I am a Factory

[dmcowen674]

2-6-2014

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OQcoDQq3-o

Let's make great things. U.S. manufacturing is coming back, creating new jobs for American workers. Learn more: www.walmart.com/AmericanJobs.

http://rare.us/story/mike-rowe-defends-his-involvement-in-walmart-manufacturing-commercial/

Mike Rowe defends his involvement in Walmart manufacturing commercial

Mike Rowe of Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs” fame responded on Facebook Monday to public criticism over his narration of a new Walmart commercial advocating a $250 billion campaign to create manufacturing jobs in the U.S.

“Last night during the Olympics, a commercial started running called “I Am a Factory.” It’s part of a larger campaign sponsored by Walmart, called “Work Is a Beautiful Thing.” The commercial features real people doing real work in real factories all across America. It’s not very glamorous, but it’s honest and authentic, and I was honored to narrate it,” Rowe posted to his Facebook just after midnight.

The Ford spokesman answered numerous questions posed to him by those supportive and skeptical of the manufacturing campaign.

“Hey, I am on your side here, I want “made in America” too but make you’re sure on the side of the WORKER not the corporate greed side ok Mike? Love ya,” said Rose Marie Bayless.

Rowe responds by saying, “Love ya back, Rose, but no thanks. You offer up a false and dangerous choice. The world is bigger than “Workers vs. Bosses,” and so is this campaign. Remember, Walmart thrives because a majority of Americans like to shop there. Like Apple, Discovery, Ford, and Facebook, Walmart does not exist for the purpose of employing people. No successful company does. Walmart’s first order of business is to serve their customer. Ultimately, the customer calls the shots. Not management. Not labor. Jobs are just a happy consequence of that success.”

 

[dmcowen674]

Son of a bitch

They are the bastards that shipped all the jobs overseas.

Now they realize they killed the Golden Goose?

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Son of a bitch

They are the bastards that shipped all the jobs overseas.

Now they realize they killed the Golden Goose?

Once you declared that all should suffer so those you dislike suffer more you lost all finger pointing rights. What we need is to bring jobs back and it can only be done if the Walmarts of this nation see it as being to their benefit. I don't have to like them. Generally speaking I don't, but I want jobs for our people though I might dislike Company X for its previous policy. No this isn't a magnanimous act. They want more money and stand to gain.

The difference between you and me is if the rain must fall on the fields of both rich and poor I'll take it. You'd have everyone die of famine.

 

[dmcowen674]

Once you declared that all should suffer so those you dislike suffer more you lost all finger pointing rights. What we need is to bring jobs back and it can only be done if the Walmarts of this nation see it as being to their benefit. I don't have to like them. Generally speaking I don't, but I want jobs for our people though I might dislike Company X for its previous policy. No this isn't a magnanimous act. They want more money and stand to gain.

The difference between you and me is if the rain must fall on the fields of both rich and poor I'll take it. You'd have everyone die of famine.

They burned the fields, I didn't.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Who said they didn't? Now there may come a chance to resow and you would salt the earth.

This bitterness harms it's bearer and I say this with no malice or mockery. You've been wronged and no one understands. You've been maligned at times by those without mercy or compassion. We can't undo any of that but begrudging others a chance who have done us no harm poisons the soul. There is nothing but good will in what I'm saying. Please step back and consider my words as I mean them.

 

[MagickMan]

They burned the fields, I didn't.

Don't you have a revolution to start? You lazy bastard.

 

[Newell Steamer]

Wait - you mean to tell me that shipping jobs overseas will result in undercutting the buying power of the very consumer you depend on to make your profits, since he/she no longer has a job?!

Noooooo!!!

These smash and grab "savings" initiatives of shipping jobs overseas did one thing and one thing only; it gave the greedy fuck who cooked them up a fat bonus. There was no gain to the shareholders (in fact, the companies are prone to risks; operational suboptimization, fraud and errors), there were no gains for the workers who were still employed (had to deal with someone reading a script and unfamiliar with western business jargon - as well as clean up messes from the offshore resources) and with all the ramp up, errors, training and set up, it probably cost the companies more.

