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EDITOR:
There are two main reasons a company shifts its production venues “off shore,” one is to build its products closer to the consumers of their products with the subsequent savings and the other is to attempt to stave off going out of business by reducing the cost to produce its products. One example of the first reason is a relocation of one of General Electric facilities to China who are the main procurer of that product. The current Democratic hoopla over Romney’s shifting jobs “off shore” is just a lot of male bovine feces. Only an idiot would continue to do business at a loss until it went out of business (evidence two of the American automobile companies several years ago). Any good manager of a company, which faces heavy competition in today’s current world market, would do what had to be done to lower the cost of their products to stay competitive. As is evident from another example of the first of the two reasons above, some (maybe all) Japanese car companies are now doing final assembly of their cars in the USA which negates any argument that the crowning high cost American companies face here are governmental fees and taxes (California exempted). Rather it is the cost of labor in this country that is the problem primarily due to the continual force by labor unions for higher wages and more benefits. They do that in spite of the fact, known to essentially everyone else, that they can force the price of an item above its world market value and thereby put the company out of business. Note at this point that the Japanese assembly plant workers are not unionized and, for the most part, their plants are still in business in America. If Romney caused some of the venues of the companies he controlled to go “off shore,” it was for sound business reasons. No one likes the overhead of managing venues in several different countries without a good valid business reason for doing so. And no one would want a high manager of a company to lose the business because they did not make proper choices for keeping the company competitive. Since Obama has never ran a successful business, our Federal Government not supposing to be a business which is definitely not being successfully run, he should consider the old Indian saying, “Don’t criticize another’s actions until you have walked in their moccasins.”
RAY LABAHN
Placerville
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Ernie LouisJuly 30, 2012 - 5:15 pm
I followed your advice: "Don’t criticize another’s actions until you have walked in their moccasins." I think I meet the Indian description of a “Working Man”. I’m not a business tycoon, but I spent the majority of my life working for Tycoons who I respected because they paid a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work. You may have had a different experiences, but my loyalty to my company was returned increasing my lively hood to “Middle Class”. As a result, I hope you understand that while I have a high respect for American Business, I don’t share your points of view. I too follow the wise Indian saying, I stay away from candidates I don’t respect such as: I don’t respect lock step partisanship I don’t respect embellishers I don’t respect Somali Pirates. I don’t respect pedophiles. I don’t respect Corporate Raiders. I don’t respect off shore banking. I don’t respect off-shoring American Jobs. You have points from your perspective and I support your right to express your idea of a Business Man, but I thought you were talking about the President of the United States. Ernie Louis
Ken SteersJuly 30, 2012 - 5:36 pm
Mr Louis, I tend to agree with you on not "respecting" corporate raiders, off shore bankers and pedophiles. But Somali Pirates? C'mon man! 4 skinny little dudes in a sail boat trying to hijack an oil tanker? That's pretty ballsy. Dumb yes but also ballsy.
