SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Mary Cluney who wrote (125217)11/20/2009 12:19:55 PM
From: cosmicforce  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 543709
 
Whether there is $2 of labor or $12 only changes the price by $10 unless each function in the chain is simply doing a 30% markup. It is all the intermediate steps - labor wholesalers, branding, mall-infrastructure, shipping, distribution, trucking, etc. that makes these so expensive. Our system doesn't reward maximum employment with minimum resource expenditure - it rewards maximum profit for the branding company.

A custom clothing factory with direct sales could be making these at a profit, paying $24 per hour for labor to produce the $72 pair for jeans, assuming an assembly line could make 2 pairs per hour per person employed. That doesn't seem all that unreasonable. Our system doesn't reward that kind of entrepreneurship because Wal-mart would just go to the most depressed and desperate place in the world to get the price to $71 or $68 or $35, breaking the back of the local source. They don't care as long as they (Wal-mart) make money. They don't pay for the cost to the community of the loss of wages.



To: Mary Cluney who wrote (125217)11/20/2009 2:12:42 PM
From: Little Joe  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 543709
 
I agree with the thrust of your post. What policies would you implement to accomplish this.

lj



To: Mary Cluney who wrote (125217)11/20/2009 4:48:22 PM
From: Steve Lokness  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 543709
 
Mary;

But making sure Boeing keeps going is a much more strategic bet.

Yes, but why not go one step further - and provide incentives for tomorrows new technology and industries? China for instance not only provides cheap crap for WalMart but also sells tons of new green technology.

steve