The Reaganomics Fraud:

[binö]

this thread put me into a regan-esque fog

 

[Mr. dB]

this thread put me into a regan-esque fog

We've induced Oldtimer's Disease?

 

[Mr. dB]

Have you ever worked in or for a medium or large-sized business?

You believe you have this in-depth knowledge of how business works. I'd like to hear why.

I don't think I have any in-depth knowledge of how business works at all. I think it's just human nature, without oversight abuses will occur and in time will become the new norm. 'Cause that's how it was when the Capitalists had free reign before.

 

[javaguru]

I don't think I have any in-depth knowledge of how business works at all. I think it's just human nature, without oversight abuses will occur and in time will become the new norm. 'Cause that's how it was when the Capitalists had free reign before.

Honestly, from a historical perspective, we have little to fear from corporations and a lot to fear from elected officials and particularly the fed government.... who polices the dudes with absolute authority that can control every aspect of your life because they have the guns?

Even if you hate Bush and the cost plus contracts, which I do, Haliburton wasn't the perpetrator of the Iraq war..it was your elected officials...both Dem and Repub... Haliburton just benefited from the political system created by both parties.....Just sayin'.

 

[mrplunkey]

I don't think I have any in-depth knowledge of how business works at all. I think it's just human nature, without oversight abuses will occur and in time will become the new norm. 'Cause that's how it was when the Capitalists had free reign before.

And who exactly do you think "oversee" these would-be abusers? Hint: They are humans too.

What do you think is more difficult to unseat? A sitting congressman or a sitting CEO? Shareholders will gut a CEO when he stops doing his job whereas a congressman like Barney Frank, or Nancy Pelosi can stick around forever.

Average US CEO career: ~5 years (According to Booz Allen)
Average US Congressman career: 10 years (based on 110th congress)

So 535 people last twice as long in their jobs than thousands (if not tens of thousands) of private sector leaders.

 

[calveless wonder]

I like chicken

 

[mrplunkey]

Honestly, from a historical perspective, we have little to fear from corporations and a lot to fear from elected officials and particularly the fed government.... who polices the dudes with absolute authority that can control every aspect of your life because they have the guns?

Even if you hate Bush and the cost plus contracts, which I do, Haliburton wasn't the perpetrator of the Iraq war..it was your elected officials...both Dem and Repub... Haliburton just benefited from the political system created by both parties.....Just sayin'.

Exactly.

One wants to make a profit so as to satisfy its shareholders.

The other wants to retain power forever and had the authority to implement its will through violent means.

I think I'll stick with the corporation.

 

[musclemom]

Have you ever worked in or for a medium or large-sized business?

You believe you have this in-depth knowledge of how business works. I'd like to hear why.

I'm going to tell you a story, but I have to run kind of long to do it to explain it properly. I think I tell a pretty good story, though, so it shouldn't be too painful to read.

My husband has worked for a Fortune 500 company for 35 years. He's a facilities manager, one of the most potentially dangerous jobs in the organization. One year two people died, one in a cardboard compactor (yes, just like out of some fucking horror movie) and one guy had a heart attack in a ceiling working on wiring, and he wasn't discovered until he started stinking up the place.

How could such a situation arise? Well I'll tell you, when these buildings were designed it was with the expectation that a small team of facilities people would be on site every day. One day some beancounter said, "Hey, why do we pay these three guys?" and someone else said "I dunno," because, you see, it's a whole crop of beancounters who weren't around when the buildings were designed, they never spoke to the architects, and they sure as hell don't come down from their penthouse offices to talk to the guys in the field and ask what all three people actually DO, so one guy gets cut.

A few years go by, along comes another crop of beancounters who are all hot to show the bosses how much money they can save the company (to justify their salaries) and GUESS WHAT?! Someone says "Hey, why do we pay these two guys?" and someone else said "I dunno." And we've gone from three men to one man scrambling around, playing triage with facilities maintenance. He's a good man, and he cares about his job and does the best he can, so now the place is looking a little rattier at times, and sometimes toilets don't work or the odd light is out but the doors lock at night and the heating and air conditioning work, which is all the beancounters give a fuck about.

