Comments by "alex smith" (@alexsmith-ob3lu) on "More Perfect Union" channel.

  1. Most customers are looking for cars that are below $30k and of decent quality. Not cars that are advertised as “luxury” and going for $90k. That’s why Toyota sedans are selling and certain GM models (Buick Encore) are also doing well.
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  2. Their machinery keeps getting worse and worse too. You can’t even repair your own tractor without having to wait three months for a service tech to come down.
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  3. America is a vast corporation, not a sprawling empire. Everything is incorporated. Building a high society is an infinite game, not a “depreciating asset.”
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  4. Yep!! That’s what I did two years ago!! My parents and grand parents were constantly telling me that a white collar, corporate pathway is a great career choice; not so much anymore! Never am I gonna return back to the corporate world. Not unless these private equity firms are rid of.
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  5. Thank you for comment and my gratitude goes out to you Jamaican folks too. America economic mess is not an issue of the blue collar labor force as many would want to believe. Rather, it is the fault of management for being short sighted, greedy, unknowledgeable etc. that has brought about a demise in many companies/jobs.
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  6. This video reminds me of what my old man had to got through. He worked as a BAS technician doing HVAC Controls for a medium sized corporation (ESC Automation) for a few decades. Then suddenly, a private equity firm comes in a few months after the 2008 recession, buys up the entire corporation, and then begins selling off the company for higher profits. The moment the private equity firm took over my old man work place; half the employees were fired for so called “under performing”, and the other half of employees who remained had to work overtime (70+ hours per week) for no extra pay and no bonuses. My old man essentially became an overworked donkey slaving away for cents on the dollar until a private investor bought up ESC Automation Corp. from that private equity firm and allowed things to be turned around for the better.
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  7. Harris and Trump are both really bad. We need to work locally and incrementally to endure these tough times.
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  8. I quit my corporate job as an engineering technician two years ago, because I started seeing things that were unsettling. If there were an actual “labor shortage”; why are wages stagnant, benefits nowhere to be seen, and educational training non-existent? I’m glad I left, since now we see in full effect, private equity firms destroying entire corporations for personal profits.
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  9.  @dvdv8197  I voted for Donald Trump back in 2016. I was super disappointed when he did nothing to solve our crumbling infrastructure. Now, I don’t care about either party. They’re all “two sides of the same coin.” Of course, we have to hold our local politicians accountable. But from now, it’s all about working incrementally instead of relying on the federals for assistance.
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  10. Regulations won’t improve anything. We need to re-learn old wisdom from old timers.
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  11. Bean counters replacing engineers at Boeing. Nothing new under the sun. This happened to GM back in the ‘70s. GM engineers were all replaced with accountants and their well trained auto mechanics/technicians were replaced with dropouts.
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  12. Blue collar labor is not the issue. It’s the lack of foresight, and the lack of technical planning by management. 80% of America industrial and commercial problems is the fault of management. Not the fault of the workers or a lack of machinery. If you really want to drive down the cost mediocre furniture, you can easily use automation/robotics to do so. High quality furniture will always be expensive because skilled craftsman labor will never be cheap.
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  13. Well said!!
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  14. The United States of America is an incorporated business, not a nation-state. Same can be said with every state, city, county etc. They’re all corporations who don’t have any responsibility to the people.
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  15.  @brianh9358  Two sides of the same coin.
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  16. That’s what happens when you allow corporate businesses to become gigantic. They form up monopolies and hurt everyone. In many other countries, the government will accept small and medium sized enterprises. However, for large enterprises, they always nationalize it to avoid these types of problems.
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  17.  @annalau2596  The problem in North America is that we used to produce good quality products and services. Now, all we do is import everything while producing nothing significant of value. Back in the 1980s, when our textile, automotive etc. industries were faltering. We decided to throw it all away instead of improving what we had. It’s going to be tough re-building most of what we lost.
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  18. @ What are you talking about? Since when is a profit margin of 50,000% expected to be reasonable? A profit margin of 1-20% is the standard across all sectors.
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  19. Elon Musk is in the same as Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. None of these billionaires created their own wealthy organically. They all had millionaire parents who gave them money and connections to start off with. Jeff Bezos is more of a businessman than a software engineer. Bill Gates is more of a banker (like his father) than a software developer, and Elon Musk is more of a media personality than an innovator.
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  20.  @Andre-qo5ek  I wouldn’t bother too much with federal elections. The feds (in general) have lost all credibility and accountability. We need to work locally and incrementally from now on.
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  21. Well said!! I meet some folks who get all grumpy when they have to tip for a service at the barber, restaurant, or food delivery. Some just don’t realize that these services are impossible without proper finances.
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  22. Sherman Anti-Trust Act. But hey, who needs that when you can bribe politicians and send multimillion dollar lobbyist teams…
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  23. Desperate times create desperate people.
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  24. I used to believe in “labor shortages” but now I don’t. If there were a labor shortage, we’d see higher wages, higher benefits, and improved vocational training. Instead, we see the opposite happen. Capital doesn’t want to pay decent wages, so they claim “labor shortage” to gas light the existing pool of labor.
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  25.  @austinlaramee7811  Okay boomer, not everyone owns a mansion in Los Angeles, Lol.
