US Trade Deficit Rises To 5-Month High of $55.5B in May

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

2 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

The loonie is a floating currency and the Fed. Govt. has no control over where it floats.  That is set by market traders in the currencies, typically bank in-house traders.  Getting past that, Canada is a nation with relatively few domestic-manufactures, and thus is an importing nation.  A depressed loonie acts to impoverish the Canadians by creating a wealth transfer tax to vendors from outside.  Yes, you can export more volume, but if your volume (say, of Canada Wheat) is constant anyway, or at least limited by the physical capacity of the crop, what is the advantage of giving away a third of the value?  None. 

When Bombardier is dealing with their rail trainsets, yet a devalued loonie helps them in bids against the American builders.  But that is for naught when you factor in that Bombardier is now blocked from bids into the big NYC subway system, due to such poor performance in the past.  SO, all it does is drive up the costs for imported components (remember, Bombardier imports rial stuff from Europe, where it has lots of plants) that it assembles into its domestic products.  That drives up the domestic pricing for streetcars out of Thunder By and rail cars out of Quebec.  Not so great; in effect, it means more domestic municipal tax dollars spent for the same equipment.  Hardly a great state of affairs. 

The loonie is a devalued currency because the Canadians have screwed it up.  OK, so go blame the Trudeau government, works for me.

Can't any nation just print more bills and dilute their currencies value?

JT has actually accomplished some stuff (cannabis industry, pipeline approval and purchase).  Some of the hate against him is unjustified (homophobes, racists).

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

10 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

 Canada is a nation with relatively few domestic-manufactures, and thus is an importing nation.

Export lots of raw material, import goods. Positive trade balance (at this point).

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

24 minutes ago, Enthalpic said:

Whatever you want - it's just not automatically added to your bill (10 - 15% is normal gratuity if your service was good, less for big tabs and way more for single-mom breakfast waitresses).

BS!!!

In many places the 'gratuity' is listed on the bill! If that is how restaurants want to run their business, be transparent and include it on the menu as the price of the item - this is the ACTUAL cost to the customer.

A tip was meant to be voluntary and to reflect the quality of the meal and the service. If it is no longer voluntary it is a set cost.

[CL Trader + 20]

On ‎7‎/‎4‎/‎2019 at 10:14 PM, Douglas Buckland said:

You seem to feel that business owners who actually put in the time and money to build the business, whatever it may be, should be compelled to share the profits with their employees?

Who said anything about a 'subsistence living'? You make the assumption that every employee of any business is paid poorly.

If someone inherits a business, it indicates that someone in the family took the effort to create and build it. If they get wealthy it does not mean they are treating employees poorly.

If people feel they are treated unfairly and are simply wage slaves, quit your job and start your own business. Apple and Microsoft started in a garage!

You really need to stop blaming others for your position in life (assuming you are a wage slave) and take some responsibility for it.

I have heard these comments  for 40 years. When I started in business I was so naïve over what I was doing that I  often look back and think "how did I manage to survive?" I quickly realized that I could not have material things I wanted in life working as an employee for someone else. As a result of this quickly learned lesson early in my work years I understood if I wanted key people I had to share the rewards of the jobs.

Over the years I offered every crew member a performance bonus that could be achieved in realistic time frames. I offered supervisors a little more. Most projects paid out the performance bonus. My reply to other business owners who told me I was crazy for doing this was " I would rather have rather 70% of something, than 100% of nothing" . It gave my people incentive to perform.

I have told those who were not satisfied that they could start their own business just as I did. I started with practically non existent  seed capital but scratched along until I figured it out and I felt sure they could too. None ever took me up on the advice to my knowledge. Yet they would continue to blame everyone else for their position in life. I would say to them.." You must be satisfied with your financial standing or you would do something about it ".  And I would finish it with a remark told to me many times by Army SOF Q-Course instructors..."Candidate..We have one of two things wrong here.. you either cant...or your do not want to...now which one is it?..If you don't want to...leave...if you cant..at least you tried..No shame in that"

My point being, until they tried, they had no excuse and if they failed, it was because they couldn't do it, and if they chose to do nothing, it was because they did not want to. There was no one else to blame.

