CEOs don't care one bit about the cost of business.
Either you raise the price of the finished product and make the customer pay for the inefficiency, or you claim a business loss, and use tax loopholes to make the government pay for the inefficiency. If that all fails, you can fire enough low-level employees to cover the inefficiency. and if THAT fails, you max out the corporate loans, write yourself a nice fat severance check, and disappear into South America.
The only thing a CEO cares about is whether or not his new Tesla Roadster will be delivered on time
the government has power over counterfeit goods, they are stretching the law to say that "pirated" media is "counterfeit" media, and anything that is connected to "counterfeit" products can be seized as criminal profits
how does an electric charge point take less space than a gas pump? a gas pump is only 2 feet wide by 4 feet long, most of the "space" taken up by gas pumps is actually taken up by the cars themselves plus the free room needed to maneuver around the other cars.
if the electric car actually became popular then the gas station as we know it would probably die off. If you could have gasoline delivered straight to your house (like electricity already is), why wouldn't you just fill up in the garage?
in regards to the second part about the cartels: stations aren't charging such low margins because the cartels forced them to, they are doing it because the price of gas is already ABOVE what the market will bear before it even gets to the gas station, so people are just spending less on food and medicine in order to afford gas. In other words, If the market will bear $3/gallon, and the station's cost is $3.75/gallon, theres not much room for markup.
if you are driving more than 100 miles just to get to and from work every day, then you need to find a new job or a new place to live. no wonder there is gridlock and pollution with idiots like you, you waste 4 hours of time and 6 gallons of gas every day just so you can save $100-$200 a month on rent.
shouting loudly to advocate your beliefs is also accepted free speech, but the way we currently allow " Spending your money to support people who advocate ideas" allows the rich to buy the political equivalent of megaphones (loudspeakers) for all their supporters, drowning out the remaining 80% of the country who is too poor to be heard.
money is property that is traded in order to acquire other property, such as politicians, astroturfed public opinion, political organizations, and sometimes even entire governments.
Nobody ever SAYS that unions cause communism, atleast not out loud, but you know there are people who think that way, just like there are people who think jews and blacks are the source of all evil in the world.
also, if you hate geeks, why are you on slashdot? If you really have nothing better to do than troll, then I suggest you go troll the Christian websites instead, they are more fun
If the government taxes the corporations to afford these worker benefits, then they are really being provided by the corporations (against their greedy will)
Also, passing laws to enforce privacy and non-discrimination, limiting work weeks, and mandating payed holidays doesn't cost the government anything at all. It just pisses off the corporations (who also happen to OWN the government in the US, which is why those same laws don't get passed here)
It's even worse when cities and states compete for new businesses to moved to their city/state, the end result is almost always a 5-10 year break on ALL taxes (sales tax, property tax, etc) for that company. To see the damage this causes on a larger scale, just look at Ireland, for many years they had a ridiculously low (if not non-existent) corporate tax in order to attract foreign businesses, and now the government is so broke they have to cut back on ALL government services (much like the rest of the EU)
No matter what you do to a company, the extra savings will always be passed to the executives, and the extra costs will always be passed to the customers/empoyees/taxpayers. Publicize the losses and privatize the profits is the new corporate motto
Take your kids out of school if you want, but don't get rid of free public schools. After all, would you rather have "improperly" educated poor people, or poor people with no formal education whatsoever?
When you think about your taxes spent on public school, don't think "I'm paying to teach someone else's kid", instead think "I'm helping to prevent illiteracy and ignorance". Unless, ofcourse, an uneducated proletariat is your personal goal.
As long as the elections aren't being diebolded, the voters voted for those people, and so the voters should get what they voted for, however bad it is. That's what democracy is about - the majority getting what they deserve rather than worse (or extremely rarely- better) than what they deserve.
The problem I see is voters are poorly educated and do not take their responsibilities seriously - and just take the time to inform themselves once every few years.
Poor voter education is completely intentional on the part of the people currently in power (the democrat/republican/corporate oligarchy). Ignorant people are easier to manipulate and it's easier to keep them ignorant if you make the subject matter as esoteric, opaque, and generally inaccessible as possible. You don't need to make laws in secret if you make the proceedings so boring that nobody can tolerate watching them.
