Wednesday 13 January 2016

Corporate Board Rooms determine profits and wages? Wage depression caused by board rooms?

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The State of Denial harangue last night was full of the old demagoguery being delivered from a teleprompter with the voice of a person who is trying to do the up-lifting sermon of a fervent rural Baptist Black Pastor.  The problem, of course, is that the Pastor normally is speaking in the Tongue of Truth from the Word, and Barry is mouthing meaningless words, meant to deceive, drawn from the pen of Valerie Jarrett and placed upon a demonic machine known as Barry's Teleprompter.
     We were especially drawn to the comments....delivered with a rising volume and intensity.....while zombie-dolts in the Democrat caucus were giving tepid applause (and the Republicans sat by politely, but without any approving gesture, thankfully) concerning wage growth.   The speaker reminded one and all that lack of wage growth is not caused by people on food stamps, but  rather by decisions made in the board rooms of corporation.   According to Barry, wages and "quarterly profit and loss statements" are determined in the board room.

     Barry knows better, of course.   Many are the board rooms that have been populated by dumboes who failed to remember that profits and wages of a company are determined by market response to the product that business produces, first and foremost.
     The most successful businesses are run by board rooms that do certain things.  To Wit:

(1)  Hire a competent CEO
(2) Constantly evaluate the product, and its relevance to changes in market                   demand.
(3)  Make certain that the "pay package" for all employees and executives (wages, pension plans, health and life insurance, social allowances such as family leave,  vacation, etc.) keeps productive people inside the company.
(4)   Stay abreast of possible new technology that can be developed or bought.

     There are many other reasons for wage suppression.   At times technology removes the need for certain types of labour.  People then are set adrift and must find similar, equivalent, or alternate types of employment.  Sometimes self-retraining is necessary but the involved individual chooses to opt out of the labour market.
    Sometimes people decide to opt out of the labour market and to establish their own independent business, at times providing blue-collar skill service/product, or white collar service / product such as computer repair or web-site construction, etc.
      Many who tire of looking for work might decide to accept anything and begin at the low-rung on the ladder.   We have a relative in the family who successfully raised the boys and then became an empty nester.  Her husband is a trucker, and she obtained a position at a nearby, very large store.  Within a year, she had been promoted twice, and was making double the entry pay.  They have the world's most deluxe single wide, and seventeen acres of one of the most pleasant scenes of Texas that a person might imagine, along with ponds, creeks, horses, and everything.

AS FOR OBAMA  - The entire speech last night was the death rattle of a pompous pretender.  He will become increasingly imperial and autocratic as his days draw nigh.  He is a marxist, America-hating narcissist, who considers his will and self to be superior to the Concept of a Republic.....under God.....of,by, and for the people.
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     True wage depression is caused by having an oversupply for the jobs that are to be had.  There are fewer jobs to be had because many of the industrial positions have been automated for the sake of efficiency.  It does not behoove a company to hire slobby, lazy union people for 72.50 / hour to bolt bumpers onto vehicles....and to do that job poorly.  The competitive edge is lost, and the product will not sell because it will, of necessity, be overpriced.
     Union labour is the bane of productive effectiveness and efficiency.   It also is difficult to justify paying 249 dollars per day for having a mushroom's uncle fit a steering wheel onto a steering column 428 times a day with a 67% accuracy rate....and then having to employ two end-line quality control people, one of whom is drunk, and the other is smoking a joint on break to miss half of the errors.
     Those jobs go to Tennessee, Texas, Mexico....not Canada, not California. And, when a union worker tells somebody that the Mexicans have to work for 4.00 dollars per day, advise them that such is not the case.    A one-year maquiladora worker in Reynosa will be making about 28 USD per day, plus Mexican Social Security which is their version of comprehensive socialized medicine  (some companies now offer a choice of private medical insurance), plus a housing contribution which can be used to build or buy a home after a certain term of participation, scholarships for children of employees, one meal a day (surprisingly good, actually), and other perks, such as shuttle service, etc.
     The whole package comes up to about 60 dollars per day for the company's expense-to-hire.   There are variations depending on the type of product and the location of the plant. People with more time in grade, promotions, bonuses, etc. of course make more.
   At the time of the formation of the business the new hires are required to vote for a union to represent them, according to the law.  Among the choices is "White Union", which means that the Company has to set up a blind Employee's Representational Entity (Union) that they themselves run and administrate.   The "White Union" is the overwhelming choice of the employees.
     Mexicans working in maquilas are frequently using state-of-the-art robotics and  computerised equipment, pretty much like that which is used in American, Japanese, and European factories.   The factories are also not sweatshops....they are usually built and operated with something similar to or identical to settings found in the countries from whence the companies manage their domain.  Most of the non-maquiladora American companies in Mexico are actually Mexicanised in the sense that they are joint ventures involving the establishment of a Mexican corporation holding 50.1 per cent or more of the shares in the free-standing, independent, but associated operation.  For instance, the Coca - Cola de Mexico SA de CV (Mexico City) and the Coca - Cola de FEMSA, SA de CV (Monterrey) I believe are still the two largest producers of Coca - Cola products in all North America (perhaps the world) with huge distribution systems and production plants.   They work in brotherly association with their Atlanta sibling, it is said.

     So, while the labour wages are less, they are far higher than most Americans might think, after listening to blowhards on the television or seeing their moaning and groaning in the Letter to the Editor.

El Gringo Viejo
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