Economy

[JJ Husker]

7 minutes ago, teachercd said:

No way you f#&%ed at prom.  

 

Did you?  For that matter, how many here f#&%ed on your prom night?

Pffft.....who didn’t? Losers. 

[Born N Bled Red]

1 minute ago, JJ Husker said:

Thanks. I’ve been lucky so far. Have had no trouble at all retaining employees. There is not one person here with less than 15 years. That would indicate (to me anyway) that maybe I’m not too evil or too much of a d!(k to work for. And that I’ve been able to pay enough to keep people. I know I could attract a little higher quality employee if I paid more, which I’d love to be able to do, but my industry just won’t support it.

 

Hey man, like I said---   I know there are good employers that treat their employees very well. I called out specifically the Wal-Mart's and Amazon's of the world, who rely on corporate welfare, shipping jobs overseas, pay such a wage that their employees require government assistance to make ends meet. If you don't fall into this category, it wasn't about you. 

 

15 year terms are impressive in this day and age. Kudos again. 

[JJ Husker]

8 minutes ago, Born N Bled Red said:

 

Government unemployment isn't the reason jobs aren't getting filled in Nebraska. 

TBH, I have little to no knowledge of the employment situation in Nebraska. But common sense tells me that if a person can make close to the same wage sitting at home doing nothing as to what they could make by filling an available job, then yes, unemployment is causing some jobs to not be filled.

 

It’s too easy to make the statement you did, and use an inflation calculator as your proof that employers are not paying enough. Trust me, business owners want to make it work out to where they remain business owners. They will in almost 100% of situations pay what they can to make it happen. When they can’t pass those cost increases on to their customers, it gets a lot more dicey. It’s not always as simple as just paying a higher wage. There are numerous inflationary pressures in different industries right now. I deal with steel a lot and I can tell you that keeping up with those cost increases does not leave me any room if I also had to deal with wage increases. Customers are cutting back just because of material increases. I would have even fewer customers/sales if I had to increase wages also.

[Born N Bled Red]

14 minutes ago, JJ Husker said:

TBH, I have little to no knowledge of the employment situation in Nebraska. But common sense tells me that if a person can make close to the same wage sitting at home doing nothing as to what they could make by filling an available job, then yes, unemployment is causing some jobs to not be filled.

 

It’s too easy to make the statement you did, and use an inflation calculator as your proof that employers are not paying enough. Trust me, business owners want to make it work out to where they remain business owners. They will in almost 100% of situations pay what they can to make it happen. When they can’t pass those cost increases on to their customers, it gets a lot more dicey. It’s not always as simple as just paying a higher wage. There are numerous inflationary pressures in different industries right now. I deal with steel a lot and I can tell you that keeping up with those cost increases does not leave me any room if I also had to deal with wage increases. Customers are cutting back just because of material increases. I would have even fewer customers/sales if I had to increase wages also.

 

Man, wouldn't it be nice if the gagillionaires that employ your customers would pay them more so that they could afford your product at a higher price, thus allowing you to pay your employees better. 

 

That is what I'm getting at here, the entire pay scale across the nation has become so skewed towards the ultra wealthy that they have suppressed everyone's earnings. When the highest paid underling is paid a fraction more than the employee level right below them, then the owners can accumulate all they want without having to deal with the lowest level employees wanting a larger piece of the pie. Each level reinforces the lower payscale upon the level lower than themselves, while the ultra wealthy walk away with everything else. The employees fight over one slice of bread while the ultrawealthy take the whole rest of the loaf for themselves. 

[JJ Husker]

15 minutes ago, Born N Bled Red said:

 

Man, wouldn't it be nice if the gagillionaires that employ your customers would pay them more so that they could afford your product at a higher price, thus allowing you to pay your employees better. 

 

That is what I'm getting at here, the entire pay scale across the nation has become so skewed towards the ultra wealthy that they have suppressed everyone's earnings. When the highest paid underling is paid a fraction more than the employee level right below them, then the owners can accumulate all they want without having to deal with the lowest level employees wanting a larger piece of the pie. Each level reinforces the lower payscale upon the level lower than themselves, while the ultra wealthy walk away with everything else. The employees fight over one slice of bread while the ultrawealthy take the whole rest of the loaf for themselves. 

I get your point but, our largest customers and a high percentage of our sales are directly to those gagillionaire’s companies and not to the general public.

 

Most of the business we do lose when prices are rapidly increasing (like now) are those to the little guys, Joe homeowner and smaller companies. The gagillionaires rarely balk at price increases. Well, they balk and try to beat me down but when they finally realize I already gave them the best price I’m going to, they usually accept it.  And I do mean gagillionaires, not just tagging onto to what you said.  Our largest customer is the largest protein producer in the world.

