patrick.net

dublin hillz says

Anti union jihadist bites the dust

Trump is still around. I'm hoping unions get banned by 2017.

Strategist says

Trump is still around. I'm hoping unions get banned by 2017.

Because all those working people making a living wage and getting benefits are DESTROYING AMERICA!

Strategist says

I'm hoping unions get banned by 2017

Won't happen unless a fascist is elected. However, trump won't make it.

Even Trump won't ban unions. He's worked with unions most of his career, and has a good relationship with them in general. He likes to be tough but respects collective bargaining as well. Sorry, Strategist, your dream of slavery won't be coming true..

I'm probably over optimistic about Trumps abilities. Oh I know damn well he can delegate complicated tasks like nobodies business.
But I'm not so sure he'll find the Experts he seeks, when he says he'll find a bunch of Smart guys to fix shit.
All of the smart guys are dead, or have left the country. When I say smart guys, I'm talking about guys that are capable and willing do what this country needs.
Without their interests, directly or indirectly first above what would "Make this country Great... AGAIN!". He'll be hard pressed to find people as innocent and pure as he claims himself to be, with no self serving motive other than admiration. (That's if you believe all of that!). Where in the hell do you find other great minds, willing to put on such a selfless show of patriotism? Sure there are many smart people capable of doing what this country needs. But they are all plugged into the global economy, and practice Keynesian economics. Hey let's not forget that Trump's greatest claim to legitimate fame right now, is he wrote a how to get rich scumbag self help book. "The Art of the Deal".
The Hubris of the thought, where would a guy who sells "The Art of the Deal" to greedy selfish bastards, find a selfless Saint to champion Donald's cause? No scratch that, he'll need an army of Selfless Saints, there's a ton of work to be done. And let's be honest Donald can't do none of it by him self.

That being said, a President that does nothing for the next 4 years, would still be better than electing the next President because he's not Hillary or She's not Bush.
Consider it a politcal Pause...

...

...

I think a Trump White house would bring Most Americans together. If his Presidency would be anything like his campaign trail. Then the next 4 years with Donald Trump would be a vacation from political noise and self serving agendas. The media will spend the next four years, skewering him relentlessly. And not bullying, abusing, kicking, biting, scratching, clawing, instigating and down right disrespecting America while dividing them on every issue. Keeping America distracted fighting amongst our selves, while the government did their most horrible vile disgusting work. There will be none of that with a Trump administration. He will be Butt ASS Naked, from inauguration day to his exit interview. He will be the first true Transparent President. Which is why I say it would be a political pause. Because if can't find great people with his vision, but have their own interests in mind. They wouldn't dare, they would be conspiring in a fishbowl with the eyes of the world on them. Trump would be an embattled do nothing president.

BUT!

It would give the American people a nice cooling off period and learn to work together. With new insight on what we expect out of Government by the way Trump went into office. We're like kids buying our first car. YES! WE'LL TAKE IT! the first jalopy almost sight unseen. We just love the idea of a leader who didn't ride in on a flat bed of Millions from corporate sponsors who are going to expect more for them than what the voters get out of their candidates that they endorse.

Now Maybe! Just Maybe!

Trump has managed to destroy the Political Action Pac money from Left and Right causes. What if his Presidency is the straw that broke the camels back and in the 2018, and 2020 elections, the super PACs are all missing in those elections. And real people start campaigning then the Cable news orgs will have to make money the old fashioned way. Then start getting viewers by using classic Journalism to inform the public about who's who running the race. Rather them just being tools for the institutional D and R's.

Trump will still be great. Even if he can't find a Legion of Saints. If he can then even better.

Quigley says

Even Trump won't ban unions. He's worked with unions most of his career, and has a good relationship with them in general. He likes to be tough but respects collective bargaining as well. Sorry, Strategist, your dream of slavery won't be coming true..

Trump is a smart businessman. Every smart businessman knows how destructive unions are to a business. Even communists don't support unions, because unions only benefit themselves.
About 15 years ago or I remember going into a Super KMart, where the employees were striking for more benefits. The store was still open, and at the entrance an employee on strike said I should not support Kmart by shopping there, because they did not provide health and other benefits to the employees. I answered "any extra costs the company incurs would be passed on to me as a consumer. If you don't pay for my health insurance, why should I pay for yours"
Quigley, Dublin Hills, I ask you the same question. I am self employed. If you don't pay for my health benefits, why should I pay for yours?

You pay for health benefits of non union labor! It's called taxes and welfare and Covered California. If the Kmart doesn't pay for their employees healthcare, you will with your tax dollars.
Your business doesn't exist in a vacuum either. Without people with good jobs to buy your products or services, you'd be a poor broke-ass Jimmy-in-the-street.

Strategist says

Quigley, Dublin Hills, I ask you the same question. I am self employed. If you don't pay for my health benefits, why should I pay for yours?

As a small business owner it's up to you to determine how you spend your money and that includes health insurance coverage. For the unionized employees, their health coverage is part of their compensation package. Since the compensation packages/revenue sources are different, it's not really a question of who pays.

In society, there are various pathways one can take to make a living whether it's working in the public sector, lower risk jobs in private sector or more volatile directions such as enterprenuership, tech, biz ownership. Each choice has its own set of tradeoffs, pros/cons and whatever decision one makes, they must accept the implicit tradeoffs. To do otherwise is unethical and and smacks of having cake/eat it too syndrome.

