Thread: Why Should I hire people?

Or, try the alternative.

I'm an employer, My foreman comes to tell me we have no orders for new production as nobody is buying my product. Retooling to make something else is also not practical, as people are not buying anything, and sales in general are projected to drop for the foreseeable future. Everything I make from now on will have to be warehoused and warehouse space is at a premium, as everyone is in the same situation.

In the morning's newspaper, I see that the Democratic administration has raised my taxes and fees another 20%. Nobody has any money to buy anything, which is fine because I can't afford the raw materials anymore, anyway. I also can't afford to buy enough Carbon Credits as mandated by Cap and Trade to turn on any of the machinery.

My business closes the following day, and everyone who worked for me is out of a job. Unemployment is still 25% or so, so most of them have no chance of finding a job.

(Since JD isn't really interested in anything more than a partisan mud-slinging match - as evidenced by his first sentence - I've replied in kind.)

Originally Posted by John Drake

I asked this question in another thread. One guy tried to answer it but I'd like to give him the chance to develop his idea a little further. Everybody else just ignored it, or answered something else, like conservatives do with everything that denies their Revealed Truths.

I'm an employer, My foreman comes to tell me we have no orders for new production as nobody is buying my product. Retooling to make something else is also not practical, as people are not buying anything, and sales in general are projected to drop for the foreseeable future. Everything I make from now on will have to be warehoused and warehouse space is at a premium, as everyone is in the same situation.

In the morning's mail packet, I have a very large tax cut check from the new Republican Admininstration.

Why wouldn't I invest it all in Gold, which has risen 12 points for the fifth straight day? or rather, by what sort of strange reasoning do all conservatives seem to think I will instead instantly rush out and spend all my new largesse to hire scads of new people to make stuff no one is buying, all of which will just cost me more money I don't have.

Just answer the question, if you can. Don't tell me "it's the wrong question" or lecture me on involved politico-economics. It's a simple question, it should have a simple answer; and as you all seem to think the latter course of action suggested above WILL happen, and for reasons you all seem to find obvious, you should be able to say why.

Well, since it appears that your purpose is avoid any and all constructive criticism and get an answer to a question which is based on an absolutely moronic scenario I, good sir, will step to the plate and give you a clear, concise and relevant answer!

My answer is....

Beef Pudding!

This is just quintessentially beautiful .. because, from my perspective, JD and Matt, you're both right.

Because, as the BLS figures for June, 2010, present, there are 47,583,000 American residents who are under-incomed, including 21,084,000 who are flat out unemployed!

If I received a huge tax cut, and I knew the truth of it that there simply weren't enough monied people in our economy to provide new customers for my company's products, why would I increase my costs by hiring another person?

Even if hiring that additional person improved production, what good, indeed, is a lot of costly warehoused products.

I'd most certainly be compelled to invest the money safely rather than foolishly take on a new cost burden.

On the other hand, if that piece of mail was an advanced taxation notice, taxation designed to fill the fed's coffers with individual bail-out and unemployment insurance payment monies, designed to stimulate the economy, I would also be inclined to cash it in because I would have to take an immediate hit I may not survive, and the trickle-down time it would take before the bail-outs and stimulus monies were flowing in the economy would have long since passed before I would see any sales benefits, assuming those people would be buying MY products, a large assumption, and assuming that people receiving these payments didn't themselves act as JD said he would in the OP .. and simply pocket the money in preparation for the looming Greatest Depression.

The current economic crisis is too big to be solved by traditional idealistic measures, left or right.

No ubiquitous pop-gun will stop this charging rhino.

We need truly heroic measures never before used in America to reverse the rapid downward spiral.

The President, Congress, all of them, they know what these heroic measures consist of.

And they are waiting .. waiting .. just waiting .. .. praying that the rhino stops on its own.

I don't believe that is likely to happen.

Originally Posted by Phoenix

This is just quintessentially beautiful .. because, from my perspective, JD and Matt, you're both right.

Because, as the BLS figures for June, 2010, present, there are 47,583,000 American residents who are under-incomed, including 21,084,000 who are flat out unemployed!

If I received a huge tax cut, and I knew the truth of it that there simply weren't enough monied people in our economy to provide new customers for my company's products, why would I increase my costs by hiring another person?

Even if hiring that additional person improved production, what good, indeed, is a lot of costly warehoused products.

I'd most certainly be compelled to invest the money safely rather than foolishly take on a new cost burden.

On the other hand, if that piece of mail was an advanced taxation notice, taxation designed to fill the fed's coffers with individual bail-out and unemployment insurance payment monies, designed to stimulate the economy, I would also be inclined to cash it in because I would have to take an immediate hit I may not survive, and the trickle-down time it would take before the bail-outs and stimulus monies were flowing in the economy would have long since passed before I would see any sales benefits, assuming those people would be buying MY products, a large assumption, and assuming that people receiving these payments didn't themselves act as JD said he would in the OP .. and simply pocket the money in preparation for the looming Greatest Depression.

The current economic crisis is too big to be solved by traditional idealistic measures, left or right.

No ubiquitous pop-gun will stop this charging rhino.

We need truly heroic measures never before used in America to reverse the rapid downward spiral.

The President, Congress, all of them, they know what these heroic measures consist of.

