Bad economic times hitting the county I live in, hard.....

[Pstreet1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pstreet1]

Hopefully, soon it will become apparent that if business is penalized, we all feel the effects.

[Ann-Marie Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ann-Marie]

Eliminating the fluff would be great, but I have a feeling that we're going to get tax increases, along with a cut in services. Seems that the "fluff" is always the last thing to go. I hope that I'm wrong!

Oh, I can almost bet you that the "fluff" will be the last to go!

[Gary1998 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Gary1998]

IMHO - states that attempt to increase business taxes now to plug holes in their budgets will find that the projected increases don't raise as much money as projected (as companies redirect operations away from those states) and the states will develop (or buttress) reputations as high cost, anti-business states.

Well said, Steve. California is a prime example of a state that simply doesn't understand that principle.

[PigsDad Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close PigsDad]

Well said, Steve. California is a prime example of a state that simply doesn't understand that principle.

Expand that globally, and you can see why so many US jobs have moved overseas.

Kurt

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

Well said, Steve. California is a prime example of a state that simply doesn't understand that principle.

I'm currently visiting my Mom in Minnesota, where this is currently a topic of active discussion.

Minnesota reportedly has the second highest business tax rate in the US. Governor Pawlenty has proposed cutting the business tax rate in half. Predictably, others are saying that raising business taxes is a necessity.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

The police and fireman pension funds in Springfield, MO are in the crapper. Yesterday a proposal to add a 1% sales tax to fund it was defeated. City service will now likely be cut to the bone.

Springfield Voters Reject Sales Tax for Police Pension | KSPR News | Local News

It was also reported yesterday that the Missouri public pension fund lost $11,000,000,000 in the market collapse.

Missouri public pension funds drop by $11 billion - Kansas City Star

[grest Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close grest]

We're a mess here in Marion County, Fl...I have no idea how they will once again make cuts to the school department!
Connie

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

Based on the report, there are 226,117 lay-off in Dec, and 241k in Jan. Some company may just lay-off people and hiring back in different area. Mostly are just gone.

But it is close to 1/2 Million lay-off already in 2 month.

Jya-Ning

[longtimer Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close longtimer]

I am seeing another bad side effect of hard economic times: employers that are treating workers like dirt. The attitude seems to be, "you're lucky to have a job, now don't whine and do whatever we want". Anyone else seeing this?

That's the attitude where I work. When someone leaves, there's no replacement. The rest of us have to pick up the slack - except for a few in management - who seem to get away with doing less and less. When the economy does pick up, people are going to jump ship FAST!

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

That's the attitude where I work. When someone leaves, there's no replacement. The rest of us have to pick up the slack - except for a few in management - who seem to get away with doing less and less. When the economy does pick up, people are going to jump ship FAST!

FWIW - When I was a senior manager in previous employment, we estimated that the cost to discharge an underperforming employee (nonunion, all salaried professionals) was between $10,000 and $25,000 per case and assuming no litigation.

Given those numbers our preferences was always to first try to find a way to get the job done with existing employees if at all possible, using overtime and work scheduling.

*******

Hard as it might be to grasp, anything that makes it harder to discharge employees will also discourage employers from hiring employees. The more that a decisions to hire entails a substantial financial commitment and risk by the employer, the more cautious an employer will be about hiring someone in the first place.

Particularly for small businesses, one of the great fears is being stuck with an underperforming employee that you can't afford to get rid of doing a job that you have to have done.

[falmouth3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close falmouth3]

I work for a tiny company. One part of our business is not doing very well, but my part is still growing. We're hoping to pull through this and having one of the directors just leave voluntarily has given the company a financial boost.

However, my town taxes, once one of the lowest in the state, went up 23% a couple of years ago. Now, with many stores closing, and office space downsizing, along with reduced state aid, it's not going to be pretty.

The local news crews were all in my town last week when Home Depot announced the closing of the Expo stores. It was the 3rd large store in town to close its doors in the last 1 1/2 months. Restauants are empty. We've still got jobs so we're still eating out to do a little bit for the economy but we're not shopping much.

