Category: Business

At What Price?

Business, Logistics

A little while ago I ordered something from Jeff Bezos, and was astonished to see that a “next day” delivery option was available;  this, mind you, for what I would consider a non-emergency item.  (On checking, it was for this TV series.)

Given how much work this entails for the actual workers at Amazon’s fulfillment center, it seemed a bit much.  So I’m not surprised whenever I see Amazon’s employees kicking back at the working conditions there, with timed (or no) bathroom breaks, performance metrics that would make an 18th-century textile company boss blush, and pay which quite frankly makes even a committed capitalist like myself feel embarrassed.

Small wonder that Bezos has fought tooth and nail against the unionization of his workforce.  And yet, even I, as (once again) a committed capitalist, can see that it’s precisely these kind of working conditions that caused the formation of workers’ unions in the first place.

And then the unions go overboard like those in the U.K., and we all hates on them unions… with good reason.

Here’s my solution to the Amazon situation.  I have no problem with Bezos offering rapid delivery;  but such deliveries should incur something like a 25% surcharge — with said surcharge amount being added in toto  to the paycheck of the worker who actually filled the order (and yes:  Amazon can tell which worker filled which order).

That has as much likelihood of happening as Biden’s socialists lowering income taxes, of course, because someone has to pay for Jeff’s toys.

Do not take this for an uncharacteristic (for me) shot at wealthy people:  I have no problem with people building wealth and spending money.

But I do object to the ill-treatment of workers at the bottom of the pyramid, all in the name of “customer satisfaction”.

Dumb Shits

Business, Gummint, Logistics

Yeah, that’s right:  you fire a whole bunch of qualified workers because of some (unjustified) panic, and now you (unexpectedly!) have a skills shortage:

How much of this labor shortage is a direct result of Biden’s vaccine mandates and the airline industry’s reliance on the federal government to stay in business during the pandemic is not certain.  What is certain is that government mandated firing of pilots, crew and ground personnel over their vaccination status contributed to the chaos we are witnessing.
What we do know is that according to a report by Cowen and Company, airline pilot retirements are projected to accelerate through the mid-2020’s with 24.7 percent of pilots subjected to mandatory retirements between 2022 and 2026.  These 13,000 forced retirements are up about 70 percent from the previous five years as baby boomers age out of the cockpit.

Self-created problems do not engender sympathy.

Sticking It To The Greens

Business, Resistance

In West Virginia:

And:

West Virginia all by itself can only exert nominal influence on BlackRock and the big banks. But if you get a coalition of states – including Texas, Arizona, and Missouri – to threaten to cut off the mega-banks because of their anti-energy political activism, then there is a critical mass of influence.

And see where he goes from there.  I like his thinking.

Random Totty

Beauty, Business, Marketing / Advertising

You might look at pics of this toothsome redhead and think, “Oh well, just another example of Kim’s infatuation with bimbettes with ginger pubes.”

Well, yes.  However, this is a woman who started making her own cosmetics at age 13, became a world-renowned makeup artist, and is now head of an eponymous global company named Charlotte Tilbury Beauty Ltd, with annual sales of close to $200 million with profits of about 40% of that.

Not much of a bimbette, in other words.  Oh, and in the above pics, she’s in her late forties.  Yum.

Nosebleed And RCOB

Marketing / Advertising, Two-Minute Hate

Yesterday I went to buy someone a Dallas Cowboys cap (don’t ask), and at Academy I was just about to throw one into the shopping cart when I caught a glimpse of the price.

THIRTY FUCKING DOLLARS?  FOR A LOUSY CAP????

So back on the rack it was flung, with some force, and I was so angry I had to buy some new .45 ACP ammo to settle my nerves.  (And at just over a dollar per round for primo self-defense stuff, it wasn’t that bad or else I’d have had a stroke.)

I can sorta see how a thermal cup, for instance, could cost maybe fifteen bucks (don’t get me started about that stupid Yeti crap):  there’s a combination of materials and a little quality thrown in, and then there’s the “brand” to pay for (although the way the Cowboys have been playing recently from all accounts, they should be paying US to take their shitty merchandise).

But $30 for a common-or-garden baseball cap, made (as they all are) in China?

FOAD, America’s Team.