Trade Deficit Continues To Hurt the US

The US trade deficit is in the billions of dollars per month.   What does the trade deficit mean?   Simply that we are sending billions of dollars out of the country in a month and not returning billions of dollars in the form of sales.  The gap between the the out going dollars and the in coming dollars is a huge problem for the United States.   Sooner or later we will run out of money to continuing buying the goods that are imported.    If that happens inflation will start to rise and the dollar will begin to fall.   It will lead to the loss of more jobs and the real estate market will continue to fail.

What can we do to stop this?   First buying American will help.   Being realistic I doubt that will make much difference.    Second invest in businesses that provide unique products that can only be built in the US.     Prevent that work from going off shore.

It’s a matter of time before China starts sending products over here not going through a US company.   At that point more US based companies will fail.

As China’s economy continues to thrive at some point it prices to produce the products will not be so cheap.   We may see a shift from out sourcing and off shoring to in sourcing.

Continuation of Greed

It’s been awhile since I posted a rant so I figure I should.     I have been watching the news, which is something that should be avoided, and noticed a common theme.    Greed seems to tie just about everything together.   To have something someone else has drives the world.    If it didn’t we would all just sit around and figure out ways to help each other without any care as to what the other person had.

With that said there is group of people popping up out of the wood work.    I call these the anti-people group.    They come up with ideas that helping the poor or doing something that would indirectly lead to jobs or houses for the poor is bad.    This group won’t directly say that.  They will say that it’s in appropriate to use other peoples money to help the poor.   So the poor should help themselfs instead of people with money helping them.    Interesing concept.   They would be even more opposed to it if people helped in the way of service other than money.    If doctors treated low income patients, or if banks let homeless familys stay in foreclosed homes.

It seems there is a small number of people who really get what this finacial crisis is about.    Its about greed.  Pretty simple.    You can try to tell me government shouldn’t step in and that people should be able to do what they want.   The reality is that it doesn’t work.     If you left a $20 dollar bill taped to a wall someone would steal it.   If you say business will do the moral thing, some business won’t.     If you get enough people doing it or cutting corners you end up with baseball players who do drugs,  bankers who cheat people out of money, and companies laying off for offshore resources.   Not to mention the fact we stand by and watch it happen to our neighbors.

So what do we do?   Where do we go?   We have hit the wild west of the finacial markets.     Back then they put law in place to prevent crimes.   People who stole horses got in trouble bad.    So stealing someones house isn’t a crime?   We need some tough laws to punish CEO’s who pray on the community for quick bucks.    We need to worry about what happens here in the USA.   Its a fact when the USA economy does well so does the world.    Lets get stable and move forward.

Let’s help our neighbors where we can.   I was touched by the person that let the homeless stay in a rental house for free until they get back on their feet.    On the flip side people who use the favors of other should not take advantage.  If you can work you should.    If you need help fine.

Let’s get america back on track.    I hear terms like socialism and nationalization to scare people.     It means people have homes, have jobs, and can live.     I have never heard it be mentioned that rich people will need to sell their jets or million dollar homes.     Scare tactics to keep rich people richer at the expense of the poor is stupid.

Customer Service A Thing of the Past?

Remember the days when full service gas stations were the only way to get gas?   Remember when people took your groceries to the car?    Remember when you didn’t have to press a million buttons on the phone to speak to a real person.    Its a big pain.   Now fast food workers are put out to take your order.

Let me give a couple examples.  I went to the local Taco Bell.   The last three times the order was wrong each time.    How hard is it to put taco’s in a bag?   Not that I’m griping about Taco Bell, just the workers.   I think there is a total lack of care by the employees.  I’ve had similar experiences at McDonalds.  The one thing thats consistant is they never make a mistake in charging me.   

A call to the manager usually clears it up and I get a credit to come in and get my food.    My point is that if you don’t want to work there then quit.   Now with all the lay offs in so many companies I can understand people not caring as much.   After all if you give it a 1000% and still get laid off what good is that?  

Have we created a society where giving only 10% is good enough?   How can we expect to compete with our foreign competitors with our crappy attitudes?    Not everyone works this way, but I have seen enough to make me ill. 

The other thing that is totally stupid is the lack of common sense people have.   They set up rules at their companies that make no sense.    If you call the bank only to be told that a policy prevents them from doing the right thing.    In the end its mostly about squeezing that last dime out of a customer.   

