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NS article in Oct. TRAINS
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[quote]QUOTE: <i>Originally posted by Modelcar</i> <br /><br />.....How did we ever get into a set up such as this. One thought in my mind is over the years we spent money from our budget, pouring it into "lessor" countries bringing them into the "modern world" and gradually they have now taken over our jobs from this great country...Manufacturing, clothing, electronics...and the list goes on....What an ironic twist. <br />[/quote] <br /> <br />Well, I'm just a casual observer, but my opinion on how we get ourselves into setups like this is that we don't think things through, we tend to ignore the really big picture, and we have a buncha crooks running this place. <br /> <br />Economics is the driving force. The Wal Mart mentality that if you price even junk low enough, someone will buy it, surely plays a part. Then you have the goals to maximize profits to the stockholders <br /> <br />If I am a stockholder in the ABC refrigerator company, and by having the plant in columbus OH we pay the workers $20 per hour and my annual dividend is 45 cents per share, or if we move the factory to malaysia we pay the help $2.45 per hour and my dividend goes up to $1.15 per share, ...guess what I am gonna do? those guys in Columbus never did anything for me except threaten to strike, etc. <br /> <br />The "rub" if you will, is that in order for that plan to work, I've gotta squeeze every advantage out of my shipping strategy. <br /> <br />Enter "Joe Sucker, American tax Payer" <br /> <br />Think about this. Here we have a railroading forum, which is part of a railroading magazine. And we are currently elaborating on the benefits of raising tunnel heights to allow trains to haul doublestack. Sounds like an heroic accomplishment, doesn't it? After all, whatever benefits the train, is good, right? That's what your politicians will tell you, raising that tunnel with your tax dollars will mean more ease in bringing you lower cost goods from the local container port, and build a stronger America. (rah rah rah) . The locals might even see a few $8.00/hr warehousing jobs spring up in the trade off <br /> <br />That same politician is telling the residents near that container port that the secret to building a stronger America is to deepen the harbor, and tear down a perfectly good bridge, to build a replacement that will accomodate todays larger container ships, thus making their port city modern, and competitive with the other ports down the coast, so they need to dig into their pockets, and build a stronger America (rah rah rah). The locals might even see a few $12.00/hr container jockey jobs spring up, IF they shell out extra and add a few new berths to the harbor, while they have their hand in their wallet anyway... <br /> <br /> <br />And. lets not forget the REAL REASON we are doing this,..for "lower prices" everyone loves lower prices, right?. <br /> <br />Except, for some strange reason, the only way to get a cheaper refrigerator is to buy one of the lower quality 'econo' models, because the ones that are full featured are just as expensive as they have always been. <br /> <br />WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PROMISED SAVINGS? Why is it that a full featured fridge that was $400.00 10 years ago is now $700.00 and likely will last only half that long? <br /> <br />The stockholders who depended upon your willingness to deepen your harbors and raise your tunnels to make their new business model work, decided they need that money more than you do, so prices stayed up to help preserve forcast dividends. <br /> <br />And that smiling politician who talked you into building a stronger America? Well, he probably sells refrigerators in the Bahamas now... <br /> <br />That's my take on it anyway.
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