I would get upset when someone told me.."Yep..you got lucky"... I would reply.."Right...I found out the more 80 hour weeks I worked..the  luckier I got". It was obvious they never understood the saying of " Do what 99% cant or will not do...so you can live like the 1%"

When I closed the business, unknown to me...every employee who worked for me across several states...came to my office.. and gave me a surprise dinner and going away party.  100% of them. I think that spoke without words their appreciation for my treatment of them as people and team partners.. and yes.. I got financially comfortable over the years.

 

 

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

On 7/6/2019 at 7:40 AM, CL Trader said:

I have heard these comments  for 40 years. When I started in business I was so naïve over what I was doing that I  often look back and think "how did I manage to survive?" I quickly realized that I could not have material things I wanted in life working as an employee for someone else. As a result of this quickly learned lesson early in my work years I understood if I wanted key people I had to share the rewards of the jobs.

Over the years I offered every crew member a performance bonus that could be achieved in realistic time frames. I offered supervisors a little more. Most projects paid out the performance bonus. My reply to other business owners who told me I was crazy for doing this was " I would rather have rather 70% of something, than 100% of nothing" . It gave my people incentive to perform.

I have told those who were not satisfied that they could start their own business just as I did. I started with practically non existent  seed capital but scratched along until I figured it out and I felt sure they could too. None ever took me up on the advice to my knowledge. Yet they would continue to blame everyone else for their position in life. I would say to them.." You must be satisfied with your financial standing or you would do something about it ".  And I would finish it with a remark told to me many times by Army SOF Q-Course instructors..."Candidate..We have one of two things wrong here.. you either cant...or your do not want to...now which one is it?..If you don't want to...leave...if you cant..at least you tried..No shame in that"

My point being, until they tried, they had no excuse and if they failed, it was because they couldn't do it, and if they chose to do nothing, it was because they did not want to. There was no one else to blame.

I would get upset when someone told me.."Yep..you got lucky"... I would reply.."Right...I found out the more 80 hour weeks I worked..the  luckier I got". It was obvious they never understood the saying of " Do what 99% cant or will not do...so you can live like the 1%"

When I closed the business, unknown to me...every employee who worked for me across several states...came to my office.. and gave me a surprise dinner and going away party.  100% of them. I think that spoke without words their appreciation for my treatment of them as people and team partners.. and yes.. I got financially comfortable over the years.

 

 

Time is money... at some point it's just exchanging life for cash. Priorities. 

All employers are just exploiting someone else's labor for personal profit (employees always make more money than they cost, otherwise you wouldn't have them). 

Its people like trump who claim they are self made that annoy me.  Yeah, with a "small loan" and a silver spoon from daddy... 

Edited July 10, 2019 by Enthalpic

[CL Trader + 20]

Unless you have some means of self support...or riding the system...you are going to exchange your time for money... at some point in your life. Even in a socialist system... you are going to exchange your time for needed goods....

Remember the saying... "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs".

Are you going to refuse to provide your part....yet receive according to your need?   I imagine that would have an interesting resolution.

Nothing in life is free...and if you have been told that...and believe it...that is your right.  Reality will prove otherwise. I would encourage you to live in a non capitalist country and see how good they have it...or don't have it.

Everything has a cost / benefit ratio.

Thanks for sharing your point of view. 

 

 

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

21 hours ago, CL Trader said:

Unless you have some means of self support...or riding the system...you are going to exchange your time for money... at some point in your life. Even in a socialist system... you are going to exchange your time for needed goods....

Remember the saying... "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs".

Are you going to refuse to provide your part....yet receive according to your need?   I imagine that would have an interesting resolution.

Nothing in life is free...and if you have been told that...and believe it...that is your right.  Reality will prove otherwise. I would encourage you to live in a non capitalist country and see how good they have it...or don't have it.

Everything has a cost / benefit ratio.

Thanks for sharing your point of view. 

 

 

I grew up very poor (dad died young, mom struggled with 3 kids).  I got student loans and worked at a car wash to get through university.  Went straight from uni to working for the federal government for the next 15 years and lived frugally (growing up broke AF does that to you).

I did my time as a wage slave.

I may share socialist ideas but many are grounded in fact.  Is it bad to make money off your employees? No, so long as you treat them reasonably (and it sounds like you did)... not like Walmart or something who's employees make so little they still get social assistance (food stamps). How is that for an awesome capitalism-socialism blend?  Take the profits and then dump the responsibility of caring for the workers on the state.