jjamie12 Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 What don't you agree with in that post? You're kidding, right? How long do you think a company that sold you fire-starting toasters and death-food will be in existence? Why would a company want to kill the people that buy its products? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 What don't you agree with in that post? America is a whorehouse... where the revolutionary ideals of your forefathers... are corrupted and sold in alleys by vendors of capitalism... You sound like a quote from a certain movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 C'mon. The lead in toys...that was pretty good, wasn't it? That was from the billion Chinamen, or is that 300,000,000 or maybe 600,000,000....I forgot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly the Dog Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 On everything, except the banks. You don't think big insurance companies screw the public? You don't think big oil companies gouge the public? You don't think Starbucks builds Starbucks across the street from Starbucks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GG Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 C'mon. The lead in toys...that was pretty good, wasn't it? Only if you eat the toys. Then they're tasty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly the Dog Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 You're kidding, right? How long do you think a company that sold you fire-starting toasters and death-food will be in existence? Why would a company want to kill the people that buy its products? They don't want to, I'm saying that the government makes them take all kinds of steps to prevent it and if they didn't the companies wouldn't put nearly the time or money or energy into the safety they do now, and the result would be awful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GG Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 You don't think big insurance companies screw the public? You don't think big oil companies gouge the public? You don't think Starbucks builds Starbucks across the street from Starbucks? Big insurance doesn't screw the public because the cost of things they insure is very high. Try self insuring your medical needs, especially for a baby. Big oil doesn't screw the public, because their cost is dependent on a commodity and plenty of competition exists among them. Plus, taxes make up up to 50% of the price of gas. Starbucks builds Starbucks two blocks away from Starbucks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 They don't want to, I'm saying that the government makes them take all kinds of steps to prevent it and if they didn't the companies wouldn't put nearly the time or money or energy into the safety they do now, and the result would be awful. No I really think they want to because I think they realize that fire breathing toasters would probably not be good for business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magox Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 You don't think big insurance companies screw the public? You don't think big oil companies gouge the public? You don't think Starbucks builds Starbucks across the street from Starbucks? In regards to Oil companies gouging the public, no! It gets me every time I hear that, it usually comes from the uninformed general public, that wasn't intended to be a slight towards you btw, but that's where it usually comes from. The fact of the matter is that the Oil companies don't have nearly as much control of pricing as the general public believes. The only real way they could control the price is if they decided to shut down production, in which in that case Oil traders and gasoline refineries would naturally bid up the prices. The reality is that prices are determined on the NYMEX and other Oil bourses. Based on supply, demand, geopolitical and natural disaster potential disruptions and the dollar are the main determinants of the price of crude oil. If you are talking about gasoline prices, and how the general public can get gauged, that is not coming directly from the refiners, that is a local gas station to gas station decision. If you remember, the oil companies was a terrible business for many years, it lost billions of dollars, and a result of it, oil production was on the decline, because it wasn't a lucrative business. Now of course that has caught up on us, underinvestment in the oil sector, with the increased demand from emerging economies has put pressure on the price of oil. They just now happen to be in the right business at the right time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly the Dog Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Big insurance doesn't screw the public because the cost of things they insure is very high. Try self insuring your medical needs, especially for a baby. Big oil doesn't screw the public, because their cost is dependent on a commodity and plenty of competition exists among them. Plus, taxes make up up to 50% of the price of gas. Starbucks builds Starbucks two blocks away from Starbucks Who you gonna trust, me or you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly the Dog Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Big insurance doesn't screw the public because the cost of things they insure is very high. Try self insuring your medical needs, especially for a baby. Yeah, they don't screw the public. You pay and you pay and you pay and you pay and you pay on an agreement that they will pay if you need it. Then you need it and they won't pay. And if they do pay they immediately make you pay more. And if they pay too much, you get canned even though they take all the money from others whom they've never had to pay out much of anything to on the other side of the coin. Oh, and they are consistently making record profits in good times and in bad. Yeah, that's being fair with the public. