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What caused all the supply chain bottlenecks?

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Re: What caused all the supply chain bottlenecks?

#371

Post by actually_a_dog »

throw0101a wrote: post #286
darawk wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of this is the point, though. The point is that Amazon wouldn't have achieved what it has if Bezos was forced to slowly divest control of his company over the last two decades. Bezos does not have his cash in hand, for the most part. To the extent that he does have cash in hand, he has already paid taxes on that cash. To the extent that he has not paid taxes on his wealth, he is fully incentivized by the share p…

> Bezos does not have his cash in hand, for the most part. To the extent that he does have cash in hand, he has already paid taxes on that cash. What a lot of high wealthy individuals are doing is using their portfolios as collateral against lines of credit. The LOCs give them cash to fund their lifestyle, and they don't have to liquidate their portfolios and take the capital gains charges (at least in the short-term…

Not just holdings and cash in hand, but $0 tax liability as a result.

Re: What caused all the supply chain bottlenecks?

#373

Post by human »

JaimeThompson wrote: post #346
darawk wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of this is the point, though. The point is that Amazon wouldn't have achieved what it has if Bezos was forced to slowly divest control of his company over the last two decades. Bezos does not have his cash in hand, for the most part. To the extent that he does have cash in hand, he has already paid taxes on that cash. To the extent that he has not paid taxes on his wealth, he is fully incentivized by the share p…

In large portions of the united states people who own homes have their property taxes go up most every year based on the value of their home. Seems a bit strange to me to treat, in this respect, peoples homes differently.

That’s because you pay those taxes in exchange for services from your municipality. And let’s admit it, it’s stupid that your payment is proportional to the value of your house. How is the city budget correlated with house values?

Re: What caused all the supply chain bottlenecks?

#374

Post by scottcodie »

evilotto wrote: post #33

He's right to point out that the obsession with RoE is a big part of the problem. He's wrong to suggest that the billionaire class and founders will solve the problem if we only trust them and let them keep their money. Founders have just as much incentive to optimize the excess out of the system, they just call it "disruptive innovation" by which they mean tweaking how the system works so that they can squeeze out p…

Economists would say that companies are willing to accept higher risk, the 'return on equity' isn't the only driving force. The question here is who shoulders the risk, the company or the consumer. With JIT, the consumer may bear more of the risk. It may not be a bad thing either.

New companies aren't all trying to be rent-seekers, they also try to dodge existing regulation or actually innovate.

Re: What caused all the supply chain bottlenecks?

#375

Post by JPKab »

makomk wrote: post #161
JPKab wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The obsession with RoE is really just a major form of efficiency. Having things sitting around unused is a huge reason that US car companies got their asses handed to them by Toyota and their TQM/LEAN system they developed. People writing articles like this forget that it's not just Wall Street, but competitors who created the huge pressures for adopting JIT inventory systems. There's also the consumer. Are you willi…

This. Also, the tweets complain about not having excess capacity due to the "obsession with return on investment", but that's really just an abstraction around the fact that extra capacity means using more limited real-world resources to supply people with the same amount of stuff - more land, more steel and concrete and construction labour and equipment to build the extra factory and shipping capacity that goes unus…

Indeed. It blows my mind how many intelligent, articulate, and privileged people in our modern society fail to realize how much their privilege insulates them from understanding the basics of supply and demand. Anyone who has ever worked on a factory floor, or a construction site, or even a kitchen (I doubt the tweeter has ever worked a job like this in their entire life) intuitively understands excess inventory as waste. They also intuitively understand that this waste translates to money needlessly spent earlier than it needed to be, or even worse, spent and then lost due to reality changing, demand shifts, etc.

It really feels like a lot of these folks go to university, embrace a quasi-religious ideology where large companies are the devil and are therefore the root of all things bad, and profits are a sign of greed. Meanwhile, the douchenozzle is sitting there writing that tweet on a piece of electronics that was made possible by the things he's complaining about.

Re: What caused all the supply chain bottlenecks?