So, now that the jobs are supposidly coming back, will the middle class / low income workers still be labeled as entitled, whiney goons looking to get paid a huge salary, while doing drugs, getting tattoos and buying iPhones?

 

[Engineer]

Wait - you mean to tell me that shipping jobs overseas will result in undercutting the buying power of the very consumer you depend on to make your profits, since he/she no longer has a job?!

Noooooo!!!

Heh...same thing I was thinking with one exception....many of them do have jobs....new McService McJobs. 2% of the nation now works selling stuff from Walmart, McDonalds and Yum Brands (KFC, etc). Instead of a nation of builders and producers, we have became a nation of sellers. Imported prosperity for....some.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Consumers shipped jobs oversea.

Walmart did nothing but roll with the waves that told it where to go.


But go ahead, keep blaming corporations even though YOU are what makes the corporation.

 

[Engineer]

Consumers shipped jobs oversea.

Walmart did nothing but roll with the waves that told it where to go.


But go ahead, keep blaming corporations even though YOU are what makes the corporation.

Damn right. Hell, I attended many board meetings even though I was only a consumer and told the board to build new factories in China and close them down here. They resisted but did it anyway, even though there was more profit in it for them.

Poor executives had no decision in this at all....100% consumers! :thumbsup:

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Damn right. Hell, I attended many board meetings even though I was only a consumer and told the board to build new factories in China and close them down here. They resisted but did it anyway, even though there was more profit in it for them.

Poor executives had no decision in this at all....100% consumers! :thumbsup:

A little anecdote.

I lived in a small New Hampshire for half a dozen years. A great many people worked in small shops independently owned as it had been for over a hundred years. Regional supermarkets and chain stores came in but overall it was locally owned and run. People made a decent wage and were what I would describe as comfortable.

Well one day Walmart set its eyes on this little community and the local businesses managed to keep them at bay, but the cries of "anti competitive" and hindering the free market won the day. After all they deserved lower prices than they were getting.

And so the people got what they asked for. Walmart immediately went into predatory mode and in a few months anything retail related was gone. Poof!

Well who needs them! We have lower prices... but wait... no job. So they go to Walmart who paid them half wages and employed less than half who were out of work. Unemployment and a staggering crippling of the local economy ruined the town and surrounding areas.

And of course Walmart will bring lower prices and that means outsourcing and more loss of jobs.

So in the end the people got exactly what they asked for. They got cheap things that weren't any cheaper after the cut in income. The jobless could not find work and so unemployment and welfare shot up. The people asked, no demanded that Walmart do exactly what they did.

The old adage is "be careful of what you ask for because you might get it" Never was it more true with Walmart and the like.

 

[Engineer]

So I guess nobody shipped any jobs out because they wanted more profit, which is basically 100% the primary motive behind 99% of business? They shipped the jobs out to get lower prices for the consumers with no increase in profit. I like it!

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

So I guess nobody shipped any jobs out because they wanted more profit, which is basically 100% the primary motive behind 99% of business? They shipped the jobs out to get lower prices for the consumers with no increase in profit. I like it!

Of course they wanted profit. To make that you have to get people to buy your stuff. To do that Walmart sells cheap plastic crap because cheap plastic crap is cheaper. Cheaper means profit. Cheaper means overseas.

This nothing mutually exclusive here. It's about money. People want to save money and if it screws even themselves over then so be it. Walmart wants to make money and so they provide precisely what is asked for. At least the management knows how to make money but others? They are so blinded by their own personal greed that they saved themselves out of a job and NOW bitch. I suggest you read the "tesla" thread.

 

[Engineer]

and Walmart is 'saving' itself out of customers.....as are the rest that are shipping jobs out.

 

[Doppel]

As I have often mentioned and will again the Tragedy of the Commons explains human behavior in many arenas, and consumer habits is one.

You people blaming consumers sound like a person blaming a sheep for following the rest of the flock into a slaughter house. All sheep want to do is eat, and they'll go for tall grass close by than taller grass further away. It's in their nature and they never work outside of it. Similarly people want cheap and they want it now.

It's absolutely true that the consumer environment is as it is because of consumer behavior, but it's also irrelevant. Consumers on an individual basis are utterly irrelevant. Whether I shop at Walmart or the locally-owned clothes shop with higher prices makes absolutely no measurable difference to anything. It's only when a group exerts pressure that anything changes. A group needs leadership. And when that leader lacks the ability to exert control with words, he needs force. I'm talking about laws.