 

I agree with your bread loaf analogy. The wealth divide is a huge issue. I wish I had a solution to remedy it within our economic and political system. Unfortunately our system makes it almost impossible and other systems have their own downfalls. I guess the good news is,  I’m not sure any other system would be any better for the bottom 30% to 50%. Living in poverty in the US is still better than most other places in the world. I’ve pretty much resigned myself to the belief that poverty for the masses is more the rule than the exception. It’s a sh#t sandwich for sure.

[teachercd]

1 hour ago, JJ Husker said:

Pffft.....who didn’t? Losers. 

What was his name?

[JJ Husker]

1 minute ago, teachercd said:

What was his name?

Dang it! You caught me.  Brad.

 

 

[BigRedBuster]

1 hour ago, Born N Bled Red said:

 

 

Ha - you're the one who said you were going to hire a high schooler to work in your restaurant, I just told you that you wouldn't find one to do so. I'm all for high schoolers working. The reality is, they don't at least not to the level that existed 20 years ago. They are all too wrapped up in sports and other activities. 

 

 

Naaaa....not as much as you think.  Some are.  Many are not.

 

BTW....most of the kids I know are wrapped up in sports and other activities too.  My kids used to get up and be at weight training at 7:00am to be at work at 8:00 or 8:30.  Then, their bosses would work their schedules around their practice times.  My son was even playing traveling AAU basketball while working full time.  And, they aren't alone in that.  

 

So.....your criticism of today's youth kind of over shot the mark too.

[BigRedBuster]

1 hour ago, Born N Bled Red said:

 

Government unemployment isn't the reason jobs aren't getting filled in Nebraska. 

It's part of it.  But, not the whole story.

[BigRedBuster]

1 hour ago, teachercd said:

No way you f#&%ed at prom.  

 

Did you?  For that matter, how many here DIDN'T GET f#&%ed on your prom night?

[teachercd]

3 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

Nice!!!

 

"Oh my god, yes, oh oh oh...uggggggg". and we are done.

[BigRedBuster]

2 hours ago, Born N Bled Red said:

 

 

Ha - you're the one who said you were going to hire a high schooler to work in your restaurant, I just told you that you wouldn't find one to do so. I'm all for high schoolers working. The reality is, they don't at least not to the level that existed 20 years ago. They are all too wrapped up in sports and other activities. 

 

 

So, what you're saying is that you agree that there are some jobs that shouldn't be expected to pay a living wage.

 

I agree.

[B.B. Hemingway]

3 hours ago, Born N Bled Red said:

 

Look I appreciate your defense of a $15/ hr starting wage as it is generally as it's pretty close to Average (though slightly below) in Nebraska. Meaning there are a lot of jobs that pay worse. https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Hourly-Salary--in-Nebraska

 

I also appreciate your defense of B.B. Hemmingway. Clearly you feel I unfairly called him out. My comment was on the wage he presented, not his business in specifics, though I can see how it could be read that way. 

 

That being said, when I was 20 years old, working for $15/ hour part-time in hog confinements working my way though college, I felt it was a fair wage given the part time nature of the work and the skills necessary to complete the job. It certainly would not have been a wage I could have afforded to work for, if I had say gotten a girl pregnant at senior prom and entered the workforce fulltime rather than go to college. That was nearly 20 years ago. Adjusted for inflation, that same $15 an hour, which was fair in 2004, would need to be $21.21 now to equal the same value for the same work. https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/2004?amount=15 

 

So tell me, use the inflation calculator I've linked here, put in your hourly wage, the year you worked for that wage, and todays year. Did you really work for less than $15/ hr?

 

You don't seem to have much of an understanding of how business works. You get paid by the amount of skill you provide while on the job. The market tells me what I'm going to pay my employees, not the amount someone objectively thinks I need to pay them so they can feed their families. Paying them a fair wage, determined by the market and their individual value to my business, is my obligation to them.... Not whether or not they can provide for their family. That's on them, and their spouse. Now, I have a few guys who are valuable, loyal, just good employees. I return that loyalty in a multitude of ways.

[Born N Bled Red]

1 hour ago, BigRedBuster said:

So, what you're saying is that you agree that there are some jobs that shouldn't be expected to pay a living wage.

 

I agree.

Any 40 hr/ week job should.

[teachercd]

44 minutes ago, Born N Bled Red said:

Any 40 hr/ week job should.

So a recent HS grad that works full time at a comic book shop...should be making...30 an hour?