Maybe we need to take the robot chicken idea and combine c-span with x-games.
yes, but who is actually writing the treaties that governments are signing? My guess is that the corporations are the ones writing the treaties, just like they already write US laws
well, they did kill millions of jews and destroy a large chunk of europe in the pursuit of "a stronger economy", so this news should not come as a surprise
you can blame the corporations all you want (and I do), but it means nothing if you lack the power to actually do something about it; the government has the power, if we could just get them to use it for good instead of evil.
We HAVE to blame the the government, because it's the only entity large enough to hold the corporations accountable. Voting with your dollars doesn't work for any corporation larger than a few dozen people.
Also, the government is responsible for propping up the profits of entire industries. They subsidize the costs of milk and corn to bring down shelf price to the consumer, but don't actually set any limits on that shelf price, so all those subsidies go straight into corporate profit instead of food price reduction. The wholesale price of milk (money to the farmer) keeps going down, but the price of milk (in the store) keeps going up.
The article probably leaves out the part where they replace every single one of those laid-off US employees with a Chinese peasant who will work for $1 a day
Sounds like a great idea, but that will just increase profit, not decrease prices or increase employment. The rules of supply and demand broke down in the 70s with the invention of artificial demand (aka commercials) and artificial supply limit (aka cartels and monopolies). The shelf-price of an item has little, if anything, to do with the cost to make the item, and everything to do with shareholder greed.
Imagine you are a shareholder, the corporate tax just vanished and corporate profits are up, do you: (a) hire more employees (b) lower the price of the item or (c) vote yourself a nice fat dividend?
For most companies, liability is just an excuse to force the workers do something, even when there is no legitimate (aka public) reason.
Like making your delivery drivers buy their own liability insurance ($80 un-reimbursed per month), even when the company already has full liability insurance for all the drivers. Then they use that EXTREMELY strict insurance policy requirement (no more than 2 speeding tickets in 2 years, and no DUI ever in your lifetime) to selectively not hire people. All in the name of "liability"
Companies are so busy covering their asses that I'm surprised they have a free hand to get anything done. (which might explain why the managers outnumber the workers at some businesses)
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, the difference is how much money congress gives you, just call it a war and they will fund it like one.
CEOs don't care one bit about the cost of business.
Either you raise the price of the finished product and make the customer pay for the inefficiency, or you claim a business loss, and use tax loopholes to make the government pay for the inefficiency.
If that all fails, you can fire enough low-level employees to cover the inefficiency. and if THAT fails, you max out the corporate loans, write yourself a nice fat severance check, and disappear into South America.
The only thing a CEO cares about is whether or not his new Tesla Roadster will be delivered on time
the government has power over counterfeit goods, they are stretching the law to say that "pirated" media is "counterfeit" media, and anything that is connected to "counterfeit" products can be seized as criminal profits
how does an electric charge point take less space than a gas pump? a gas pump is only 2 feet wide by 4 feet long, most of the "space" taken up by gas pumps is actually taken up by the cars themselves plus the free room needed to maneuver around the other cars.
if the electric car actually became popular then the gas station as we know it would probably die off. If you could have gasoline delivered straight to your house (like electricity already is), why wouldn't you just fill up in the garage?
in regards to the second part about the cartels: stations aren't charging such low margins because the cartels forced them to, they are doing it because the price of gas is already ABOVE what the market will bear before it even gets to the gas station, so people are just spending less on food and medicine in order to afford gas.
In other words, If the market will bear $3/gallon, and the station's cost is $3.75/gallon, theres not much room for markup.
if you are driving more than 100 miles just to get to and from work every day, then you need to find a new job or a new place to live. no wonder there is gridlock and pollution with idiots like you, you waste 4 hours of time and 6 gallons of gas every day just so you can save $100-$200 a month on rent.
funscrape appears to have bollywood music and movies available for streaming (probably without a license).
Does India not have any free speech laws? A democracy that censor's speech is not a democracy, it's a dictatorship of consensus
In the U.S., EVERYTHING is a threat to national security, it is much easier to get military funding when your enemy is the bogeyman.
shouting loudly to advocate your beliefs is also accepted free speech, but the way we currently allow " Spending your money to support people who advocate ideas" allows the rich to buy the political equivalent of megaphones (loudspeakers) for all their supporters, drowning out the remaining 80% of the country who is too poor to be heard.
Im sure some of them don't even accept the idea that Venus IS a planet.
money is property that is traded in order to acquire other property, such as politicians, astroturfed public opinion, political organizations, and sometimes even entire governments.
how do the unemployed people go about "taking their job back"? move to Brazil?
