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Unintended consequences of the Stimulus package
Just got back from a company quarterly status meeting.
Our sales are down a third from a year ago, not unusual.
Apparently, though, the stimulus program is directly reducing our sales.
We sell a lot to universities, medical research facilities and the like. They
are telling our sales force that they are holding off on all capital purchases
until they see how/if/what/when the stimulus program will impact them.
Note that they do have the money to spend but they are waiting to see if the
stimulus program will give them a windfall and allow them to buy more or buy
differently.
In the mean time our company has cut 600 jobs and closed four production facilities.
I can't wait to see the unintended consequences of the health care train wreck.
They are surely worse than any of the reports we've heard so far.
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Unintended consequences of the Stimulus package
There are a bunch of things wrong with health care, and government can play a role, but the way they are going about it will kill anyone sickly or over 50 and raise costs to unsustainable levels.
I mostly blame lawyers, bureaucracy, pharmaceutical companies and government. Lawyers for treating the judicial system like a lottery, bureaucrats for allowing their ranks to get so bloated that ~50% of health care dollars go to pay pencil pushers, pharmaceutical companies for charging ridiculous prices to developed countries "because they can" (they charge far less in countries that can't afford it) and government for failing in their oversight role, passing unsustainable programs that cause all of our rates to go up and sucking at the teat of business for self enrichment.
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Unintended consequences of the Stimulus package
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KW: "Unintended consequences." Yes, that is bound to become a major theme in public consciousness. Your example is one of many, but a particularly compelling one. I urge you to write an op-ed piece on this, and submit it to the largest nearby newspaper.
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The last time I wrote a letter to the editor of the Oregonian newspaper they rewrote it to make me sound like a drooling moron and printed that instead. My letter of complaint to their "consumer advocate" was responded to with a form letter restating their policy that they reserve the right to edit all submissions for clarity, brevity and content. I won't make that mistake again, they are a prime example of what is wrong with journalism in this country and there's a good reason why nobody buys what they print. I am hoping for the day when they go belly up altogether.
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Unintended consequences of the Stimulus package
Interesting. I posted our companies experience with customers delaying purchases due to the stimulus in a usenet newsgroup and another guy said the sales guys in his company are saying the same thing. Besides the stupidity of it all one has to wonder if the stimulus is really delaying any possible recovery.
Stimulus dollars here are being spent to repave roads that don't really need it. They could be adding lanes or paving over all the dirt roads in the county but that would make too much sense.
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Unintended consequences of the Stimulus package
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You're a good writer, KW, but newspapers have their own editorial conventions, space limitations, "balance" issues, legal fears, etc., and some low-level editors feel that the more they change in a submission, the better they're doing their job. You have an important and timely point to make, and if you'd like to get a former columnist's comments on your first draft, you're welcome to send to me.
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Thanks for the compliment and the offer. Why are you a former rather than current columnist? Retirement?
The letter I submitted referenced gun issues from a viewpoint opposed to the editorial stance of the newspaper. It was polite and within length constraints specified on the letters page. Their edit job introduced misspellings, poor grammar, incoherent and incomplete sentences and unfocused thoughts that were not present in the original letter. It was clear to me that their policy was to demean anyone who dared to disagree with the editors.
So now I don't bother, but do try to cost them subscribers whenever the opportunity arises.
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Unintended consequences of the Stimulus package
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Ken was this a Knight Ridder paper?I will not buy our local daily for such reasons.
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It's not Knight Ridder and is privately owned IIRC. I have forgotten who owns it and it doesn't seem to be posted on their web site.
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Unintended consequences of the Stimulus package
I was wrong, the Oregonian is owned by Newhouse Newspapers and appears to be the only newspaper they own that is west of the Mississippi.
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Ken, based on experience, you would get much farther making a note of the major advertisers in that newspaper and writing to them briefly explaining the situation, and enclosing a copy of both your original letter, and the one they published. Then go on to say that because of this intolerable situation you will no longer read that newspaper and that you wished to inform them that their advertising dollars spent on that newspaper were being wasted as far as your consumer spending was concerned. Be sure to CC the newspaper editor & publisher also with each letter.
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Murf, I'm sure you're right but this situation made me so mad I threw the newspaper on the burn pile. They are losing advertisers right and left and like a lot of other newspapers are in deep trouble. They just raised the per-copy price from 35 or 50 cents to a buck. Yep, that will help.
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