This morning we take a jaunt into the very heart of economic thought. We’ll be looking at the component-level as to what “makes up” price discovery.
What we come to is the idea that we have emphasized the wrong thing. E.G. the existing paradigm has promoted high unit-volumes of goods. But, QUALITY has been abandoned because of our belief that “more work is good.” With Robotics on the horizon, this is plain stupid thinking. Which we will discuss more deeply after some headlines and where the charts and models have us heading next week..
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Your “New Way of Thinking” fits in nicely with Lt. Joe Kenda, Homicide Hunter. As Joe says, “If you kill, I will find you”. He solved close to 400 homicides in Colorado Springs, CO. Joes views the scene & makes his deduction on what happened taking into account every piece of evidence no matter how trivial. He was the modern day Sherlock Holmes.
“the big idea – in this morning’s discussion is simple: We are presently promoting more work, longer hours, higher disposable incomes and the way to that path has been through increasing life cycle shortening in order to fatten up sales.”
Been there done that. A day of vacation was an eight hour day an average work day 12- 16 seven days a week. Except the year I worked off the hospital bill by working there in exchange for the forgiveness of the bill that year my weekly hours hovered around 140 three full time one part time. It about killed me.
The goal is unattainable. My assumptions greed.
It’s like Congress.. when the social security funds were added to the yearly spendable budget to bail out the banks to stop a financial catastrophe. They got use to it.. a man working two hours of overtime will eventually add that to his normal spending. Companies are the same way. They are accustomed to a level of profit so if wages are increased instead of accepting a smaller profit margin they in turn raise rates. Those employees needing assistance is one of two. Totally destitute or family man and woman.
One of my kids three toddlers her monthly daycare 1900.00 so let’s flip it one works days one works nights. Rent easily a grand food ten dollars a day per person (this year budget brings it to eleven) a burger flipper to survive needs just to make expenses that aren’t flexible ten dollars clear per hour if your family then twenty five to thirty. Most people aren’t willing to work and sacrifice family to survive. Which starts the spiral. Of course this is just my observations as a bottom feeder looking up on the situation.
The older business owners and builders had the right idea. But they are gone and those without the life experiences is running the show now
Macro economics.. if a family man wants to increase disposable income he needs to be more like a homeless person.
What I mean by that is its all about available resources. To get an increase in income just to make an enough for one months cable internet expenses. Then do your daily duty at work or an establishment. A sheet of cheap TP runs a penny point two per square a normal use is thirty six squares a penny’s worth of water and three cents paper towels if it’s an electric hand dryer a nickel two cents in soap. For a woman since they use three times the resources it’s more. So for a year it adds up to one months worth of cable or one date night out per year. Or approximately one weeks take home per year for a bottom feeder. To pay off a loan first make sure you borrow where there no penalties then take the highest interest and pay it half every pay period the same thing with a house then add the amount that actually going towards principle and pay that added on.
Of course that’s just my observations and what I’ve done
George constantly amazed at the seekers who are utilizing your column.
But am not understanding the dreamers and their electric money thinking. Are we going to leave the 2 billion plus on the planet without electricity out of our dream world. As Oilman 2 says its going to be an interesting ride so Pass the Popcorn.
Our goal is to take George’s ideas & figure out how to make money with them. We need to be seeking a Business Model to benefit from the financial changes going on in the world. After doing our research, it is then time for the popcorn. Bye the bye, I have not figured out bitcoin yet or how to make any money from it. I was going to buy one bitcoin when it was $800, but I could not figure out how to buy it, so I had some popcorn instead.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/517091/how-smart-dust-could-spy-on-your-brain/
Are you talking about goods or services?
Because we have little control over the goods end of things, as ours has become primarily a service economy.
Is it as simple as requiring goods to have a MINIMAL working life or free replacement?
How do you make this idea work with a service rendered?
What recourse would there need to be with respect to doctors and lawyers and similar service professions?
How would this work out when such a huge proportion of the population is thoroughly brainwashed into believing that “new” = “better”?
Back to the basics will be the future
Truer words were never typed!
Assuming we are somewhere near or just past peak oil production; and assuredly well past peak ‘cheap’ oil production, a question arises.
If we are looking at oil prices climbing due to shortages, at what point is globalism simply not sustainable? When does the added expense of shipping goods across the globe become a sizable increase in cost seen at street level?
With globalism, there is little accountability for poor products – at best they replace it with the same faulty product and at worst, they simply lie and obfuscate or downright ignore complaints. GE is very fine example of this.
I think when the true cost to build car parts in 7 or 8 countries and assemble them here is forced directly on the purchaser, then at that point looking local becomes a requirement. At that point, local businesses may revive. Going local means the market has some references – sales going up means things are working in making widgets.
Today, nobody looks at sales for globalist enterprises – it is about stock prices. The mission statements of all these companies reflect their true aim, and it is to deliver a product that “increases shareholder value”. What should be in that phrase is “increases large shareholder value” – they care about you if you have enough shares to affect their stock price, and thus their bonuses.