[Twinkstarr Member Find all posts View Profile Close Twinkstarr]

I'm here in Northwest Ohio, so we are feeling a lot of the auto industry slump. My MIL is a Jeep retiree and my SIL tells her not to worry about her pension and healthcare . My 12 yr old told her even he knows Chrysler is in trouble and his Aunt needs to watch CNBC.

From a standpoint of local services, with all the snow and ice we have had this winter, I've noticed they are definately cutting back on plowing and salting this includes ODOT, county, city and the township I live in.

The driveway to the drop off lane at our elementary school is a mess, I've seen 3 cars get stuck in it since last big snow(which was last Wed). It's a driveway shared with a city park, so each one blames the other for not plowing.

[longtimer Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close longtimer]

[QUOTE=T. R. Oglodyte;301240]FWIW - When I was a senior manager in previous employment, we estimated that the cost to discharge an underperforming employee (nonunion, all salaried professionals) was between $10,000 and $25,000 per case and assuming no litigation.

Given those numbers our preferences was always to first try to find a way to get the job done with existing employees if at all possible, using overtime and work scheduling.

I understand this business practice - and it makes a lot of sense. However, I think the attitude of managers and employers stinks. They work less and get raises because they're saving the company money by not hiring and getting more work done by fewer people. We, on the other hand, are told to suck it up, be glad we have jobs and - by the way - there's no money for any kind of raise for us. I work 10 to 11 hours a day, no lunch break most days - to get the job done. I don't get overtime pay. And to top it off, if I want family health insurance coverage, I have to pay $550 a month (one-third of my take-home pay) and I have a $3000 deductible. This country is still facing an extreme problem of corporate greed.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

[QUOTE=longtimer;301315]

FWIW - When I was a senior manager in previous employment, we estimated that the cost to discharge an underperforming employee (nonunion, all salaried professionals) was between $10,000 and $25,000 per case and assuming no litigation.

Given those numbers our preferences was always to first try to find a way to get the job done with existing employees if at all possible, using overtime and work scheduling.

I understand this business practice - and it makes a lot of sense. However, I think the attitude of managers and employers stinks. They work less and get raises because they're saving the company money by not hiring and getting more work done by fewer people. We, on the other hand, are told to suck it up, be glad we have jobs and - by the way - there's no money for any kind of raise for us. I work 10 to 11 hours a day, no lunch break most days - to get the job done. I don't get overtime pay. And to top it off, if I want family health insurance coverage, I have to pay $550 a month (one-third of my take-home pay) and I have a $3000 deductible. This country is still facing an extreme problem of corporate greed.

It's good to know that from your experience in your company you are able to state with full certainty that all managers are using this current economic situatin to work less and bump their pay.

Or you could simply recognize that some mangers are lousy and irresponsible people, just as some staff employeers are lousy and irresponsible people. And that there are all degrees of variability in both groups. And that if we were able to measure that and counted prevalence, we would find that both groups as a whole have essentially the same distributions of good traits and bad traits.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

I understand this business practice - and it makes a lot of sense. However, I think the attitude of managers and employers stinks. They work less and get raises because they're saving the company money by not hiring and getting more work done by fewer people. We, on the other hand, are told to suck it up, be glad we have jobs and - by the way - there's no money for any kind of raise for us. I work 10 to 11 hours a day, no lunch break most days - to get the job done. I don't get overtime pay. And to top it off, if I want family health insurance coverage, I have to pay $550 a month (one-third of my take-home pay) and I have a $3000 deductible. This country is still facing an extreme problem of corporate greed.

I don't know the company you are in, but I highly doubt that what you've said in above in Red is a true picture of your management. It appears you really don't know what those managers do. I can tell you that having been on both sides of the employee/manager equation that being a manager is much harder than being an employee.

If you really don't like your employer, you should just quit. Or, start your own business. Until that time, you should be thankful you are even getting a paycheck and have any type of healthcare coverage in this very bad economic environment. If you left, I am sure that there are hundreds of other people who would take your job for less pay and benefits.