54 replies to this topic

[salsabob]

The real reason Hostess went under? Yogurt. It's amazing how ideology can make some near brainless.

[Rogerdodger]

FL Hospitals to Cut Record Number of Jobs...
In the largest staff reduction in its nearly 100-year history, Orlando Health is cutting up to 400 jobs starting immediately, hospital system officials announced Monday.
Such cost-cutting measures are happening across the country. On Wednesday, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina announced that it would cut 950 jobs by June.
Last month, Louisiana State University announced it would cut 1,495 positions as well as programs across its seven hospitals to trim more than $150 million from its budget.
"It's a challenging time for hospitals," said John Bigalke, senior partner of global health care for Deloitte, one of the nation's largest professional services firms.
Hospitals are looking at an $800 billion to $900 billion reduction in Medicare payments over the next 10 years, along with reductions in Medicaid payments, he said.

Edited by Rogerdodger, 19 November 2012 - 11:14 PM.

[Rogerdodger]

Twinkies future, America's future: Detroit

Detroit rejects condition for cash infusion
Detroit's oversight board showed the city's weekly cash flow at just $4.1 million in mid-December before dropping to a negative $4.8 million at the end of the year.
Detroit's financial advisory board was created under an agreement that allowed Detroit to avoid the appointment of an emergency manager to run the city while giving the state some oversight and allowing the mayor to disregard collective bargaining agreements with unions.
http://ca.news.yahoo...-224903304.html

Edited by Rogerdodger, 20 November 2012 - 10:10 PM.

[voltaire]

Why do you feel compelled to assert what objectivists think without a lick of evidence to support such assertions?

I LIVE every day as an objectivist. I'm happy, fulfilled, productive.

Most of the things that objectivists advocate and that are salient aspects of our US culture and constitution are the things that have made us the wealthiest and most envied country on earth.

It sure as hell wasn't collectivism.

Envied by who?

I don't know anyone wanting to move to the US.

You have this myopic vision that is unsupported by fact.

The US is the most unequal society in the world.

The poor get poorer and the rich get richer.

The disparity between top and bottom has never been larger.

That's a formula for revolution.

And I see it coming your way.

[Rogerdodger]

Union Fail: WALMART Reports Record Sales...

I love it when attempts to limit freedom fail.
But the indoctrination of tyranny begins early.
As my grandson said: "Walmart doesn't pay their employees enough money."
I educated him: "They work there by choice. I know some cashiers who became wealthy by participating in employee benefit stock purchasing."
Then he replied: "The stuff they sell is cheap crap."
I educated him again: "The parking lots are always full. Consumers are freely voting with their feet."
Besides...
If employees want to make more money they can always join a union and make Twinkies.

Edited by Rogerdodger, 24 November 2012 - 10:28 AM.

[voltaire]

Union Fail: WALMART Reports Record Sales...

I love it when attempts to limit freedom fail.
But the indoctrination of tyranny begins early.
As my grandson said: "Walmart doesn't pay their employees enough money."
I educated him: "They work there by choice. I know some cashiers who became wealthy by participating in employee benefit stock purchasing."
Then he replied: "The stuff they sell is cheap crap."
I educated him again: "The parking lots are always full. Consumers are freely voting with their feet."
Besides...
If employees want to make more money they can always join a union and make Twinkies.

Roger

And giving employees a less than living wage means they aren't consumers.

What sort of world would it be if wages rose and fell with the economy.

How could you pay a mortgage on a house when your salary was fluctuating.

If security of tenure was so precarious, how can one plan anything in life.

It means great wages in boom times and dismissal at the first hint of poor times.

No employee in that environment would have any confidence in the future.

If you see that as a social system that works, then I don't.

Would you buy a house in that environment?

Of course their needs to be adjustments in tough times but leaving employees in limbo is not good for confidence or the economy at large.

The base rate pay in the US is abysmal.

Relying on tips to survive or working 3 jobs is atrocious.

It isn't tolerated anywhere else in the Western world.

A shocking endictment.

Your grandson is correct.

Of course other consumers are happy.

If they had scruples they would boycott Wamart.

[Rogerdodger]

My challenge remains: Set the example for us.

Let's see you start a business and pay unskilled, uneducated workers a "living wage."

Let me know how that works for you.

Even the wealthy union leaders refuse to do that.

Live what you preach Al!

In the meantime, tyrants will continue to destroy the free market and it's real world moral superiority.

Edited by Rogerdodger, 25 November 2012 - 12:35 PM.

[*JB*]

1 -- Envied by who?
I don't know anyone wanting to move to the US.

2 -- You have this myopic vision that is unsupported by fact.
The US is the most unequal society in the world.
The poor get poorer and the rich get richer.

3 -- The disparity between top and bottom has never been larger.
That's a formula for revolution.
And I see it coming your way.

1 -- Envied by MANY millions across the globe. Who "you know" depends on what class you associate with. I suspect the "chattering classes"

2 and 3 -- You are the one playing with unsupported facts. Russia, half the EU, Most of the Mid East, China, India, Mexico, most of Central America/South America -- among MANY other -- are countries with far GREATER wealth disparity. The US BOTTOM 20% live better than the MIDDLE European 20%...that's according to a European Study.
The UN is collection of corrupt governments who devide the booty among their conected elite at the cost of their people lives.

OF what I've read little of what you say includes the responsibility of the individual and VALUES (American VALUES in particular).

In America if one does three things they are very UNlikely to end up in poverty.

1 - -graduate from high school 2 -- have no children until married 3 -- stay away from drugs and crime.

I would add work hard, ADAPT, continue to learn, seek to earn respect for your work ethic, honesty --- and stick to you dreams.

“Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her:
but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.” -- Voltaire

[Rogerdodger]

WARNING! The utopian dream you have been watching is being interrupted by the following reality check:


Michigan Governor Won't Rule Out Dissolving City Of Detroit...
Oakland Crime Rate Soars As City Loses Officers; 33 Burglaries A Day...
Post Office Chief Lays Out Plan for Survival; Eliminate Mail Delivery On Saturday...
MONEY ON THE MOVE AHEAD OF '13 TAX CONFUSION...

PAPER: Two-thirds of millionaires left Britain to avoid 50% tax rate...

Edited by Rogerdodger, 28 November 2012 - 09:44 PM.

[voltaire]

My challenge remains: Set the example for us.

Let's see you start a business and pay unskilled, uneducated workers a "living wage."

Let me know how that works for you.

Even the wealthy union leaders refuse to do that.

Live what you preach Al!

In the meantime, tyrants will continue to destroy the free market and it's real world moral superiority.

Well here unskilled workers are paid a living wage.

So you think it equitable that a person works an 8 hour or more day and can't survive on that.

That is shameful.

Your business model is out of whack!

That is like Lords and serfs.

You are happy to see CEO's with 100 million dollar salaries and workers impoverished.

Where are your morals.

Isn't every man your brother?

He is to me.

I always paid my workers well above the proscribed rate.

I valued them and the remuneration returned in effort.