Category: Money

The “Promise” of jobs?

The main reason jobs are an issue is that the “bread and butter” manufacturing jobs of the post World War II economy disappeared over the last 35-45 years.  While the Military Industrial Complex is well in America, it is not the employer of the ages gone by.  The component pieces of our military, consumer, and industrial goods are manufactured overseas in factories whose employees are economic slaves within that country and whose employees cannot rise out of that desperate situation.

We Americans cannot compete with that economically as our costs of living are astronomical high compared to those employees.  Further efforts to tax or tariff the import of cheap goods is going to raise our costs without any increase in employment in our country.  The international cartels of corporations will keep the price just under the level that would make sane business people invest in making the goods within our borders.

When we have frittered away the trillions we needed on infrastructure, gutted the Affordable Care Act, defunded Medicaid, and otherwise allowed the fanatical conservative right of the Republican party to refuse to support the society, we will begin to experience subsistence living akin to what our ancestors experienced around preindustrial agrarian times in America.

Simple things like running water, roads, food, electricity, communications, and transportation will become carefully and closely managed priority needs for every one of the 98%.  The promise of “increased productivity” simply means that the corporations will minimize the use of humans beings and human knowledge to produce the products for those same people to consume.

As that has gone in my lifetime the erosion of “native talent” went with it. In my parents time, post WWII, all you needed to do was produce because the want and need was unfulfilled and you could largely name your own price.  Today incomes are so low that we must return to “going without” or “producing it ourselves”.

Most people do not have the basic tools and skills to accomplish this.  The patient planning, preparation, and forbearance required for raising food is beyond most American’s skills and means.  You can still get a couple of burgers, fries, and a drink for less than five bucks. This will be available until the water, electric, fuel, and infrastructure fail or crumble.

History dictates that all civilizations will rise and fall.  The governments organized by the citizens are the cause of their demise.  Government overburdens the citizenry and causes the citizen to overdrive the resources fueling their lives.  It is gradual and ultimately leads to individuals working alone and away from the encumbrances of the politicos and their surround.  The hard working, thick skinned, determined, and unafraid will wander off and care for their small clan.  The ability to learn will be more valuable that accreditation.  Knowledge will be employed.  Philosophies will be simple.  Actions and their results will be most valuable.

What do you think?

Controlled Obsolescence

One of the promises of the new electronic age was that reliability and product life would be improved.  While a transistor can live longer than an electromechanical relay for the purposes of switching or controlling, it may not meet the promise of reliability purported years ago.

The enemies of all electronic devices are heat and uncontrolled currents and voltages.  Modern electronics run on five and twelve volts.  All devices used in the home and business desktop tend to use this by way of power supplies which convert the power from the outlets in the wall to something usable by the electronics of the device.

Troubleshooting those devices requires a complete set of documents that detail the schematic design as well as the expected outputs from large scale integrated devices used within the device.  In some instances test points are available and documented well by the manufacturer so technicians can service the device once it is in use.

Because the actual cost to manufacture these devices is so incredibly cheap compared to the old methods, things like the radio, phone, television, and home appliance are only made today using this new technology.

Unfortunately the economies in manufacture are not always passed along. While it is true that a modern smart phone can run circles around the supercomputers of yore, they burn up on the dash of your car in Arizona and cannot survive a short fall unless somehow “armored” with an accessory surround.

To make matters worse manufacturers and marketeers have prevented the distribution of complete manuals for owners as a nuisance and unnecessary cost for the products.  Citing that users are not concerned with such minutia, the obfuscation of operation, care, and maintenance information is lost and or unavailable.  The Internet forums are testament to how rampant that is.

What is really unsettling is the engineered death of the device.  An example I love to cite is how the microcontroller on your self-cleaning oven, which approaches one thousand degrees Fahrenheit, is located immediately above the oven and in the exhaust stream from the oven.  It stands little chance of survival in the long run.

Then there is the abuse of the customer by way of grossly overpricing the replacement parts and service technician costs.   Electronic controls on that same oven cost half of the price of a new oven for an electronic controller that was manufactured for a few dollars.

Early unexpected device death is easily taken care of by replacing the device.  That is why people buy new products. They want a warranty to cover defects in materials and workmanship.  The entire package is replaced.  The defective device is then often returned to the manufacturer and shredded for recycling or refurbished for discounted resale.

So what the oven example shows is that twenty dollars of decorated sheet metal with exotic features provided by a microcontroller and a few switches plus a few fans and heating elements will sell new for six hundred to several thousand dollars and become unusable or unreliable within a designed period of time.

