Hey!!
Just a bit of a drunken ramble i'm afraid but please bear with me.
It was reported in the local press that a food factory just down the road from me is closing with the loss off 700 jobs. The reason for this is because production is being shifted abroad because production is cheaper.
OK fair play. Lets be honest we are all just trying to make a couple of bob.
My question is this. 700 people are now on the dole from that one factory. With the knock on effect to various transport companys and so on,you are looking at maybe 1000 people,now singing on. All claiming at least ?35 a week. That works out at ?182000 of our money,at least.
so my question is,would it just not be easier and cheaper for the goverment to subsidize this company the 2 pence an item or what ever it is to keep the jobs in this country and save the tax payer the huge dole billl in the process?
Be gentle with me on this IF i am being a really huge thickie!!
BB
Could it really be this simple?
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BeestonBoy
- Posts: 1250
- Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:40 am
Could it really be this simple?
'I see the usual gang of misfits and dope addicts are here'
Re: Could it really be this simple?
Quite a few of these companies are given sweeteners and other incentives to set up or stay in areas. At some point, when the directors think they've squeezed enough money out, they will move on, whatever the government does.
When I were a lad, Chrysler had a plant in Linwood. Rumour had it that the big cash contract to set up there was coming to an end just as a high-ranking manager ordered a worker to cross a demarcation line. This being the late 1970s, it's everybody out---and Chrysler has the excuse it needs to close the factory.
While the main priority of any firm is to maximise profits for shareholders, you're not likely to see any acts of magnanimity by boards of directors. And capitalism is all about profit.
I'm no economist, so flame away.
When I were a lad, Chrysler had a plant in Linwood. Rumour had it that the big cash contract to set up there was coming to an end just as a high-ranking manager ordered a worker to cross a demarcation line. This being the late 1970s, it's everybody out---and Chrysler has the excuse it needs to close the factory.
While the main priority of any firm is to maximise profits for shareholders, you're not likely to see any acts of magnanimity by boards of directors. And capitalism is all about profit.
I'm no economist, so flame away.
Pervert
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Re: Could it really be this simple?
BeestonBoy wrote:
> so my question is,would it just not be easier and cheaper for
> the goverment to subsidize this company the 2 pence an item or
> what ever it is to keep the jobs in this country and save the
> tax payer the huge dole billl in the process?
>
Pretty much the argument Scargill put forward in the 84-5 miners strike. It would be less costly to subsidise each ton of coal than it would be to pay everyone benefits after closing the mines.
Of course, today, it would be easier to remove the red tape regulation that strangles most businesses.
> so my question is,would it just not be easier and cheaper for
> the goverment to subsidize this company the 2 pence an item or
> what ever it is to keep the jobs in this country and save the
> tax payer the huge dole billl in the process?
>
Pretty much the argument Scargill put forward in the 84-5 miners strike. It would be less costly to subsidise each ton of coal than it would be to pay everyone benefits after closing the mines.
Of course, today, it would be easier to remove the red tape regulation that strangles most businesses.
We have need of you again, great king.
Re: Could it really be this simple?
While I think you can subsidise a national product like coal or steel it is harder to do it with individual factories.
Suppose the reason this factory is closing is that they are badly run or inefficient (not saying they are, lets just suppose).
There might be another company down the road making exactly the same product, but they are well run and efficient. They are managing to stay in business.
Is it fair to subsidise the badly run business and leave the well run busiess to fend for itself.
Plus, if you subsidise one business, where does it stop. Another company in another town makes the same product, so they asked for subsidy, then another company in another town asks, and before you know it every company in the country wants a bit of the subsidy.
Suppose the reason this factory is closing is that they are badly run or inefficient (not saying they are, lets just suppose).
There might be another company down the road making exactly the same product, but they are well run and efficient. They are managing to stay in business.
Is it fair to subsidise the badly run business and leave the well run busiess to fend for itself.
Plus, if you subsidise one business, where does it stop. Another company in another town makes the same product, so they asked for subsidy, then another company in another town asks, and before you know it every company in the country wants a bit of the subsidy.
Re: Could it really be this simple?
re my answer above.
How do you solve this problem of this factory closing?
In the UK, after years of Brown adding tax upon tax on to our businesses, they are finding it hard to keep going. They are being taxed into submission.
These taxes are being used to provide an ever more expensive social security system where you pay BILLIONS a year to people who have no desire to work, even though hundreds of thousands of people from Poland and other EU countries have managed to come here and find work.
