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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Aug 13, 2011 - 01:14pm PT
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This is one of the smaller systems.
One of the bigger ones. Dual-operator post-production.
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jstan
climber
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Aug 13, 2011 - 01:32pm PT
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Everything I have seen tells me management is what needs to be outsourced.
Almost always you have "marque" people brought in for the CEO position and the last thing a
CEO ignorant of what they are doing can tolerate is a second in command who actually knows
the business and the product. The rot naturally seeps down till all you hear, as I did, is that "a
manager can manage anything." My reply was to the effect that a manager who knows the job
will beat, every time, a competing manager who does not know the job. Since product specific
knowledge within management has vanished, we might as well have the job done more cheaply
elsewhere.
Another thing would be fixed. Managers never lay off managers. You wind up with a matrix
management where every touch labor person has five managers overseeing them. If
management is outsourced you contract with a cheaper firm that has solved that problem
internally. This would actually make it harder for touch labor. A touch labor person with two or
more bosses has an absolutely free pass. Large management corps are a lose-lose.
The time I was in this game I was very lucky. I basically got spreadsheet like instructions as to
how I had to award bonuses. I ignored those instructions, completely. I was on the floor and
I knew first hand who was pulling the load. Since then the rot has sunk much further and the end
is neigh.
Gone are the days when the President would, unannounced, plop themselves in front of your
desk and ask what it is that most interests you now. Even Presidents used to be on the floor.
Morale was sky high.
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Aug 13, 2011 - 02:02pm PT
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The time I was in this game I was very lucky. I basically got spreadsheet like instructions as to
how I had to award bonuses. I ignored those instructions, completely.** I was on the floor and I knew first hand who was pulling the load. Since then the rot has sunk much further and the end
is neigh.**
Gone are the days when the President would, unannounced, plop themselves in front of your
desk and ask what it is that most interests you now. Even Presidents used to be on the floor.
Morale was sky high.
Very true. As a Production Technical Manager (below the Production Manager), I can relate to this sentiment.
And our new COO dropped in on me unexpectadley not too long ago, and I was having a bad day and totally flubbed the conversation. I do so many different things between Field Support, Engineering Support, and Technical Production Maintenance, I had a hard time when he dropped the, "So, what do you do around here?"
He is a cool guy and things are good between us. I just was caught off-guard, trying to put my head into a problem I was working on. I think he realized that.
But it IS good for them to hit the front-lines regularly.
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apogee
climber
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Aug 13, 2011 - 02:14pm PT
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The Meltdown’s True Villain
With a double-dip recession looming and attacks on Obama mounting, it’s amazing the GOP is still setting the U.S. agenda when its own George W. Bush ran up half the debt we’ve accumulated since Reagan.
Aug 5, 2011
Michael Tomasky
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/05/economic-meltdown-villain-george-w-bush-s-staggering-debt-numbers.html?obref=obinsite
(excerpts)
The Boston Globe ran a chart last Sunday that I’d buy billboard space to reproduce in every decent-size city in America, if I were running the Democratic National Committee. The premise of it was very simple: It showed how many trillions each president since Ronald Reagan has added to the nation’s debt. The debt was about $1 trillion when Reagan took office, and then: Reagan, $1.9 trillion; George H.W. Bush, $1.5 trillion (in just four years); Bill Clinton, $1.4 trillion; Obama, $2.4 trillion.
Oh, wait. I skipped someone. George W. Bush ran up $6.4 trillion. That’s nearly half—44.7 percent—of the $14.3 trillion total. We all know what did it—two massive tax cuts geared toward the rich (along with other similar measures, like slashing the capital gains and inheritance taxes), the off-the-books wars, the unfunded Medicare expansion, and so on. But the number is staggering and worth dwelling on. In a history covering 30 years, nearly half the debt was run up in eight. Even the allegedly socialist Obama at his most allegedly wanton doesn’t compare to Dubya; and Obama’s debt numbers, if he’s reelected, will surely not double or even come close as we gambol down Austerity Lane.
When I haven’t had to leave the room to avoid smashing the television, I can only laugh when I hear Tea Party conservatives avow today, with all the credibility of Larry Craig explaining his wide-stance technique, that they have no love for Bush.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Aug 13, 2011 - 02:14pm PT
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Blue..the COO stopping by usually precurses job termination..Mammoth Mountain is taking applications for lift crew operators...Starting wage..$ 8.35 an hour...RJ
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Aug 13, 2011 - 02:24pm PT
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Blue..the COO stopping by usually precurses job termination..Mammoth Mountain is taking applications for lift crew operators...Starting wage..$ 8.35 an hour...RJ
Nah, it was a retiring Exec getting replaced and he came by to familiarize himself with us. We have about 3-5 years of production left. Then it's all field-support of existing customers.
Mammoth is hiring, huh?
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Aug 13, 2011 - 03:00pm PT
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Great climbing , skiing , biking...get out of that hell hole blue....RJ
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apogee
climber
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Aug 13, 2011 - 03:03pm PT
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blue'll never do it. He's locked in hard with a marriage, kid and mortgage- he'd never find a comparable income in his line of work on the East Side.
However, the fishin' is fine, and right out the door, blue....
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Aug 13, 2011 - 03:06pm PT
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Managers never lay off managers
That must have changed since I worked for a small (around 1,000 employees) manufacturing company, jstan. Overhead got cut, including lots of management, when business dropped. More importantly, management got fired, not laid off, when results were bad.
