1) We have just about everything we need
(and - the stuff we need is lasting longer than it used to)
2) Lack of disposable income money is tight
(not surprising - fewer people in the workforce are doing something that's "adding value.")
3) Saturation in the work place
(too many people, doing too few valuable things - which includes bureaucracy)
4) Tight money
(lendors have few incentives to lend, given high risk and low return)
5) Regulation --- nope, it doesn't help --- but it's not killing business, either.
When I was a kid - you were living in luxury if you had a tone phone. Back then - if you had a computer in your house, you must be some kind of government spy. Now, I can't think of a single person that I know who doesn't have a cell phone and multiple computers. (the price of both has gone down --- effectively to cost).
Disposable income is low because few people are doing something that's really invaluable (valuable beyond measure). There's a difference between - say an auto assembler - who might do something valuable - but is not beyond measure (you can always find someone that's equally valuable, and less expensive) ---- and a Football quarterback (Tebow seems to be valuable beyond measure, at the moment). The US workforce has been either unable or unwilling to show its value.
Tight money --- there aren't a lot of rewards for investors - and the rewards pale to the risks. Frankly, right now, there's a lot of penalties - why buy land and end up with a superfund lawsuit? (think Redfield). Why lend money for real estate when the rate of return is 4 percent. You're better off leaving your money in a money market.
Regulation - not really helping things.
I was ready to start a company distributing soufrehs (a hand-printed tablecloth - typically made in Persia). Then - Washington, DC decided that I shouldn't be sending funds to Persia (come on, folks - they're tablecloths!!!)
1) We have just about everything we need
(and - the stuff we need is lasting longer than it used to)
2) Lack of disposable income money is tight
(not surprising - fewer people in the workforce are doing something that's "adding value.")
3) Saturation in the work place
(too many people, doing too few valuable things - which includes bureaucracy)
4) Tight money
(lendors have few incentives to lend, given high risk and low return)
5) Regulation --- nope, it doesn't help --- but it's not killing business, either.
When I was a kid - you were living in luxury if you had a tone phone. Back then - if you had a computer in your house, you must be some kind of government spy. Now, I can't think of a single person that I know who doesn't have a cell phone and multiple computers. (the price of both has gone down --- effectively to cost).
Disposable income is low because few people are doing something that's really invaluable (valuable beyond measure). There's a difference between - say an auto assembler - who might do something valuable - but is not beyond measure (you can always find someone that's equally valuable, and less expensive) ---- and a Football quarterback (Tebow seems to be valuable beyond measure, at the moment). The US workforce has been either unable or unwilling to show its value.
Tight money --- there aren't a lot of rewards for investors - and the rewards pale to the risks. Frankly, right now, there's a lot of penalties - why buy land and end up with a superfund lawsuit? (think Redfield). Why lend money for real estate when the rate of return is 4 percent. You're better off leaving your money in a money market.
Regulation - not really helping things.
I was ready to start a company distributing soufrehs (a hand-printed tablecloth - typically made in Persia). Then - Washington, DC decided that I shouldn't be sending funds to Persia (come on, folks - they're tablecloths!!!)
Great post... technology changes and the need for certain human skills change... that's the way it's been for the history of the world. The the population changes, gains new skills, retrains themselves. The availability of money changes, then it's the responsibility of the individual to adjust their lifestyle, be careful, don't over extend oneself. Over regulation motivates business to find cost cutting measures... no business anywhere in the world is set up as a charity, profit is the motive and every employee getting a pay check should be happy that profit is the mission. What's valuable one decade is not guaranteed of value the next decade, it's fluid and in flux, and a person has to change.
So, "buying land" and "real estate lending" are the only two uses for investment money...? No wonder the conservatives don't understand the job market.
Over-taxation and over-regulation are NOT what's killing business... Repeating it over and over again doesn't make it true.
Disposable income is low because industry is shipping jobs overseas where they can get kids and adults to work for peanuts, in dangerous and often criminal conditions; and businesses are failing (thus putting people out of work) because they don't have customers to buy their products and services.
Consumers are the true job creators. When demand goes up, so does employment. You could start any kind of company that you wanted, but without the demand, it would fold pretty quick. If the demand was there, companies would hire no matter what regulations there were.
When you plant ice you're going to harvest wind. - Robert Hunter
Yep... I keep repeating it: "businesses are failing (thus putting people out of work) because they don't have customers to buy their products and services." The truth doesn't change.
LadyJazzer wrote: Yep... I keep repeating it: "businesses are failing (thus putting people out of work) because they don't have customers to buy their products and services." The truth doesn't change.
Nope... wrong... it's just that you and your Luddite friends haven't managed to keep up with the market... "According to an IBM Benchmark report, e-sales are up 20-percent for this same time period from Cyber Monday 2010. Most of this traffic is coming from computers, and analysts suspect mobile traffic will pick up later in the day. At the moment, 13.3-percent of consumers are using a mobile device to reach retailers’ sites and 8.5-percent are actually shopping via smartphone or tablet. We’ll have updates on these numbers throughout the day."
There's buyers, but they are not walking into your grandfathers old, worn music shop... not when the best deals are on the Internet Mall. To f'king bad for your old music store. But you're happy aren't you? You managed to pop yourself a really good deal on a guitar from his fire sale. Makes you feel good, huh, Lady Jazzer, cashing in on his misery. Good for you... that's what capitalism is all about. You were a good little capitalist.
BEARS wrote: Wrong..Theres not enough demand...Companies are meeting all our demands right now and they will not expand unless there more demand for thier consumer goods and services..Corporate America is sitting on trillions of dollars right now, they don't need a tax break to add to the pile, they need more demand. More money in the people pockets..
Exactly... Like my friend whose music store closed... He wasn't over-taxed, or over-regulated... He didn't have enough demand from people who still had jobs and money to spend.
Velocity of money is the issue. Even people who have good jobs are sitting on their funds. And part of that is that they have no confidence in President Obama to turn the economy around.
But back to the topic, over-regulation might help to save some American jobs. It is hard to monitor Chinese & other Asian suppliers but US firms have to maintain higher standards and it is easier to audit domestic companies. This might earn domestic manufacturers more business from both European and American companies. We still can't offer the lowest prices, but we do have some advantages.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
FredHayek wrote: Velocity of money is the issue. Even people who have good jobs are sitting on their funds. And part of that is that they have no confidence in President Obama to turn the economy around.
I would say that people have no confidence in the government to turn the economy around. All of the politicians are to blame, not just the poster boy you want to bag on.
When you plant ice you're going to harvest wind. - Robert Hunter
