Comments for entry "Monetizing the Who-You-Know Asset" at Dilbert.com Blog

Comment from kingkingg

ThuPMCDTE_Rthth

2012 comes, in order to thank everyone, characteristic, novel style, varieties, low price and good quality, and the low sale price. Thank everyone Welcome to ==== http://www.proxy4biz.com == Air Jordan (1-24) shoes $35 Jordan (1-22)&2009 shoes $45 Nike shox (R4, NZ, OZ, TL1, TL2, TL3) $35 Handbags ( Coach Lv fendi D&G) $30 T-shirts (polo, ed hardy, lacoste) $14 Jean (True Religion, ed hardy, coogi)$34 Sunglasses ( Oakey, coach, Gucci, Armaini)$15 New era cap $16 Biki ni (Ed hardy, polo) $18 FREE SHIPPING http://www.proxy4biz.com http://www.proxy4biz.com http://www.proxy4biz.com http://www.proxy4biz.com http://www.proxy4biz.com http://www.proxy4biz.com http://www.proxy4biz.com http://www.proxy4biz.com ===ï¼ˆ http://www.proxy4biz.com ï¼‰=== ===ï¼ˆ http://www.proxy4biz.com ï¼‰=== ===ï¼ˆ http://www.proxy4biz.com ï¼‰=== ===ï¼ˆ http://www.proxy4biz.com ï¼‰=== ===ï¼ˆ http://www.proxy4biz.com ï¼‰=== ===ï¼ˆ http://www.proxy4biz.com ï¼‰=== This is a shopping paradise We need your support and trust

Comment from TheSnowyOwl

SatPMCDTE_Rthth

Therion, If rich upper class people do not create jobs, who does? I am not referring to someone starting a company where they are the only employee or employ just a couple of people. Let's confine the answer to companies that have 10, 50 or more employees.

Comment from TheSnowyOwl

SatPMCDTE_Rthth

People to help you find a job already exist. They are called personnel agencies or in slang, head-hunters. You can even sign up with more than one mentor (i.e. agency). For skilled jobs, the person looking does not pay the fee - it is paid by the new employer.

Comment from tomiPhone

SatAMCDTE_Rthth

We need good teachers and helpful friends [url=http://www.bestcasemall.com]best case mall[/url] [url=http://www.bestcasemall.com]best iphone cases[/url] [url=http://www.bestcasemall.com]best cases for iphone[/url] [url=http://www.bestcasemall.com/leather-iphone-cases-c-20_35.html]leather iphone cases[/url] [url=http://www.bestcasemall.com/stylish-iphone-cases-c-20_37.html]stylish cases for iphone[/url] [url=http://http://www.fashionpregnancydress.com]anti radiation pants [/url] [url=http://http://www.fashionpregnancydress.com]anti radiation skirt [/url] [url=http://http://www.fashionpregnancydress.com]casual maternity dresses [/url] [url=http://http://www.fashionpregnancydress.com]breast feeding [/url]

Comment from Therion

WedPMCDTE_Rthth

@Therion: By the same logic, cars wouldn't ever have been sold, or for that matter nothing manufactured in the first world. Anyway, worst case scenario is you're right. Boo hoo, you don't get your trinkets. Find something else to do with your time. The people of the developing world are not your !$%*!$

Comment from Therion

WedPMCDTE_Rthth

Richard Birdsall, I see where you're coming from. I used to feel that way when I was a small child, and I remember what it's like to so unblemished by knowledge of the wider world. Then when I was about twelve I read in a book somewhere that social ownership of means of production is actually not some bliss-ninny masturbation fantasy, but a perfectly legitimate political position with a !$%*!$%*!$ of intellectually respectable adherents. Unlike libertarianism, it can't be demolished in a single sentence. (Capitalism demonstrably doesn't provide satisfactory conditions for many workers, and there is no evidence or proof that it is the best possible social system.) As for this stupidity about how big companies "create positions in other areas". We can actually put a figure on this. The unemployment rate now is almost double the average rate of the 50s and 60s before the epoch of big companies. And before you prattle on about widgets, know that the technology for electronic widgets was largely developed in the state sector.