These taxes are also being used to fund an ever growing free health service which is abused by thousands of "health tourists" who just fly into Heathrow and go to the nearest hospital for a heart bypass operation or other such expensive treatment. Few of these people ever have to pay a penny towards their treatment.
These taxes are also being used to fund an expensive war in Iraq.
So the solution is
STOP paying people to stay on the dole when there is plenty of work (and get the rest of the benefit fiddlers off the system as well).
STOP giving free health care to anyone who happens to fly into the country. And sort out the NHS as well.
GET OUT of Iraq.
REDUCE taxes and allow this country to compete on the world stage.
If we dont all the companies will move to Poland, or elsewhere in Eastern Europe, and we will have no business left.
How do you solve this problem of this factory closing?
In the UK, after years of Brown adding tax upon tax on to our businesses, they are finding it hard to keep going. They are being taxed into submission.
These taxes are being used to provide an ever more expensive social security system where you pay BILLIONS a year to people who have no desire to work, even though hundreds of thousands of people from Poland and other EU countries have managed to come here and find work.
These taxes are also being used to fund an ever growing free health service which is abused by thousands of "health tourists" who just fly into Heathrow and go to the nearest hospital for a heart bypass operation or other such expensive treatment. Few of these people ever have to pay a penny towards their treatment.
These taxes are also being used to fund an expensive war in Iraq.
So the solution is
STOP paying people to stay on the dole when there is plenty of work (and get the rest of the benefit fiddlers off the system as well).
STOP giving free health care to anyone who happens to fly into the country. And sort out the NHS as well.
GET OUT of Iraq.
REDUCE taxes and allow this country to compete on the world stage.
If we dont all the companies will move to Poland, or elsewhere in Eastern Europe, and we will have no business left.
Re: Could it really be this simple?
Example of companies moving abroad
Example of health tourist
Example of health tourist
Re: Could it really be this simple?
A good suggestion trouble is business will always want more and do a runner if they can't get their way.
Offer 2p they'll want 5 offer 5 they'll want 10.
I am no economist either, bloody clueless to be honest, but I'd go for something on the lines of making it a lot more costly to import than export.
Not basic raw materials but end products.
Offer 2p they'll want 5 offer 5 they'll want 10.
I am no economist either, bloody clueless to be honest, but I'd go for something on the lines of making it a lot more costly to import than export.
Not basic raw materials but end products.
Re: Could it really be this simple?
I used to work for the company in question, we used to make some fantastic products for Marks and Spencer. I still work in the food manufacturing industry but profit margins are being eroded all the time.
Part of the reason is that we want to buy convenience food as cheaply as possible. Over the years the quality of the products has declined. The big retailers are constantly battling with each other to secure business so when Asda proudly proclaims they are "rolling back" prices what it really means is that they are shafting the supplier and probably lowering the quality of the products. Tesco or whoever will be then forced to match or go even cheaper than Asda and so we get this downward spiral where food manufacturers are churning out crap and Joe Puublic is buying it because it's quicker to bung something in the microwave than to cook from scratch.
We like to kid ourselves that we have become a foodie nation, this myth is propagated by the endless cookery or food related programmes on tv and the so-called celebrity chefs who always seem to pop up in the media when they have a new book to promote. I imagine there are many millions of unread and unused cookery books sitting on the nation's shelves.
The reality is people don't really care too much about what they throw down their throats as long as it's cheap and quick .
When the economic climate is on a downturn the first thing that people will cut back on is food so that they can buy all the latest must-have gadgets.
I really fear for the food manufacturing industry in this country
Part of the reason is that we want to buy convenience food as cheaply as possible. Over the years the quality of the products has declined. The big retailers are constantly battling with each other to secure business so when Asda proudly proclaims they are "rolling back" prices what it really means is that they are shafting the supplier and probably lowering the quality of the products. Tesco or whoever will be then forced to match or go even cheaper than Asda and so we get this downward spiral where food manufacturers are churning out crap and Joe Puublic is buying it because it's quicker to bung something in the microwave than to cook from scratch.
We like to kid ourselves that we have become a foodie nation, this myth is propagated by the endless cookery or food related programmes on tv and the so-called celebrity chefs who always seem to pop up in the media when they have a new book to promote. I imagine there are many millions of unread and unused cookery books sitting on the nation's shelves.
The reality is people don't really care too much about what they throw down their throats as long as it's cheap and quick .
When the economic climate is on a downturn the first thing that people will cut back on is food so that they can buy all the latest must-have gadgets.
I really fear for the food manufacturing industry in this country