“Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say Ni at will to old ladies. There is a pestilence upon this land, nothing is sacred. Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress in this period in history.” – Monty Python and the Holy Grail
You can get Batman® shampoo, but not conditioner Gordon®.
I recall sitting in economics class in college. The professor was from some Eastern European (I don’t remember which one) country. I really enjoyed his class. Instead of the traditional “Guns Versus Butter” economic trade off, he discussed “Pizza Versus Beer”. It wasn’t Bikininomics, but it was still my kind of thinking.
Pizza and beer kept my attention, so one day he made the comment, “If there is perfect competition, there is how much profit?” He paused. I blurted out, showing my greatest economic strength even at a young age, “Bikini?”
He responded, “No, John Wilder, it is zero profit!”
I liked my answer better. But his provoked me to think. Perfect competition meant that companies could enter and exit easily. There were no barriers to entry.
Guns and Butter? Yes. Cocoa Butter.
What, outside of a single piece bathing suit is a barrier to entry? Well, it means that if a company wanted to start a business, it could do it without having to spend lots of money on building a factory, or through developing difficult intellectual property or expertise. In fact, you’ll see today that the companies that have huge barriers to entry are often the most profitable.
It’s not surprising, then, that large companies are hugely in favor of building barriers to entry for themselves. Disney® is attempting to extend copyright until Armageddon plus twenty years. Pfizer™ wants to patent your DNA if you can properly spell their name (read the terms and conditions!). Chase© wants to be the exclusive place where Fed™ trucks drop off all the Biden Bux.
But these companies are no longer American companies. Once upon a time Boeing© built bombers for the Army Air Force to beat the Axis. By the 1990s, they settled with the DOJ on a $32,000,000 penalty for giving missile secrets to China. Boeing™ has ceased to be an American company. Heck, they even outsourced production of commercial airline parts to China when demanded. So they could sell jets in China, regardless of the technical expertise that China might gain.
I try to avoid Boeing® jokes. They rarely land well.
Why? Boeing™ is not American anymore. They’re Globalist. Like many Congresscritters, Boeing has no particular loyalty to America. They just want a profit, preferably next quarter.
Globalists love barriers to entry. For themselves.
They hate barriers to entry for . . . you.
Again, perfect competition means zero profit. The idea is that if they can turn labor into a replaceable component, their business gets easier and cheaper. If there is a never ending supply of cheap labor, wages don’t go to zero. Heck, if they can automate what an employee does for less than five times the annual cost of the employee – it’s a done deal.
Globalists attempt to drive labor costs as close to zero as competition and automation can make it.
I hear that Elon Musk will be making robots in his Austin factory. He’s calling them Tex Mechs.
Certainly, there are benefits, in that “stuff” costs less. Or does it? In the most recent run up on food prices, the word on the street is that while beef prices are up, while bread prices are up, producer income has not increased. Farmers aren’t making more money.
Fertilizer prices are up. Seed prices are up. Pesticide prices are up.
Farmers have choices – produce at a loss, or produce cheaper crops that require less fertilizer and pesticide. Or, heck, give the year a rest. Since farmers can’t make up a loss in volume, I’d expect prices to go up again this year.
The other thing Globalists don’t like is paying people for stuff. That’s for tourists.
I bought a cheap thesaurus once. Not only is it terrible, it’s terrible.
Globalism isn’t correlated well with freedom. Globalists aren’t really into that. They like captive markets, and a captive labor. Regulations are great with them: it’s just another barrier for entry. So, one of the first things the Globalists do is lobby for the creation of regulation.
How do you do that? Well, owning a few Senators often helps . . . and owning a President is even better.
Freedom, like I said, isn’t something Globalists do very well. Freedom means innovation, and innovation means that barriers could fall. The only reason Silicon Valley is allowed to innovate in 2022 is because it’s owned and funded lock, stock, and barrel by Globalists. Who do you think funds the startups? I assure you, it’s not Santa.
No, nations that are concerned with their people are concerned with freedom. Me? I’m not sold all that much on democracy. I like the idea of a constitutional republic better, but, then again that finally led to a place where “shall not be infringed” has been defined to mean “if government says it’s okay and doesn’t change it’s mind”.
I will note there’s pretty good trigger discipline. Is that an AR-362436?
Oh, and Soros, Schwab, and Gates aren’t all that keen on democracy, either. If voting mattered, do you think they’d let us do it?
Heck, we might vote for pizza and beer . . . or to be free.
I saw a funny video the other day. It goes like this:
Old Indian Guru speaking slowly- ” Democracy is government of the people, by the people, for the people. (Pause) The problem is that the people are retarded.”
I still laugh when I think of it.