Strategist says

I answered "any extra costs the company incurs would be passed on to me as a consumer. If you don't pay for my health insurance, why should I pay for yours"

You're an idiot. I'm sorry. The prices of K-Mart goods have exactly ZERO correlation with their labor costs. They price their goods at the market price regardless of their labor costs. Any reduction in those labor costs goes directly to the shareholder's pockets. You are paying the same price.

Letting K-Mart cut benefits actually RAISES your costs because you end of paying for their welfare when their wages are cut below the welfare line. So, next time you bitch about so many people on welfare--look in the mirror. YOU CAUSED IT

Quigley says

You pay for health benefits of non union labor! It's called taxes and welfare and Covered California. If the Kmart doesn't pay for their employees healthcare, you will with your tax dollars.

dublin hillz says

For the unionized employees, their health coverage is part of their compensation package. Since the compensation packages/revenue sources are different, it's not really a question of who pays.

tatupu70 says

They price their goods at the market price regardless of their labor costs. Any reduction in those labor costs goes directly to the shareholder's pockets. You are paying the same price.

I look at prices when I buy. Unionized stores like Albertsons are more expensive than the same stuff I can get at Walmart or Costco. The regular unionized grocery stores have more expenses, which means they need to charge more to maintain competitive returns on investments. These overpriced stores are losing customers like me, their market share is declining, and many of their stores are closing down. Look at the huge crowds at Walmart, Costco and Sprouts? they are thriving.
It's the unions plain and simple.

Strategist says

I look at prices when I buy. Unionized stores like Albertsons are more expensive than the same stuff I can get at Walmart or Costco. The regular unionized grocery stores have more expenses, which means they need to charge more to maintain competitive returns on investments. These overpriced stores are losing customers like me, their market share is declining, and many of their stores are closing down. Look at the huge crowds at Walmart, Costco and Sprouts? they are thriving.

It's the unions plain and simple.

Safeway and Albertsons were around before sprouts, so one of the ways that sprouts can compete is on price. They can do that because their real estate most likely is cheaper than albertsons but additionally, albertson charges more for convenience because customer is likely to find more of what they need at one stop. Sprouts is much better priced for fruits/vegetables/chicken, for many other things they are not well priced at all.

Furthermore, sprouts does appear to offer comparable benefits to "unionized" stores so I don't believe that their lower prices for produce are due to labor costs.

https://www.sprouts.com/careers/total-rewards-benefits-package

Strategist says

I look at prices when I buy. Unionized stores like Albertsons are more expensive than the same stuff I can get at Walmart or Costco. The regular unionized grocery stores have more expenses, which means they need to charge more to maintain competitive returns on investments. These overpriced stores are losing customers like me, their market share is declining, and many of their stores are closing down. Look at the huge crowds at Walmart, Costco and Sprouts? they are thriving.

It's the unions plain and simple.

Sorry, that is just plain wrong. In a competitive marketplace, companies cannot charge more for the same products because of higher labor costs.

Strategist says

Look at the huge crowds at Walmart, Costco and Sprouts?

Unions have nothing to do with your various apples and oranges pricing mishmash. I love Costco, but it's an odd beast. Costco is not Walmart, Walmart has a much larger SKU count to stock.

Costco PAYS it's people well with lots of benefits. Unions are kind of irrelevant to their workers as far as protections because of 2 differences.

1. It is not run as a family empire
2. It is narrowly targetted at affluent shoppers

Costco pricing is not always actually that great. Often pricing on milk, diapers, and certain other staples is the same and sometimes higher than local grocery stores.

I shop at Safeway regularly too, which is union and with coupons and so on I couldn't tell any difference from any other store in the area. Except it's cleaner. I don't shop at Walmart, it's dirty and the lines are always too slow because they understaff.

tatupu70 says

Strategist says

I look at prices when I buy. Unionized stores like Albertsons are more expensive than the same stuff I can get at Walmart or Costco. The regular unionized grocery stores have more expenses, which means they need to charge more to maintain competitive returns on investments. These overpriced stores are losing customers like me, their market share is declining, and many of their stores are closing down. Look at the huge crowds at Walmart, Costco and Sprouts? they are thriving.


It's the unions plain and simple.

Sorry, that is just plain wrong. In a competitive marketplace, companies cannot charge more for the same products because of higher labor costs.

Because in a competitive marketplace, companies that charge more would lose market share, and eventually go out of business. Which is why grocery stores like Ralphs and Albertsons are shutting down in many areas.

Vicente says

I shop at Safeway regularly too, which is union and with coupons and so on I couldn't tell any difference from any other store in the area. Except it's cleaner. I don't shop at Walmart, it's dirty and the lines are always too slow because they understaff.

Sometimes you do get a better deal with coupons, and double coupons, and membership cards. Those are just gimmicks to get you to come in and buy more expensive stuff. I would much rather go to Costco and Walmart, where I don't have to check prices all the time.

Walmart will only lose more money going forward. There's a reason over the past decade that Walmarts look like war zones. They're practicing management by target, and they've squeezed so much that now they're only squeezing their own sales, they can't get the items on the shelves and sales targets at the jewelry, paint, and other counters drops because the people who should be selling are desperately out on the floor trying to get the product on the shelves, with no time for cleaning or organizing. They used to have 2 or 3 people doing in a total of 12-16 Manhours, they have one person trying to do in 4 or 5.

Walmart is extremely coupon unfriendly.