Category: Business

  • Who Would Rather Not Work?

    This first came up (recently at least) with the Hostess workers:

    Interviews with more than a dozen workers showed there was little sign of regret from employees who voted for the strike. They said they would rather lose their jobs than put up with lower wages and poorer benefits.

    “They’re just taking from us,” said Kenneth Johnson, 46, of Missouri. He said he earned roughly $35,000 with overtime last year, down from about $45,000 five years ago.

    “I really can’t afford to not be working, but this is not worth it. I’d rather go work somewhere else or draw unemployment,” said Johnson, a worker at Hostess for 23 years.

    via Reuters.

    Yes, old news.  But I came across this today:

    welfare cliffs

    In the recent past we noted the somewhat startling reality that “the single mom is better off earning gross income of $29,000 with $57,327 in net income & benefits than to earn gross income of $69,000 with net income and benefits of $57,045.”  …  the painful reality in America is that: for increasingly more Americans it is now more lucrative – in the form of actual disposable income – to sit, do nothing, and collect various welfare entitlements, than to work. … there is an earnings vacuum of around $40k in which US workers are perfectly ambivalent toward inputting more effort since it does not result in any additional incremental disposable income.

    via ZeroHedge.

    An interesting note is that the graphic comes from the PA Dept. of Public Health.  It’s a slide from a whole presentation about welfare’s failure.

    I recall a story from a friend of mine who used to run a mechanical company.  He had a nice lady working at the office whom he gave a raise.  She took her new pay stub and dutifully notified social services.  As a result of the modest raise she was going to lose her housing voucher.  So she had to go back to work and say, “Thank you very much but can you please take your raise back.  I need to keep my housing voucher.”

    The system is broken.  Very very broken.

  • $45k/yr is the “New Rich”

    Implemented in 1969 to make sure upper-income Americans pay their share of taxes, the AMT has increasingly snared more middle-income Americans over the years because it was never indexed for inflation.

    During the 2011 tax year for example, the higher tax hit single taxpayers with incomes as low as $48,450 and joint filers making only $74,450.

    But millions more Americans could be subject to the AMT in their 2012 returns if Congress fails to reach a deal on the fiscal cliff before year-end. That’s because the AMT is currently scheduled to hit individuals making as little as $33,750 a year and joint filers making $45,000.

    via CNBC.

    Being married and making over $45,000 a year is the “new rich.”

    Incredible.

  • 2/3 of Millionaires Avoid 50% Tax Rate

    Two-thirds of millionaires left Britain to avoid 50p tax rate

    Almost two-thirds of the country’s million-pound earners disappeared from Britain after the introduction of the 50p top rate of tax, figures have disclosed.

    via Telegraph.

    Shhhhh…  This is a secret.  No one tell the U.S. media.  They think the “rich” will just stay and give Obama all their money.

  • China To Build World’s Tallest Building In 90 Days

    It all started simple enough.

    Six days. That’s how long it took to build this level 9 Earthquake-resistant, sound-proofed, thermal-insulated 15-story hotel in Changsha, complete with everything, from the cabling to three-pane windows. The foundations were already built, but it’s just impressive.

    While still in basking in the glow of success the same group decided to up the stakes a little …

     

    The hotel is so solid that it can resist a 9 magnitude earthquake, as tested by the China Academy of Building Research (there’s a scene in which you can see the testing process, at 1:49). They claim this is five times more earthquake-resistant than conventional buildings.

    The company also says that it is five times more energy efficient, with 6-inch thick glass curtain wall insulation and four-paned windows with built-in shades, a heat recovery system and 3-stage filtration air conditioning process that purifies indoor air to be 20 times purer than the air outside. They even have air quality monitoring in every room which, given the pollution problem in China, seems to be an important selling point there.

     

     

    I guess since the two proof-of-principles have worked out it’s time to go straight to the head of the class.

    According to its engineers, this will be the tallest skyscraper in the world by the end of March of 2013. Its name is Sky City, and its 2,749 feet (838 meters) distributed in 220 floors will grow in just 90 days in Changsha city, by the Xiangjiang river. Ninety days!

    via Gizmodo.

    For those too lazy to click, the magic here is that the building is pre-fab.  Not so much like a trailer but more like a very cool and very complicated erector set.  There’s video at the second link.

    If this project goes off it will be time to seriously think — or re-think — about how we build things.  This technology appears to be something incredible.  Something we should be using here.

  • Everyone Wants a Drone – Zero Concern For Your Privacy

    Are unmanned aircraft, known to have difficulty avoiding collisions, safe to use in America’s crowded airspace? And would their widespread use for surveillance result in unconstitutional invasions of privacy?

    via SFGate.

