"We're sure you understand." Anyone else feeling the squeeze?

[LeeH]

Seems like prices are going up on everything we buy. We get a polite letter from (insert name of any provider of a product or service here) saying that times are tough, expenses have increased and they must raise their rates. It's always punctuated with, "We're sure you understand."

Meanwhile my wife's company refuses to offer any significant increase in salary. Their excuse? Times are tough, expenses have increased... "We're sure you understand."

[techweenie]

Just read in the local paper that C-17 construction is shutting down in Long Beach. 5,000 direct jobs lost and 25,000 employees working for C-17 suppliers are not gonna be getting paychecks. It's a big hit regionally. No doubt construction is being hit as well -- by the dual forces of squeezing the "illegal" workforce that comprises most crews and the cutback in construction and remodeling.

Luckily, my current industry -- the performance aftermarket -- has proven recession-proof. But we'll all likely see the effects of an overall slowdown. There's already talk of Walmart and Target seeing growing reluctance to spend...

Maybe it's time to be less concerned about increasing prices and stagnant (statistically for 7 years now) wages, and just be grateful for employment.

[69 TEEE]

I work for the wonderful Disney Co. (ABC television ) union job. Our contract is up and they are trying to destroy us. Best year they ever had and they are crying while ex CEO Michael Eisner just made the Billionairs list. Corporate greed will rune this wonderful country.
Joe

[rhjames]

lee----you are not alone.

my wife has been through the same kind of thing.

she set up a new "division" in the department with the company she works for, increased her department's net revenue by 100%, but has yet to see any appreciable salary increase.


I proposed she just give her superiors a presentation of the following:

I single handedly set up this new division, increasing my department's net revenue by $100K. In doing so, I am working an extra 20 hours per week. Also, the number of shipments have increased by "X".

Based on those figures, I make the following requests.

1. using my base hourly pay rate (she actually is paid a salary, but we will use the hourly equivalent for this exercise), I suggest that I be paid time and a half for the extra hours over I put in every week (20 hours).

2. Using the increased amount of net profit, I suggest that I be paid a percentage of that net profit, over and above my base salary.

3. (and least desirable) I suggest I be paid a set fee for every extra shipment I have done that resulted in said net profit increase of $100K.


The results of any of these three would mean a minimum increase of pay of around $20-$30 thousand per year.


Answer from management?

No answer.......to......would you be happy if we paid you the current rate of inflation?


Totally lame in today's economy.


regards---rhjames

[Racerbvd]

Thank the ****** dems for taking a good thing and screwing it up!!!! This didn't happen until they raised taxes & the MW!!!!

[Beethoven]

You're such dung-beetle, racer. Seven years of republican government, and you still pin it on the dems.

[pwd72s]

Place the blame where you will. Taxes grow at a rate that cannot be explained away by population gains or inflation. For this, I blame both parties. Geeze guys, wake up...it's a great pool hall hustle. Dems demand a 20% budget increase, then the Republicans fight, claw, scratch and CUT...all the way down to an 18% budget increase while the Dems cry about budget cuts. In Oregon at least, it doesn't matter which party has the majority, the game stays the same during every legislative session.

When cuts are being discussed, they always seem to be about police, fire, or schools...never hear about perhaps the planning department being overloaded with staff. Or the "arts commission", or...

The public buys into this con while the politicians rip $ away from all of us...

When a corporation is faced with higher taxes it makes it up by passing the cost increase along to the consumers. Even Ford can't survive forever when it suffers losses in the $ billions every year.

But yeah...let's blame greedy corporations...never blame Government, it's there to help us, right? Right?

[69 TEEE]

Forget corporations being faced with higher taxes, I am talking about corporate greed....golden parachutes, million dollar bonuses when health benifites are being taken away from employees. Feed the monster on Wall St. GM complaining about unions destroying them while they continue to produce gas guzzeling pieces of crap. The guy on the assembly line is doing his job the same way, day in and day out. The poor decissions that are loosing the company money ( what to manufacture ) are made at the top.

[speeder]

I blame corporations and the current govt., which is beholden only to corporate interests. The minimum wage you say, racerbird? Are you a ******* comedian or something? You are about to feel the unlubricated fist up your ass of a worthless dollar combined with sky-high energy prices driving inflation in every sector. I almost forgot the entire collapse of the traditional U.S. economy.

All of these things are either the direct result of decisions made by your heroes the Republicans or the indirect (but entirely predictible) result of neglecting key policy issues over the last 6 years, such as rising healthcare costs, brokering a ME peace plan between Israel and its enemies, controlling the border and illegal immigration, stemming the flow of jobs and capital leaving the U.S., etc...

This is the worst leadership the U.S. has ever had. Just an absolute tragedy that no one saw coming.

[on-ramp]

Originally posted by speeder
I blame corporations and the current govt., which is beholden only to corporate interests. The minimum wage you say, racerbird? Are you a ******* comedian or something? You are about to feel the unlubricated fist up your ass of a worthless dollar combined with sky-high energy prices driving inflation in every sector. I almost forgot the entire collapse of the traditional U.S. economy.

