Ranger Rick: Virus is a new way to cripple an economy

I watched a movie called “The Company Men” since the virus is on the prowl, I stayed home.  The movie portrayed a shipbuilding company losing business and downsizing, like most companies in the early to mid 2000s.  In desperate attempts to keep predator investment companies from taking over the company, they tried various ways to shore up stock prices to make purchase less likely.  First, they shed jobs.  Then they bought stock in the company in the attempt to raise the stock price.  Sound familiar?

The company I had the pleasure of working for years had the same experience.  One of my co-workers, a manager of skilled trades (electricians, millwrights) was a loyal and longtime employee.  He would give up his vacation time for others to enjoy with their families because he told me he felt it solidified the employee relationship to allow his workers the time off they wanted.  He told his family they could go another time during the year.

After 38 years, the company said he was no longer needed and they told him he didn’t have a job.  At the time, he had just lost his wife to cancer, his children were grown, and he had no hobbies or activities to take up the time he spent working.  He was always the first one at work and the last to leave.  He missed his job, friends, and co-workers.  A month after being “let go”, he put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger ending his life.  He evidently felt he had nothing left and this was his way out.

We all know companies we work for, have one goal — keep the company growing, save the company at all costs.  Of course, NAFTA and liberal trading policies with China, Japan and other countries allowed by our own representatives and senators helped  the “low cost producer” thinking and the race to the bottom of the labor cost game.

With labor costs a constant and upward variable, it was the only place companies felt they could attack to control business revenue.  How many of you were “let go” during this time and had to train your replacements to get your severance pay?

I know one guy telling his management he wasn’t going to train anybody and they could stick the severance where the sun don’t shine.  He told me he had enough saved and had a business on the side, so he would be fine.  After he left, they found he was the only one left to program in a language that was no longer current, and they had to hire him back for a year at three times his salary.  He finally left and sold everything, moving to Florida to bask in the sunshine.  Good for him!

I have some bad news for you.  If you think the end of this type of business behavior is over, think again. The world is changing exponentially and what used to take thousands of workers now only takes hundreds (or less).  Most of the businesses that are going gangbusters now don’t even make anything.  They just are the middlemen, boxing up the product supplied by others and shipping to customers fulfilling orders.

Tech companies are making computers and programming faster, exponentially faster.  Year after year, faster and faster.  You see the empty once vibrant businesses storefronts, now dark and with a commercial realtor sign or “for lease” sign in the windows.

Want proof? Look at “Gander Mountain”, “Bed, Bath, and Beyond”, “Home Depot”, and just recently “Wal-Mart” — all closing or starting to close stores.  Remember Blockbuster Video?  Do you go to a store to rent movies any more or just switch your TV to Netflix?  You know why you do that. It’s easy, cost efficient and the variety of viewing is enormous.

I’m a curmudgeon, never viewed anything on Netflix yet.  Don’t have a thing against Netflix, I’m just old fashioned, I guess.  I do have a TV service, but never used Netflix.  I was happy with my 27-inch diagonal Zenith console TV.  Then they came out with projection TVs and flat screens later.  I miss my console.

Truck drivers beware, you will be replaced by computer controlled trucks that won’t need a human driving and can drive 24 hrs. a day, 7 days a week.  No bathroom breaks, no stopping for food, no sleeping required, no vacations!  It is being developed and will be on the market soon, as are driverless autos, light trucks, and SUV’s.

The Coronavirus pandemic is having a terrible effect on the economy and the psyche of the American worker.  Americans like to keep busy and working provides their needs, both financial and mental (aren’t you sick of staying home)?   My 401K is again a 201K, like in 2008!  I don’t need the money yet, but have confidence once this virus is over the market will rebound from the pent-up demand.

But, just remember, there are two areas of concern – the financial bubbles in housing (it is growing again!) and college loans (thank you President Obama!) will be impediments to growth.  The virus is a new way to cripple an economy.

The rotting of America from within continues…