Politics
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- lowimpakt0
from an outsiders perspective it seems like a long game but US politics doesn't rock the long game.
these are extraordinary time and the shit has hit the fan the world over.
I can't even begin to start explaining how fucked Ireland is...
Form the basket case of europe/world to a world leading economy to possibly a basket case again in living memory...
- ********0
^^ Throughout his 2nd term, Bush was absolutely horrible— sucked balls, lied, deceived, and MUCH, MUCH more. Yes, I totally agree, okay? However, also aiding and abbeding was/is the balance of the government, sans a small hand full of folks.
But if Obama keeps fucking around, we could easily be even worse off. I hope not.
- designbot0
I wonder what the US dollar will be worth at the end of the year? I am terrified of how bad inflation will be.
I also wonder when gas prices will sky rocket again? It's inevitable.
*trembles
- ********0
I tend to believe, that we are all more like-minded than not. Dividing us by left and right is simply a ploy designed by our government to keep us at bay, an/or to satisfy other motives and agendas. Who agrees?
- tommyo0
FU Gov!
Ford:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/31…Man I am SOOO happy to hear Mark Fields of Ford talking about their future. This is exactly how capitalism (I know I know, this is a bad word to a lot of you) is supposed to work. They're getting creative to solve the issue of confidence in their product through innovative finance and trying to create a product line people want. IMO, their decision to not take gov funds sends the kind of message that creates confidence. Where GM and Chrysler look weak (Obama isn't helping this image btw), Ford is looking stronger and more competitive. I might need to retire my old Found On Road Dead rhetoric. :)
I really hope they pull out of this if not for anything more than an example of how American companies are supposed to act. I've always respected Harley Davidson for how they came back from near death at the hands of the Japanese bikes. The abbreviated version is that street bike companies were flooding the market with cheaper vehicles, HD asked the gov to help, gov put restraints on the import of the street bikes and gave HD 2 years (I think) to become viable, with a year left on the restraints HD told the gov to lift it, they were ready. Brings a tear to my capitalist eye. :)
- ********0
This just shows how dumb europeans are. They are lead to believe it's our economy that caused the problem when they live in a socialist government with 35 hour work weeks. You scums
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB…- who caused it? santa, stop trying to find a blame when you go around the world shitting on all +GeorgesII
- saying europeans automatically put you in the hick category of people who don't know squat about economy nor geographyGeorgesII
- the bank of london was just as responsible and the london office of AIG came up with the mortgage scam you idiot.********
- ********0
But really Ford? No one is going to buy a Ford.
No matter what they do. They have been irrelevant for the past 20 years as far as design goes. Except for their trucks, those always sell.
- They keep trying to milk the Mustang for all it's worth...TheBlueOne
- haha no shit. Side note: I did some work for Carroll Shelby. :)tommyo
- The proper question now is 'Who's going to buy a Ford over a Chevy?' ;-)tommyo
- I'm usually a VW guy. I had a baby last year and bought a Ford Edge. Love that thing...flawless car.Mimio
- I'm a VW guy too! Still driving my 03 GTi. I'm thinking I'll get a Subaru next but I actually do like some Fords.tommyo
- ukit0
^ It WAS our economy that caused the problem...or at least American owned multinational companies. Educate yourself.
- TheBlueOne0
Question: GM was really really hurt by it's exposure in it's financial company, Chrysler because, well, who the fuck buys a chrysler? Was Ford structured differently with regards to it's vehicle financing that left it less vulnerable to the collapse of the financial sector that undermined GM?
- My guess is "yes" of course, but I don't know too much about it.TheBlueOne
- I would like the new Challenger, but it is starting to become a novelty car.********
- only thing is , they are not as wide as the original which sucks.********
- It helped that Ford sold off key assets while they were still somewhat valuable.(Jag, Rover)Mimio
- ********0
Q: Why do most Republicans love guns and gods, infatuated with the bible, are fear & war mongers, are racists, narrow minded, small thinkers, and blame everyone for their problems?
A: They are inbred
- Ahh, I see we have another troll on QBN. Welcome, you'll fit right in here.designbot
- < You must be one the few remaining "trickle down" Republican trolls left in the country, go back to your cave.********
- says the guy who has a screenname with homophobic overtones ... rich with irony.tommyo
- loldesignbot
- I knew that you in the closet republicans would zero in on the gayness!********
- Wouldn't it be 'non gayness' in your case?tommyo
- tommyo0
Speaking of France...
"PARIS, France (CNN) -- Hundreds of French workers, angry about proposed layoffs at a Caterpillar factory, were holding executives of the company hostage Tuesday, a spokesman for the workers said."
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/eu…
They seem to handle getting fired very poorly over there. Company expands and hires people = France Happy. Company suffers and has to cutback = France Mad and Not Going to Take this Sort of Abuse!!! Rawwwrrrrrr.
- They at least have the balls to take matters into their own hands, not like the pussies in America!********
- Sorry but you're a complete idiot. Totally snowed over by reality as much as those gun toting Republicans you hate.tommyo
- The irony is that you can't see it and neither can they. You're both comical stereotypes. And I laugh in your general direction.tommyo
- I burst my pimples on Not_Ghey. And please leave America ASAP.********
- They at least have the balls to take matters into their own hands, not like the pussies in America!
- ukit0
Civil disobedience is a big thing in France. I lived there for a while and at different points the postal service, bus service and airlines were completely shut down because there were on strike.
On one hand you could say it's massively inefficient. But on other, at least they have the ability to actually influence their government when they don't like something:)
- I sense that Americans may start breaking more windows soon enough.********
- I sense that Americans may start breaking more windows soon enough.