Comment from Professor59

WedPMCDTE_Rthth

Here's how quickly this becomes garbage: My company's higher-ups will abuse the system even more than they do now. They hire all their kids and nephews and friends of friends because they have the power to hire people, regardless of skillset. Then they claim all the government benefits for doing so, grab some extra family income at the same time, save on health care, and perpetuate the nepotism. We already call that our "intern program", but under your plan there would be extra incentive for keeping it only to those people who already matter. If you forced the mentor to accept a mentee at random, there would quickly arise a mentee broker system, so again mentors would still be picking the beneficiaries they want. It's really hard to get rich people to do the right thing, and dangling incentives in front of them only gives them more motivation to game the system.

Comment from RichardBirdsall

WedPMCDTE_Rthth

Therion, it seems highly unlikely that you will be starting any kind of worthwhile business with your 'buddies' with what seems like a limited understanding of the realities of business. Setting production aside, large businesses still create positions in other areas. Jobs that would not otherwise exist if production was done Stateside, limiting profits and growth. Creating a successful business and 'stealing jobs'? That kind of statement is common among those with a highly overinflated sense of entitlement paired with a tendency to shift blame for lack of success onto any other easy target.

Comment from RichardBirdsall

WedPMCDTE_Rthth

Phantom II might want to catch up on Scott's previous blogs where private business is often mentioned as a possible element in a theory of improvement. And as a general rule, by prefacing your comment with "Just curious" doesn't make anyone think of you as less of a tool when you present your point of view that rudely. Anonymity let's people show their least attractive personality traits, and it seems like you've hidden behind that mask for a while now judging by the level of mildly guided snarky rudeness. Try contributing to a community next time instead of unleashing your ill advised rants on those willing to think before they write.

Comment from Joimez

WedPMCDTE_Rthth

Allen - is that a genuine question? How do you suppose a private individual could reimburse one individual with tax paid by another?

Comment from Joimez

WedPMCDTE_Rthth

So all I have to do is locate as many pre-med students, or academics-on-sabbatical as possible, pay them $X for 'mentoring' them, then rake in $nX as soon as they take a job. Brilliant.

Comment from AtlantaDude

WedPMCDTE_Rthth

Therion, My company doesn't sell Apple products. It sells plastic tableware. Nevertheless, I took your advice and decided to fight the Chinese imports by asking the government to install tariffs on Chinese goods. Unfortunately, I still had to lay off a handfull of production workers, because I needed the money to pay the lobbyists, who then used the money to "entice" the congressmen to vote for the tariff. And, I should also mention that my brother and a bunch of his buddies were laid off at the technology plant down the street. Evidently, the Chinese did not just sit back and accept the new tariffs. They responded by raising tariffs on U.S. technology goods. So, I was able to save a few dozen low-wage jobs at my platic plate plant, but the engineers and production workers at the technlogy plant are not doing so well. Thanks for the advice, though.

Comment from hbmindia

WedPMCDTE_Rthth

Just thought of something. It is probably true that the long-term unemployed have relatively ineffective personal networks. But does a job remain vacant because the above person remains unemployed. No. Somebody or the other is employed in the job. Unless it a very specialised vocation, it is rare that a job remains vacant because the perfect candidate cannot be found. A vacancy is almost always filled with the best possible person that can be found within a reasonable time frame. Which means that the plan suggested in this post will not reduce unemployment. [With the scheme I described, mentors would be lobbying friends to create new positions, they would be relocating folks to remote locations where there are always openings, e.g. North Dakota oil fields, and perhaps paying for training for more specialized positions. Remember, we only need to move unemployment from 8%ish to 6%ish and everything changes. -- Scott] Yes, it will help a long-term unemployed person with an ineffective personal network get a job but it will have no effect on total unemployment.

Comment from Drowlord

WedPMCDTE_Rthth

@Therion Apple wouldn't compete with anybody if they used American labor. They wouldn't have product. 100 hours of manufacturing labor at $0.80 per hour makes a product possible. That same 100 hours at $15.00 per hour would make iDevices impossibly expensive for so many people that the work made possible by the mass-market (engineering, design, software) wouldn't be supported.