Nobody ever SAYS that unions cause communism, atleast not out loud, but you know there are people who think that way, just like there are people who think jews and blacks are the source of all evil in the world.
also, if you hate geeks, why are you on slashdot? If you really have nothing better to do than troll, then I suggest you go troll the Christian websites instead, they are more fun
If the government taxes the corporations to afford these worker benefits, then they are really being provided by the corporations (against their greedy will)
Also, passing laws to enforce privacy and non-discrimination, limiting work weeks, and mandating payed holidays doesn't cost the government anything at all. It just pisses off the corporations (who also happen to OWN the government in the US, which is why those same laws don't get passed here)
It's even worse when cities and states compete for new businesses to moved to their city/state, the end result is almost always a 5-10 year break on ALL taxes (sales tax, property tax, etc) for that company. To see the damage this causes on a larger scale, just look at Ireland, for many years they had a ridiculously low (if not non-existent) corporate tax in order to attract foreign businesses, and now the government is so broke they have to cut back on ALL government services (much like the rest of the EU)
No matter what you do to a company, the extra savings will always be passed to the executives, and the extra costs will always be passed to the customers/empoyees/taxpayers. Publicize the losses and privatize the profits is the new corporate motto
Take your kids out of school if you want, but don't get rid of free public schools. After all, would you rather have "improperly" educated poor people, or poor people with no formal education whatsoever?
When you think about your taxes spent on public school, don't think "I'm paying to teach someone else's kid", instead think "I'm helping to prevent illiteracy and ignorance". Unless, ofcourse, an uneducated proletariat is your personal goal.
As long as the elections aren't being diebolded, the voters voted for those people, and so the voters should get what they voted for, however bad it is. That's what democracy is about - the majority getting what they deserve rather than worse (or extremely rarely- better) than what they deserve.
The problem I see is voters are poorly educated and do not take their responsibilities seriously - and just take the time to inform themselves once every few years.
Poor voter education is completely intentional on the part of the people currently in power (the democrat/republican/corporate oligarchy). Ignorant people are easier to manipulate and it's easier to keep them ignorant if you make the subject matter as esoteric, opaque, and generally inaccessible as possible. You don't need to make laws in secret if you make the proceedings so boring that nobody can tolerate watching them.
Maybe we need to take the robot chicken idea and combine c-span with x-games.
some small mechanical parts are actually packed in machine oil and put in sealed cans (like a soup can), I have seen stuff like this at surplus stores
yes, but who is actually writing the treaties that governments are signing? My guess is that the corporations are the ones writing the treaties, just like they already write US laws
well, they did kill millions of jews and destroy a large chunk of europe in the pursuit of "a stronger economy", so this news should not come as a surprise
you can blame the corporations all you want (and I do), but it means nothing if you lack the power to actually do something about it; the government has the power, if we could just get them to use it for good instead of evil.
We HAVE to blame the the government, because it's the only entity large enough to hold the corporations accountable. Voting with your dollars doesn't work for any corporation larger than a few dozen people.
Also, the government is responsible for propping up the profits of entire industries. They subsidize the costs of milk and corn to bring down shelf price to the consumer, but don't actually set any limits on that shelf price, so all those subsidies go straight into corporate profit instead of food price reduction. The wholesale price of milk (money to the farmer) keeps going down, but the price of milk (in the store) keeps going up.
The article probably leaves out the part where they replace every single one of those laid-off US employees with a Chinese peasant who will work for $1 a day
Sounds like a great idea, but that will just increase profit, not decrease prices or increase employment. The rules of supply and demand broke down in the 70s with the invention of artificial demand (aka commercials) and artificial supply limit (aka cartels and monopolies). The shelf-price of an item has little, if anything, to do with the cost to make the item, and everything to do with shareholder greed.
Imagine you are a shareholder, the corporate tax just vanished and corporate profits are up, do you:
(a) hire more employees
(b) lower the price of the item
or
(c) vote yourself a nice fat dividend?
my guess is (c) in most cases
For most companies, liability is just an excuse to force the workers do something, even when there is no legitimate (aka public) reason.
Like making your delivery drivers buy their own liability insurance ($80 un-reimbursed per month), even when the company already has full liability insurance for all the drivers. Then they use that EXTREMELY strict insurance policy requirement (no more than 2 speeding tickets in 2 years, and no DUI ever in your lifetime) to selectively not hire people. All in the name of "liability"
Companies are so busy covering their asses that I'm surprised they have a free hand to get anything done. (which might explain why the managers outnumber the workers at some businesses)