To further the need to replace the oven, the cost of problem diagnostics and replacement of the parts becomes prohibitively expensive.  A fresh customer is born.

What do you think about the “Kleenex” age of modern technology?

Unacceptable Behaviors

Dogmatic  Misogynistic  Bigoted  Antagonistic  Egocentric  Gauche  Bullying  Unmerciful  Untruthful  Intimidating  Elitist  Prideful  Corpulent  Acerbic  Racist  Prejudiced  Sardonic  Noncreative  Virulent  Pernicious  Vitriolic  Overentitled  Uncompassionate  Acrimonious  Malevolent  Baleful
Unoriginal  Nonveracious  Rancorous  Obese  Antisocial  Obsessive  Hardhearted  Manic  Psychopathic  Deceptive  Narcissistic  Atheistic  Avaricious  Acquisitive  Amoral  Covetous  Intemperate  Maladjusted  Neurotic  Unbalanced  Disfunctional  Unstable  Malcontented  Overindulged Condescending  Aloof  Unethical Deprecating  Eccentric Gratuitous  Unreasonable  Specious  Casuistic  Fallacious  Deceptive  Spurious Feigned

Hand To Mouth

Since Henry Ford began mass production methods that allowed the working man or woman to earn enough of a wage to support the family and afford the product they were producing, money lenders have been scheming how to get any “expendable” income from those men and women.

They introduced the installment load to attract buyers to the “affordability” of their products. They promised “time savings” such that there was the possibility of increased productivity. The washing machine, the refrigerator, the gas stove were such things. The method was acceptable because it allowed one to realize the products immediate benefit while delaying the cost associated with it. The trap was set.

To make matters even more difficult, the terms included the requirement to pay on an exact time regardless of circumstance with additional cost should payments be late.

Now that the trap was set several rates of money movement were hidden. Loading your future with debt payments hides the cost in time and money required to service the rate of payout. Remember we pay taxes, get sick, get laid off, and idle away hours of each day “accidentally” or certainly without planning for it. We lose sight of how much we have and how much we have to give up. The rate of that is the most important thing. Cost is actually obscured in the payments method of living. Those folks that have borrowed to acquire something seldom know the total cost of the product or service. On a automobile loan you will find it on the line that says “Total Deferred Payment”. It’s very much more than what you thought you paid for the automobile. It is often two and three times what you think you paid.

Today people think what is the payment and not what is the cost. The reason is they do not have very much of their income and wealth to spend as they have little more than their costs or payments on which to live. Costs and payments for transportation, food, shelter, clothing, and medical expenses outstrip most incomes. Taking the credit payment low road eases that in the short term. It however darkens the future with risks. Saving in order to afford seems out of the question for most people. It doesn’t seem to be impatience. It seems as if we have given up in the face of such huge numbers.

Henry Ford wanted to produce an automobile the workers in his plant could afford. He paid them enough to do that. That remained true until the seventies when automobile companies began breaking wages down to their present day half of what they once were. At the same time prices of rolling stock skyrocketed. Today they cost as much as a good home. How could that be? In the seventies GM made all it’s money financing automobiles and trucks. Today they make it manufacturing, selling, financing, and maintaining them. Middle class salaries and wages do not make enough to afford “save and buy” purchases so people resort to “borrow and buy” purchases. The art in the financial scheming is that it appears each month that the “borrow and buy” is cheaper. It is only true if you do not add up all that you pay for something; the true cost.

Going back to the basic concept of time and money resources, one has to consider how they will spend their time and money to meet a need. Every one invests some time to end up with some money. The money buys things. It can buy things that save time by increasing productivity. The problem with “borrow and buy” is that it will take much more time and much more money to actually pay the costs of borrowing to get the money needed for the costs of the goods or services purchased. This full cost is hidden in payments that are made very small so they fit in to meager budgets. The loading of future time and money to make those payments is not fully recognized. The time, taken from your future, that it will take to clear those hurdles is completely invisible.

So how do you get out of the trap? Save to buy! Stop borrow to buy! If you are impatient you are lost. You will walk back into the trap. Getting out takes the effort you have committed to plus the effort to save to later buy. Many people are in a position so bad that they cannot even keep up with the interest payments on what they owe. They should bankrupt and start clean. Everyone else should get to work on saving to buy.

Welcome

“…comment on technology’s impact..”

This blog is used to comment on technology’s impact upon our lives.

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