I am a Factory.
Posted by BradA 10 years, 2 months ago to Philosophy
This is my 1st submission, so I hope I do it right. Saw this link in The Blaze's newsletter today. I could not resist posting a response (below). I'm sure that other have thoughts too.
My respect to Mike Rowe and his values, which I share. However I must respond to "I am a Factory."
I am a producer. I am an entrepreneur. I am a creator. I am the one who built the Factory. It was my ideas along with the willing help of employees that poured the concrete, designed the equipment and brought a profit producing enterprise into existence. Yet today I am vilified. Daily. I am told that I am greedy. That profits are evil. That MY Factory is there only to benefit the "Public good."
And to prove the point, if I am successful, the Public feels morally justified in confiscating more than half of MY profits. These Takers feel no guilt about this theft or about regulating my Factory out of business. After the last election it became abundantly clear that these thieves now make up the majority of this country. They use the government to take what the Producers have created so they can redistribute it those who "need it more." For this reason I am no longer convinced that the United States is worth saving. At least not as it is, walking the path that the majority of its citizens have chosen.
And so, my Factories will remain closed. I choose to contribute as little as I can to a country that sees my efforts as evil. Who am I ? I am John Galt. And there are more of us out there than you could possibly imagine.
My respect to Mike Rowe and his values, which I share. However I must respond to "I am a Factory."
I am a producer. I am an entrepreneur. I am a creator. I am the one who built the Factory. It was my ideas along with the willing help of employees that poured the concrete, designed the equipment and brought a profit producing enterprise into existence. Yet today I am vilified. Daily. I am told that I am greedy. That profits are evil. That MY Factory is there only to benefit the "Public good."
And to prove the point, if I am successful, the Public feels morally justified in confiscating more than half of MY profits. These Takers feel no guilt about this theft or about regulating my Factory out of business. After the last election it became abundantly clear that these thieves now make up the majority of this country. They use the government to take what the Producers have created so they can redistribute it those who "need it more." For this reason I am no longer convinced that the United States is worth saving. At least not as it is, walking the path that the majority of its citizens have chosen.
And so, my Factories will remain closed. I choose to contribute as little as I can to a country that sees my efforts as evil. Who am I ? I am John Galt. And there are more of us out there than you could possibly imagine.
But I 'm not sure I understand the point of the commercial. Walmart sells products as inexpensively as possible. They drive hard bargains with their vendors almost ensuring the manufacturing will happen overseas. Are some products made in the USA? Sure. But most are not and Walmart is well aware of this. It's not just manufacturing costs. It's compliance and labor costs as well. Regulatory burdens are the highest in the world. OSHA and other agencies including state unemployment stop additional hiring. VC funding looks overseas for investments not here. And after all of that they take half of your profit. You can listen to people disparage you all day long. It's when they hog tie you- will you submit?
Contrary to the comments by others, Walmart does not sacrifice quality for cost. They are, however, ruthless on cost reductions. Lucky for me, I help to achieve these cost reductions for my client. Thus, they have continued to maintain shelf space even as Walmart looks to move to their store brands on similar items.
It is absolutely true that the non-product related costs are killers and often make the difference on non-perishable goods as to whether they are from US manufacturers or off-shore. Luckily we've been working on perishable goods which are more difficult to replace from off-shore sources. That said, there are always new competitors seeking to displace the big boys, thus it is always necessary to stay agile and lean.
My firm does not merely advise cutting heads, in fact if that is the objective of mgmt. we don't take the contract. We focus on improving efficiency so that the company can either bring back in-house product that is currently outsourced or take on new innovative products to increase overall revenue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcEOsGvT0...
If you're doing stuff, you'll get _opinions_ about your merits. The contrapositive of this is if you're not getting these _opinions_, you're not out there doing stuff.