Why is America so prosperous when . . . ?

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by DanS
I thought Tassadar was the only black mormon alive?

I thought Mormons weren't allowed to be Black.

[Nubclear]

That was before it was politically correct to be black.

[GhengisFarb™]

Originally posted by Pekka
And I feel that in order to have a good succesful business you need to have satisfied customers. You need to take care of them even after they are not your customers.

Not necessarily true. Take the rental car industry.

I worked in the corporate headquarters of one of the world's largest. We treated all our customers like crap. We lost 34% of our accounts every month.

But all of the other companies did the same thing. So we stole just as many accounts as we lost and they just changed which rental company they contracted with each month.

[alva]

Boss:"I'm going to pay you the absolute minimum, no extra's, no bonusses, the minimum and that's it !!!"
Worker:" OOOh great boss, I for one am sure gonna work my ass of for you."
"It's my lifes ambition to make you rich!!! and of course the moment you find someone who'll do the job 0.0000005$ cheaper, don't hesitate to fire me even if I've been working here for 20 years"

[Zylka]

Lazy fair?

The US has simply become so good at skimming off the top of the rest of the world that they don't need to work as hard or efficiently anymore (at least for the time being). They've hammered out a nice system that brings in resource for little internal maintenance and effort - most often perpetuated by the "production" and sale of ideas. Sure it's not as concrete a labour - but one bad azz nation sure has its' expertise cornered

Thus, bonus resource seen no where else on earth by the same magnitude can be thrown at projects and maintain populace indifference through indirect, international bludgery. It's like an awesome role as world huxter - yet the only one with a specific set of somewhat capable qualities (and unrivaled force)

Some of the general populace eventually realise how and why it works that way extensively; and set up shop to play their own part after real University degrees - or through outright shrewd practise. And thus the cycle of life continues on the megagreen Veldt.

That's that!

[GhengisFarb™]

What irritates me is that the US has reached a point where it can do all its production on a very small percentage of its population. It can do all its services on a small percentage.

Leaving roughly 60-70 % of its population as excess or free for whatever projects it wants to goof off on.

Damn, it would be cool to convert that 60-70% into military and take a shot at world conquest.............

[Kidlicious]

I'm taking a 6 unit business management course right now, and it seems to me that the most successfull companies (Walmart, the most profitable) comes to mind, don't use the strategies that theorists find important.

Another point I would like to make is, I work in construction part-time. It seems very efficient. Work is subcontracted out, so there is motivation to cut costs. But cutting costs motivates shotty workmanship. Maybe more regulation is needed - inspections and such.

[Aeson]

Since all those web designers, game beta testers, and talk show hosts would necessarily combine to create the most overwhelming military force the world has ever seen...

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yeah, we're good at stealing the smarties from all over. That and we out half-ass everyone else!

[Pekka]

Ghengis, well that's just bad business. I mean you can do good even when neglecting all the basic rules of good business like customers. But you would do better when you apply those rules.

Personally, I don't think making a million dollars of profit, I consider while making that million dollars of profit, at the same time losing 9 million dollars because of things that didn't work out. I'm kind of greedy that way, and usually I'm not able to settle for less than the absolute maximum, and anything else is a failure.

[Pekka]

Kidicious, it depends so much what your field is. WalMart is able to do it like that, because the job doesn't require special skills.

If you for example have a high tech company, it would be smart to treat the workers good, because they doing highly skilled job and it could cost you more to lose that worker instead of just hiring a new meat to burn out.

Not to mention, that when worker is happy, he does a better job. That shows right in the results. Motivated worker works more efficiently than the one who just don't give a crap about it and just gets the job done somehow or spends the hours looking at walls. The workers are not sick all the time, and basically that just gives you better results. You also have a situation if you treat them good enough, where the best people want to work with you, because they have heard about the benefits good workers get. Everything is on a more healthy basis, and in the long run it will pay off. Maybe not in the first few years, but in the long run if you have everything else worked out, and that's your final piece on the puzzle, it'll only benefit the company as a whole.

[Whoha]

Originally posted by GhengisFarb
What irritates me is that the US has reached a point where it can do all its production on a very small percentage of its population. It can do all its services on a small percentage.

Leaving roughly 60-70 % of its population as excess or free for whatever projects it wants to goof off on.

Damn, it would be cool to convert that 60-70% into military and take a shot at world conquest.............

that isn't true, there will always be jobs, because it doesn't matter how efficient that factory is if it has no customers.

[Pekka]

It's like this. If you pay the absolute minimum, you'll get the absolute minimum without losing the job.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Pekka
Kidicious, it depends so much what your field is. WalMart is able to do it like that, because the job doesn't require special skills.

If you for example have a high tech company, it would be smart to treat the workers good, because they doing highly skilled job and it could cost you more to lose that worker instead of just hiring a new meat to burn out.

Not to mention, that when worker is happy, he does a better job. That shows right in the results. Motivated worker works more efficiently than the one who just don't give a crap about it and just gets the job done somehow or spends the hours looking at walls. The workers are not sick all the time, and basically that just gives you better results. You also have a situation if you treat them good enough, where the best people want to work with you, because they have heard about the benefits good workers get. Everything is on a more healthy basis, and in the long run it will pay off. Maybe not in the first few years, but in the long run if you have everything else worked out, and that's your final piece on the puzzle, it'll only benefit the company as a whole.

In the long run maybe Walmart will pay the price for the way they treat their employees, but maybe not.

[Pekka]

WalMart won't hurt from it, because they offer jobs that anyone can do. So profit wise, they should keep the pay in the minimum where they still get the job done, because they can always get someone else to do it if someone quits or is fired.