"What Saved Hostess And Twinkies: Automation And Firing 95% Of The Union Workforce"

[tonyt53]

This article in Forbes says a great deal about the attitude in this country. It ends with "Employing people is a cost. And when that cost rises, fewer people are going to be employed."

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/07/06/what-saved-hostess-and-twinkies-automation-and-firing-95-of-the-union-workforce/#7bf019536ddb

[lapfog_1]

1. This is why I'm not that concerned about trade deals

it costs money to ship things around the world... not to mention that most perishables don't ship well.

The only reason to do this is that labor is so much cheaper that the TCO or TCP is less than local manufacturing. However, automation is the thing that will kill off trade.

That's the "good" news... the bad news is that we are a consumer based economy. No jobs, no consumers... so it doesn't matter how cheap the means of production are.

The oligarchs think that this won't matter... that the race to the bottom is just fine so long as they remain at the very tip top of the pyramid. They are wrong.

[puffy socks]

2. Hostess is being perpetually bankrupted by

vulture capitalists.

The union the author wants to blame for the cos downfall gave, and stuck to concessions, the owners/execs enriched themselves. After declaring bankruptcy this last time followed by blaming unions and publicly declaring execs are taking 'just a dollar in compensation' while they discreetly go through the courts to get million dollar "bonuses".
Now they are going to take Hostess public and I wont be surprised to see it Bained again.

[Initech]

6. Vulture captialism is a virus that is destroying everything it touches.

I've seen it happen to lots of companies and retail outlets around where I live. It happened to Wonder and their factory is not too far from where I live. Sports Chalet and Sports Authority are also victims of this. Tower Records, Blockbuster, Drake's Coffee, Chevys Restaurants, I could name about a thousand other business I've seen where this has happened. Fuck vulture capitalism. Do Mitt Romney and his BFF Nascar owners really need another mansion?

[puffy socks]

9. It seems there are many who

can never have enough.

[Initech]

16. Honestly I think it was that comment from Mitt Romney that jump started Occupy.

And subsequently the Bernie Sanders movement. Remember when Romney said "Some of my best friends are NASCAR owners"?. That was pretty much a "letter them eat cake" moment.

[Iggo]

3. Union-busting.

Pure and simple.

[Blue_Tires]

4. I look forward to the day when

hot take writers are willing to work for less and Worstall's "think" pieces are no longer in demand, along with his laughably narrow niche of 'expertise'

[Kelvin Mace]

7. Software is under development

We will soon have an app for that.

[ProfessorGAC]

5. That Quote Is Annoying

Number one, it is grossly simplistic and two dimensional. Not every x correlates to a y.

Secondly, it flies in the face of about 40 or 45 years of post-WW2 economic history. That simple statement is completely disprovable by the very existence of the late 40's to the mid-80's. What the statement says, simply did not happen.

[uponit7771]

8. False, look at the income of the company going to CVD levels first not unions...

[HughBeaumont]

10. What a bunch of Republican-Fried, Blame the Victim Dogshit.

So hey, let's not employ anyone and just let very wealthy and educated people run the robots. Because THAT'S truly going to save Crapitalism - take money away from people who have to spend every dime and make bettering yourself next to impossible to do without gobs of cash.

Junk food is usually an item trimmed off of destitute people's list of things to buy. Keep selling yourselves that rope . . . .

[Yavin4]

11. This is why bringing back factory jobs from overseas won't solve the income inequality problem

nor revive the middle class. There will be less jobs overall, and the pay won't reflect union wages. You cannot vote the 10 year, post-WWII period back into existence.

[Rex]

12. And when 100 million people are unemployed? Not like the govt can force policy onto

corporations. This will all come down to greed and how much is enough.

[Locrian]

13. mentally challegned

If this mentally challenged 2 yo old (apologies to 2 yr olds) would manage to complete a thought he might realize that:

After
"Employing people is a cost. And when that cost rises, fewer people are going to be employed."

You get
"And fewer people employed buy less of our shitty products". Leading to cutting more employees,etc,etc

Notice that in the whole screed there is no mention of the "cost" of maintaining shareholder PROFITS. Which of course it's all about. Nor that the product sucks, etc.

[Binkie The Clown]

14. Now they just need a machine that buys and eats twinkies.

Humans are superfluous (and soon to become extinct anyway.)

[lpbk2713]

15. An old joke still has a lot of truth to it ...

A CEO, a Conservative, and a Union worker are all sitting at a table when a plate with a dozen freshly baked cookies arrives. Before anyone else can make a move, the CEO reaches out to rake in eleven of the cookies. When the other two look at him in speechless surprise, the CEO locks eyes with the Conservative. “You better watch that guy” the executive grumbles with a scornful nod toward the Union worker. “He wants a piece of your cookie.”