And they are waiting .. waiting .. just waiting .. .. praying that the rhino stops on its own.

I don't believe that is likely to happen.

Lemme guess...the "answer" is to print up $4 Trillion and use it to build windmills and solar plants.

Am I in the right ballpark?

Originally Posted by lutherf

Lemme guess...the "answer" is to print up $4 Trillion and use it to build windmills and solar plants.

Am I in the right ballpark?

Not even close .. at least to my limited knowledge.

Put away any typical left or right wing thinking.

By the time Washington likely takes action, the charging rhino will have killed thousands, many thousands, and it will have grown considerably larger in the process, and thus even harder to stop.

So what will have to be done, what courageous, heroic measures will need to be taken?

I wouldn't want to second guess them, and thereby make it all that much harder for them to do what will have to be done.

I'm pretty sure, however, that at that stage a national emergency will have to be declared.

Then .. .. ..

Originally Posted by John Drake

I asked this question in another thread. One guy tried to answer it but I'd like to give him the chance to develop his idea a little further. Everybody else just ignored it, or answered something else, like conservatives do with everything that denies their Revealed Truths.

I'm an employer, My foreman comes to tell me we have no orders for new production as nobody is buying my product. Retooling to make something else is also not practical, as people are not buying anything, and sales in general are projected to drop for the foreseeable future. Everything I make from now on will have to be warehoused and warehouse space is at a premium, as everyone is in the same situation.

In the morning's mail packet, I have a very large tax cut check from the new Republican Admininstration.

Why wouldn't I invest it all in Gold, which has risen 12 points for the fifth straight day? or rather, by what sort of strange reasoning do all conservatives seem to think I will instead instantly rush out and spend all my new largesse to hire scads of new people to make stuff no one is buying, all of which will just cost me more money I don't have.

Just answer the question, if you can. Don't tell me "it's the wrong question" or lecture me on involved politico-economics. It's a simple question, it should have a simple answer; and as you all seem to think the latter course of action suggested above WILL happen, and for reasons you all seem to find obvious, you should be able to say why.

You won't hire anybody in those circumstances. You are running a bad business and all the tax cuts in the world won't help you.

Originally Posted by lutherf

Well, since it appears that your purpose is avoid any and all constructive criticism and get an answer to a question which is based on an absolutely moronic scenario I, good sir, will step to the plate and give you a clear, concise and relevant answer!

My answer is....

Beef Pudding!

The question is never "How many people can I hire?", it's "How can I be more productive?". Employees are just one possible answer.

Whether or not that is the answer people want to hear is irrelevant, its the truth. It's also true that the more revenue companies get to keep, the more options they have.

You should hire me because, I may not be efficient, but I cute!

and hell of a rack!

Originally Posted by Ernie S.

and hell of a rack!

Originally Posted by lutherf

Lemme guess...the "answer" is to print up $4 Trillion and use it to build windmills and solar plants.

Am I in the right ballpark?

That's not a bad answer although you wouldnt' need to spend $4trillion.

Originally Posted by John Drake

...

I'm an employer, My foreman comes to tell me we have no orders for new production as nobody is buying my product. Retooling to make something else is also not practical, as people are not buying anything, and sales in general are projected to drop for the foreseeable future. Everything I make from now on will have to be warehoused and warehouse space is at a premium, as everyone is in the same situation.

In the morning's mail packet, I have a very large tax cut check from the new Republican Admininstration.

Why wouldn't I invest it all in Gold, which has risen 12 points for the fifth straight day? ...
Just answer the question, ....

You might just invest it in gold. Not a bad plan. Then send everyone home. But is the tax cut check really enough to live on for the rest of your life or will you have to go to work as a greeter at Wal*Mart to make it?

Another choice, regardless of which benefit comes down the pike, is to figure you just got some breathing room. Your sales haven't actually fallen to zero, or you would have been out of business long ago. So, how do you start the momentum going for new sales? How will you come out of the recession? Limping? or guns blazing, rockets flaring?

We need to remember the Contrarian Theory. "Everyone is always wrong." When everyone agrees, they are wrong. Isn't that about where we are?

If you called me in and told me what you just wrote and asked my recommendation, it would be this: "You are beat down and turned inward in your thinking. Take a week off, get some fresh air and exercise. While you are gone assign your top staff the task of evaluating your competition, their status, their key customers, how they are doing, how is their morale. What changes are they making in their product line? Then, when you get back, refocus energy so that your team is geared up and ready to steal a step on your competition."

Is that a fair answer to your question?

Given the described situation you should not hire anyone.

This shows the underlying assumption of tax cuts to stimulate the economy as being false in certain conditions.

The assumption is that a tax cut will make you more likely to hire people, if your business is marginal and difficult to upgrade to the new economy then you will not put the tax cut to the use intended. You will instead take the money and run or worse for the domestic economy, invest it in a foreign business.

Personally I believe that stimulus spending is a better way to stimulate the economy but this also would be very difficult to do with the massive public and private debts currently weighing down the US economy.

These debts have been increasing under politicians of both sides and cannot be blamed on any one ideology but on the fact that politicians focus on short term results so they can get re-elected and look for simple solutions to complex problems because the media only shows a 5 second sound bite and a politician has to get his or her message across in a few simple short words because Americans in general cannot follow complex arguments or take bad news about the state of their economy.