Because American industry is having to change
and adapt to the new stupid being imposed on it, there are some things going on that I see, that are just ugly.
Companies who sell industrial equipment are being squeezed. Manufacturers know they have them over a barrel, so they are wringing every discount they can out of everything, and distributorships are selling at such low profit margins that eventually industrial showrooms will be a thing of the past, and million dollar machines will be sold out of car trunks like plastic garbage bags. And those manufacturers will have to work harder and harder to eke out a profit.
What this means for you and I is that the products we buy- from cars to asswipe- will get worse and worse, the quality disappearing to shave off a little profit. Quality products will come from Japan, Germany, and, believe it or not, China. “Made in America” will make people giggle and walk on by like they once did when you saw “Made in Japan”. (For those of us old enough to remember crappy made in Japan products). The decreasing number of high quality goods made in America will disappear one by one as the fedgov regulates and taxes them out of existence. This is not a prediction of the state of things to come, but an observation of the current situation.
I cannot imagine anything I want to see less than bloody revolution. I know people who live, or have lived, in a more or less permanent state of warfare, and I do not want that here. We have a little bit of time left to start turning this ship around, and only by constant and ongoing individual political activism do we have even the slightest chance. The barbarians are not at the gate, they are in the house next door, in the adjoining bedroom, in bed next to you. Do something about this while you still can without firing a shot, you haven’t got much time left.
15 comments Og | Uncategorized
I hope it’s not too late to turn things around, but I fear it is. Won’t stop me from trying because the alternative is worse, but I’m really afraid we’ve passed the point of no return and the only thing left is the crash. When the USA falls it’ll usher in a dark-ages that’ll make the one after the fall of Rome look like a little cough.
The problems as I see them:
1) Half the population pays no income tax, and the government takes nearly half of what the other half makes. My wife makes about 75% of what I do and she works solely to pay our taxes. A politician who promises to rob Peter to pay Paul can count on Paul’s vote.
2) Lack of understanding, by the population, of basic civics and economics. When I hear people say that the way to help poor people is to print more money and give it to them I know we’re heading for (as Kevin at the Smallest Minority puts it) some tough history.
3) Public employee unions making ever greater demands. The Long Island Railroad workers are threatening to strike next week for instance. If a private company union makes too many demands the company goes out of business and the union members are unemployed. Public employee unions make demands and the politicians raise taxes to pay for them. Public pensions are going to cost billions in the near future.
4) An attitude of entitlement. You’re entitled to a “living wage”, “free” health care, “free” birth control, etc despite having no useful skills that someone would pay you for. Someone’s gotta pay for all that free stuff, and the people that pay for it are getting tired of it.
The only question is whether the economy will collapse under its own weight, or if the producers will get fed up with supporting parasites and give the dog a flea bath, or if the producers will decide “screw it, I’m retiring”.
“Screw it I’m retiring” may not work with a trashed currency.
It may, but I just don’t see it. I fear we’ve passed the point of no return, and short of some miraculous, magical, “free” (both of cost, refinement, and waste) energy source (no, the sun isn’t free), the piper is coming along, and his bill is pretty steep. We’ve spent, via debt, our grandkids money, and maybe their grandkids. That isn’t possible to sustain for any length of time. The US has managed to cheat by having the world’s “reserve” currency, but will the rest of the world pay our bills forever? I doubt it.
Silver linings.
1. Rubble makes good fill for concrete.
2. Bankruptcy pries the fingers off the throat of industry so that the resources can be swallowed.
3. Historically, most economic collapses do not lead to bloody revolutions, only some bloody street riots.
4. In the last “Great Depression” (1929, not the one we have now), most people didn’t know they were in a depression. 75% still had jobs. Private charities covered for the poor and people didn’t starve to death.
5. Just as a death sentence focuses the mind, so poverty enforces discipline in the markets.
6. Even during the worst of economic circumstances, some people are still following their dreams, growing families, starting businesses, and making customers happy.