You wonder how these people sleep at night.   They screw you out of your money and don’t care.   The irony is they have to live under the same system and I’m sure they have the same complaints.    But when the morning comes they do exactly the same thing they did the day before.   It always gets blamed on the company.   It’s rare someone takes personal responsibility for a mistake.

We’ve gotten out of the car and gone back into the fast food place and gotten our missing food.  Not once did the person who did say sorry or explain the mix up.   It is always the manager or some other person who say the are sorry.     It’s a shame we never learn anything.

Products Made In the USA.

I was looking at the labels of some of my house hold items to see where they were made.   One of the things I realized, as most people already know, just about everything is made in China.   Not that the unemployment rate doesn’t already prove things are being made elsewhere, because the products keep coming.    I don’t see the shelf’s empty with lack of product, but we can loose over 500,000 jobs in a month and nothing seems to stop.   Which is a very interesting observation.

I was shocked to see my Suave shampoo is made in the USA.   I was pretty shocked by that.   I mean you would think soap would be something easily made in China.   I see it was made by a company called Unilever.   I have never heard of them before.  Then later that morning I was putting my tea bags in to make some tea.  I read the box and it was Lipton made by Unilever.    Another interesting thing.

I went and looked at their website and they are a global company.   Even had a link about Mumbai employees being safe.    They make all sorts of products across different areas.  Interesting enough Unilever is not a US company, but they make products here.

So let me get this straight.  US companies make US products overseas, but non-US companies make US products here.   Wow.  What a interesting concept.   Wait, Honda has been doing that for years.   A recent trip to a car show proved that.   Each auto maker had put on the label how much of the car was made in the United States.   I was shocked to see some foreign car companies made almost 100% of the car in the United States, but the domestic car companies weren’t even close to that on some models.

So what does a person do?    If you by a Ford made mostly in another country are you supporting the US economy?   If you by a Honda made almost 100% in the US are you supporting a foreign country?   Talk about confusing.

I think I’m going to settle on where it is made.    If I had my choice of a Honda that was 90% made in the USA and a Ford that was 70% made in the USA,  I would pick the Honda.   I think we need to start sending that message to domestic companies looking a cheap off shore labor.   You might save $1000 bucks on a car, but I just decided to not buy one.   So did you just loose a $30000 sale to save $1000?   We’ll their lucky that I’m not buying a car anytime soon.

I will buy more shampoo.   You can count on the fact that it will be Suave.

Getting screwed by the companies again.

Hi All,

I had to write about this one because I had it happen to me.   The other day I went to the local Winn-Dixie to get a container of popcorn.   I grabbed one from the shelf and was walking along with the happy fact I got some good popcorn for decent price.    Then about four isles away i flipped the thing over.  I was shocked at what I saw.    There was a huge indent in the bottom of the container of popcorn.    So I said wait a minute.  I can’t believe this.    I just got screwed out of a half a cup of popcorn.    Some time when I wasn’t looking companies started putting these bottom bubbles and reduced the content in the package.    I walked over to the peanut butter isle and flipped over some containers.  They had the same bubble.    What kind of country is it when a company tries to pull a fast one.

We are creatures of habit.    If the popcorn company reduced the size of the overall container, we would surely notice that.    Put a bubble at the bottom, only a few people probably notice it.    So I believe inflation is higher than what we think.   I’ll need an extra popcorn for every three I buy.    The price didn’t go up or down.   Just the volume of product did.

When did we decide it was alright to screw our neighbor or lie.  To me putting it in the same size container and reducing the content with no overly obvious markings is intended to trick the consumer.   They know  they are doing it.    Which makes me ill.

We are quickly loosing any control over fairness and equality.   We are not telling people the cost of food is going up.   People are left wondering why the spent more on food this month and bought the same things at the same price.   I hope more people figure out they are getting screwed.   It not just popcorn and peanut butter.   Dairy products are doing the same thing.   Packages in boxes are getting smaller.    I love the “Some Settling May Occur.”   I wish I had that magic when I pack for a vacation.    It has to be magic dust to make it 25% of the box.     So you just bought a box that was 75% air.

Companies will say its the costs to make it have gone up.    The government would probably say it helps calm peoples fears about inflation.    Bull.  It is a total load of crap.   People need to get with the program and be honest.

Oh…I still bought the popcorn anyways.   I just wish someone had been honest in it.

Tags: ripoff