They may not have been born stupid, but then they went to school, and graduate school, and became teachers. I still remember when one of my kids came home with a science worksheet, to convert temperatures from Fahrenheit to Celsius. The formula was WRONG, so I talked to the teacher about it. “The actual formula is too complicated for our students, so we use this one.” she explained. So, the actual lesson that day was “Science is anything we say it is.”
Hahahaha! It’s even funnier if you imagine Gandhi saying it.
The hurdles for small business are enormous. We know a local Amish couple that has a small grocery store and they wanted to build a larger store, on the same property that already has a grocery store. The hoops they had to jump through were outrageous. Planting trees so the neighbors couldn’t see the driveway, even though the neighbor is the owner’s brother. Putting an enclosure around the dumpster in the back of the new store even though no one sees the dumpster except his horses. On and on, the store was supposed to open in late summer 2021 but now they are hoping to be open this month. Or when we got our FFL, we had to get permission to use our own garage as a shop. We needed to get a Federal firearms license but also a state license to sell handguns. Every couple of years we need to update our info online for the state and that costs $60 just to tell them nothing has changed.
Meanwhile Meijer is opening an enormous new store in Fort Wayne but they have a team of lawyers to deal with the state and county so the hoops are a lot easier for them to deal with.
It sort of seems like the deck is stacked in one direction…..
Yup. And Fort Wayne will bend over backward to help Meijer.
Boeing just builds jetliners. These days something far more important is going global…sports! Global Sports Matters. And the NBA is leading the way…
https://globalsportmatters.com/business/2021/08/17/growing-pains-nba-ethical-challenges-overseas-expansion/
Not all (former) NBA players agree. Among the most articulate are Royce White, who just dropped a nuclear truth bomb on the current Joe Rogan censorship controversy and the Globalists behind it…
https://roycewhite.substack.com/p/an-open-letter-to-the-black-bourgeoisie
Specifically, these Globalists…
https://patriotone.substack.com/p/this-is-who-is-behind-the-joe-rogan
Royce seems to have it together . . .
“Shrubberies…”
Even in my little environmental consultation & services biz niche, the consolidation is immense. All the small firms have to sell out at a low price or get run out of biz. As a result, you get a dumbass 26 yr old advising you instead of a 50-60 yr old who does know shit from shinola.
I’d assume this disease is now standard practice in every biz. BTW, as my only employee, I’m immune to a takeover. And killer rabbits. NI?
That disease exists . . . wherever 26 year olds can enter the biz . . .
John, over the years I have given consideration to what I might want to do with our family property after I “retire” from my first career. There are a lot of possibilities, but a lot of them I have simply ruled out because to do them would invoke regulations, and regulations invoke government. And – working in the industry I currently do – I am well aware of the regulations and what compliance would mean.
That is not to set aside regulations per se. Most people like their medications made with quality ingredients and handled with sterile processes, just I prefer my meat butchered in a clean facility that does not cross contaminate. But we have often gone far beyond that.
Given the current state of affairs, I predict right before the lights go out we will live in a world run by Amazon and Disney. And then it will all go dark.
Given the current state of affairs, I predict right before the lights go out we will live in a world run by Amazon and Disney. And then it will all go dark.
And then the government-loving voters in the urban-density environments will die of diseases of poverty in a blinding burst of social media posts, which we will call World Whine Three. There will be no Mad Max LARP because urban dwellers didn’t tinker with cars in their teenage years and you can’t make a vehicle by swiping on a smart phone.
Then the rural libertarians and Amish who remain will turn the lights back on in a straightforward manner minus OSHA and permits. Elon will fix the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Needs_Women problem and father another 50 children. Darwinism will continue to create humans who choose to parasitize other humans, but the predator/prey ratio will have shifted.
Wishful thinking, as foolish as the Q nonsense. It’s all a cope to keep from dealing with the implications that USSR 2.0 is about on us, and we can’t vote or fantasize our way out of it. Speaking of the USSR, they were in a far worse position than the US is currently, yet they lasted ~75 years. Even then they didn’t collapse, they just let a few ethnic republics break off then shuffled the chairs and name plates in the Kremlin.
That’s exactly correct – there need to be some regulations, some promises made. Just a matter of which ones . . . which is the hard question.
“Globalists love barriers to entry. For themselves.
They hate barriers to entry for . . . you.”
In the immortal words of Willy Wonka:
“Strike that. Reverse it.”
Goo day, sir!
Thwak.
No, they like barriers for other people entering their business, so they have less competition. They hate their labor (i.e., me) have some sort of skill or certification (a barrier) which drives their cost up.
Now you’ve conflated “cost of doing business” with “barrier to entry”.