It isn't that simpleJuly 30, 2012 - 6:32 pm
As the former Vice President of an operational division of North Carolina National Bank. One of my chief roles was to actively engage in and successfully develop the bank into a nationwide franchise. I accomplished that task as part of a large team of dedicated Americans working for or formerly for the institution now known as Bank of America. I exited the firm about 10 years ago. I strongly disagree with the gentleman who prepared the letter to the Editor. While many excellent points made and many points are - in general - true, it is my opinion that his viewpoint is naive and based upon an assumption that corporations are always acting in the best interest of some model economic ideal. That is a falsehood. I know or what I speak and was present as an Executive VP when BofA got on this bandwagon. At the time, our profits and operations were stable, hugely profitable and forward projections indicated that would remain the case for the forseeable future. But as in most corporations I've worked for, that is never enough. Your past success must be repeated going forward (this is a good thing) but now must also best that measurement by some immeasurable performance indicator. (this is where it gets sketchy) Somewhere between reasonable expectations and those that are unreasonable and influenced by pack or mob mentality is where this becomes cloudy. Once one senior exec comes up with a plan that appears sound or captures the attention of the right 'cool kids' his direct reports will implement this or push for same at all costs. Many times meaning 'if I don't support this or become part of this I will lose my job and be unable to buy a new Range Rover every year'. (for example, one of my bosses was paid 80 million for one years work) At my level, we were compensated fairly but I can certainly see where some would wonder just what I did so well to justify 30k a month in salary. So I get where this too can be cloudy based on perspective. My point is this: We were forced to fire Americans - many of whom had been 20+ years with our bank - and replace them with workers from India. We were intentional in firing those near retirement and pension and even those with stellar year after year performance reports. We gutted several operation units and sent the personal information (tax ID, credit card numbers, account balances, etc) of EVERY customer to an outsourcing service in India that was purported to be up to 75% less expensive opperafionally. This would create more 'shareholder value' and perhaps 2 cents more in annual dividends to each shareholder. An amount that folks might see insignificant but at a corporate level make earnings whores salivate. All of this was sold with slick buzzword sales-like presentations that myself - and many others - found serious flaws with right up front. But the lemmings and their desire to stay on the right side of maintaining the office, the mc mansion and little buffy's prep school ignored these warnings and more. And in my employement agreement, one high-level requirement was to 'speak the unpopular' and warn or dangers to the firm or any course of action 'that has the potential to damage'. So I did. And my predictions have been accurate. But I was pulled aside and advise by both my Executive VP and his counterpart in legal that I would support the plans as is or fired. After seeing people denied pensions, workers thrown out and replaced by inexperience and mistake riddled warm bodies and pure greed at it's best and damning evil at it's worst, I thanked them for their time, walked back to my corner office, grabbed my family pictures and walked out the door of that tower. I have never looked back or regret that decision. It isn't always as simple as the letter writer indicated. People and families are real. Hard work has rewards. Greed and pack mentality recognize neither.
JJJuly 31, 2012 - 12:47 am
Hooray to the BofA executive who saw the truth and left! I worked for AT&T for almost 30 years and it is the same with them. During our difficult economic times they closed my office for no good reason. Well, for them it is a good reason. Read the book "The Retirement Heist" and you will see why. AT&T now outsources almost every job it can. I want to know why corporations and large companies seem to have no concern for the American worker. This is America. Our American companies need to hire American people. We made those companies what they are today. If no Americans have jobs one day, I doubt that those companies will be able to survive, even though there is a global economy. Of course one problem is that many corporations are foreign-owned. Do you know that if a foreigner invests a million dollars to start a company here and keeps it open for a few years, then they are free to stay in our country, no matter what they do with the company after that? Anyway, buy American. Hire American. Be true to your Country!
DarrinAugust 01, 2012 - 10:23 am
Well, I think it is one thing if you are the owner of a business and it is failing and you have to make a decision based on costs, etc. Another thing when the company is taken over by a Venture Capital firm and ransacked for profits and resold. I think that is the issue with Romney and Bain Capital. The claims by Romney of creating jobs in the US by acquiring Staples office supply store. How many local paper supply stores were put out of business? It is like Wal-Mart. Yeah, the folks who compete against that store go out of business and can get a job at Wal-mart, but it it the same? Low wage, no respect, customer service slave...
Ken SteersAugust 01, 2012 - 11:03 am
Darrin can you show the people how old you are by holding up two hands? A venture capitalist who ransacks a corporation steals it's profits and then resells what's left can't also be attributed to changing the business model and making the same company so successful that it knocks out the competition. That's what you just said. You sir are either too young to understand or a twit. I take that back you can be both.
Evelyn VeerkampAugust 07, 2012 - 12:59 pm
Many thanks for the particularly pertinent comments by the former bank employee (It isn't that simple) and the former AT&T employee (JJ).