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We Can All Become Job Creators
21–30 of 101 posts
Re: We Can All Become Job Creators
#22We need to stop talking about "job creation" and start talking about "wealth creation". It's easy to create jobs -- e.g. I can go round breaking windows with rocks and create jobs for glaziers. But creating jobs that create wealth -- that is, to create an opportunity for someone else to join their labour with my capital in order to build something that someone wishes to pay for, thus enriching all three of us... well…
I generally feel (and this is generally due to my Austrian economic leanings) that talking about easier access to capital (through artificially lowering interest rates) is confusing the symptoms with the disease. We need to build up the capital in this country through saving and investment in companies, but that is not accomplished by just wishing it (through economic manipulation). We are in the midst of a massive h…
Uh, doesn't this program facilitate investment in companies?
Re: We Can All Become Job Creators
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
I disagree - I'm not an economist, but certainly here in the UK there's a lot of talk about access to credit being a significant limiting factor. Hence the government's 'credit easing' program, which is aimed at lending directly to businesses where the banks won't: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/oct/03/george-osborn...
A lot of the growth of the last decade was driven by unsustainable private and public borrowing and spending. Most people in the political class are desperate to get the credit bubble-blowing machine running again, by having the state subsidize un-economic loans to un-creditworthy businesses and individuals.
Sure, although I think in this case it might be the lesser of two evils. It would definitely be nice to see the private sector funding job creation, but if they're not going to do it it's probably worth getting the government involved.
Re: We Can All Become Job Creators
#24Interesting, glad to see, at the very least, a bit of patriotism returning to the idea of jobs. In big companies the push to outsource is strong and political correctness prevents much dissent. Would still like to see a government regulation help as well: e.g. perhaps companies with more employees per profit would have a tax incentive and companies with fewer employees per profit would have a penalty. This way you es…
>perhaps companies with more employees per profit would have a tax incentive and companies with fewer employees per profit would have a penalty. That would be terrible. You'd be penalizing the Googles and Apples of the world, who create good jobs, and rewarding the Walmarts, who create shitty ones.
Agreed. Our friend is afraid of a problem that has never existed in history. A society that is increasing in productivity and wealth just creates new types of employment opportunities, not unemployment.
Re: We Can All Become Job Creators
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
I generally feel (and this is generally due to my Austrian economic leanings) that talking about easier access to capital (through artificially lowering interest rates) is confusing the symptoms with the disease. We need to build up the capital in this country through saving and investment in companies, but that is not accomplished by just wishing it (through economic manipulation). We are in the midst of a massive h…
Uh, doesn't this program facilitate investment in companies?
Yes. I'm not speaking against this program, I was simply addressing the point made by hugh3. The larger problem is that we don't just need "investment" we need to avoid "malinvestment." But with economic manipulation, the market doesn't get the right signals for where capital should go.
That said, I'm all for attempts to invest as best we can in this environment, and I'm in favor of this program.
Re: We Can All Become Job Creators
#26We need to stop talking about "job creation" and start talking about "wealth creation". It's easy to create jobs -- e.g. I can go round breaking windows with rocks and create jobs for glaziers. But creating jobs that create wealth -- that is, to create an opportunity for someone else to join their labour with my capital in order to build something that someone wishes to pay for, thus enriching all three of us... well…
The main reason businesses aren't hiring is that they're not convinced that putting extra people on staff will actually be profitable. I believe it is deeper than that. If we look to agriculture, there is a short expiration date on the job. If you don't get the crop off in a timely manner, you are quickly going to be out of business. I hear farmers constantly complaining how difficult it is to find good people, but t…
"If you make a product and don't make any changes to it in several years, people will continue to buy your products anyway"
Tell that to Microsoft. They sat stagnant on WinMo 6.x for nearly 5 years before rewriting and releasing Windows Phone 7. Their marketshare eroded to dust while iOS and Android (and, by that point, even Blackberry OS, Symbian, and WebOS) ran circles around it.
So, yes, there is a shelf-life. Not because of spoilage, but because of cutthroat competition and a consumer that doesn't have the patience to wait for you.
"You can wait to hire the best of the best. If they are busy right now, you can hire them later."