Until this changes, there will be zero focus on quality, because the guys at the top do not even have a business focus, only a financial focus and a very personal one.
That will change in the future when it’ll be like the stock market except it’ll be with Bitcoin people go like hey we need to invest are bitcoins in this.
Like I say the stock market will still be around but Bitcoin will replace them.
Bitcoin will be used for the kickstarter programs where anybody in the world can see an idea that’s on the internet that helps produce energy or helps produces to go into outer space by using the kickstarter program by donating a little bit of their Bitcoin we don’t exactly have that with the stock market do we. !!
FYI. The Cole Haan shoes I am selling on eBay showed up in the eBay ad on the Urban Survival website. That is the first time I saw that. Keep up the good work.
https://youtu.be/rmo3cUxF4Ao
This is one of our retired people in the military who knows what’s going on listen to him we have a lot of other people too let me know what’s going on I’ll give you another link also ex-marine
We consumers get in the way of ourselves.
If you notice car advertising you might see
the lease payments have come down. It’s not magic, the gimmick is “ultra-low mileage” leases. 5,000 or 10,000 a year millage allowances. And plastic timing belts.
The timing belt is plastic to reduce front-end cost of the vehicle.
Toyota use timing chains. We are conditioned to “buy American”. Well, as soon as you do you screwed yourself.
Note in the link, cars with metal timing chains cost more on the front end. Thinking about an “ultra-low mileage”, the plastic timing belt probably won’t fail for 8 years. The lessee has been gone five years by now. And the payment was $5.00 cheaper.
https://www.thecarconnection.com/compare/toyota_camry_2018_choices
Not a car autirty or anything, just notice pricing.
To answer your question George,”how do we pull back from the edge?”, it is simple in my mind, we don’t. Humanity is on the verge of a major herd culling and not because the overlords planned it, but because we have failed as a species to use the brains we have. As is seen in the SJW movement, emotions rule, not intellect. Wisdom is still not valued over wealth.
If I decide to reincarnate, it won’t be until the current insanity is a dim historical footnote.
Wow.. sherlyn you and I are on the same page here. that is exactly how I feel..
Oh the irony. Sadly, I had to go to Russian news for this story.
Russia-China real gold standard means end of US dollar dominance
https://www.rt.com/business/412546-china-russia-gold-standard-dollar/
Phew…. old news. really old news.. Russia and China have been trying to take over the dollar for years now.. was it last year or the year before that they with held a container ship and the shipment until it was paid for in gold.. When we will really have to worry is when the middle east decides they are going to value their product with the gold backed script compared to the product that the federal reserve bank has been pushing that is only backed by the value put on it by them. What was it the early 70’s that President Nixon asked King Faisal of Saudi Arabia to accept only US dollars as payment for oil and to invest any excess profits in US Treasury bonds, notes, and bills. In exchange, Nixon pledged to protect Saudi Arabian oil fields from the Soviet Union and other interested nations, such as Iran and Iraq. If Saudi Arabia chooses to go with gold backed currency then the US dollar loses its position as the global reserve currency, the consequences for America are dire. A major portion of the dollar’s valuation stems from its lock on the oil industry – if that monopoly fades, so too will the value of the dollar. Right now with the action being taken by the puppet masters in convincing the US to HELP these other countries out.. LOL the tensions have risen in my opinion putting the dollar in jeopardy of being tossed to the other side while they use another currency.. another kind of paradox of sorts I think..
Rich celebs telegraphing the burst by jumping to the other side?
https://www.rt.com/news/412612-russian-citizenship-passport-celebrities/
#Coke may be the real thing, but #hash is the new drug of choice?
It certainly seemed counter-intuitive this fall when China fenced off the now seemingly underway bitcoin ponzi bonanza from its average citizenry. Meanwhile Chinese bitcoin power-wielders continued operations uninterruptedly in Hong Kong and Mongolian satellite offices priming the pump for Western marks. I read media stories in my city, and likely you in yours, of locals who have invested their everything into mining rigs sold by these Chinese vendors. However the relatively expensive rigs that they sell to the marks are slower and less efficient than the cutting edge chips used by the Chinese vendors to mine their own bitcoin inhouse.
To my mind, Beijing is accomplishing a dual-pincer move that will stick the fork into the dotard Western marks in this early scuffle of the longer term AI Wars. If we accept that the Battle of Bitcoin has effectively seen the subjugation of Western asic chipmakers in favor of Chinese ones, we may rather undelightedly await a pending infiltration of Western data centres by derivatives of the new chips spreading their AI teaching instructions to global cloud networks courtesy of the East.
Perhaps Beijing is putting “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” proverb into practice without even turning out the lights.