All of these things are either the direct result of decisions made by your heroes the Republicans or the indirect (but entirely predictible) result of neglecting key policy issues over the last 6 years, such as rising healthcare costs, brokering a ME peace plan between Israel and its enemies, controlling the border and illegal immigration, stemming the flow of jobs and capital leaving the U.S., etc...

This is the worst leadership the U.S. has ever had. Just an absolute tragedy that no one saw coming.

+1 . The government is in place to serve corporate america and their criminals on Wall St.

[john70t]

They saw it coming, but thought up a good soundbyte while maximizing their own short-term profits.
Captain of the tanker was supposed to be sober and watching miles ahead.....

Prepare for a skyrocketing crime rate and martial law.

[john70t]

No way On-Ramp!
Just because elected officials talk about stuff during their campaigning doesn't mean they have to actually follow through on it.
And the last two Federal Reserve chairmen coun't have predicted the housing market would eventually fall and crash and hurt the economy.
It just happened!

[on-ramp]

John,

we live in an elitist system - those that hold the Gold make all the rules. There is no higher power to hold them accountable.

"our" govnt no longer serves the common man on main st. but rather the needs of hedge fund managers on Wall st.. they are the corporations and the elite in this country.

plus, hundreds of thousands jobs lost to Cheap Foreign Labor.
And, yet, in a time where corporate profits are booming, the cost of everything is rising, including your taxes. doesnt make any sense.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Guess it's time to stock up on ammo.

[john70t]

On-ramp,
those damn liberal dissenters are what is ruining this country. The president should have enacted wartime powers and found a way to intern them until they could be shipped to another country.

Corporations work best when they can merger and shut out all competition, and then artificially boost their stock prices and earnings so that the newest company heads can get paid off quickly.
They shouldn't have to have any accountability to remain stabile growth earners for the US economy at large, or even their investing shareholders.
If all the major corporations then start falling like dominoes and the economy tanks, then it happened purely by random circumstance- no ones fault.

Workers these days expect too much. If they are not decision makers then they are expendable and should be replaced. They don't need to earn excess capital beyond subsistance wages in order to be able to buy things like cars, computers, and other third-party goods. Their employer might be able to provide housing camps with shops for them at profitable prices.
Workplace saftey rules should be relaxed so workers can live up to their full potential. For example, truckers should be able to drive more than 12 hours a day if they have enough amphetamines, and little Billie can get down the mine shaft better because he's smaller.

Affordable medical care is just another myth perpetuated by liberals. So what if the MD/population ratio is increasing, if they can't pay for it they should just go off and die. It doesn't matter what happens to babies after they are born, just as long as there are a lot of them.

The idea of upwards mobilization, and even a middle class, is another outdated myth of US capitalism.
What the United States really needs is a large population of expendable people that can be replaced easier. There might be a little competition amoungst them which might cause a little extra crime at first, but this can be solved with implanting GPS in all newborns, restricting through pre-approval their movements between their work and housing, and stun/exploding collars will prove much cheaper than paying a police force.

The environment is, of course, infinite in its ability to sustain food and raw materials and there is no such things as un-natural levels of anything.


This is patriotism, and love of humans.

[bigchillcar]

Guess it's time to stock up on ammo.

[CRH911S]

I'm as progressive as they come but I'm not about to put a very worsening situation on the backs of conservative Americans. It does very little to complain. I believe Americans can turn things around if they get involved at the grassroots level. At first it seems daunting getting involved in local community councils and such but after awhile you can see just where the big picture starts. And if you feel strongly enough about something...well there's no better time to do something about it than right now.
I agree 100% with what pwd72s said earlier. An example in support of what he said...Just last week the Anchorage Assembly voted unanamously and passed the local school district budget for 07. Folks, get this...over 630 million for around 45,000 students. The superintendent said that even with this budget they are 14 million short and hope to make up for it with state funding. I don't know about you guys but this is a joke. The school district fails to graduate over 31% of the students entering high school. The only answer is to get involved and vote.

[on-ramp]

Originally posted by CRH911S
over 630 million for around 45,000 students. The superintendent said that even with this budget they are 14 million short and hope to make up for it with state funding. I don't know about you guys but this is a joke. The school district fails to graduate over 31% of the students entering high school. The only answer is to get involved and vote.

I was going to calculate how much per student this was, given 630 Million for 45,000 students.

but there were not enough decimal places on my calculator....

[SlowToady]

Originally posted by on-ramp
I was going to calculate how much per student this was, given 630 Million for 45,000 students.

but there were not enough decimal places on my calculator....

$14,000 per pupil. Another $14M on the budget would make it $14311.11 per pupil. They should just do what my High School did: cut a class. Leave sports though, that's what school is for anyway.

I also recently noticed that a lot of items/services seem to be priced higher than I remember them. Can't really do a whole hell of a lot about it though.

[Superman]

What's good for the corporations is good for America. I blame the paperboys.