Occasionally I get into discussion with past students who want me to expand on some part of what I teach. For me it helps me clarify in my own mind my ideas, and of course is fodder for my next book.
As I watch our economy falter, one aspect I am watching is the portion of our economy that is welfare-based. For example, Yum Foods, which runs KFC and owns Pepsi, is trying to grow its business by qualifying to accept food stamps at its restaurants. Welfare recipients constitute a class that is detrimental to business. Landlords that accept Section 8 tenants find their properties go downhill quickly. Hospitals are afraid of too many welfare patients. Grocery stores that accept food stamps (EBT) find an increase in shoplifting and other detrimental activities. I was astonished back in the 1980s when a Bay Area grocery chain announced it was severing itself from the food stamp program. Just not worth it.
A friend of mine explained how she got around the restrictions on an EBT card. She buys tuna or another high cost allowed food on the EBT, and then returns it later for cash, and uses the cash for smokes and booze. EBT laundering. This is at a Safeway. If you are junkie in a hurry, you can just have a small business run your card and then they hand you 50% of the transaction fee.
Narcs and other cops will tell you drug crime and petty theft jumps when the state hands out the money to the "poor." EBT cards are commonly found of people arrested (wasn't welfare supposed to keep people from crime?)
A San Jose Mercury News reporter did an expose on how the CIA was aware that drug cartel people were flooding the ghettos with dope (paid for by welfare) and then laundering the money out of the country to support clandestine activities. When caught red-handed, the CIA would claim they were just following the dope to catch the big players. In any event, a neat trick: hand out welfare indiscriminately, flood the ghetto with dope, make dope a crime, and advance genocide on people brown or darker, use the money to advance the empire. The liberals get their program of domestic genocide advanced, and the conservative get their program of int'l genocide advanced. This is why it does not stop. O, and Gary Webb, who wrote the stories for San Jose Mercury News, finally committed suicide, according to the coroner: he shot himself twice, in the face. With a shotgun. That shows serious determination. On someone's part. Let that be a lesson to you.
The world can be a wicked place, and that is good to know. But the big glamorous world is supported by welfare and fraud and some very ugly fundamentals. The skills required for this world are alien to the skills required for a free market. If you wish to be self-employed, there is no training or preparation working for the the welfare/warfare state. There is only serving customers.
USA is supposed to be an example of a polity exempt from class warfare. We may have a classless society, but it is pretty clear there is an elite class that makes war on people outside its class. There is a class that insists there is no class, while it makes war on people outside of its class.
Anyway, I get the impression that very many people want a plan of action they can follow and succeed. Since the market needs things not yet available, there is no real plan of action, except to get thee in front of customers. Then what? Well, they will tell you. See Steve Jobs.
But people want a sure plan, success that can be measured in money. That is alien to a free market.
On Sep 19, 2011, at 2:51 PM, RG wrote:
As I watch our economy falter, one aspect I am watching is the portion of our economy that is welfare-based. For example, Yum Foods, which runs KFC and owns Pepsi, is trying to grow its business by qualifying to accept food stamps at its restaurants. Welfare recipients constitute a class that is detrimental to business. Landlords that accept Section 8 tenants find their properties go downhill quickly. Hospitals are afraid of too many welfare patients. Grocery stores that accept food stamps (EBT) find an increase in shoplifting and other detrimental activities. I was astonished back in the 1980s when a Bay Area grocery chain announced it was severing itself from the food stamp program. Just not worth it.
A friend of mine explained how she got around the restrictions on an EBT card. She buys tuna or another high cost allowed food on the EBT, and then returns it later for cash, and uses the cash for smokes and booze. EBT laundering. This is at a Safeway. If you are junkie in a hurry, you can just have a small business run your card and then they hand you 50% of the transaction fee.
Narcs and other cops will tell you drug crime and petty theft jumps when the state hands out the money to the "poor." EBT cards are commonly found of people arrested (wasn't welfare supposed to keep people from crime?)
A San Jose Mercury News reporter did an expose on how the CIA was aware that drug cartel people were flooding the ghettos with dope (paid for by welfare) and then laundering the money out of the country to support clandestine activities. When caught red-handed, the CIA would claim they were just following the dope to catch the big players. In any event, a neat trick: hand out welfare indiscriminately, flood the ghetto with dope, make dope a crime, and advance genocide on people brown or darker, use the money to advance the empire. The liberals get their program of domestic genocide advanced, and the conservative get their program of int'l genocide advanced. This is why it does not stop. O, and Gary Webb, who wrote the stories for San Jose Mercury News, finally committed suicide, according to the coroner: he shot himself twice, in the face. With a shotgun. That shows serious determination. On someone's part. Let that be a lesson to you.
The world can be a wicked place, and that is good to know. But the big glamorous world is supported by welfare and fraud and some very ugly fundamentals. The skills required for this world are alien to the skills required for a free market. If you wish to be self-employed, there is no training or preparation working for the the welfare/warfare state. There is only serving customers.
USA is supposed to be an example of a polity exempt from class warfare. We may have a classless society, but it is pretty clear there is an elite class that makes war on people outside its class. There is a class that insists there is no class, while it makes war on people outside of its class.
Anyway, I get the impression that very many people want a plan of action they can follow and succeed. Since the market needs things not yet available, there is no real plan of action, except to get thee in front of customers. Then what? Well, they will tell you. See Steve Jobs.
But people want a sure plan, success that can be measured in money. That is alien to a free market.
On Sep 19, 2011, at 2:51 PM, RG wrote:
On the 'flip' side, you could spend two years flipping burgers and still not end up with a business. Would the experience gained be worth it... is it valuable experience to have tried and failed, and is one more likely to succeed the next time?
***You only fail when you quit. Why would you fail?***
Problem is until one has actually done it
***So do it while flipping burgers....***
all others can do is sit back and laugh as you regale them with tales of your entrepreneurial exploits from behind the burger counter.
*** A strange vision for your future....***
You wouldn't be investing any money either since all your salary would go towards subsistence, reducing chances of success further.
Web dev and online marketing is grunt work veiled with respectability for those in it, however, I have seen what it's done for businesses and I see it as just another cost of business.
I take your comment very seriously that working for someone else would not tell me what to do, however it would surely make someone more able to execute the business plan when it comes time to do so.
***No. Every business is unique, and since your value is in design, and wealth is division of labor, there is nothing of real value you can learn somewhere else. Might as well flip burgers.***
The question is how long can someone take working a minimum wage job, and will the flame of hope die out before they jack it in and decide to hit the rat race, intending to start a business the conventional way by gaining some experience first?
Are your kids and nephews set on starting businesses and are they willing to work at McD, seriously?
That's amazing if true, you certainly have a different outlook on business success and I need to get my head around it.
***the list of people who started flipping burgers and went on to biz success is quite long indeed...***
I know people start businesses from nothing and that shows anyone can do it regardless of background, but I just get the same feeling as when clicking buy on one of these long copy sales letters with all the highlighted text and a 365 day money back guarantee.
***You know those are a scam, so it is not an option. There is nothing to keep you from testing hypothesis A or B tomorrow, in front of retailers.***
I would seriously love that to be the way to go about things, but it seems a high risk strategy.. one could either make it quickly or spend many years struggling.
At least in a job gaining experience one gets to smooth ones income over a lifetime, what economists and insurance brokers would call acting rationally.
John
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