The reason why programmers make upwards of 200k/yr. (depending on region and specialization) is because there's not enough of them and too many competing companies that need them, not because programming is akin to neurosurgery that you have to wait for that one-in-a-million shot to hire the most gifted hands.
That's why starting salaries out of college are now 60-70k in the West Coast and not 40k as was traditional for a CS grad.
Re: We Can All Become Job Creators
#27We need to stop talking about "job creation" and start talking about "wealth creation". It's easy to create jobs -- e.g. I can go round breaking windows with rocks and create jobs for glaziers. But creating jobs that create wealth -- that is, to create an opportunity for someone else to join their labour with my capital in order to build something that someone wishes to pay for, thus enriching all three of us... well…
A good question to ask is---do we want to create jobs? "Job" has a variety of meanings. It can mean a great opportunity, or it can mean devalued wage slavery. Usually it means filling a role as an economic input in the profit machine someone is constructing. The killer development that would create a bunch of jobs at a stroke would be a tool that lets companies profit by hiring uneducated people. But there are other…
Re: We Can All Become Job Creators
#28We need to stop talking about "job creation" and start talking about "wealth creation". It's easy to create jobs -- e.g. I can go round breaking windows with rocks and create jobs for glaziers. But creating jobs that create wealth -- that is, to create an opportunity for someone else to join their labour with my capital in order to build something that someone wishes to pay for, thus enriching all three of us... well…
Easier access to credit is a huge detriment to small businesses, in ways that we (startup-folks) don't think about... One example - the typical small business restaurant. It is a VERY different businesses than the startups that we create. You can't create a restaurant without any money, for example... You can bootstrap an online business by not paying yourself, but when you have to pay for a building and kitchen etc, things are much tougher.
Programs like this that leverage your dollars effectively are pretty useful - there are lot of people out there who want to start small businesses or hire someone seasonally etc that are just in a cash crunch... You have to hire someone before you get paid for their efforts, and you can't offer them equity.
What they're doing (in my understanding) is eliminating the default risk for lenders, so they are able to leverage the dollars 1 to 7. This is also common in the microfinance field. It makes a lot of sense. Also, SBUX is the best place I can think of to market this. I'm in line paying $5 for a coffee... can I give a dollar for small business? hell yeah. A question arises in my mind though, shouldn't I just pay $4 for a coffee at an actual small business?
We made an infographic on small business lending... it isn't our best, but it does have some useful stats (TL;DR - credit is a big problem for small businesses and loans are really hard to get): http://feefighters.com/blog/ff_infographic/the-truth-about-s...
Re: We Can All Become Job Creators
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
The main reason businesses aren't hiring is that they're not convinced that putting extra people on staff will actually be profitable. I believe it is deeper than that. If we look to agriculture, there is a short expiration date on the job. If you don't get the crop off in a timely manner, you are quickly going to be out of business. I hear farmers constantly complaining how difficult it is to find good people, but t…
"If you make a product and don't make any changes to it in several years, people will continue to buy your products anyway" Tell that to Microsoft. They sat stagnant on WinMo 6.x for nearly 5 years before rewriting and releasing Windows Phone 7. Their marketshare eroded to dust while iOS and Android (and, by that point, even Blackberry OS, Symbian, and WebOS) ran circles around it. So, yes, there is a shelf-life. Not…
Tell that to Microsoft. They sat stagnant on WinMo 6.x for nearly 5 years before rewriting and releasing Windows Phone 7.
That highlights my point. Until the competition arrived, there was no real force driving them to continue working on it. The money was rolling in regardless of what they were doing to it. Microsoft could have went down to the unemployment line and set all of those people to work on the product, but unlike in other industries, there was no reason for that to happen.
The reason why programmers make upwards of 200k/yr. (depending on region and specialization) is because there's not enough of them
Again highlighting my point. Farmers have to hire anyone, not because farming is easy, but because you can't wait to find a great farmhand. The job has to be done now. Tech companies can wait for the best of the best. Why aren't those software companies hiring that guy who lost his manufacturing job for $9/hr instead? It is because they don't need to. They can wait for the one who is great at the job.
Re: We Can All Become Job Creators
#30[deleted]