CEO bonuses and externalities

In my post about a CNN video about the rise of socialism among the youth, Mr. Divemedic left a comment that I have been ruminating on for a day.

Case in point: Several decades ago, I worked the overnight shift for the Walt Disney company, back when Michael Eisner was the CEO. We had a meeting with a company executive one night and we were told that Disney’s goal was to have no permanent, full time employees within ten years. They wanted to replace all of their full time employees with contracted employees through subcontractors. They said that health care costs for employees was costing the company $90 million a year.

One of my coworkers then pointed out a news article where the CEO (Eisner) had received $270 million in pay, company stock, and other benefits the previous year. He then asked if they could pay the CEO only $180 million and let all of the other employees keep their jobs. The meeting was abruptly ended at that point.

In economics, there is something called externalities.

According to Investopedia:

An externality is an economic term referring to a cost or benefit incurred or received by a third party. However, the third party has no control over the creation of that cost or benefit.

So let us say that Eisner got what he wanted and Disney was able to fire all but a few managers and replace all workers with part-time sub-contractors and gig workers.

Disney is vital to the economy of central Florida in the Orlando and Kissimmee region.

So what happens then?

There are over 77,000 full-time Disney employees in Florida.

Disney employees lose the bulk of their salaries.  Others get fired completely.  They all lose their health care.

Some would go underwater on their mortgages.  Others will move out leaving vacancies.  New people would be less likely to relocate to the region for gig work.  This would harm the housing marking in central Florida.

Out of work employees would go on unemployment.  Some would go on welfare and Medicaid.  Others would go without healthcare and end up being uninsured at the ER, which is reimbursed through tax dollars.

The deprecation of the housing market would reduce property tax revenue in the region, leaving local budget shortfalls.

Tourists spend money but they don’t buy homes.

Disney would save $90 Million on healthcare costs.  Millions more on salary.

Eisner (or the current CEO) would pocket hundreds of millions in bonus money from the “cost savings.”

But where did those cost savings come from?  By dumping those costs onto the American and Florida taxpayer that has to foot the bill for out of work employees, the loss of healthcare, and hit to the local housing market.

Disney would have profited by making employee costs a negative externality.

This is reprehensible.

If Disney dumped a bunch of old rides and rotting food into Lake Okeechobee and polluted the water, rather than pay for proper waste disposal, people would rightly be angry about that sort of negative externality.

However, dumping workers onto unemployment, welfare, and Medicare instead of making payroll somehow gets a pass.

It should not.

If you are a conservative that is worried about entitlement spending, letting companies cost cut for profit by dumping people onto entitlements should enrage you.

It’s not socialism to say “the CEO can’t bonus himself with layoffs” when the taxpayer picks up the tab for those layoffs.

 

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It seems we are back online (part 2)

The automated linkages to Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin were out so this is a replay of the past post

I can see the site on phones and Firefox which I was not before.

And no, you are not bothering me by sending emails, tweets or FB post telling me the status on your side, I welcome them all. It has been helpful and I thank all of you who did it.

According to the stats this morning, 90% of the usual readers were lost thanks to whatever the hell was messed up

PS: There is a bunch of posts you missed. Git at them!

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It seems we are back online

I can see the site on phones and Firefox which I was not before.

And no, you are not bothering me by sending emails, tweets or FB post telling me the status on your side, I welcome them all. It has been helpful and I thank all of you who did it.

According to the stats this morning, 90% of the usual readers were lost thanks to whatever the hell was messed up

PS: There is a bunch of posts you missed. Git at them!

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Mechanical Offset Illustrated.

From Machinegunexperience.com

Mechanical offset refers to the distance between the center bore of the gun’s barrel and the sights or optics you use to aim. This distance is different based on the type of firearm that you are using. With rifles, the sight offset usually sits around one to three inches whereas handguns stay at fractions of an inch.

Or simply

Also:

“Never use your car for training”
Mad Ogre.

 

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Mayor Bloomberg makes it clear his money makes his life more valuable than yours

A gun owner asked Bloomberg about his security detail at a Fox News town hall.

Bloomberg’s answer was dripping with the kind of elitist snobbery that hasn’t been seen since the French started separating royalty from their heads.

See, Michael Bloomberg was the Mayor of The Most Important City on Earth or in the Known Universe™ and is worth more money than everyone in that audience put together times at least a hundred thousand, so you are God damned right that he can have all the best guns with the highest capacity magazines protect him, and fuck you peasant for asking about it.

If you want a 15 round mag in your CCW gun, all you have to do is become a billionaire too.

This is what happens when you give up belief in God.  You believe that the value of a soul can be measured by a bank account.  At $69 Billion, Bloomberg must be protected.  Some blue-collar schmuck from Flyover America can get murdered by some punk and even his family would be hard-pressed to give a shit.

I wonder if Michael Bloomberg believes that all the other rights in the Constitution apply to him more than others because he’s super-rich?

Who am I kidding, of course he does.  He’s happy to censor the internet and censored his own news agency.

Your rights are only what you can pay for in Bloomberg’s America.

Also, I’d just like to point out, the NYPD shooting qualifications are “Woefully Inadequate,” so in all likelihood, the guy that asked Bloomberg the question can probably outshoot Bloomberg’s entire security detail.

