Unemployment benefits story (sympathy or sob)

You want coffee with that?

 

Broadly, because trickle-down doesn't work.

In more specific terms, there's a variety of valid answers.

One is that it is trickling down to a degree, just not fast enough to defeat unemployment in the face of productivity gains. Employers learned in the last recession that they can make just as much money with 10 percent fewer people, so there's no reason for them to hire more.

 

Yes. In my entire life, I've never paid for a serviceman of any kind and am completely unaware that they cost a lot of money.

Of course there should be price-gouging and anti-trust regulation.

The problem, despite your attempts to talk down to me, is that you don't actually understand what those terms mean and how they are applied in the real world.

Price gouging is a more complicated concept than "Man, that seems like a lot of money to me, that isn't fair," which is how you simplemindedly want to apply it. Price-gouging is when outside influences break down the market to a degree that two sides cannot be excepted to come to a fair agreement, because one side isn't able to negotiate rationally. "We really want our coffee-maker fixed and YF is the only guy we like to do it" isn't a price-gouging situation. There's no outside influence making it impossible for YF's customers to negotiate fairly.

Anti-trust regulations are applied to industries where the barriers to entry are so high that one or a small number of established companies can dominate it in ways that make it, again, impossible for customers to negotiate fairly. The barriers to entry into coffee repair, as YF has demonstrated, are extremely small and in no way so onerous as to create a situation where other competitors can't arise.

That's what happens when you throw around terms you don't understand. As far as I can tell, you just know that it seems like a money, and other people have charged you what seemed like a lot of money, and that doesn't seem fair, and those are some words that are related to unfairness, so they must apply.

Duly noted. I'm still right, and you are still simpleminded and wrong on this subject. You might want to sit down after being schooled this hard by a burger-flipper/scrapbooker.

 

Yes. Maybe some Folger's instant.

 

Sorry, but it is trickling. Where do corporate profits go? They either go into retained earnings or they go out as dividends. The former increases the market value of the firm, i.e., the share price; the latter is a cash flow to investors.

 

That's not trickling down, though. That's trickling sideways, from well-off people to other well-off people.

 

Or they go into investing the relatively modest amounts needed to build facilities in the developing world, outsource more and ship more jobs away.

 

Fair enough ... from one "pseudo intellectual" to another!

 

The only reason he had to explain anything is because of the ignorance displayed toward how operating a small business works.

I suspect much of YF's time is spent doing inventory, ordering parts, filling out paperwork, keeping abreast of all the models (to be better at what he does) and searching for new customers --- none of which, in and of itself, pays a penny.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he works an 8-hour day and makes $4,800 every day.

But I suspect not.

 

Pretty damn good ... if they can get away with price gouging. Or was it extortion? ;-)

 

POO, I'm sorry that you think my detailed description of my operations equals equivocation. I don't see it that way. I'm just trying to provide context.

I'm also not sure that this is much of an infomercial. I doubt it's going to earn me much business.

I'm not sure what to make of your backhanded compliments nor am i sure that I agree with them, but I don't think I'll change your mind.

I have no great desire to preach some Gospel of capitalism or business. I'm just trying to participate, answer questions/charges, and express my point of view.

I'm still curious about your own business. My recollection is that you've hung out you own shingle.

Maybe you're uncomfortable telling us your hourly rate, but I'd be interested in knowing how you came about determining it.

My dad & two of my brothers are lawyers. Dad and one brother practice together. Dad used to own the firm. Brother owns it now.

Their rates are higher than mine, but their competitive with what their colleagues charge. That makes sense to me.

(Of course they also have over 20 lawyers working for them.)

...

I don't agree with everything Rick had posted, but he gets it. Price gouging is raising the price of shovels after a snow storm. It's jacking up the price of plywood ahead of a storm.

It's when someone takes advantage of inequities in the market.

There's certainly a demand for my services, but their are plenty of competitors. I'm not taking advantage of some imbalance in the market.

...

I'm very comfortable being on the same side of the argument as doctorquant. Between a professor who teaches PhD students at a business school vs. a disgruntled former journalist who has not (yet) achieved the success he expected in his new choice of careers, I'll go with the professor.

...

BTE also gets it. It's not like I'm billing 8 hours a day.

I'm not going to lie. I do well. I try to get 3 to 4 jobs doe per day and I average $200-$250 per job. Some can go much higher. And I have someone working for me two or three days a week.

But there are many hours spent working that are not billable.

...

If a few people here gain a new perspective on how a small business works, I'll be satisfied. I'm not a hero, but I'm also not a villain.

I'm just a guy trying to make a living and grow a business.

 

I don't get paid if the client doesn't recover. That's my fee.