When it comes to money, I found out that nobody cares as much about my money as me. I am sure a blockchain doesn’t. Bitcoin as a currency has to be a scam since even if the banks fail, why would bitcoin, a crypto currency only backed by electrons, be worth more the $0.00. Precious metals makes more sense since you have an asset in your hand in which to barter whether the electricity is on or off. With bitcoin, it would seem that if your computer is down, you are broke.
Some splaining,just like Willis..
Bitcoin and the other Cryptos are not about riches,price or values. They are exactly what this article seems to be talking about. “It” is already here, and we are Building it out as you read these words. When the next round of bank failures materializes, hello Italy,or $21 Billion Steinoff failure last week, those already on the Blockchain utilizing smart contracts and/or holding some Cryptos will be cillin like villians.
Blockchain tech also solves heavy oil/contaminated oil, bad grains, and other contract issues that requires mutual TRUST, hahahaha. The future is already here, jump in or wait..to be run the $#@% over.
Well sold there dandeman. You do realize that the Banksters and Ozian little men will eventually sell your story to the masses. In my opinion, we are in the preliminary stages of the chucking of the old failed economic system to be replaced by a blockchain system.
Announcer on fake news media: “Please move to this line to exchange your dollars and precious metals for these Government issued blockchain coins. Deadline is in thirty days.”
Hmmm. Ok. Imagine for a moment that a genesis block was rigged to be faulty. Consider the 1994 movie “Disclosure”?
answer to the question: First, do away with money. Second make a rule; if you don’t work you don’t eat … unless one is infirm by natural causes. Being that many calling themselves human, if not most, prefer the life of rest and relaxation, hobby pursuit, education, or “couch potatoing” or whatever. In the beginning of this paradigm shift I expect quality would decrease. As most will be trying to get the job done as quickly as possible to get on about their druthers. But as quality sinks to an unacceptable level by the masses, it would become required that workers, servers, paper pushers or whoever would have to work overtime to make good on inferior quality. Eventually I expect, producing the highest passable quality in the shortest amount of time. As for value of job done … it’s time. As evolution would have it, time is a finite allotment for each of us. It is our life. Thus all men being created equal and all, value for time expended should be equal. In this system true equality could be realized. Greed and sloth would be impossible to realize.
Weakness in such a system? Perhaps the loss of undiscovered horizons. Remove the incentives to personal reward being the hurdle that human nature would have to leap over. Although to hear the writers of Star Trek tell the story, it would only be the beginning.
Needs a bit of tweaking here and there, I know. But there is the basics.
“First, do away with money. Second make a rule; if you don’t work you don’t eat”
Let me see.. was that Lennon that brought that idea up.. or was it.. lol only one class of citizen no money everyone equal . hmmm.. I think the puppet masters would totally be against that one.
https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/o/orwell/george/o79a/index.html
Great Idea but it would be the start of a true https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/o/orwell/george/o79a/index.html one world no one rich no one poor utopia..but realistically it would be the beginning of a true dystopia instead.
as much as I love the idea of a beehive society you have to have the separation but a reasonable separation. Instead we see very few that get twenty million dollar or more bonuses and more layoffs.. Years before there was still the separation but a more realistic one. which is just history repeating itself..
“…value for time expended should be equal”
You’re falling prey to the fundamental flaw in Marxist theory, that all labor is of equal value. One hour of a ditch digger’s labor does not equal one hour of a brain surgeon’s labor, to make an extreme example.
Without a marketplace, there’s no way to assign value. The west has been so rich for so long that quality is not valued, at least in terms of material goods. People do value quality of certain services if you look at what they’re willing to pay for them.
What you are saying, is a brain surgeon’s life is more valuable than a ditch digger’s life. That is an elitist mindset. In this case, the value of his work is subjectively based on your opinion. Or, as you say what others are “willing to pay.” For me, if as our Declaration of Independence states is true, that “all men are created equal,” and I believe it is, then time (a piece of an individuals life) is also equal; brain surgeon or not, the value of life is the same. The brain surgeon’s skill more often than not depends on the social level and/or genetic intelligence and opportunity he/she/it was born into. Keep in mind I am speaking of the value of a person’s life, not the skills they are lucky enough to have. Your mindset is the old paradigm, it measures value from a different perspective. Clearly it is not working. However, my mindset also has it’s weakness in mankind’s greed and competitiveness. Innate tendencies that in my world need to be tempered by empathy and compassion. As a currency of “value” those qualities, the latter, would be required by everyone. While it claims otherwise, Marxism allows for elitism and condensing of power. Given that on a socioeconomically, scale what I propose puts everyone on an equal level; it disallows totalitarianism. It is though, an ideal that probably is impossible to realize. I’m afraid Good and Evil will continue their war using us as their fodder. Utopia in the world as we know it is impossible.
Drop a piece of your Corelle onto a tile floor from about chest height and watch how indestructible it is. It’s glass and it will shatter. Even diamonds fracture when hit in the right spot.