Rampant outsourcing has occurred because the law has allowed it to. Of course consumers embraced it because they are interested in a cheap TV today because they still have a job, even if that cheap TV may mean later on they won't.

Blaming consumers is like blaming a dog for stealing meat off the counter even when you've told it not to and every time it does it you whip it. At the end of the day it's a dog. It sees meat, it grabs it. Period. So if you're smart you take the meat out of its reach.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

and Walmart is 'saving' itself out of customers.....as are the rest that are shipping jobs out.

To use a phrase- "always"

Always ask what happens next. If the people who put themselves out of a job did just that there would be no problem with the Walmarts of the world. What I do have objections to is using money to gain influence among politicians to bribe them into a better market position, but there's no real control over that.

Now IF Walmart does bring back jobs I'm not above using them. The concern is that the devil is "always" in the details. If we're going to people back to work for minimum wage then I"m not thrilled. We could have a better policy in place, but people are too dumb to not get eaten, much less think a day ahead.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Blaming consumers is like blaming a dog for stealing meat off the counter even when you've told it not to and every time it does it you whip it. At the end of the day it's a dog. It sees meat, it grabs it. Period. So if you're smart you take the meat out of its reach.

It isn't dogs. It's dogs, sharks and leeches.

The consumer dog doesn't think, the Walmart shark will eat, and the leech politician will just suck everyone's blood.

Yes I do hold the consumer responsible. Don't be a dog and let the sharks and leeches get you. Saying "they can't help it" is like saying "well drunks will be drunks so toss them the keys."

 

[Engineer]

As I have often mentioned and will again the Tragedy of the Commons explains human behavior in many arenas, and consumer habits is one.

You people blaming consumers sound like a person blaming a sheep for following the rest of the flock into a slaughter house. All sheep want to do is eat, and they'll go for tall grass close by than taller grass further away. It's in their nature and they never work outside of it. Similarly people want cheap and they want it now.

It's absolutely true that the consumer environment is as it is because of consumer behavior, but it's also irrelevant. Consumers on an individual basis are utterly irrelevant. Whether I shop at Walmart or the locally-owned clothes shop with higher prices makes absolutely no measurable difference to anything. It's only when a group exerts pressure that anything changes. A group needs leadership. And when that leader lacks the ability to exert control with words, he needs force. I'm talking about laws.

Rampant outsourcing has occurred because the law has allowed it to. Of course consumers embraced it because they are interested in a cheap TV today because they still have a job, even if that cheap TV may mean later on they won't.

Blaming consumers is like blaming a dog for stealing meat off the counter even when you've told it not to and every time it does it you whip it. At the end of the day it's a dog. It sees meat, it grabs it. Period. So if you're smart you take the meat out of its reach.

Wonderful! :thumbsup:

 

[dmcowen674]

Who said they didn't? Now there may come a chance to resow and you would salt the earth.

This bitterness harms it's bearer and I say this with no malice or mockery. You've been wronged and no one understands. You've been maligned at times by those without mercy or compassion. We can't undo any of that but begrudging others a chance who have done us no harm poisons the soul. There is nothing but good will in what I'm saying. Please step back and consider my words as I mean them.

Can you un-ring a bell?

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally Posted by Doppel
As I have often mentioned and will again the Tragedy of the Commons explains human behavior in many arenas, and consumer habits is one.

You people blaming consumers sound like a person blaming a sheep for following the rest of the flock into a slaughter house. All sheep want to do is eat, and they'll go for tall grass close by than taller grass further away. It's in their nature and they never work outside of it. Similarly people want cheap and they want it now.

It's absolutely true that the consumer environment is as it is because of consumer behavior, but it's also irrelevant. Consumers on an individual basis are utterly irrelevant. Whether I shop at Walmart or the locally-owned clothes shop with higher prices makes absolutely no measurable difference to anything. It's only when a group exerts pressure that anything changes. A group needs leadership. And when that leader lacks the ability to exert control with words, he needs force. I'm talking about laws.

