I guess that's what baffles me about our obsession with capitalism. We have a company making record breaking profits, and yet they fight tooth and nail to prevent sharing those profits with the very workers that made them possible. Instead, we reward the stockholders, who at this point did nothing to particularly help the company make money. And so now as you allude to, because the workers will get a little more of the reward, instead of the capital class getting less of the reward, they just jack up prices so they don't miss out on a few precious pennies.
I don't have a solution. And I get the adage of "capitalism is the worst except for all the others". But boy is it nauseating to see this play out all the time.
The father of my best friend from childhood works at Deere (about to retire) and feels this was a good deal for the workers. Hopefully it will embolden labor to keep pushing back.
I think even if you remove greed from the picture which obviously plays a role, I think you should at least the understand the deep seeded fears that permeate these decisions, fears about giving raises you can't take back if this boom is fleeting, about setting bonus expectations to a level that can't be maintained, about being unable to keep up with competition without proper investment capital. There are a lot of good reasons to want to be protective of a companies capital, and even if you are firmly in the other camp it's important to understand and empathize with what the other side is looking for.
I generally don't like the idea of unions, because I feel they only exist in the absence of a government doing their duty to the people properly (the one exception might be public sector unions were a conflict of interest exists). Proper labour regulations and standards setting a level playing field for all business is the standard we aspire to. Unfortunately this whole thing is a little too idealistic and unions are only able to fight for a portion of it. But we work with what we have.
All of that said, the proper capitalist thing for labor to be doing right now in this place and this time is to push for more, so I get what the JD union is doing.
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I think even if you remove greed from the picture which obviously plays a role, I think you should at least the understand the deep seeded fears that permeate these decisions, fears about giving raises you can't take back if this boom is fleeting, about setting bonus expectations to a level that can't be maintained, about being unable to keep up with competition without proper investment capital. There are a lot of good reasons to want to be protective of a companies capital, and even if you are firmly in the other camp it's important to understand and empathize with what the other side is looking for.
I generally don't like the idea of unions, because I feel they only exist in the absence of a government doing their duty to the people properly (the one exception might be public sector unions were a conflict of interest exists). Proper labour regulations and standards setting a level playing field for all business is the standard we aspire to. Unfortunately this whole thing is a little too idealistic and unions are only able to fight for a portion of it. But we work with what we have.
All of that said, the proper capitalist thing for labor to be doing right now in this place and this time is to push for more, so I get what the JD union is doing.
This is a fair response. The one thing I would say is that I think right now labor gets screwed either way. When times are tough, they see cuts and losses; then when times are good, "we have to be cautious". My hope would be if companies did a better job sharing the wealth, they would have a more agreeable union when tough times come.
There seem to be so few companies out there that have reputations for treating workers well, I just really have a hard time giving shareholders and boards of directors and CEOs the benefit of the doubt.
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Originally Posted by New Era
This individual is not affluent and more of a member of that shrinking middle class. It is likely the individual does not have a high paying job, is limited on benefits, and has to make due with those benefits provided by employer.
People are extremely loyal to their color, especially in the agricultural area. Green, red, orange, etc.
And once you’ve bought the tractor/harvester/bailer/etc, you are going to have to service it, generally using parts from the same company that made the product.
So, in that respect, Deere does control prices.
And even moreso, Deere is one of the worst companies when it comes to right to repair, so when you're locked into a color, you are really locked in as you pretty much can't repair it yourself without getting one of their expensive techs to come out and help you.
Damn he nailed like almost all of the populist conservative talking points. He's going to put America First, tell it like it is, and fight for freedom?
Like how do you vote for anyone else at that point?
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When I hear him talk it’s like he’s always on the verge of going into an Italian mobster accent. Like when De Niro says to Fallen ‘I don’t do balls’ on that one skit they did on the Fallon show.
Maybe by then Giuliani's wish will come true and US elections will have descended into a trial by combat. I'd put my money on John Fetterman, the likely Democratic nominee for that seat:
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The US added only 210k job to n November. What is Powell going to do with inflation over 5-6%?
The economy is fundamentally broken.
Wages at lower-end jobs are so low that hiring and keeping employees is near impossible, housing prices are unaffordable for new buyers, interest rates are so low that they are harming the retired, disincentivizing savers, and essentially forcing people into the stock market, and prices are rising at and to levels that harm most of the population in at least one way, from not being able to afford food to paying thousands “extra” for transportation.
My proposed solution?
Raise interest rates a la Volker and stop asset buying immediately.
It will (or should) cause the housing market to cool and the stock market to drop, but the era of cheap money has to end and the supply of excess dollars needs to decrease in order for inflation to come down.
Wages at lower-end jobs are so low that hiring and keeping employees is near impossible, housing prices are unaffordable for new buyers, interest rates are so low that they are harming the retired, disincentivizing savers, and essentially forcing people into the stock market, and prices are rising at and to levels that harm most of the population in at least one way, from not being able to afford food to paying thousands “extra” for transportation.
My proposed solution?
Raise interest rates a la Volker and stop asset buying immediately.
It will (or should) cause the housing market to cool and the stock market to drop, but the era of cheap money has to end and the supply of excess dollars needs to decrease in order for inflation to come down.