Then the corporation is purchased by ANOTHER corporation and we have the same scenario ONCE AGAIN. Except now the beancounters ask "Why is this one guy sitting around in this one building all day long? He could be maintaining two buildings just as easily." (an aside, it's been my observation that people who don't actually DO maintenance have ZERO idea what goes on behind the scenes to maintain major building systems).

At one point, my husband was taking care of three buildings. I was afraid he was going to stroke out from the stress alone.

And no, the job isn't being done properly anymore. He can't get on top of his preventative maintenance, and on top of that the budget for facilities systems has been cut to dirt. As an example, I can tell you for a fact that nearly every building has TWO chillers but only one works, and virtually ALL of those chillers are using the outlawed refrigerant.

All this time, every year he gets outstanding reviews and a raise of about 25 to 50 cents an hour (which, conveniently enough, is usually just enough to cover his share of the group health insurance). Meanwhile, the top echelon guys? Oh, their salaries go up by the hundreds of thousands, every year. And this company gives MILLIONS to charity (which is tax deductible, unlike employees).

Oh, and by the way, outsourcing was a disaster, they did that for a couple of years. The buildings virtually disintegrated, it was impossible to get the preventative maintenance done at all because everything was on the clock and needed to be justified on paper, a work order had to be put it ... NOBODY thinks about putting in the work order for the start up procedures for the furnace or chiller! Simply put, you cannot maintain a building that was designed the way these buildings are, to be stand alone facilities with their own systems of heating, cooling, plumbing, etc., to be run like a strip mall store. They don't care that industrial equipment is not a window air conditioning unit.

The beancounters don't think about any of this, they don't care about it. They just want it done, expecting people to grease up their assholes and shit out this work as fast as it takes to explain it and not wanting it to cost so much as a dime while they're at it.

That is the facts of life for someone who works in the trenches of a Fortune 500 corporation.

 

[mrplunkey]

I'm going to tell you a story, but I have to run kind of long to do it to explain it properly. I think I tell a pretty good story, though, so it shouldn't be too painful to read.

My husband has worked for a Fortune 500 company for 35 years. He's a facilities manager, one of the most potentially dangerous jobs in the organization. One year two people died, one in a cardboard compactor (yes, just like out of some fucking horror movie) and one guy had a heart attack in a ceiling working on wiring, and he wasn't discovered until he started stinking up the place.

How could such a situation arise? Well I'll tell you, when these buildings were designed it was with the expectation that a small team of facilities people would be on site every day. One day some beancounter said, "Hey, why do we pay these three guys?" and someone else said "I dunno," because, you see, it's a whole crop of beancounters who weren't around when the buildings were designed, they never spoke to the architects, and they sure as hell don't come down from their penthouse offices to talk to the guys in the field and ask what all three people actually DO, so one guy gets cut.

A few years go by, along comes another crop of beancounters who are all hot to show the bosses how much money they can save the company (to justify their salaries) and GUESS WHAT?! Someone says "Hey, why do we pay these two guys?" and someone else said "I dunno." And we've gone from three men to one man scrambling around, playing triage with facilities maintenance. He's a good man, and he cares about his job and does the best he can, so now the place is looking a little rattier at times, and sometimes toilets don't work or the odd light is out but the doors lock at night and the heating and air conditioning work, which is all the beancounters give a fuck about.

Then the corporation is purchased by ANOTHER corporation and we have the same scenario ONCE AGAIN. Except now the beancounters ask "Why is this one guy sitting around in this one building all day long? He could be maintaining two buildings just as easily." (an aside, it's been my observation that people who don't actually DO maintenance have ZERO idea what goes on behind the scenes to maintain major building systems).

