Stop whining, America!

"Matt Barrow" wrote:

It used to take companies something like 6 percent of employees to
handle
government paperwork (and that included taxes); now it takes something
like 30-45 (depending on the industry).

30-45%? Which industries, and says who?

Fred F.

On 26-Aug-2005, "Jay Honeck" wrote:

Remember when America used to actually *make* things? If you're under
35,
probably not.

Hi Jay,
I work at a factory that still "makes things", firetrucks in this case. And
the equipment that goes into them (engines, transmissions, lights, sirens,
seats, aluminum panels, etc) is pretty much all made in America. I rarely
see parts with "Made In XXXX" stickers. I thought you'd be pleased to know.
Scott Wilson

wrote:
Hi Jay,
I work at a factory that still "makes things", firetrucks in this case. And
the equipment that goes into them (engines, transmissions, lights, sirens,
seats, aluminum panels, etc) is pretty much all made in America. I rarely
see parts with "Made In XXXX" stickers. I thought you'd be pleased to know.
Scott Wilson

In my newspaper this morning, the water cooler company that had been in
business for 80 years is closing its doors.
EBCO/Oasis has had its products and patents copied by the Chinese and
undersold to the point that they have been driven out of business.

john smith wrote:

In my newspaper this morning, the water cooler company that had been in
business for 80 years is closing its doors.
EBCO/Oasis has had its products and patents copied by the Chinese and
undersold to the point that they have been driven out of business.

Don't those things run on tap water, anybody have water good enough to
still use those?

"JH" == Jay Honeck writes:

JH Well, a very serious argument can be made that the
JH environmental regulations of the last 30 years have seriously
JH harmed our economy.

In your original post you said the US economy is on track to double in
18 years, now you're saying the economy has been seriously harmed.
Which way is it?

Perhaps you'd like to live in the former Soviet areas, which have
neither a good economy nor a good environment. Not me--I'm very
grateful for the environmental regulation, think we probably need
more, and don't think it will hurt our economy a bit.

JH Well, a very serious argument can be made that the
JH environmental regulations of the last 30 years have seriously
JH harmed our economy.

In your original post you said the US economy is on track to double in
18 years, now you're saying the economy has been seriously harmed.
Which way is it?

Both, of course. Our economy has grown strongly and well -- but away from
manufacturing.

Why are we no longer able to compete in the manufacturing arena? High cost
of production -- far higher than our competitors.

What goes into the high cost of production? Labor costs, of course, and
infrastructure costs. We won't belabor the labor costs (ooo, sorry), but
our infrastructure costs are SO far out of line with our competitors (and
common sense) that I'm amazed ANYTHING is made in this country anymore.
EVERYTHING is regulated -- everything.

And this stupid over-regulation has invaded every facet of business, going
far beyond environmental laws or the manufacturing realm. Here are just a
few examples I must deal with locally:

- If I remodel the hotel TOO extensively, I will have to comply with the
Federal ADA laws -- something we are grandfathered under, because the hotel
is 26 years old. This would mean going out of business.
- If I paint stripes in my four parking lots, I must put "x" number of
handicapped parking spots right up near the doors, rather than allowing my
arriving guests the convenient spots for loading/unloading. Therefore, I
don't paint stripes in my lots.
- If I were to add a new parking lot, I would have to comply with new laws
that stipulate that I plant "x" number for trees for every paved parking
spot. So I get by with my current parking lots.
- If I were to change the signage out front of the hotel too dramatically
(say, by adding an airplane to the sign?), it would come under more recent
regulations that prohibit a 3-story sign in front of a business. So, I
make-do with my 20-year-old sign.
- City ordinance prohibited us from putting a "Grand Opening" sign out front
of the hotel when we bought the place 3 years ago. That's right -- the
local bureaucrats have wound their tendrils so tightly around the throats of
businesspeople that even something as innocent as a "Grand Opening" sign is
forbidden by law.

Now, can you imagine what it would take to build an oil refinery??? We
can't even change our sign without ****ing off some scuzz-ball bureaucrat!

Our country is screwed up far worse than the average guy on the street can
imagine.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

So "stop whining America" turns into "whining about zoning laws." Cool.

Seth

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:fiRPe.282953$x96.223118@attbi_s72...
JH Well, a very serious argument can be made that the
JH environmental regulations of the last 30 years have seriously
JH harmed our economy.

In your original post you said the US economy is on track to double in
18 years, now you're saying the economy has been seriously harmed.
Which way is it?

Both, of course. Our economy has grown strongly and well -- but away from
manufacturing.

