the deep south and never had to shovel the stuff.

[Redoverfarm]

HT maybe you have been dreaming too much.    " I'm dreaming of a white christmas"

[glenn kangiser]

"An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought,"

US President Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of War during the Civil War, Simon Cameron

[Redoverfarm]

When I was growing up I lived next to a dairy farm run by an old german farmer. I helped daily and on weekends.  When it came time for lunch and supper sometimes I really wasn't that hungry and would make the comment that I wasn't that hungry. His reply " You do not eat because you are hungry you eat to keep from getting hungry"

[glenn kangiser]

A good bit of wisdom there.

[Sassy]

Garfield on the oil crisis

       
       A lot of folks can't understand how we came
       to have an oil shortage here in our country.
       ~~~
       Well, there's a very simple answer.
       ~~~
       Nobody bothered to check the oil.
       ~~~
       We just didn't know we were getting low.
       ~~~
       The reason for that is purely geographical .
       ~~~
       Our OIL is located in
       ~~~
       ALASKA
       ~~~
       California
       ~~~
       Coastal Florida
       ~~~
       Coastal Louisiana
       ~~~
       Kansas
       ~~~
       Oklahoma
       ~~~
       Pennsylvania
       and
       Texas
       ~~~
       Our
       DIPSTICKS
       are located in
       Washington , DC !!!
       Any Questions
       NO? I didn't Think So.

[Sassy]

"While communism is the control of business by government, fascism is the control of government by business."
Robert F Kennedy Jr

[Redoverfarm]

Sassy I like the dipstick one.

[Drew]

"The man who chops his own wood warms himself twice." - Source .

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

White men build big fires while natives build little ones.  White men get warm carrying wood.

Don't remember where I heard that, but it reminded me of the previous one.

[MountainDon]

That's an oldie Homegrown. 

[glenn kangiser]

"The man who chops his own wood warms himself twice." - Source .

I was thinking Thoreau, but turns out it was Henry Ford, the inventor of charcoal briquets. http://www.cityofkingsford.com/history.html

[Drew]

Wow.  Two Henry Ford references in a day.  The other one I enthusiastically brought forward was  "If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability."

I think the ghosts of Mark Twain and Winston Churchill are going to get jealous.

[MountainDon]

Let's even it up a bit...

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. - Sir Winston Churchill

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried. - Sir Winston Churchill

Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more. - Mark Twain

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first. - Mark Twain

[Sassy]

"The obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not to coddle the world, precipitating no-win wars, while bringing bankruptcy & economic turmoil to our people."  Ron Paul

[Redoverfarm]

Something to ponder on:

*  The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth! *
** with the rut you have a 2nd. chance ... the grave... too late! ^i^ ^i^