Tuesday, March 5, 2013

So where are all of these jobs we're supposed to have?



I've been hearing all of this hoople about eliminating poverty since the Johnson administration but I keep seeing the same old group of people sitting around doing nothing but collecting some sort of government assistance.

Can't say I blame a lot of these people because the government has made poverty pretty comfortable. Unemployment has been extended for up to 2 years and any woman that wants to get knocked up can get on the welfare rolls instead of having the father of the kid(s) cough up and pay support.

Yet the Great Society programs and the programs that have followed them were supposed to provide jobs and get people working again.

So how come unemployment rates are so high?

My guess is that there is an awful lot of capital tied up awaiting opportunity which is not here yet because we have come up with a lot of good reasons not to invest in America.

If I was sitting on a chunk of cash I certainly would have deep misgivings about starting a business up in this economic climate.

With little opportunity to make a decent return and a big opportunity to lose, why take the risk?

We have decided to make things difficult for businesses to prosper. If the rules don't get you, taxation is very likely to.

One of the things that make places business unfriendly are taxes. I have covered the fact that businesses move from time to time because of excessive taxation. I used to work for a company that was based in Philly and when Philly taxes got to the point that they hurt tooo much the CEO simply moved the business headquarters to Tampa.

When I heard that I laughed like hell. Philly got greedy and wanted a bigger piece of the pie. Instead they got none. The CEO grabbed the whole pie and left town with it. They also lost the money they were getting from the shoreside employees from wage taxes on top of that.

I wonder what the city council meeting was like when they brought the subject up of a shipping company leaving because of their taxing it too heavily. Likely a lot of hemming and hawing.

Right now there are a lot of businesses moving, planning on moving, considering it or threatening to.

Magul in Colorado is leaving Colorado if a gun ban is passed and they will take quite a number of jobs and several million dollars they put into the Colorado economy with them.

Of course, the politicians told Magpul that they can continue to manufacture their shooting accessories there but Magpul has decided that if they can't sell their shooting accessories there they will uproot.

What is interesting is that several other states have offered to help them move and have guarenteed a better working enviornment. Wyoming is interested and I heard that one state offered to pay their moving expenses.

It isn't just that Magpul leaves, either. It is a lot more than that. Deliveries to and from the present location cease , subcontractors get hurt, suppliers get dinged and the whole thing keeps going on as the money from the Magpul payroll disappears and local businesses get hurt.

Some politician may tell his constituants that it's ONLY 3 or 400 jobs but few will tell them the rest of the story.

Maryland just sneaked a ban through and Beretta and another armsmaker, Benelli, are planning on moving. Beretta is a pretty big outfit. They do a lot of defense work and supply the services with the M9 pistol among other things.

I have just read where West Virginia is wooing Beretta. I'll just bet you that West Virginia is going to offer them a pretty good deal to move. Likely a lower tax base, too. They can use the jobs there and they will do what they can to get them.

In addition to the jobs at the Beretta plant there will be a lot of work created. Subcontractors will be hired, delivery people will be needed and it will even trickle down to the point where someone will likely open a diner outside the plant gate.

The influx of people will require homes, food, clothing and everything else and if West Virginia is where Beretta lands there will likely be a booming community overnight.

There is another large government contractor and firearms business named Benelli that is likely to move, too as are a few other businesses. Benelli has a reputation for making first class high end shotguns and has government contracts to the services to supply them with specialized military shotguns for urban fighting.

Maryland has also had a history of taxing the wealthy and has driven quite a number of the wealthy out of the state.

Some who used to live near the state line have simply sold their homes and moved across the state line and continue to commute, bring their tax monies and expendetures to their new home state.

I can't blame them. I would move it they did that to me.

So instead of getting money from businesses and individuals the state of Maryland now has less money coming in than they did if they had left things alone.

Actions have consequences and it pays to think about what they are ahead of time.

Since New York passed the SAFE act there are murmurings that Remington firearms might pull up stakes. They have been in Ilion, New York for the past 200 years. Tha are very much a part of the community of Ilion and if they do you can imagine that Ilion is going to be hurting.

Businesses like that in addition to factory jobs generally hire a lot of subcontractors and delivery people and it would not surprise me to hear that if they do move that UPS is going to have to lay off a couple of drivers. It works itself that far down.

When a company leaves they take a lot more than their basic assets with them. Generally some of the work force moves but not all of it. Some people have ties to the community and opt to stay and see what happens. Figure they are likely to go straight to the unemployment office and collect, adding to more unemployment.

When a company like that moves into a disadvantaged area they generally hail the new arrival as a hero because he provides much needed jobs.

Someone I know in North Carolina also told me that one community that has wooed Remington has promised to add a machinist curriculum to the local community college to provide them with entry level machinists so as to insure them a supply of good labor.

Another thind I have seen is that there are a number of companies that have decided that they are simply not going to do any business at all in a state that has a ban.

I have seen a pretty long list of suppliers that have decided not to do business with any governmental agencies in New York, California, Maryland and if Colorado passes a ban they will simply add them to the list.

Actions have consequences.

Of course, the New York politicians are going to play this down but the truth will trickle out. The next elections in Upperstate New York and other places will prove to be interesting.

You have to remember that when a guy has his job legislated out of existance that isn't just one vote. People have friends and families and they don't like to lose breadwinners or see their relatives out of a job.

Of course, there are a lot of people in these states that are going to be outraged but they can be as outraged as they want as it is going to do no good whatsoever.

The whole thing reminds me of a Smothers Brothers skit I saw in the 60s where the local NAACP guy comes into the factory ordering the owner has to make sure there are so many Blacks on the payroll. Tom Smothers, playing the part of the factory owner, promises to make sure he has the required number of Blacks. He then picks up the phone calls personell and asks a couple questions and then tells personel to fire sixteen Blacks leaving the NAACP guy with egg on his face.

The GIs have a far less eloquent saying. "It looks like someone just $hit and fell back in it." is how the GIs put it.




To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html

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