[talaniman]

Seems to me competing with low wage workers in under developed third world nations is a losers game. Shouldn't they be looking at us and getting more value for their work?

But that would screw businesses looking for cheap slaves... I mean... workers to exploit. Now is that the free market capitalist model, or the slave enriching the master model?

OR BOTH?!

[paraclete]

.

Jack up the prices to keep everyone employed and people stop buying your product, you go out of business and nobody gets a slice then.

Your answer is a slave economy, don't tell me the exploited illegals aren't part of a slave economy. People will buy your product if it is good quality but you don't always have to compete on price. If you have low wages you condemn yourself to shopping at Walmart because that is all you can afford. I have watched the discount stores always competing on price but when I buy the product price is a secondary consideration, It only determines which store I buy from, I don't want a cheap product that will fail one day after the warranty has expired, I wind up spending twich as much

[tomder55]

what a load of old claptrap. A minimum wage is necessary to avoid exploitation, without it business would prosper at the expense of the worker. You want your nation to be competitive with the sweatshops of Asia then devalue your currency and stop profiteering. You want employment opportunity to return, insist on local content in the products sold. or put tarriffs on cheap goods. You should learn the lesson from those who have had to deal with this problem, enforce standards for products, buy locally produced food and find industries that can't be exported even a high labour cost country like mine can sell products in your market, our minimum wage isn't styffling employment or export industries

Oh yeah ,beggar thy neighbor.. that eventually leads to conflict ,and does no good for the nations consumers.

[tomder55]

what a load of old claptrap. A minimum wage is necessary to avoid exploitation, without it business would prosper at the expense of the worker. You want your nation to be competitive with the sweatshops of Asia then devalue your currency and stop profiteering. You want employment opportunity to return, insist on local content in the products sold. or put tarriffs on cheap goods. You should learn the lesson from those who have had to deal with this problem, enforce standards for products, buy locally produced food and find industries that can't be exported even a high labour cost country like mine can sell products in your market, our minimum wage isn't styffling employment or export industries

Again ;what you fail to realize is that entry level positions are not supposed to make a career . What you gain in so call 'living wages ' you lose in opportunity lost for the people who could actually benefit from temporary employment at lower entry level wages.. . aka teens ;aka low skilled workers who don't have a job because the small employer cannot afford to hire that one or 2 extra clerks or janitors. What you get is a whole "class " of people who are being denied employment ,the opportunity to learn a skill ;and another whole group permanently dependent on the nanny state for their existence.

[speechlesstx]

Dems want to raise it to $10.10. They have a funny way of encouraging job growth, keep making it more expensive to hire people. Increase wages by nearly 40 percent, explode the cost of health care, regulate the heck out of everything and increase taxes. Sounds like a perfect recipe for economic growth to me.

[speechlesstx]

Speaking of the bleeding obvious again, Maxine Waters said the sequester would cost us 170 million jobs. That's some high quality math there, we only have 134 million in the workforce.

[Tuttyd]

and yet you defend minimum wages ...strange

Not really. Where I come from minimum wages are set by the Fair Work Ombudsman. It is for the benefit of the employee not covered by awards and agreements.


Tut

[tomder55]

Speaking of the bleeding obvious again, Maxine Waters said the sequester would cost us 170 million jobs. That's some high quality math there, we only have 134 million in the workforce.

Someone has to tell her that Sequester is not the cat trying to eat Tweety .

[smoothy]

your answer is a slave economy, don't tell me the exploited illegals arn't part of a slave economy. people will buy your product if it is good quality but you don't always have to compete on price. If you have low wages you condemn yourself to shopping at Walmart because that is all you can afford. I have watched the discount stores always competing on price but when I buy the product price is a secondary consideration, It only determines which store I buy from, I don't want a cheap product that will fail one day after the warranty has expired, I wind up spending twich as much

And yet people making arguments like you still shop at the cheapest store despite what they claim they want.

And no its not a slave economy. Any of those people are free to go work someplace else or start their own business... because people get paid for what value they bring. Some people are dumb as stumps and aren't even worth what the current minimum wage is.

Why should an employer HAVE to pay someone who can't even add 2 + 2 and get a correct answer... or complete a taste without screwing things up one out of every 2 tries more than they are now?

Would YOU pay at least twice as much to eat out so the waiters can make $20 an hour... or would you stay home causing the Restaurant to go out of business as a result?

