tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17669835.post515146515258683665..comments2023-09-28T03:05:12.121-07:00Comments on Terrance this is stupid stuff: Draining the Swamp? Trump Swelling It with CarrierT. D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11952394767212085011noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17669835.post-37200325370162087302016-12-04T18:12:23.525-08:002016-12-04T18:12:23.525-08:00Undoubtedly right, Max. Free-association means it ...Undoubtedly right, Max. Free-association means it can change at any moment. I'm assuming policy in all areas will change depending on who's on the other side of the desk talking. Sigh.T. D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11952394767212085011noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17669835.post-54487311188702371632016-12-04T16:03:35.625-08:002016-12-04T16:03:35.625-08:00Exactly right, TD. Ultimately, he stands to create...Exactly right, TD. Ultimately, he stands to create more problems than he resolves <i>if</i> he followed through on his proposals. On the other hand, he's backed off of so many that I tend to view his approach as free-association rather than actual policy.MAX Redlinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12040240474444763721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17669835.post-12388828890231120952016-12-04T10:15:40.626-08:002016-12-04T10:15:40.626-08:00Max, you have been beating this drum of the lunacy...Max, you have been beating this drum of the lunacy of mandating wages for a long time.<br /><br />People get confused about job creation. As Milton Friedman points out (http://www.hoover.org/research/case-free-trade) we could create all the jobs we want (e.g., digging holes and filling them up), but the real issue is creating jobs that produce products or services we are willing to pay for. If you make the cost of the product higher than the buyer is willing to pay, there is no sale unless the product is necessary to the buyer's life/well being. Then you in effect use extortion on the buyer.<br /><br />On one hand you have the progressives who drive prices up via minimum wage laws. On the other you have nationalists who also drive prices up via keeping $20 to $25/hr jobs in the US (e.g., Carrier). The problem is that consumers are not willing to pay for $15/hr fastfood service or $20/hr air conditioners unless they are forced into it. Thus, automation is the long term end around for both types of wages mandated by law and getting consumers to buy the product/service.<br /><br />Trump wants a 35% tax on items American companies produce abroad (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/805380553008680961). The answer to that is to have an international division of your company that initially sets up its manufacturing units abroad. So, no initial jobs in the US and no moving jobs out of the US. Patterico points this out (http://www.redstate.com/patterico/2016/12/03/dumpkelloggs-trumps-threats-common/):<br /><br />"Similarly, Trump, by telling companies that they will suffer consequences if they leave America, is going to cause some number of companies not to set up shop in the United States to begin with."T. D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11952394767212085011noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17669835.post-22251261540459748292016-12-03T16:02:05.267-08:002016-12-03T16:02:05.267-08:00McD and other fast-food joints, along with midline...McD and other fast-food joints, along with midline joints like Applebee's are already moving to automation for ordering/payment in areas like Oregon and Seattle, where politicians have instituted workplace mandates that cost employers a lot of money. We'll be seeing a lot more of that as politicians with no business knowledge continue to pursue utopia.MAX Redlinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12040240474444763721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17669835.post-61143136335134570362016-12-02T15:43:03.316-08:002016-12-02T15:43:03.316-08:00Agree 100% that sort of thing is swampish and need...Agree 100% that sort of thing is swampish and needs to end. If UT was charging $600 for toilet seats, they should have their contract abrogated for that--not for moving some of their manufacturing to another country because U.S. employees are more expensive than the product can support.<br /><br />It's not good economic or social policy to encourage artificially keeping jobs that can't compete. (My grandpa made saddles in the early 1900's. His boss told him to go into another profession. He did. Building railroad cars. That was smart.) Carrier will either keep getting lots of government subsidies for those jobs or go broke. Both destructive courses of action. Those jobs can't last on their own. Same for $15/hr fast food jobs--as you have pointed out again and again, Max! $20 to $25 hr for those jobs is a call for automation if there is no move to Mexico.<br /><br /><br /><br />T. D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11952394767212085011noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17669835.post-11543461547967122472016-12-02T15:23:08.427-08:002016-12-02T15:23:08.427-08:00Hey, a lot of R&D goes into those $600 toilet ...Hey, a lot of R&D goes into those $600 toilet seats! ;-)MAX Redlinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12040240474444763721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17669835.post-35407431948713565712016-12-02T00:27:26.895-08:002016-12-02T00:27:26.895-08:00Yep. They award contracts not on merit but on poli...Yep. They award contracts not on merit but on political back scratching. Government that picks winners and losers in contracts (or taxes or criminal charges) on the basis of whether you follow their policies or not has too much power. I detest it no matter who does it. Wish I could fight it more effectively than with these less than pin prick posts.<br />T. D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11952394767212085011noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17669835.post-37688594432675327672016-12-01T13:43:39.118-08:002016-12-01T13:43:39.118-08:00Carrier is owned by a defense contractor (United T...Carrier is owned by a defense contractor (United Technologies). They were big on moving production of HVAC units to Mexico until it occurred to them that while they could do that, they just might lose some of those defense contracts.<br /><br />Funny how motivating that can be.MAX Redlinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12040240474444763721noreply@blogger.com