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Strategies & Market Trends : Waiting for the big Kahuna -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Clever Nick Name who wrote (40079)	5/19/1999 9:49:00 PM
From: John Gault	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 94695

Deflation, free trade and auto workers: First let me say I have several family members that work at Ford. One who just got hire as a skilled tradesman,with overtime-76hrs/wk, will make around 100k this year. While that is a lot of hours it certainly is tons of money for a tool and die operator. The other started two years ago and was hired in as a plastic injection mold operator, he started close to 18 bucks an hour and works off a quota system. He can finish his quota for the day in 4.5 hours, after that it's off to the bar with the rest of this co-workers. Plus he doesn't have to come back and check out.... what a bonus. However imo,,, Auto companies are different then most companies and are not facing the same pressures. ***** It's the smaller manufacturing companies and certain sectors like, but not limited too, textiles and AG products... Did you know that China has been producing and selling some many apples in the Us that Us producers left large amounts in the field this year??? The same thing happened with tomatoes a few years back...now Mexico is the main supplier of winter tomatoes not Florida or California. But that's just one part of the deflationary trend I don't see us over coming. The second is direct marketing and internet services... BTW, I just left National City and signed up with NetBank. These two factors are why I don't believe we will see inflation, and why I think we haven't seen a rise in Labor rates even with low unemployment. With free trade, I believe we will have to balance our wages with those of our trading partners... or be very close to balancing. The Us states are a free trading zone and from east to west and from north to south you don't see that big of difference in comparable wages. True some sectors have already been destroyed like textiles,electronics, and agriculture which imho is why you see pockets of poverty and nobody jumping in there to soak up all the 'cheaper'labor.... Kentucky,the Dakotas and Tennessee you can get labor 7-9 bucks an hour... why hasn't manufacturing been moving there? Because it's still too high. Gateway which is in South Dakota still buys all of there parts from Mexico or across the boarder and across the boarder is where all manufacturing is headed. I have no doubts that a lot more companies will do the same and professional white collar work too. What is that software companies name that resides in India and is traded on the NASDAQ? I seen him on CNBC talking about cheaper labor in India. The effect of which will be devastating when one considers the price that people have been paying for real estate. Everything has to be working correctly and one has to assume wages won't drop for those mortgages to be paid off. Bad bet imho... oh ya. don't forget congress just passed a law changing bankruptcy. I think I may have rambled until I lost my train of thought but consider the USDA's forecast of AG products until 2007... The USDA is forecasting corn at 2.20... that is at or below cost depending on how much land your farming...2000 or 10000 acres.. For most that is below cost. They forecast Hogs at 35 pennies a pound, again below cost, even the large hog factory would be hard press to earn anything there. I can't see inflation but... What do you see causing so much inflationary pressure??

To: Clever Nick Name who wrote (40079)	5/20/1999 1:03:00 AM
From: Lee Lichterman III	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 94695

OT >>. If you haven't done time in one of these places I suggest you shut up about it, << No I haven't but my grandfather was a doctor with a private practice near the GM plant in St. Louis and I remeber the line of workers at his door wanting sick excuses every Monday because they were hung over but would get full pay if they were sick enough to get a note from the doctor. No I haven't worked in a plant. I only worked 12-18 hour days, while ducking Scuds for about 12K a year. Of course I have pilots lives at stake and during the cold war, was responsible for making sure the Nukes went where they were supposed to but nothing important like putting lug nuts on a car that my 4 year old could probably do. 45K a year is a lot for a high school drop out no matter what the conditions are like. Join the military and let Clinton send you to the Desert every time he gets caught with his zipper open then when you come back, tell me about hot and long hours. I'll take 45K any day for union benefits and a job that takes no brains. Why do you think that immigrants are getting the jobs. I giggled my butt off when GM sold that division after the strike and they moved it south of the border. I hope I get to giggle some more soon. What made this country great was brains and innovation, not brain dead labor. We need to get kids interested in education again, not securing a union job from Uncle Lou on the assembly line or with the pipe fitters. An electrician makes obscene money also for hooking up 3 wires in a house. I rebuild 200 pin connectors that have to be shielded enough to withstand a nuclear blast. Which is harder? When this bubble finally breaks, these criminal wages will disappear and who will be the ones whining because they are out of work and who's fault will it be? Every time there is a debate about logging, the only reason for cutting down the trees is the workers don't know how to do anything else. Oh, Sorry, yeah that is worth destroying our environment over so we can have generation after generation of mouth breathing unskilled labor. John Gault - Good Points all, We now return you to your originally scheduled program, Good Night, Lee

To: Clever Nick Name who wrote (40079)	5/20/1999 4:13:00 PM
From: Yogizuna	Respond to of 94695

*OT* Rob, I can see that you know how it is to be "in the trenches". Back in the 1970's, my brother tried to be an assembly line worker for GM, and even though he is a big guy and a hard worker, he had to quit after two weeks because he was literally going crazy with the time clock always running! The workers who succeed at these types of jobs should be truly admired, and they deserve every cent they get! It's just too bad that so many other workers are toiling almost as hard as the auto assembly workers, yet are "lucky" to get a little over half of their pay. Someday, perhaps the people of this country will wake up and appreciate the workers more, but I'm not holding my breath. It has been my experience that most "suits" believe themselves to be superior beings, and as long as they cling to that prehistoric attitude, there will always be abuse of the workers. Yogi