Comment from Therion

WedPMCDTE_Rthth

You'd be an evil rich scumbag for telling lies and concealing your true purposes. Chinese companies aren't threatening to dominate markets over which American companies have near monopolies. Apple wasn't competing against Chinese companies when it decided to take advantage of dirt cheap, developing world labour. Even if this phenomenon did become a serious problem, which hasn't happened so far, it could quite easily be remedied by "Gubmint" restricting foreign companies from undercutting domestic companies. If you think the best possible way to structure the world is having Chinese slave workers bombard you with luxury items that you don't have the time to savour...then yes, the word for that is "scumbag".

Comment from AtlantaDude

WedAMCDTE_Rthth

Hey Therion. I own a widget company. I employ managers, engineers, product designers and factory workers. Suddenly a Chinese company starts selling widgets for 20% less than me. In my market, consumers are very focused on price. I can either: A) Send production overseas, which will mean lost jobs for U.S. factory workers but will let me be cost competitive. B) Go out of business, which means lost jobs for the factory workers, plus lost jobs for the engineers, product designers and managers. Am I an evil rich scumbag if I choose A and a proletariat hero if I chose B?

Comment from hbmindia

WedAMCDTE_Rthth

"The deal would be that if the mentor can find a job for the unemployed person, the mentor's own taxes would be reduced by the amount of taxes paid by the newly hired person over five years." So the person who helps the unemployed find a job gets a tax break. Should not the guy who actually employs them not get the same tax break? If the mentor is unemployed himself and is not liable to pay tax, should he get some money from the government in lieu of the tax break? Should not the most capable person be employed rather than the one who is simply referred by somebody? In some time, maybe employers will start demanding kickbacks from the referrers. Any convoluted scheme that involves the government will cause more problems in the long run than it solves. Less government is good government!

Comment from Phantom II

WedAMCDTE_Rthth

Scott, just curious. Why do most of your "solutions" start out with something like, "How about if the federal government. . ." Why is that? Is there ANYTHING you think that the private sector can do better than the federal government? Do you have some great desire to let them intrude into every aspect of our lives, bringing great solutions to us like a $14 trillion national debt? How about trying something new? Try, "Maybe if there was a private consortium. . ." But no. You seem to figure it's far better for a bunch of beaurocrats in Washington to set up yet another costly and inefficient mandate than it is for you to propose a good idea and see if people agree, and want to contribute. Let's just suck more tax dollars from them, you seem to say, and use those dollars to do something that includes bureaucracy but doesn't encourage them to do something once their money has been taken. Great idea, Scott! Punish them, and then tell them you want them to reward you for taking their money by giving their time, also! Boy, with ideas like that, our national debt will be $20 trillion in no time! Oh, wait. That's what President Obama says it's going to be in three more years! I say again: great idea, Scott. I'm sure you have a lot more where that one came from.

Comment from Craigmurphy3

TuePMCDTE_Rthth

At best this could be a way to get jobs filled quicker but it does nothing to increase the absolute number of jobs available. As such, it would not do much to lower the unemployment rate or increase tax collection (in fact, when you count the rebates, it lowers tax collection). It will change the outcomes for those who get currently get jobs because they will have a harder time competing with those people in this program. Since the government will collect less in taxes, it will increase the deficit. Flip the program upside down and have someone mentoring companies with jobs they simply cannot fill to help them find employees willing to take the job. That would have a theoretical impact. Still, I suspect the effect is minor.

Comment from RavenBlack

TuePMCDTE_Rthth

@Therion: Applause for your unpopular post. But I don't think the people here are really pointy haired bosses, they're more like an unsuccessful variant of Dogbert or Catbert. PHB doesn't have the self-justifying terrible exploitative ethics. The thing that horrifies me is that so many "business-supporting" (rich-supporting) libertarian types are actually low-level workers or unemployed! To understand why this is horrifying, I'd like to explain by analogy - we were considering moving to Dominica (not the Dominican Republic), and in researching it we found that the population is 97% black. I was a bit concerned by that, not because I'd have any problem living with a lot of black people, but because I was concerned that with such a ratio they might have a problem with white people. So I asked the internet about racism in Dominica, and it turns out that the place has institutionalized racism *against black people*. Not just the few whites, but everyone - the black people, comprising 97% of the population, are apparently bigoted against each other! Crazy. That is my analogy to the unwitting lower class libertarian (almost nobody in America believes they are lower class or working class) talking about "greedy unions" and the myriad benefits of paying the lowest possible wage.