Re: SOTU Address:
Where was your concern over the last decade? When according to NBER productivity growth in the United States has rebounded sharply over the past decade. Hhmmm…what was the tax rate when it started its decade long climb?
Productivity gains have all been eaten up by increased costs of employment. I've noted before on this forum that the fed govts own numbers puts my costs of meeting govt regs at just under $22k/employee/yr, add to that 9-15% increases in healthcare costs per year for at least the last 15 years. Rising energy costs, I could go on. Those productivity gains have allowed people like me to tread water, nothing more.
I am familiar with an operation such as yours .My son has a very successful Tool and Die shop. If you do any stampings to for BOEING Or GE, there’s a good chance you’re using one of his dies, or jig assemblies.
We build tooling inhouse.
Where is your concern for people that work for minimum wage that have seen their buying power shrink… for example, minimum wage was $1.60 per hour in 1968, which translates to about $10.50 in today’s bucks.
I'm quite concerned with min wage workers. I just have a difficult time understanding how raising the labor costs of companies that hire min wage workers 24% is going to make those companies flourish. And if the company suffers where does that leave the employee? In addition, I don't know how to break it to you but the companies buying power is shrinking at the same time. Or as employers are we somehow immune to price increases?
As to the min wage in 1968, employers weren't dealing with even 1% of the govt nonsense that I do. Piling on thousands upon thousands of pages of govt bs, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade really does have an effect.
Are these people just a number on your bottom line? Have you bothered to check out any of these plating shops that hires from manpower? If you do/did you had better be conversant in Spanish.
I'm in a plating plant at least twice a week, and it's still English being spoken, albeit not very well. Most of these temp workers are borderline unemployable. The shop I'm most familiar with literally has a smell check for temp workers at the beginning of each shift, most days they kick one or two out due to their still being drunk from the night before or from the shots they had on their way in. Under no circumstances can they allow temp workers to leave the building for breaks or lunch or they have to do the smell test all over.
The idea that these temp workers are good hard working people that just got caught up in a bad economy is just wrong, any decent temp they get is swooped up by someone like me, I have two of their former temps on my staff right now. And that evil owner of the plating company? He's the one that called me and said "hey I've got a good kid in here from the temp service who's a keeper, know anyone looking for help?" He'd love to keep them himself but the chances that a good kid is going to stay there hanging parts for even $10/hr are nil.
This amounts to nothing more than feel good legislation. At the end of the day the political left will pat themselves on the back while I and the plater lay people off. Keep in mind that the work I lose will also impact my other vendors as well, material suppliers, heat treating, welders, fastener suppliers, I could go on. And of course none of these losses will show up on the govts or the political lefts scorecard when all is said and done. Unintended consequences aren't a problem if you don't acknowledge they exist and someone else is dealing with the aftermath.
Here's an idea, lets create more jobs so that there is competition for employees and employers have to pay more. And the lefts way to do this?
increased taxes
more regulations
more bureaucrats
more govt spending
more debt
increased costs on the states
24% increase in labor costs for those hiring unskilled workers
On my scorecard that's strike seven.