Would you be willing to pay $4 for a green Pepper or Tomato so the fruit and vegetable pickers can earn $20 an hour?

[speechlesstx]

More on the bleeding obvious, the "field of dreams" economic model doesn't work. No Mr. president, if you take taxpayer money and build a $40,000 Chevy Volt or A Tesla Roadster that may or may not get you to your destination people will not flock to buy it. Nor will they come just because you built another solar panel plant to flood the market.

Solar Startup SoloPower Undergoes Restructuring, Cuts Workforce

It was only last fall when SoloPower began manufacturing at its new solar panel factory in Oregon and aimed to eventually make use of a federal loan guarantee to expand production. Now the company is undergoing restructuring to cut costs and that plan includes layoffs, SoloPower said Thursday.

The company issued a short statement about the plan after The Oregonian reported last night that the Silicon Valley startup is in trouble. The venture-backed company is laying off employees, and top executives have left the company recently, the newspaper reported.

“The restructuring includes a workforce reduction designed to trim costs and address market conditions as the company transitions from an R&D focus to commercial manufacturing and sales,” the company said in a statement.

SoloPower now joins a long line of solar equipment manufacturers worldwide who have struggled mightily to stay in business in the past two years. A glut of solar panels has caused prices to crash and forced dozens of manufacturers to either file for bankruptcies, idle production lines or scratch new factory plans. The impact of this imbalance of supply and demand has affected everyone from industry stalwarts such as First Solar and SunPower to startups such as Solyndra and Abound Solar.

And speaking of Abound Solar...

Colorado health and environment officials have ordered Loveland-based Abound Solar, the bankrupt solar-panel maker, to clean up hazardous waste at four Front Range locations.

The Abound facilities are storing thousands of "unsellable" solar panels and thousands of gallons of toxic liquids, according to Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reports.

"The Department views these 2,000 pallets of solar panels as a characteristic hazardous waste for cadmium," a report on a Denver warehouse said.

Read more: Colorado orders Abound Solar to clean up hazardous waste at four sites - The Denver Post Colorado orders Abound Solar to clean up hazardous waste at four sites - The Denver Post

Funny how all this "green" technology keeps turning out to be so hazardous for the environment. Maybe if Abound can sell enough of their toxic panels someone can build enough plants to charge all those Tesla Roadsters instead of relying on coal-fired plants to charge their toxic batteries.

[tomder55]

Hazardous waste with clean green energy ? Who'd thunk it ? Well fire up my CFL light bulb !

[talaniman]

Isn't restructuring part of the free market capitalist business model? Sure it is.

“The restructuring includes a workforce reduction designed to trim costs and address market conditions as the company transitions from an R&D focus to commercial manufacturing and sales,” the company said in a statement.

Tom loves a company that gets mean and lean, he aid so. Screw the laid off workers they can get jobs somewhere else after they use up unemployment benefits, or was that part of the restructuring too? Wonder if the management or board of directors take a haircut like the workers will?

The impact of this imbalance of supply and demand has affected everyone from industry stalwarts such as First Solar and SunPower to startups such as Solyndra and Abound Solar.

WHAAAAAAAT?? Imbalance between supply and demand?? NO SH1T??

Just a point. If there is toxic waste in "GREEN", what about shale oil, and fracking? Where does that waste go?

[tomder55]

Don't know what you are talking about... a $20 million tax credit isn't in any business model I approve of .

[speechlesstx]

Just a point. If there is toxic waste in "GREEN", what about shale oil, and fracking? Where does that waste go?

Obviously the irony of the toxic consequences of "clean" energy still escapes you. As for fracking, just pour some of the fluid over ice and enjoy.

I drank fracking fluid, says Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper

[talaniman]

What a stunt.

[speechlesstx]

What a stunt.

And he's a Democrat.

[smoothy]

No initiative has EVER brought more toxic Mercury into every household than the one for Compact Fluorescent Lights...

[talaniman]

How many years did we poison ourselves with asbestos, and lead paint before we found a better way? What about coal dust? Still working on that one aren't we?

[smoothy]

The difference is the Obama Initiative has INCREASED mercury in the home... not decreased it.

Next he is going to bring back lead paint too. And cadmium plated pacifiers.

[speechlesstx]

How many years did we poison ourselves with asbestos, and lead paint before we found a better way? What about coal dust? Still working on that one aren't we?

I think the point is coming up with a non-toxic solution, not another toxic one.