111–120 of 1001 posts
I used to be able to buy good running shoes on clearance every year at $30-$50
Even through 2020-2021 or so
But not anymore, now even on "clearance" they almost never drop below $100 and never ever to $50
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i don't understand the obsession with jobs anyway people don't want a job, they want money and purpose most jobs barely deliver either
> i don't understand the obsession with jobs anyway > people don't want a job, they want money and purpose And society will not give them any of that without a job. There, now you should understand "the obsession with jobs." > most jobs barely deliver either And no job delivers even less .
Unless you are an aristocrat. Them your "job" was to fleece the peasants, and somehow "society" accepted this for thousands of years.
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i don't understand the obsession with jobs anyway people don't want a job, they want money and purpose most jobs barely deliver either
Can you propose something better that provides money and purpose? Keep in mind that most people are unwilling and unable to sustainably maintain self-employment.
Now before you get all hung up how this isn’t possible. There is precedent. The government would do just this during the great depression, sponsoring artists knowing it is more valuable to have artists in the population than to lose that talent pool and benefits to culture over cold cruel economics.
So, 100$ Nike shoes will soon be 125$.
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The shoes aren't even needed. Growing up in Scotland (not poor) in the 1970s I had one pair of shoes. When they wore out my mother would buy me a new pair. Today in the US I have so many pairs of shoes I don't really have space to store them and sometimes end up buying a new pair of shows I already own because I can't keep track of what's in the closet. Btw the one thing that will be left to show is a wider realizati…
dborehamsays "Btw the one thing that will be left to show is a wider realization that it's a bad idea to elect a crazy person." Regret to inform that all of them are crazy.
I'm sure it's comforting to assume that all politicians are equally corrupt and equally insane and so your vote doesn't actually matter one way or the other but Kamala Harris wouldn't be acting like this, nor would Biden. Hell, not even other Republicans.
Also > Again, it's a popular misconception that all overseas production is sweatshops. Production can be done ethically abroad and still be relatively cheap because the cost of living is not the same everywhere. I encourage you to note assume that every Asian worker is a slave
No not necessarily slave slaves but I do assume they’re wage slaves, at least the line workers, the higher ups will be compensated a bit better I’m sure.
> But if we bump the cost of freight, insurance, and customs from $5 to, say, $28, then they wholesale the shoes to Footlocker for about $75. And if Footlocker purchases Nike shoes for $75, then they retail them for $150. Everyone needs to fixed percentages to avoid losses. I don't understand this paragraph. If Footlocker was okay with $50 profit/shoe, why do they need to claim $75 profit/shoe in their costs per shoe…
Americans need to get over their view of “Asia” as being about making shoes. When I was working in engineering in the early aughts, we mocked the Chinese as being able only to copy American technology. Today, China is competitive with or ahead of America in key technology areas, including nuclear power, AI, EVs, and batteries. We need to anticipate a future where China is equal to America on a per capita basis, but f…
Their population is declining, and they are a long way away from parity with the west on a per-capita basis. I think China missed their opportunity. Also, the UK hasn't dominated finance for a century and has never been dominant in services, so it doesn't seem like an apt comparison.
Word for that, hubris
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Explain the strategic value like I'm 5? I see people reference this idea all the time, but I'm unconvinced it's actually valuable enough to be worth it given all the other downsides. I don't actually believe it's a positive value proposition. I see the argument for things of military significance. The common one is electronic components. But PCBs manufacturing is easy to spinup quickly. Which leave the critical compo…
Imagine if China decided to invade Taiwan like they've been threatening to do for a while. They would instantly cut off all exports to the US, because that's the smart thing to do. They would probably blockade Japan and other countries as well to keep them from exporting to the US, because that's the smart thing to do. Now since our supply chains were greatly disrupted (remember COVID?) we can only go to war with the…
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Because the market recognized value add is the capital investment and returns, including the credit basis on which inventories flow. These people are operating on a per $ basis, not a per shoe basis. If the margins % lower then the capital will flow to something else more profitable and then prices rise until the margins are relatively flat across similar productive investments.
That doesn’t really make sense to me. The market cares about dollar returned vs dollar invested. If some piece in the middle of the chain goes up and end customer prices go up as well, that doesn’t directly affect investors at all. The way it could and likely will affect investors is if people start buying fewer shoes, but that is a different process than what you are describing. If I’m off base can you help me under…
Think in the extreme. $1 billion can probably earn more in a saving account than as a shoe that generates $50 profit after 2 weeks.