    Yes, and no seem like pretty straightforward answers to these questions.

    But the elected idiots who man the Congressional Unmanned Systems Caucus have taken over $8 million in campaign contributions from drone developers.

    So do you feel safe yet?

     

     

  • Black Friday Gun Sales Hit New Record High

    Black Friday gun sales hit an all time record high last week with demand for new firearms so overwhelming that it caused outages at the FBI background check center on two separate occasions.

    Fueled by fears that the Obama administration will go after gun rights during a lame duck term, the FBI reported 154,873 background check requests on Friday – a 20 per cent increase on last year’s record total of 129,166 checks.

    via Infowars.

    Good time to be in the gun manufacturing business.

  • Illinois’ Pension Time-Bomb Too Big Too Fix

    So says the Commercial Club of Chicago.

    In a memo to its members, the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago said last week’s elections didn’t bring in an influx of lawmakers willing to deal with the pension crisis but instead leaves taxpayers with “more legislators who aren’t prepared, or willing, to make the tough decisions necessary to save our state.”

    “We are writing today to let you know that the pension crisis has grown so severe that it is now, unfixable,” said the letter co-signed by Miles White, chairman of the Commercial Club; Jim Farrell, chairman of the Civic Committee, and Ty Fahner, president of the Civic Committee and Commercial Club.

    via Sun-Times.

    Miles White is the Chairman and CEO of Abbott Labs.  Jim Farrell is the retired Chairman and CEO of Illinois Tool Works.  Ty Fahner is a partner at Mayer Brown where he handles tax, bankruptcy, and securities matters.  These are not dumb guys.  They understand finance and are used to dealing with large numbers.

    The headline is of course misleading; the problem is fixable.  It’s really just that every week that’s wasted means the solution will be more painful.  The Commercial Club outlines what it thinks needs to be done:

    • All cost-of-living increases need to be eliminated for retirees, who now get annual 3 percent pension boosts.
    • A cap on salaries must be imposed upon which pensions can be based.
    • The retirement age for full pension benefits needs to be raised to 67.
    • Downstate and suburban school systems must be forced to take on pension payments from the state for educators over a 12-year phase-in.

    This is pretty painful for the pension members.  Naturally there will be some pain on the taxpayers as well.  It’s a bad situation that’s only getting worse by the day.

  • Union Workers Turn Against Organized Labor

    As organized labor loses leverage in a race-to-the-bottom global market, some workers are becoming so disillusioned by what their unions can, or rather can’t, do for them that they want out. The disaffected include dozens of machinists at Caterpillar Inc.’s plant in Joliet who crossed the picket line during a strike last summer and are planning unfair labor practices complaints against the union.

    Organized labor’s slippage is most acute in the manufacturing sector, which has lost 4.7 million jobs and seen membership shrink by almost a third since 2001, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Overall, private-sector union membership stands at just 6.9 percent nationally and 10.6 percent in Illinois. …

    Many rank-and-file employees have opposed unions all along, of course. Despite organizing drives, workers have turned down collective bargaining at automobile plants across the South. Legislatures in 23 states have enacted “right-to-work” laws that allow employees to opt out of dues-paying membership at union shops; Indiana joined this camp early this year.Now some workers in union-friendly states are turning on their brethren over strikes.

    via Crain’s Chicago Business.

    These are good jobs that pay well.  Most people really want to work.  Yet the unions get in they way somtimes… and yes, sometimes it’s the companies that get in the way.  The big difference however is that the company is the one taking the risk.  The shareholder or owner is placing his or her money on the line.  The union is not.

    Successful risks should be rewarded.  Bad risks are punished.  That’s how people learn; how the cream rises to the top.

    You can take all the money in this country and redistribute it equally to each person.  In ten or fifteen years those who are “rich” will be rich again.  Those who are “poor” today will be poor again.

    It’s very much like the story of the talents; Matthew 25:14-30.

  • Senate bill rewrite lets feds read your e-mail without warrants | Politics and Law – CNET News

    A Senate proposal touted as protecting Americans’ e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law.

    CNET has learned that Patrick Leahy, the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, has dramatically reshaped his legislation in response to law enforcement concerns. A vote on his bill, which now authorizes warrantless access to Americans’ e-mail, is scheduled for next week.

    via CNET News.

    Very sad.

  • Gov. Regulation Run Amok: 6,125 New Regs. in 90 Days

    It’s Friday morning, and so far today, the Obama administration has posted 165 new regulations and notifications on its reguations.gov website.

    In the past 90 days, it has posted 6,125 regulations and notices – an average of 68 a day.

    via CNSNews.com.

    Shear insanity.

    Makes me think of the old Guns & Roses song Signs.

    We’re no longer free.  Very sad.