#376

Post by [deleted] »

darawk wrote: post #337
throw0101a wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Bezos does not have his cash in hand, for the most part. To the extent that he does have cash in hand, he has already paid taxes on that cash. What a lot of high wealthy individuals are doing is using their portfolios as collateral against lines of credit. The LOCs give them cash to fund their lifestyle, and they don't have to liquidate their portfolios and take the capital gains charges (at least in the short-term…

> What a lot of high wealthy individuals are doing is using their portfolios as collateral against lines of credit. The LOCs give them cash to fund their lifestyle, and they don't have to liquidate their portfolios and take the capital gains charges (at least in the short-term). > Someone can have both holdings and cash in this situation. Ya, I understand this. This is exactly my point, though. If he's taken out loan…

[deleted]

Re: What caused all the supply chain bottlenecks?

#377

Post by revolvingocelot »

ethbr0 wrote: post #287
revolvingocelot wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it's still in his best interest to ensure that the economy doesn't crash Technically, yeah! Functionally, though, if the Even Greater Depression arrived tomorrow? He'd still be the richest man alive, and probably even more powerful than he already is right now thanks to how Amazon and AWS would get to take over more failing social institutions. Sure, a falling tide lowers all boats, but Bezos will still comfortably…

> He'd still be the richest man alive, and probably even more powerful than he already is right now thanks to how Amazon and AWS would get to take over more failing social institutions. Bezos isn't even the richest person alive today. That would be Musk. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/elon-musk-is-now-n...

Feh, you're right -- I hadn't looked at the leaderboards lately. While that mistake makes me look stupid, I don't think it detracts significantly from what I was trying to say.

Re: What caused all the supply chain bottlenecks?

#378

Post by Supermancho »

nostrademons wrote: post #302
amelius wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yep, the capital owning class just doesn't care if their businesses go into shock because they already have their cash in hand. What if there was inflation?

Inflation generally helps big business and its owners. They get to raise prices, and they usually get to raise prices more than the average firm does because they have little competition. You're seeing this now with record-high corporate earnings. As long as the capital-owning class is holding equity (stocks, real estate) they benefit from inflation.

> Inflation generally helps big business and its owners.

I'm not sure that follows in extreme cases. I don't even think it follows in baseline cases (2% inflation yoy).

Raising prices leaves customers with limited resources, as wages do not follow at anywhere near the same rate.

If inflation brings prices up, consumers can only spend on specific items, prioritizing necessities over entire verticals of goods. For the vast majority of companies, it's bad.

Re: What caused all the supply chain bottlenecks?

#379

Post by JPKab »

andrekandre wrote: post #366
JPKab wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an entire book (I've read it) about this called "The Machine That Changed The World" published in the early 90's. It goes into great depth as to the issues that were plaguing GM/Ford etc. The excess inventory was absolutely not driven by too little demand. It was simply inefficiency in the manufacturing process and inability to rapidly reconfigure the shop floor or reallocate labor towards bottlenecks. The bo…

> I'm a hardcore believer in the ACTUAL Agile philosophy, which is rooted in lean would then the work of juran, demming, goldratt et al, be good reading as well?

I'm a fan of anything that is rooted in reality and has been battle-tested. If it's theoretical, I don't care about it. Toyota didn't will lean into thin air out of nothing. It was evolved, tested, and refined in the harsh economic realities of post WW2 Japan. Bullshit wasn't capable of surviving that environment, just things that actually worked.

A lot of the Demming types are pure theory, or just garbage in the modern age.

Re: What caused all the supply chain bottlenecks?

#380

Post by roiboosxh »

whatever1 wrote: post #150
jollybean wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The assumption that stock prices don't matter, because company ABC doesn't necessarily depend on it 'for now' - is just wrong I'm afraid. If Apple crashed to 1 cent it would gut the entire market. Even just that crash alone, the amount of money wiped out, retiree savings etc., other companies would be valued lower and then the mass selloff would crush them as well. Apple may not need to 'raise money now' but it very…

One of the two is true: 1) The market value of a company is true, aka the owners of this company must be taxed for the real value growth in their portfolio (since it constitutes income), even if they do not sell 2) It’s a casino, a share is just a ticket that may worth nothing or a billion. In that case we don’t need tax protections. The owners of the tickets must be taxed only when they cash out. The governments sho…

You cannot tax an asset that does not move. In what intervals would you do this? Your bank account would go to zero.
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