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Yeah, they don't screw the public. You pay and you pay and you pay and you pay and you pay on an agreement that they will pay if you need it. Then you need it and they won't pay. And if they do pay they immediately make you pay more. And if they pay too much, you get canned even though they take all the money from others whom they've never had to pay out much of anything to on the other side of the coin. Oh, and they are consistently making record profits in good times and in bad. Yeah, that's being fair with the public. Simple solution: don't use insurance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Yeah, they don't screw the public. You pay and you pay and you pay and you pay and you pay on an agreement that they will pay if you need it. Then you need it and they won't pay. And if they do pay they immediately make you pay more. And if they pay too much, you get canned even though they take all the money from others whom they've never had to pay out much of anything to on the other side of the coin. Oh, and they are consistently making record profits in good times and in bad. Yeah, that's being fair with the public. Yeah that's exactly how it works every time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pine Barrens Mafia Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 You pay and you pay and you pay and you pay and you pay on an agreement that they will pay if you need it. Then you need it and they won't pay. And if they do pay they immediately make you pay more. HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA They wouldn't be in business if they didn't pay, numbskull. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDBillzFan Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Yeah, they don't screw the public. You pay and you pay and you pay and you pay and you pay on an agreement that they will pay if you need it. Then you need it and they won't pay. And if they do pay they immediately make you pay more. And if they pay too much, you get canned even though they take all the money from others whom they've never had to pay out much of anything to on the other side of the coin. Oh, and they are consistently making record profits in good times and in bad. Yeah, that's being fair with the public. Hey, the insurance companies are not obligated to pay out every time some person takes a lead-filled exploding Barbie doll and shoves it in a fire-breathing toaster. You need to read the fine print, man. oh, and they are consistently making record profits in good times and in bad. Now I'm confused. Earlier you said that you are all for capitalism and making a bunch of money. So are we to understand that making money is okay as long as you don't set any profit records while you're doing it? Or is this rule just for the companies who don't do well in the administration's weekly focus group meetings? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Now I'm confused. Earlier you said that you are all for capitalism and making a bunch of money. So are we to understand that making money is okay as long as you don't set any profit records while you're doing it? Or is this rule just for the companies who don't do well in the administration's weekly focus group meetings? "Windfall tax". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly the Dog Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Guess I was wrong. Insurance companies are awesome and only out for the general public welfare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDBillzFan Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Guess I was wrong. Insurance companies are awesome and only out for the general public welfare. I think we all agree that that they'd be MORE awesome if they'd just stop turning a profit. Or at least stop telling people about it. Turning a profit in a down economy is just rude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pine Barrens Mafia Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Guess I was wrong. Insurance companies are awesome and only out for the general public welfare. They're not non-profit organizations, but they wouldn't be in business if they didn't pay out. Think about it. If the insurance company doesn't pay, who the hell is going to buy insurance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Adams Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Who is doing that ("Making the most profit in the most ethical and beneficial way possible")? If you leave them alone, they immediately become 1] or at the very least, somewhere between 1] and 2]. I would imagine most if not all reasonable people would think the ideal (but unrealistic) way would be 3] but the most realistic way would be somewhere between 2] and 3]. Joe's #4 ""Making the most profit in the most ethical and beneficial way possible" is the way I and a lot of other business owner's do business. Faced with the 4Q2008 and 1Q2009 economy, our 24M/year business was getting the sh-- kicked out of it, and needed some things changed or we were probably headed to a dark place. So, what did we do? 1- owners took no pay for 5 months 2- We lowered health benefits from our fully paid-up Ferrarri plan to a nice fully-paid Cadillac plan, and at the same time gave some (but not all) of that savings back to our employees in a small (about $100/month on average) raise. 3- We laid off some people who would have and should have been laid off before but who we'd been keeping around just because we hoped they might someday not suck. The downturn made push come to shove and we let them go, all with 2 months pay. 4- We slashed and hacked at every bit of marketing and non-necessary expense we could. And out the other end, we got leaner and our people get a little less in benefits but overall, we're healthy again and the employees feel secure. We did this all ethically and with our employees interests at heart. If we only cared about the owners, we'd have slashed a lot more people and made the survivors work to the bone. We also would have cut salaries and hacked the crap out of benefits. And you know what, if things get so bad that the ship looked like it was going to sink, we'd have taken those steps too--not just out of self-preservation, but out of concern for the people who are here. Better to keep 80 people employed at 90% of their salary than 0 people at 0%. Believe it or not, most business owners care a ton about their employees. We had an awful meeting deciding to lay off the dead wood people--and in the end saved a couple just because. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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