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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (315856)	12/16/2006 10:11:16 AM
From: Elroy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578798

Dude you are way too short on details to actually support your policy. 1- I say raising a company's wage level will cause it to reduce stafing. This is basic economics which 90% of business people will agree with. You reply 'bull, the US has had lower immigration in the past than it does now'. So what? If a company's salary expense goes up XX% immediately, it is going to cut staff. Don't take my word for it, ask any employer. 2- You want to get rid of illegals so Americans can have their jobs. Illegals generally hold the least appealing jobs in the US economy. For them, those crap jobs with crap pay are attractive because its better than what they can get back home. I ask you how much will employers have to pay to get the Americans to take the jobs (which the Americans don't want at their current pay level)? You reply - 'that's a stupid question, all jobs are differnt'. Well its a VERY important question, John. How much is your proposal going to cost US employers in terms of higher wages? If you have no idea, how in the world can you advocate the policy?? You sound like you were leading Bush's post military conflict planning in Iraq - screw figuring out how much more employers will pay as a result of the Fowler policy, they'll greet us with flowers and thank you notes! Look if you are going to throw out major policy changes, you should be ready to explain them and back them up rather than getting all snippety. Raising the total wages for companies in the US is going to reduce employment, and although your plan tries to open up the least desirable, lowest paying jobs to Americans, you've got no evidence that employers can afford the extra expense to attract American staff to these meat packing jobs, and you don't even know how much it would cost employers to attract Americans to these meat packing jobs. If you're going to advocate a policy that increases costs, you gotta have some idea of how much. La la la everyone should get paid more, la la la la, is not a good policy. Rather than attempting to expand the American middle class by making the meat packing/house cleaning/nail pounding/garment producing jobs pay more than global averages, you should focus on educating Americans to provide skilled value added services which the meat packer cannot deliver. Education and opportunity is the key to expanding the middle class, not making forcing the ditch digging industry to pay its workers $15 per hour. Unskilled basic labor isn't going to get paid above average rates. Trying to get around that is like trying to ski in Dubai. Well maybe not. skidxb.com

To: Road Walker who wrote (315856)	12/16/2006 10:29:17 AM
From: Elroy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578798

Ha! I looked around for the numbers, and are these the guys you want to raise wage levels on? Swift and Company (lots of meat on the website, so I assume so). swiftbrands.com Swift & Company, the world’s second-largest processor of fresh beef and pork products, today reported net sales of $2.4 billion for its fiscal first quarter ended August 28, 2005, down 4 percent from fiscal first quarter 2005. The Company's first quarter EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) was $29 million, That's EBITDA, not even operating margin, but their EBITDA margin is barely over 1% (29 million over 2.4 billion). Go get them John, record profits in the meat packing industry! Raise that company's salary payments much, and they are either bankrupt if their balance sheet is weak, or immediately downsizing their labor force if they can afford the severance costs. Swift fiscal 2006 (Aug) EBITDA margin is about 1.5%. Perhaps MSFT is reporting record profits, but the industries where illegals work are likely not (unless you got info to indicate otherwise). Your idea may have sounded good (to you), but it doesn't hold up.

To: Road Walker who wrote (315856)	12/16/2006 11:29:57 AM
From: Elroy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578798

YOU wrote this! You obviously know nothing about the business. First, Swift and Co is big business, not small business as you claimed. Second, less than 10% of their employees were illegals, hardly enough to put them out of business, but a significant number of jobs for real Americans. You don't like real Americans, do you? Here's Swift BEST EVER quarter. There net margin was 1.4%! swiftbrands.com wrote this! Greeley, Colorado, August 31, 2004 – Fueled by continued outstanding pork sales and a strong finish to the year by its Australian beef segment, Swift & Company, Inc., today reported record net income of $35.2 million on sales of $2.6 billion in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year ending May 30, 2004. You, although trying to do good and having the best intentions, would probably put these guys out of business, because Exxon and Microsoft reported record profits last year. Most illegals are food service, maids, hotel workers, etc. Jobs the American middle class (where most of us came from) don't want. Focus your energy on improving education and opportunity, not raising the wage levels of grape pickers.