At one point, my husband was taking care of three buildings. I was afraid he was going to stroke out from the stress alone.

And no, the job isn't being done properly anymore. He can't get on top of his preventative maintenance, and on top of that the budget for facilities systems has been cut to dirt. As an example, I can tell you for a fact that nearly every building has TWO chillers but only one works, and virtually ALL of those chillers are using the outlawed refrigerant.

All this time, every year he gets outstanding reviews and a raise of about 25 to 50 cents an hour (which, conveniently enough, is usually just enough to cover his share of the group health insurance). Meanwhile, the top echelon guys? Oh, their salaries go up by the hundreds of thousands, every year. And this company gives MILLIONS to charity (which is tax deductible, unlike employees).

Oh, and by the way, outsourcing was a disaster, they did that for a couple of years. The buildings virtually disintegrated, it was impossible to get the preventative maintenance done at all because everything was on the clock and needed to be justified on paper, a work order had to be put it ... NOBODY thinks about putting in the work order for the start up procedures for the furnace or chiller! Simply put, you cannot maintain a building that was designed the way these buildings are, to be stand alone facilities with their own systems of heating, cooling, plumbing, etc., to be run like a strip mall store. They don't care that industrial equipment is not a window air conditioning unit.

The beancounters don't think about any of this, they don't care about it. They just want it done, expecting people to grease up their assholes and shit out this work as fast as it takes to explain it and not wanting it to cost so much as a dime while they're at it.

That is the facts of life for someone who works in the trenches of a Fortune 500 corporation.

That is a good story.

As a guy who hears the bean counters every day, let me tell you how the conversation goes:

BC: "Brian, costs in our XYZ facility are killing us. We're up 25% over prior year but revenues are flat."

Me: "How? We haven't had any huge raw materials increases and our pay rates aren't that outrageous."

BC: "Well, FDA came through and want us to redo the entire lighting system. Even though the fluorescent lights are 25 feet high, CFR 389823-F says that every flourescent light must have a plastic cover that meets ASTM standard 938823-L-8. That's going to cost us $125,000 or we can always fight it in court."

BC: "Then there's the sexual harassment lawsuit. Apparently the assistant to the plant manager told a secretary that she looks nice in green. That's going to run us about $100,000 or we can always fight it in court."

BC: "Then there's the product liability lawsuit. Even though we stitched the product up and put a label over the stitches explicitly stating not to put the product on backwards, the customer removed the label, cut-out the stitches and put it on backwards, even as our sales rep begged them not to do it. That's going to cost us another $150,000 or we can always fight it in court."

BC: "Then there's the worker's comp claim. As we were calling Joe in to fire him (he's been on probation for the last 9 months), he decided he hurt his back opening the door to the conference room. He's been spotted playing basketball with his buddies, but officially he's at home on disability. That's going to cost us $75,000 or we can always fight it in court."

BC: "Then there's OSHA. The requirements are that a stop button must be no less than 2.5" in diameter. Our machines are from Japan and the buttons are 6cm which is 0.35cm too small. They insist we replace all of those, which is another $100,000 or we can always fight it in court."

BC: "Then there's DoL. Apparently we didn't track our Vietnam veteran applicants properly. You aren't allowed to ask them where they served during the interview, but you are allowed to ask them how long. DoL is willing to settle for $250,000 or we can always fight it in court."

BC: "Then there's ..."

Me: "It's ok. I got it. What are our choices?"

BC: "Either close the plant or move it overseas."

Me: "Anything else?"

BC: "Well, we could shake down every vendor for a 5% concession, cut staff 10%, and freeze salaries. Plus we'll have to take a look at the dental and vision plans. They are too expensive. Let's start by cutting the maintenance staff."

So what do you do?

 

[binö]

We've induced Oldtimer's Disease?

triggered by all natural pot smoke and inducing o ane into unproductive fog that only vibram grounded accupunture will alleviate