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I made Khachapuri! (Georgian Cheese Bread)

Chef Joh is responsible for 100 extra pounds in this household. But he sure can post some delicious and simple to make stuff. Watch the video:

And here is my outcome:

I did things a bit different. First, my dough recipe is King Arthur’s Flour Bread Machine Bread – Easy As Can Be to which I add an egg not matter the batch size. It makes a difference, trust me.

The Chesses were Low Moisture Mozzarella, Feta (that thing goes a long way) and a blended mix we buy for salads that has Asiago, Parmesan, Provolone and Romano. I did not added butter for the eggs but I wanted some sort of meat so I pan fried some smoked pork chops cubed very small and added them with the egg.

Since I used the recipe for large size bread, I got 2 loaves that the missus rightly indicated could have used 2 eggs each.  Next time I will do so but include them 5 minutes earlier than the recipe calls for and them cover the loaves after they come out so the eggs finish cooking.

Next time I will make one loaf with eggs and the other without since we are only 2 and leaving a not totally cooked egg unrefrigerated and overnight is not my cup of tea. I scrapped the second loaf just in case.

I will tell you this hot out of the oven or room temperature, this bread rocks.  It will make franchise stuffed pizza cry and suffer impotence.

 

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Clearwater: Bad things never happened with guns but we must ban them.

I have to do a fisk on this article:

Clearwater may not be able to ban guns at its new waterfront amphitheater
The city can’t ban guns at Coachman Park today. How might that affect the city’s effort to book concerts at its proposed new venue? r

CLEARWATER — In February, an estimated crowd of over 13,000 attended the city’s annual two-day Sea-Blues Festival at Coachman Park. Residents with concealed carry permits were allowed, as they are at every event at the public park, to carry guns into the festival.

The Clearwater Police Department reported no major incidents involving guns, or any other weapons.

See? Once again and just like in the last three decades in Florida, people with concealed carry guns attend public events and nothing has happened.

Those who wished to legally arm themselves at the festival were able to do so because of how Clearwater interprets Florida law. In 2011, the Legislature passed an expansive measure which prohibited local governments from regulating the possession of guns.

I think the word you are looking for is not expansive, but “expensive.”  State Pre-Emption makes sure that only the Legislature is legally allowed to pass gun laws and those local official who are found making up stuff to control and forbid guns, face a civil fine of $5,000. That means the money comes out of their pockets, not the taxpayers.

Even individual events sponsored or run by third-party companies at the city-owned Coachman Park fall under that law, City Attorney Pam Akin said.

None of this has resulted in much controversy at Coachman Park events over the years.

Great, so what are we talking about here?

But now, with the city hoping to build a 4,500-seat amphitheater at the historic park, Clearwater could be headed toward a conflict with artists who do not want to perform in a venue where guns are allowed.

That is their problem, not the problem of the Citizens of the State of Florida, the ones you work for.

“Some artists require the banning of firearms as part of their contract,” Ruth Eckerd Hall Chief Executive Officer and President Susan Crockett said in an emailed statement. “Not everyone, but it is becoming more common, especially for those artists who have experienced threats of some kind.”

Oh, I get it! We know what type of musicians are closely associated with Gun Violence and it ain’t Christian Rock. I have bad news for you, prohibiting legal gun owners to carry or not, if somebody wants to blast the idiots doing bad Sr. Seuss on stage, having a Gun Free Zone established is not going to do much to stop them from spraying them.  The only difference is some in the crown may return the gunfire and manage to move to a secure location.

Clearwater Police Chief Daniel Slaughter said security officials, who conduct screenings with metal detectors outside Coachman Park events, ask residents with legal firearms not to bring them into the park. In Slaughter’s opinion, if the resident insists on carrying, the city currently has no legal recourse.

No, they don’t. Again, it is the law and again, as indicated when the article started, there has not been incidents with Legal carriers during concerts.

“I think there are other venues that may not interpret the law the same way I do,” Slaughter said.

Somebody correct me here: Cops are to supposed to enforce the law, not become lawyers or judges and “interpret” the law so the city can increase revenue. That is some scary top cop Clearwater has if he is willing to twist and bend the law like that.

The city’s interpretation could change if Clearwater were to add, as noted in the Florida Statutes, “an establishment licensed to dispense alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises” to Coachman Park. Slaughter noted concealed carry is not allowed at such facilities.

(IANAL) I don’t think Slaughter is thinking this one right. First I doubt that the State is gonna buy the idea of trying to transform a public park into a bar. But then you run into a little problem: No People Under 21 Allowed  in “an establishment licensed to dispense alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises.” Basically in order to have a bad concert and collect monies, mom and dad cannot take the kiddies to the park or risk being arrested because they took them to a bar. Parolees that are out for a simple walk will be violated because they may be violating the conditions of their parole and I can’t remember what other idiocies can happen if they want to go that way. But the idea of irate parents inundating city hall and raising all kinds of hell and calling the Chief all kinds of names do have a certain appeal to me. Sure as hell would make for a viral video among gunnies.

If you ever have any doubts that there are government officials willing to take a dump on the law and the Bill of Rights just to kiss ass and make a buck, look no further than Clearwater

 

 

 

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