...do you think the price of guns and ammo will start down or will the mfgrs. just pocket the new found profits?
Shame on profits. Profits are killing our free market economy. Everybody should work for nothing. From each according to his ability; to each according to his need. There is so much greedy profiteering going on that American industry can't afford to employ Americans anymore. But one needs to ask where these supposed profits are going...
Just this morning the Associated Press had article about Chrysler LLC being gobbled up by GMC and possibly shutting down Dodge and "streamlining" down the rest of the Chrysler line. The president, not of Chrysler or GMC, but of the UAW Local 1268 in nearby Belvidere IL, put his spin on the transaction: "The problem is that we can't compete with workers and factories in other countries who have no human rights, no environmental standards, no safety standards."
The day has come when American industry's "profits" have been gobbled up by "human rights (ie. special-interest litigation encouraged by excessive legislation coupled with an activist judiciary), "environmental concerns" (snail darters, drowning polar bears, and saving a precious 2,200 acres--less than 4 square miles-- of Alaska's almost 600,000 square miles from drilling for oil), and "safety standards" (Catch-22 OSHA regulations, and a Pandora's box of social regulating and intervention). The result is that a multitude of employees are soon to be unemployed by their own misdirected "profiteering." Time and again we see that workers are threatening or actually going on strike, not for current wages and/or benefits, but for future and speculative issues. Case in point:
Winchester leased its New Haven CT plant facility and licensed the Winchester trade mark and Model 70 trade mark to one of these profit-oriented corporate entities. The union negotiated a "poison pill" contract that forbid the corporation from making the Model 70 during the term of the contract if it moved the operation overseas. Keep in mind that the Model 70 was out of patent and all that was involved was attaching the Winchester name and "Model 70" to a product that could be made anywhere. The plant was closed, the employees were out of jobs...query: What did the union gain from the "poison pill" that denied the business the flexibility to seek out profits elsewhere?
And the better question is, what was so non-economic in New Haven that even made the issue a topic of consideration?
Which begs the larger question: What is driving American businesses out of America? Answer: Lack of profits. And guess what; without the profit incentive a free market economy fails and we are no longer free.
American industries are either out of the country or out of business. Wage slaves take heed! From each according to his ability; to each according to his need. I forget whether it was Marx or Engles or Lenin who coined the phrase, but the American version smacks of Marxism--Groucho. And is best characterized by another American pundit, Pogo: "We have found the enemy and he is us."
Whenever I see one of these knee-jerk comments assailing "profits" or suggesting or implying that that industry is
ipso facto profitable, I wonder whether the knee-jerker is willing to work for nothing, or does he expect that the investments that fund his anticipated retirement should operate at a socialized break even so there are no profits to pay dividends. If he works for Chrysler LLC, it looks like all the supposed profits are going to evaporate. And guess who also owns Remington Arms? I've been through the factory on the Erie Canal, which reminds me of an old joke:
Two retired captains of industry were sitting on a beach in Florida, comparing notes. One told of how tough business had become with the over- and conflicting-regulation at every level of government, plus the union's reach exceeding their grasp of the precarious situation relative to overseas competition in a global economy. But then a fire destroyed the first man's plant facility, and he took his insurance pay-out and retired to Miami Beach.
The second man said that his story was almost exactly the same, but it was a flood that took its toll...
And the first man asked, "How did you arrange a flood?"
The idea that profits are bad is a bad idea that has gained currency in the current "class warfare" political environment. Look what lack of profits has done to the airline industry: bankrupt! And the "big three" auto industry: on the verge! The textile industry and shoes; Americans would be naked but for goods imported from overseas. We would immobile but for oil imported from overseas. Three car makers are soon to be two, when all the best selling vehicles are foreign. And liquidity in the financial sector? History!
And the whipping boy is Nasty Profits. To paraphrase Yogi Bera, "American industry is so profitable that nobody makes anything anymore." EDM