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  26.  @Sythemn  Oh, but we have a unlimited budget for military adventures abroad and giving weapons to other countries to fight this or that war. Lol But when it comes to basic things such as public transit; we have no money. Lol
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  27. A lot of folks talk about the messed up U.S agricultural system we have in place today thanks to Ronald Reagan policies. Family farms were financially destroyed and replaced by big agricultural businessmen running corn and soybean plantations. Even many family owned ranches were replaced by disastrous factory style ranches owned by multinational corporations who couldn’t care less about public health.
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  28. Trump and Biden are two sides of the same coin.
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  29. Not if you live in a highly federalized American empire.
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  30.  @wallcouldtalk  America no longer controls its own national destiny. Our so called “leaders” are mere employees to this rotting, corporate empire that must bend backwards to the demands of globalist organizations that dictate our laws/policies. The best we can do is to work locally and use local means/community to stop, blockade or strike down these foreign demands.
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  31.  @Andre-qo5ek  You are very correct. Inflation, market manipulation, and high taxes steal the average person pay check.
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  32.  @Andre-qo5ek  If they wanted to be the “best president” ever; all they’d have to do is abolish the federal reserve and nationalize giant corporations. But no, they’re not doing any of that. They’re not addressing the root cause of the problems we are faced with. The federal reserve bank can print money faster than you or I can save our money.
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  33.  @manderly33  Before the two world wars, America had 0% income taxes and yet we had modern infrastructure, beautiful cities, the best schools, well educated people, powerful unions etc. If my tax dollars are not being spent on infrastructure, health care, and other social/public services; why should anyone accept greater income tax increases?
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  34.  @manderly33  You don’t even know me, so yeah, “big deal” on your part.
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  35. @ How about we bring back our manufacturing base and stop relying on China to produce everything for us.
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  36. @ Harris and Trump don’t care about anything. It’s very obvious at this point. They’ll say whatever and do whatever to get elected and continue on with the gravy train. I’d rather focus on local politics (which I can control) over federal politics that is all backed by corporate lobbyists. In all honesty, I’m down for ending the union (American Empire) and calling for secession of states.
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  37.  @notaburneraccount  I don’t really care about what the president or VP does. This is more than just “left vs right” or “Democrat vs republican” politics. We’re much bigger than this country federal politics. A lot more can be accomplished at the local level than what goes on at DC.
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  38.  @brianh9358  If Trump, Harris etc. wanted to be on the good side; they’d abolish the federal reserve.
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  39.  @brianh9358  The federal reserve is a private bank issuing American currency (dollar). It has no reserves and its not owned by the federal government. You can work hard all you want, but your labor, savings and wages won’t keep up with inflation. They can print money faster than you can save it. It’s why “debtors” (capital) are the biggest winners and labor are the biggest losers.
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  40.  @brianh9358  1972 was when the American dollar came off the gold standard, thanks to Nixon. It has been on the debt standard since then. With certain commodities like oil (somewhat) backing up the American dollar. We’re in for some rough times ahead and neither Trump nor Harris can solve our problems. We’re on our own.
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  41. @ I never recommended a return to the gold standard. That’s impossible to do today, since all our gold reserves left America before the 1980s. What I’m saying is that we don’t have anything to back up our currency anymore. For a short while after the gold standard was removed; we had petrodollars and computer chips to (somewhat) back up our currency. We’re going to lose the petrodollar in several years time and we no longer hold the “skilled labor” advantage to back up our currency. When our currency is backed by nothing; it simply gets hyper-inflated, and our entire society will go under. Neither “geriatric patient” (Trump or Harris) can solve these pressing issues. We can only take matters into our hands and form a tight community to endure these hard times ahead of us.
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  42. @ Yes, you are very right about the Cold War and rapid expansion of American military with bases all over the globe. Aside from gold, America was the one that launched the development of micro-electronic devices, transistors, microchips, satellites, computers etc. All that skilled labor in R&D, engineering and manufacturing also contributed immensely to our booming wealth post WW2. The invention/creation of the transistor chip at Bell Labs (with help from Nikola Tesla scientific papers) also made America very rich. As every country now has to license American patents, and buy American made micro-electronic devices. However, even all that had fallen short by the 1980s, as America could only train a fraction of the engineers so desperately needed by the micro-electronics industry. These days, Bell Labs and many other R&D facilities are a shell of their former selves. Forget about gold, we don’t even have the technical-creative expertise/skillsets anymore to back our currency.
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  43. The last time the “constitutionalists” stood up for their rights; America not only fought a massive civil war but many states called for secession too. It’s time we end the union and the American empire.
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  44. US is always for sale. America is not a sovereign nation. America is an incorporated business.
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  45.  @Dumbledore6969x  I was not referring to Uber or DoorDash.
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  46. Ronald Reagan has always been a brilliant actor. He fooled many with his good looks, smiles, and “patriotic” speeches.
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  47.  @floragraves5167  The issue isn’t just Ronald Reagan. By the 1980s, America became consumers first and producers second. After America burned out all our savings/investments after WW2. Americans were encouraged to borrow ridiculous sums of money to pay for a lifestyle that America could not afford.
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  48. America is an incorporated business. So are all the states and local towns. All are registered as corporate entities. That’s the real problem that we have. Everything is simply “a business.”
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  49. Welcome to the new confederacy!
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  50. I’ve never used Uber Eats, Door Dash, Lyft, Grub Hub or any of these services app. So all this info is very new to me. But I’m not surprised. Here in America, we’ve totally lost the script of what it means to be doing “business.”
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