Spose I should have the good sense to keep me yap shut, but that never stopped me before. Besides, I haven't been saying much around here lately, been stuck on the radios bench all winter.
Have we, the worker priced our selves out of the market? Sure we have, industry has been on a down ward spiral since our heyday in the 60's. You don’t suppose greed has anything to do with it do you now? You can’t blame the blue-collar worker for all of it; after all he is at the mercy of the lords and ladies of industry who govern the price of goods.
After the big war, Ajax manufacturing management feels that 10% or 15% isn’t enough profit so they’ve been bumping up the profit margins a few percent every year to satisfy their thirst for more toys or to appease the stock holders. Small business, a professionals used to be happy making a good living and putting some away for their old age but now they close the doors or sellout to some conglomerate if they aren’t showing 100% profits at the end of the year. Everyone wants to retire rich at fifty-five and spend the next twenty-five years on the golf course while some sucker on the bottom foots the bill.
We are as painful as it is to admit, in competition with the rest of the world that is rapidly catching up with us. China, India, and many other, what used to be third world countries, are gearing up with the latest technology in their factories and educating their workers while we’re trying to keep our heads above water with our old worn out industrial machine. If you take a good look at what the leaders of our economy are doing you would see that they are grabbing all they can because they can see what’s coming. Automation is going to kill the work force so they won’t have the income from use they used to have. I can’t think of any other reason that board members and executives of most companies have earned the kind of salaries that they are taking.
We’re maybe a decade or two away from the bottom because the average American still has enough disposable income to blow $20 on a movie and popcorn, $100 to see a ball game or blow the same to spend a couple hours with 20,000 other suckers at a music concert.
Call me a defeatist but I truly believer the house of cards is going to come crashing in on our kids and grand children.
Are we pricing ourselves out of the world market, you bet we are!
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