Indeed! All true, Hale, and adequate reason to retain some optimism.
The problem with the first depression is it did not break the back of the Government. The depression followed by WWII is the penultimate cause of our current difficulties. Until we break the back of the EPA, ATF, FDA, SEC, TSA and other such regulatory bureaucracies we will only be swirling around the rim of the toilet bowl.
We need to come up with a way to kill bureaucracies.
The US remains an industrial nation, but the cracks in the foundation are getting dangerously wide. I have a stack of business cards six inches high of old contacts at customers that are no longer in business. You can talk all you want about bringing manufacturing back from overseas or Mexico, but the vast manufacturing knowledge that ran the factories is lost — the tool and die guys, the old timers that had seen the problem before…
I sell a precision product that is viewed as a commodity these days. In the past few years I have had discussions with my customers about what level of quality is “good enough”. We have become a society that will tolerate crappy quality, as long as the price is low.
Look at your t-shirts. Appliances and small hand tools have become disposable. It is often cheaper to replace a washer and drier than to repair it. Who fixes their cheap B&D drill, toss it and buy another.
AS companies face higher and higher gov’t mandated costs, they will look to ways to make a profit, they will cut costs, reduce quality and reduce indirect labor costs. Fewer sales, customer service, and support people. Even engineering and design will move overseas. Business does not exist to provide jobs, it exists to make money.
This is your big government economy.
A revolution doesn’t necessarily have to be bloody. I’m hoping that the independent American spirit will take over and we will give FedGov a collective FUCK YOU! and go about the business of living.
(Painting with broad strokes here)
I used to be a globalist when that free market idea was introduced to me about 25 years ago. You know, cheaper goods for the consumer and all that. Now I’m thinking that making things locally might provide for better living standards.
What is better for a man, being a retailer of imported goods or to be in the process of making that good locally? Most men need to make things.
This information age with so much of the real work being done overseas is, well, unsatisfying.
(end broad brush strokes)
the problem, John, is that when an individual says “Fuck you” to the Fedgov, the fedgov has the power to say FUCK YOU back and make it stick. And only violence will ever stop that.
This election in November is crucial. I think we’re going to find out which direction the country is headed — and if Jugears and his crew manage to jigger this election like they did in ’08 and ’12, I think we’re fucked.
A well known computer accessory company is moving it’s manufacturing operations offshore. They are auctioning off their production equipment.
http://www.allsop.com/
http://murphyauction.com/Auction/Details/617
http://murphyauction.com/Auction/Details/616
They are able to stay in business but we lose the jobs and the tax revenues.
I honestly believe that this Admin is doing everything in its power to drive the Republic into the “Dustbin of History.” I think that is the whole reason for its existence, and even if the Republitards get a SLIM Majority in the Senate come this November, it won’t mean a thing, because they do NOT have the Numbers to Impeach him.
And if they did, can you say “President Biden, Boys and Girls?”
Pick a topic from A-Z involving the Gooberment, and you’ll see The Anointed One’s “Finger in the Pie” screwing things up.
And with half of the Republitards in Power more concerned about their Cronies Bottom Line instead of the Constitution being used to wipe Bottoms…..
I wish people would stop ranting about the need for impeachment. It’s not going to happen even if the Pubbies take the Senate back with a supermajority. They learned their lesson in the Clinton impeachment.
The key going forward is going to be to stymie Barry. Tie his legislation up in knots, and sue him in Federal court to put a stop to his executive overreach. The courts are already signaling that Barry’s playtime with executive orders is over.
And industrial auctions are one way to bring lower cost but really useful machines into economic reach of smaller businesses.
Someone will be bidding on all those machines even if only for their scrap value.
I don’t see Chinese-made goods delivering quality. THOSE will be the ones that people avoid as cheap and shoddy.
M
I can show you hundreds of Chinese products that cannot be rivaled for quality. They just don’t do innovation.