- designbot0
I have a great deal of respect for the Europeans and their bravery to stand up to their own government. Never seems to happen in America.
- Seattle 1999?TheBlueOne
- *edit replace "Never" with "Rarely" :)designbot
- I think of the Rodney King incident as well.designbot
- I'm still a little unsure if the King riots were civil unrest or The Moment. There was more harm done to businesses of peopletommyo
- in the same relative situation as the rioters than icons of racial oppression.tommyo
- LA gangs inspired, led, ran and poured fuel all over the King riots.********
- gov bonds bank on little civ unrestBattleAxe
- so did the copszman
- tommyo0
^^ I respect the 'influence their government' part but at some point, as one of these individuals, can't you sit back in realities stiff armchair and say to yourself 'Not everything in this world is going to work the way I want it to. When companies do well they hire, when they do poorly they fire. It's as much the natural cycle of things as the sun rising and falling. Why am I taking this so personally?'
- ********0
The President and the First Lady just arrived in London for G20.
- can you tell us what they will be eating too, you're delusionalGeorgesII
- zman0
ever hear of "divide and conquer"? in american like else where its the main stay of politics. YOu have Bush the evil dumbass for 8 years straight getting his way constantly then immediatly replace him with boy wonder and you've essentially ripped the general popular political atmosphere into shreds with these extremes. Throw in a little disaster and crises profiteering and watch as the populace shrink into a pacfied numb state of apathy and false optimism.
- TheBlueOne0
Any government only makes real concessions to the people when the government feels it's monopoly on legitimate violence is threatened.
Sad, but true.
- GeorgesII0
GetRefresh do you live in this thread?
- tommyo0
Just a little personal insight into the inner workings of one American corporation I'm intimately involved in.
My family owns a restaurant chain, of which I'm pretty involved in. We have around 800 or so employees. Last year at this time we had an extremely large turnover percentage, I'm talking about triple the industry average. We were losing and hiring 2 people per store on average every pay period (so, four per month). This was a problem we inherited from the previous owners. The culture they maintained was to hire very young employees, pay them very low wages and give them little to no training. While serving the community by giving kids an easy first job, it did little for the company in the long run. The stores were overstaffed by unmotivated employees. My sister and I saw the issue and worked to fix it in what most people would think a slightly unorthodox way. We gave every employee, who deserved it, a substantial raise. Those who didn't meet criteria were given the reasons why they didn't receive the raise and were given an opportunity to fix these issues and be reevaluated in two months. If they still didn't fix the issues, they were gone. The release of the 'bad' employees thus cut labor and paid for the raises for the 'good' due to less labor hours. Here we are merely a year later and the guy we hired as a new employee trainer and liaison is 'bored.' Employee turnover dropped so sharply that he's now working on more enrichment programs where we hope to train employees on other things such as leadership and personal finances. The old owner recently mentioned how great the customer service has become. We sincerely hope that the employees we let go learned something from this experience. They were given an honest chance to improve and didn't take it. Something that I feel is rare in life - an honest if you do ___ then you will get ____.
See, at least in my limited knowledge of business, this is how it works. Real people in deciding positions discuss issues and solutions with a genuine concern for everyone involved.
I think our corporation is indicative of what most businesses deal with on a day to day basis. Which is essentially leveraging the aims of the business against the aims of the employee and finding good solutions to both. Did we lose employees, yes we did. Did the employees we kept get a better life because of their hard work, I think so. In a way we rallied behind a concept called 'responsibility' and we're winning. We're also not offering 'value' based meals like Subway (our main competitor) and our sales have increased over last year by quite a bit - definitely due to the economy, but also because of our new customer service and our superior product. We're basically kicking Subway and Quiznos in the balls right now and we don't have national advertising, actually ... our branding is pretty dated but we're fixing that too. ;)
I'm extremely proud of this company. The old owners did some amazing things to build it's foundation. Some things I love that you crunchy liberals would love too are: We employ mentally handicapped people for positions company wide, including cashier positions which no other company I've ever seen does. We're one of the largest, if not the largest recyclers in our city. We win awards all the time for our social involvement and charity work which raises a substantial amount of money I'm talking about the range of half a million per year.
On top of all of this, we make a decent profit.
This is why I guess I feel like some people are a tad disconnected in their views of the 'rich' and the 'evil corporations.' I know a lot of the friends my family has made during the 25 years in this industry and most, I'd say 4 out of 5, come from extremely poor backgrounds.
Anyways I thought I'd share a perspective most people don't get to hear in regards to American businesses. And a little side note, I'm not rich nor have I ever had access to any money that I didn't earn myself. Everything I've made I've done on my own just the same as every other person in my family. Just incase any of you wanted to level some unfair stereotype upon me. I'm self made. :)
- Your family runs a Quizno's?TheBlueOne
- haha. Btw, have you seen that new ad of theirs where the guy and the oven have a sexual relationship? They're reachin.tommyo
- That disturbs me to no end. I do like their honey bourbon chicken sandwich though.TheBlueOne
- haha me too. I think they're hurting bad. I never eat there though, they're the enemy. :)tommyo
- what is the name?********
- Sorry morilla, I don't want to dish that out. I'll probably add some branding pieces when I build my new site. I'll let youtommyo
- If it's Blimpie you owe me like 15K!********
- know then. I don't usually talk about it to be honest. Makes dating a little hard trying to explain traveling when I don'ttommyo
- tell the girl about the business. hehe. Just don't want people to get the wrong impression about who I am.tommyo
- http://www.originalt… ?BattleAxe
- haha! Man, that is by far the best chili burger ever. I fucking wish we owned that place, I'd be pushing 300lbs with a smile.tommyo
- well, I know it is somewhere in LA ;)********
