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Many US manufacturers making RECORD PROFITS with few employees, no plans to hire again...

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old mark Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-26-10 07:41 AM
Original message
Many US manufacturers making RECORD PROFITS with few employees, no plans to hire again...
Harley Davidson for one, has laid of several thousand workers, is making huge profits that go to shareholders or are saved as cash, plan to lay off 1400
more employees.
They have used the recession and found new ways to make their products using fewer regular workers, and many have no intention of hiring anyone - ever...

Link to NYT article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/business/economy/26earnings.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&src=ig

Share holders are profiting, companies are profiting, workers are out, many it seems for years to come...

mark
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doc03 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-26-10 07:44 AM
Response to Original message
1. They're waiting for the Republicans to take Congress
the Big Boys aren't going to do anything to help Obama.
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ProgressiveProfessor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-26-10 10:39 AM
Response to Reply #1
12. Many people have a hard time thinking of HD as one of the big boys
But they clearly are.
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Fumesucker Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-26-10 07:44 AM
Response to Original message
2. If you read "years to come" as "forever" I agree..
I'm in the process of setting up a micro manufacturing business myself with some computer controlled machine tools. The family member I'm working with and I are both of the age where we expect never to be hired again so we really have no choice.
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old mark Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-26-10 07:52 AM
Response to Reply #2
4. I am glad to see people taking advantage of this-you are right - for some it WILL be never again...
I read an article last week in which a manufacturing CEO stated his next new hires are now in 6th grade...

A lot of people are taking early retirement, and just don't realise it yet!

Of course, the RWers now want to end all social programs, unemployment compensation and training as well as medicare and Social Security...while cutting taxes even more for the rich...

mark
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madrchsod Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-26-10 08:23 AM
Response to Reply #2
7. back in the olden days an industrialist in rockford illinois...
used to provide funds for the his machinists who wanted to start their own business. he helped them with money, advice , and a share of their company.by the time of his death he had a share of 80 businesses in rockford.

today one has to go to a banker that does`t have the insight that this guy did.
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customerserviceguy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-26-10 07:50 AM
Response to Original message
3. The President's in a tough situation
His political future (and that of his allies in Congress) is tied to the behavior of those who have come to despise him and them. They have every incentive to keep hiring down for as long as necessary to produce the desired result.
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old mark Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-26-10 07:55 AM
Response to Reply #3
5. I used to think a lot of it was political, but I now think much of it is economic -
they found ways to more profit with fewer workers and moderate sales...I doubt we will see a big come-back no matter who wins or loses...the real losers are all of those who do not own manufacturing companies or stocks in them-most Americans...


mark
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bobburgster Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-26-10 09:47 AM
Response to Reply #5
10. I feel it is a combination of both, though political being the largest factor.
I have no doubt big business is holding back, at least until after the Nov. elections. I think Obama should play this hand. A little fear factor... that the rich business leaders are holding back on jobs for the unemployed to keep Obama from changing the way they operate.... don't care about the poor..etc etc,
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girl gone mad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-26-10 08:10 AM
Response to Reply #3
6. The private sector has been shedding jobs for over a decade.
There was no net gain in private sector employment under Bush. Only the government grew.
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enlightenment Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-26-10 08:29 AM
Response to Reply #3
8. Which is why deficit reduction plans are a mistake right now.
If the government dangled the big carrot of substantial, long term (not piddly ass) projects - say, an honest to goodness national passenger rail system -- in front of these jackasses, they'd be jumping through hoops to hire. That increased hiring, over the course of a number of years, might be the kick-start the economy needs to recover.

Cutting spending at the government level is no different than what the corporations are doing in not hiring - between the public and private sector, the nation is being starved into non-existence.
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blindpig Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-26-10 09:20 AM
Response to Original message
9. Profits are profits....

Less labor costs are more profits for the capitalists, who have absolutely no responsibility to provide a means of livelihood to anybody.

Kill Capitalism
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msongs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-26-10 09:59 AM
Response to Original message
11. since profits are so high....prices will come down right? right? oh, nevermind nt
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WinkyDink Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-26-10 10:59 AM
Response to Original message
13. The Dow Jones ALWAYS rises when unemployment rises.
Edited on Mon Jul-26-10 11:01 AM by WinkyDink
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hootinholler Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-26-10 11:29 AM
Response to Original message
14. Um, isn't Harley employee owned?
I thought the employees bought out AMF?

:shrug:

-Hoot
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Lance_Boyle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-26-10 11:49 AM
Response to Reply #14
17. That was decades ago that Harley left the bowling league.
Harley Davidson's IPO was 1986. The "P" in that means it's not employee-owned.
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Prisoner_Number_Six Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-26-10 11:32 AM
Response to Original message
15. Funny what happens when an American bike becomes a riceburner
:shrug:
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moondust Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-26-10 11:41 AM
Response to Original message
16. Capitalist utopia.
Use automation and third world slave labor to get rid of ALL the paid employees so that ALL the profits go to the owner/shareholders who actually do next to nothing, might even be dead.
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