Pretty sure I know what you’re trying to say, but the original correction still stands.
Barriers to entry are what they want for others. (i.e. no competition)
Certifications for you they also hate. (i.e. increased labor costs)
They don’t like either of those for themselves, but they love it for their would-be competition.
But at the end of the day, they recognize barriers as friendly (providing it only affects the Other Guy), but regard certifications as neutral (since they hit both sides equally).
And they’ll point to their labor’s certifications all day long (as a selling point), if the other team doesn’t have them. Once everybody has them, and is required to have them, they push them onto you to achieve and maintain, to get the job in the first place. Ask me how I know (BLS, ACLS, PALS, NIHSS, MAB, TNCC, NRP, ENPC, BSN, EIEIO).🙄
As usual, we agree but it falls to semantics. 🙂
Case in point: Exxon *says* they don’t like environmental regulations, but they have argued for those regulations(!) because complying with them is trivial for them, hard for new entrants. Thus? Hundreds of refineries closed. That, plus enormous capital, provides an effective barrier to entry. They actually do enjoy that.
The barriers may be the “same” but Microsoft can easily comply, while a new entrant might find the regs impossible.
I actually thought of you when I looked at those entry barriers on the labor side. And right now here in BFE, they’re offering five figures (past the decimal) for nurses as a signing bonus . . . .
Yeah, about those “signing bonuses”…
Usually, “half in 90 days, half in 180 days”, or something like.
Except “any write-ups, no bonus” somewhere deep in the fine print.
We’re not talking firing offenses, gross negligence, nothing like that.
We’re talking anything they don’t like, that they can use as an excuse.
One minute late, once? Write-up.
Didn’t dot an “I”, or cross a “t”, failing to comply with some jot or tittle somewhere in the arcane 6000-pg P&P Manual?
Write-up.
Didn’t keep up one of those 20 certs current, even if it only lapsed for 15 minutes during the four days a week you’re off, and was renewed before your next shift? Sorry, out of compliance.
“Oops, so sorry. No bonus. Too bad, so sad.” – HR
Because it’s totally fair business practice that there be a $5K-$10K penalty for a traffic accident somewhere between you and the hospital, right? Or because COVID cancelled all your cert classes for months on end.
Or any one of a thousand other things, which suddenly saves the department’s budget $5k-$10K, at the stroke of a pen.
Pretty sure they copped this strategy from the dot-mil recruiting departments.
Doubt it will happen, but who knows?: If I ever take advantage of that kind of thing again, I’ll quit on the spot the moment they pull those shenanigans. By not showing up for my next shift, ever. Suck on that, Corporate Thieves.
More likely, they can either pay the “bonus” up front, or just suck it.
They want to play those sorts of carnival games – all stick, and no carrot – they can live with being short-staffed.
ZFG.
Yeoch. That’s what I hate when people become commodities . . . .
That’s a quote from Rosa Luxemburg, yes? The Other Side always knew more about voting than the let on. Semi OT, but does show the nefariousness of Fidel Trudeau and the Globalists; A website came up on the anti-Trucker side. Promoted by Jalopnik, the site for car enthusiasts that don’t actually drive or work on cars, it is also on Twatter; Convoytraitors dot com! When we go to Whois, to find the sainted benefactors of this site dedicated to doxing any and all involved in the Great Ottawa Honk-a-Thon (Honkies?) we find that no one actually exists. The entire registration (set up on 4 Feb 22) is redacted. Hmmm… Professional quality pics from all over the entire country, on a professionally produced and maintained site with NO points of contact. All the while having any and all POCs redacted from it’s registration. The best we can do is the backbone server. Hmmmmmmmmm. I wonder who or what might have the resources to have set up such a website.
Any guesses boys, girls and various non-binary combinations?
I looked it up, and it was Emma Goldman. Better than Rosa, but not by a lot.
Silicon Valley is hardcore Left, and always will be.
The only good commie is a mulched commie.
That’s T-Shirt worthy.
Copy for the Morbark Co.
https://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2022/02/vote-early-vote-often.html
https://i.imgur.com/CUGhUyt.png
It is! Great meme!
May the bikini be with you.
And also with you.
“But these companies are no longer American companies. Once upon a time Boeing© built bombers for the Army Air Force to beat the Axis. By the 1990s, they settled with the DOJ on a $32,000,000 penalty for giving missile secrets to China. Boeing™ has ceased to be an American company. Heck, they even outsourced production of commercial airline parts to China when demanded. So they could sell jets in China, regardless of the technical expertise that China might gain”.
You can thank the hopefully soon to be late great cocaine mitch mcconnell and the ex/im bank for that one. Now who is his wife?
Oh, yeah, her . . .