I agree with Kevin that some of the salaries paid to CEO's defy economic justification. I don't invest in companies whose executive compensation strikes me as excessive, because that indicates their attitudes toward their shareholders. It always makes me wonder how shareholders tolerate paying enormous compensation to executives of companies with mediocre results.
Apogee, Your cited article repeats an untruth, namely that during the Bush administration, Congress enacted "two massive tax cuts geared toward the rich." The Bush tax cuts reduced taxes for everyone. If you believe the static analysis Democrats like to use, the greatest revenue loss came from lowered middle class tax revenue. If we rescinded those cuts, what would that have done to the economy?
John
P.S.
Gary, my right hand is OK, but the ring finger and pinkie on my left hand are still swollen (though x-rays were negative). I can play single notes OK, but powerful chords hurt like crazy. I'm working on right-handed climbing. I guess all those one-handed routes we did at Indian Rock 40 years ago might come in handy now.
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apogee
climber
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Aug 13, 2011 - 03:20pm PT
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Well, John, I'd agree with you in one respect- the impacts of those tax cuts are greatly argued.
So what's your take on this, John:
Repubs also greatly argue that the economic boom that took place during the 90's was either lucky timing, or that Clinton inherited conditions put into place prior to his presidency. Arguable. Very arguable.
But moving on...the bottom line is that at the end of Clinton's term, he handed over a sizable, record surplus over to a Republican POTUS, who then squandered it (in whatever ways you are willing to acknowledge) into a record setting deficit.
(Let's not mention that another relatively recent Repub POTUS did something similar.) You can argue how or whether the 90's surplus was a result of R or D policies, but it's pretty hard to argue that the surplus was real, and was squandered by the following POTUS.
With that kind of record, why in the hell would anyone support the GOP chiefly on the basis of 'fiscal responsibility'?
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Gary
climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Aug 13, 2011 - 03:27pm PT
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John,
Glad to hear it's not too serious. Since I took up piano, hand injuries worry me to no end.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Aug 13, 2011 - 09:10pm PT
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Apogee,
I think CLinton did a lot of things right, particularly after the Republicans took control of Congress, so Clinton did not have to fight the leftists in his own party.
The bursting of the dot.com bubble certainly was a big part of turning yearly budget surpluses into deficits, and that was the fault of neither party. That said, things like unfunded wars and, particularly, an unfunded Medicare drug benefit, did the real damage. The last two years of the Reupblican congress were a disaster; I had trouble telling who were the Democrats and who were the Republicans, I thought then. Pelosi and Ried since showed there is a difference, but that's beside the point. Neither party has an enviable record on fiscal prudence.
John
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apogee
climber
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Aug 13, 2011 - 09:25pm PT
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"That said, things like unfunded wars and, particularly, an unfunded Medicare drug benefit, did the real damage.... Neither party has an enviable record on fiscal prudence."
Jeepers it's nice to see a Repub actually acknowledge that their party was responsible for running us into a ditch. That's pretty hard to come by. You do realize, don't you John, that you would be run out on a rail by today's GOP as a RINO with statements like that? Not to worry, though- you'd be in very good company with a bunch of rational conservatives that have been excommunicated.
Before some other Repub droid turns this back around at me....yes, I think it's clear that Obama's presidency has been pretty unsuccessful thusfar, and I don't hold a ton of hope that it's gonna improve. Clearly, his economic strategy has been ineffective (at least in the relatively short term). Problem is, we don't really get another choice within one's own party, and the GOP field is basically trying to outdo each other by being more extreme than each other, and making Shrub look like a moderate. Meh.
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Aug 14, 2011 - 10:19am PT
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and the GOP field is basically trying to outdo each other by being more extreme than each other, and making Shrub look like a moderate. Meh.
Well, he sure as hell wasn't a fiscal conservative.
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Aug 14, 2011 - 11:03am PT
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Which obviously doesn't matter to you, or you wouldn't have voted for him.
Well, hindsight is 20/20, right? And things changed a bit after 9-11.
And who was he running against in 2004?
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Aug 14, 2011 - 11:09am PT
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And to the defense of folks who did vote for Bush - there wasn't any track record they could have looked at to know he'd not be fiscally conservative. His only office was the Governorship of Texas - the most powerless governorship in the nation (The Lieutenant Governor holds the power). In Texas Government textbooks, the governor is described as largely a figure head and one who judges chili cook-offs. No joke!
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Aug 14, 2011 - 11:14am PT
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In Texas Government textbooks, the governor is described as largely a figure head and one who judges chili cook-offs. No joke!
Mmmm, chili...
hehe.
EDIT:
"I could have gotten a thousand people to sign a petition against algebra last night."
Straw polls are meaningless. I agree.
Pawlenty is a puss for dropping out.
EDIT EDIT: And Algebra DOES suck, until you understand it. I'm going climbing with a Math-Nerd today....
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Aug 14, 2011 - 11:30am PT
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Talk later, I'm going climbing....
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Aug 14, 2011 - 11:48am PT
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Agreed Bluey....mmmmm chili.
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Norton
Social climber
the Wastelands
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Aug 14, 2011 - 11:55am PT
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Tim Pawlenty, the ex governor of Minnesota, has just announced he is dropping out of the race.
He said he sees "no path forward" for himself to the nomination.
Maybe he can get some work defunding Planned Parenthood and National Public Radio.
Or at least speak out against those pesky gays having abortions or something.
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