Rampant outsourcing has occurred because the law has allowed it to. Of course consumers embraced it because they are interested in a cheap TV today because they still have a job, even if that cheap TV may mean later on they won't.

Blaming consumers is like blaming a dog for stealing meat off the counter even when you've told it not to and every time it does it you whip it. At the end of the day it's a dog. It sees meat, it grabs it. Period. So if you're smart you take the meat out of its reach.

Wonderful! :thumbsup:

But he is wolf in sheep clothing.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally Posted by Doppel
Blaming consumers is like blaming a dog for stealing meat off the counter even when you've told it not to and every time it does it you whip it. At the end of the day it's a dog. It sees meat, it grabs it. Period. So if you're smart you take the meat out of its reach.

It isn't dogs. It's dogs, sharks and leeches.

The consumer dog doesn't think, the Walmart shark will eat, and the leech politician will just suck everyone's blood.

Yes I do hold the consumer responsible. Don't be a dog and let the sharks and leeches get you. Saying "they can't help it" is like saying "well drunks will be drunks so toss them the keys."

This would only be true if you could take the meat off the counter.

The counter is locked behind closed doors of the Corporations.

They own the counter, the meat and the dog.

 

[Tweak155]

This would only be true if you could take the meat off the counter.

The counter is locked behind closed doors of the Corporations.

They own the counter, the meat and the dog.

How much for the meat?

 

[werepossum]

Who said they didn't? Now there may come a chance to resow and you would salt the earth.

This bitterness harms it's bearer and I say this with no malice or mockery. You've been wronged and no one understands. You've been maligned at times by those without mercy or compassion. We can't undo any of that but begrudging others a chance who have done us no harm poisons the soul. There is nothing but good will in what I'm saying. Please step back and consider my words as I mean them.

Well said, sir.

Mike Rowe for President! He has intelligence, common sense, an appreciation for capitalism AND hard work, and recognizes our biggest problem.

 

[OverVolt]

I'm familiar with the commercial, I like it, but the Walmart at the end is a total facepalm.

Two things, there seems to be some pretty heavy consumer price deflation. You'd expect this after the holidays but stuff like coffee, bread, milk, etc. is actually really cheap. There is downward pressure on smart phone bills as far as I can tell, (mainstream carriers dropping prices) and electronics are stupid cheap as well, except the new consoles. Which is interesting.

So I'm at wal-mart last night and everyone working there is around my age, mid-twenties. I really can't help but think "where are all the teenagers" but I know the answer... probably unemployed at home displaced by the twenty-somethings.

Every single one of them I pass just looked miserable. The one of the few middle-aged guys who was restocking the eggs when I picked some up told me to make sure to check them for cracks, I guess he figured no one my age does.

I kinda get the feels from it because they're all my age, its surreal. They see I'm about the same age so I get alot of "oh hey sup man, need help?" etc. even though they don't really have the time to help me the way they were restocking in such a fervor. They aren't really screw-ups as best as I can tell. Other than being casual with me they were well spoken, dressed nice, decent hygiene, etc.

Imagine... as a 50 year old going into wal-mart and there's all these miserable other 50 year olds there working their asses off. Hmm...

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

It isn't dogs. It's dogs, sharks and leeches.

The consumer dog doesn't think, the Walmart shark will eat, and the leech politician will just suck everyone's blood.

Yes I do hold the consumer responsible. Don't be a dog and let the sharks and leeches get you. Saying "they can't help it" is like saying "well drunks will be drunks so toss them the keys."

This x5000

All you Walmart bashers are already saving up tears for when Walmart crashes eventually, preparing for the inevitable replacement. Everyone of you hounds them like they are an indestructible force, impossible to crash. Never would they EVER have something like that happen... like... KMart... or Sears... or <Insert another retailer>.

It's a market, they need to do what they can to survive. Rolling with the tide is their duty, or they will be stomped all over by the other retailers. Take yourself out of those retard shoes and put yourself in a business entrepreneur shoes for just ONE second and realize what they have to do survive in this dog eat dog world. I know that's impossible for some of you, so I won't hold my breath.


edit: This is coming from someone that completely despises Walmart. I step foot in there once or twice a year max - Guess what? You can do it too!