We ALL need to follow this suggestion re "Buy American" -
It's short and sweet, but it certainly makes a point. In the future,
I will be trying to do what the film clip recommends. Hope you
do, too!
Click here:
http://www.youtube.com/v/4FrGxO2Fn_M
While I agree that we need more US jobs, the answer isnt for us to pay
"just a little bit more", its to fix our political and economic system.
I can buy a Volvo heavy excavator for at times 1/3 less than I can a
CAT. Why? Because the average wage at the CAT facility in the US is more
than 3 times the average wage of the people that use them. Same goes for
the manhole covers we use, the raw material that makes up the PVC pipe
that goes in the ground etc. As an employer, I can tell you first hand
why our products are not made here anymore- it costs too much.
Between the taxes, regulation, unions, lawyers, etc. its better for the
business to outsource it. The consumers aren't going to pay double for a
TV just because some union outfit in the US made it. And, this goes much
deeper than made in the US- It costs everyone that pays taxes way too
much to pay the salaries for the unionized firemen, police, etc. I know
that they have a "dangerous" job but so do I. I and my employees work in
manholes 30 feet deep, I am a commercial pilot and a commercial diver.
All of these jobs are dangerous, but at the end of 20 years of making 3
times the local average wage I dont get 100K a year to stay home.
I build a lot of microcontroller systems now, and I buy the parts
straight from the manufacturers if I can- in China. I can buy the exact
same parts from a US supplier for 5 times the cost, parts that they
bought from the same Chinese manufacturers and marked up 500%. If you
pay 500% too much for materials, you are crazy.
Any 4th grade math student could figure out that any business that pays
80% of its payroll every 20 years to people that arent working cannot
last- after 20 years your payroll is 180% of what it was, in 20 more an
additional 80, etc. not counting annual raises and increases. I dont
know about you but I have to hard bid every job I get, and I dont get to
figure in an additional 4 million for retirement for 45 year old former
employees.
My construction business is a few years over 20, my payroll scratched 4
million a year, I was audited on average every 1.3 years at a cost of
over 100K in annual legal and accounting fees, now Obamacare, and the
list goes on. Which is why I retired a couple of years ago and let go of
over 100 employees. Not worth it.
The answer to buy american is to reform the system so that people like
me will take the risk of starting and running a business.
I have a business in a different industry now, and after the next
president is elected I will decide if I should expand it and hire more
employees. If the government is still going to penalize me and harass me
for employing people, then I will stay a retired 46 year old that
retired off of my own earnings not the taxpayers.
Kevin Alderman
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