Why are we no longer able to compete in the manufacturing arena? High
cost of production -- far higher than our competitors.

What goes into the high cost of production? Labor costs, of course, and
infrastructure costs. We won't belabor the labor costs (ooo, sorry), but
our infrastructure costs are SO far out of line with our competitors (and
common sense) that I'm amazed ANYTHING is made in this country anymore.
EVERYTHING is regulated -- everything.

And this stupid over-regulation has invaded every facet of business, going
far beyond environmental laws or the manufacturing realm. Here are just
a few examples I must deal with locally:

- If I remodel the hotel TOO extensively, I will have to comply with the
Federal ADA laws -- something we are grandfathered under, because the
hotel is 26 years old. This would mean going out of business.
- If I paint stripes in my four parking lots, I must put "x" number of
handicapped parking spots right up near the doors, rather than allowing my
arriving guests the convenient spots for loading/unloading. Therefore, I
don't paint stripes in my lots.
- If I were to add a new parking lot, I would have to comply with new laws
that stipulate that I plant "x" number for trees for every paved parking
spot. So I get by with my current parking lots.
- If I were to change the signage out front of the hotel too dramatically
(say, by adding an airplane to the sign?), it would come under more recent
regulations that prohibit a 3-story sign in front of a business. So, I
make-do with my 20-year-old sign.
- City ordinance prohibited us from putting a "Grand Opening" sign out
front of the hotel when we bought the place 3 years ago. That's right --
the local bureaucrats have wound their tendrils so tightly around the
throats of businesspeople that even something as innocent as a "Grand
Opening" sign is forbidden by law.

Now, can you imagine what it would take to build an oil refinery??? We
can't even change our sign without ****ing off some scuzz-ball bureaucrat!

Our country is screwed up far worse than the average guy on the street can
imagine.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

- If I remodel the hotel TOO extensively, I will have to comply with the
Federal ADA laws -- something we are grandfathered under, because the hotel
is 26 years old. This would mean going out of business.
- If I paint stripes in my four parking lots, I must put "x" number of
handicapped parking spots right up near the doors, rather than allowing my
arriving guests the convenient spots for loading/unloading. Therefore, I
don't paint stripes in my lots.

I don't disagree at all with these laws (except I think x is too high in
most places I've seen).

- If I were to add a new parking lot, I would have to comply with new laws
that stipulate that I plant "x" number for trees for every paved parking
spot. So I get by with my current parking lots.

I very much support this law. There's too much pavement already. Even
in places where there's a lot of land, it's too late too quickly. BTDT

- If I were to change the signage out front of the hotel too dramatically
(say, by adding an airplane to the sign?), it would come under more recent
regulations that prohibit a 3-story sign in front of a business. So, I
make-do with my 20-year-old sign.

This is also a good law. As a person who has to look at those three
story signs, I'd much rather look at three story trees, or sky. Of
course it's "different" when it's =your= business, but like the
internet, there are two hunrded million people out there, and every one
of them has a special message, just for you.

- City ordinance prohibited us from putting a "Grand Opening" sign out front
of the hotel when we bought the place 3 years ago. That's right -- the
local bureaucrats have wound their tendrils so tightly around the throats of
businesspeople that even something as innocent as a "Grand Opening" sign is
forbidden by law.

Maybe they were bitten by the oriental rug dealers, who have a Grand
Opening every week. Were that the case, I'd support that law too.

I've been to places that do not have such onerous regulations. The
result is that electrical connections are made by twisting wires
together and letting them hang loosely. Bottled water is made in the
street by filling an old bottle with a hose, and sealing it with a tape
machine. The neighbor can build a six story luxury apartment building
right up to the property line and the street, next to your one story
house, and the other neighbor can live in a shack with open garbage
pits. The street is filled with cars with boom boxes that would power
Milwaukee for a week just from the friction of the air molecules.

There are plusses and minuses on both sides, but just because =you= have
a business you want to promote or alter doesn't mean that the rest of
the world should have to put up with the side effects.

Jose
--
Quantum Mechanics is like this: God =does= play dice with the universe,
except there's no God, and there's no dice. And maybe there's no universe.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Jay Honeck wrote:

Both, of course. Our economy has grown strongly and well --

Not in the NY-NJ area it hasn't.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

"Seth Masia" wasted electrons writing in message:
I am flying less, using the plane only for necessary trips and making my
hamburgers at home.

What are 'necessary trips' via plane? The only 'necessary trip' flight I can
think of would be to its annual. I try to fly a bit more than that...

-Greg B.