Businesses in Michigan

[DG Hear]

No wonder Michigan is going under. Sad, it's where I grew up and was my old stomping grounds.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204313604574328792152010638.html

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I feel your pain.

My home county paid-out 26 MILLION Dollars to lure a Tampa company across the county line. The distance is almost nothing. It created no new jobs as exisiting employees can easily commute a couple of extra miles, or new taxes for the county.

Now the county wants to build a professional tennis stadium for a local resort. The resort isnt happy with the free facility, it also wants a free tax ride for many years. Will it add jobs? Not really. Tennis contests dont happen every week.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

The stupidity continues.

Washington County where I live gave "Property Tax Incentives" to Nike, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and a dozen other Hi Tech companies to locate here a few years ago. These incentives, after removing all the boiler plate and bullshit, essentially say these companies will pay no property taxes for 20-25 years. The problem being that county roads, sewer construction, police and fire protection are funded by those taxes.

Currently 12% of the land value in the entire county pays no taxes. And with the economy in the toilet...

 

[michchick98]

I was watching a story on the local news here the other day about the police department in Grand Rapids. They have this nifty new thing that prints out speeding tickets and the like on a computer type thing, so the cops don't have to write them out. It was touted as "a time saver" for the local police personnel.

Yeah, that's great, but with the Michigan economy the way it is and a government shut-down looming (for the second time in as many years) do we really need nifty new technology gadgets like that?

And don't even get me started on the "Michigan Makes Movies" campaigns I hear about on all the local stations.

I'm just thankful that the company I work for is one of the few that is still making money, although we did get our hours cut and a pay cut, at least we still have jobs. They did that to keep us making money, since the companies we sell our products to are some of the ones who have gone under or are laying off employees left and right.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

I was watching a story on the local news here the other day about the police department in Grand Rapids. They have this nifty new thing that prints out speeding tickets and the like on a computer type thing, so the cops don't have to write them out. It was touted as "a time saver" for the local police personnel.

They have that here too. It's touted as new and improved technology, but in reality the cops are so stupid a lot of drivers are getting off because the cops can't write tickets for shit.

 

[DesertPirate]

Dell just had a layoff in Winston-Salem, plant is 4 years old. It was 135 jobs. The County commission is looking at a clause in the contract to revoke the tax exemption. I hope they do it.

 

[DeeZire]

I was watching a story on the local news here the other day about the police department in Grand Rapids. They have this nifty new thing that prints out speeding tickets and the like on a computer type thing, so the cops don't have to write them out. It was touted as "a time saver" for the local police personnel.

Looking at it from another angle, wouldn't increasing efficiency be a good thing? The big bitch about government is that they're inefficient. So now that they're becoming more efficient, they also get bitched out?

 

[AlexysQuinn]

No wonder Michigan is going under. Sad, it's where I grew up and was my old stomping grounds.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204313604574328792152010638.html

I was watching a story on the local news here the other day about the police department in Grand Rapids. They have this nifty new thing that prints out speeding tickets and the like on a computer type thing, so the cops don't have to write them out. It was touted as "a time saver" for the local police personnel.

Maybe they can spend more time solving crime here now.

 

[rgraham666]

The WSJ has been displeased with the way things have been since child labor was abolished.

Although they did once come out in favor of higher taxes. For poor people.

 

[michchick98]

Looking at it from another angle, wouldn't increasing efficiency be a good thing? The big bitch about government is that they're inefficient. So now that they're becoming more efficient, they also get bitched out?

I can understand the inefficient argument, but wouldn't the money for the nifty new technology be better spent elsewhere?

 

[rgraham666]

I'm not necessarily a fan of efficiency. At the risk of Godwining this thread I'll mention that The Holocaust was very efficient.

 

[driphoney]

Dell just had a layoff in Winston-Salem, plant is 4 years old. It was 135 jobs. The County commission is looking at a clause in the contract to revoke the tax exemption. I hope they do it.

If they do that, where do you think Dell might re-open a plant when/if they ever start selling enough computers to need it?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I'm not necessarily a fan of efficiency. At the risk of Godwining this thread I'll mention that The Holocaust was very efficient.

ROB doesnt like pissing either, becuz its a true fact Nazis peed. Ditto for navels; Nazis had navels.

 

[DeeZire]

I can understand the inefficient argument, but wouldn't the money for the nifty new technology be better spent elsewhere?

That's the whole point of using technology to increase efficiency. You spend a little on the front end, and reap the benefits on the back end. The longer they wait to utilize the technology, the more money they waste.

A good comparison can be found in the medical field, where billions are wasted every year on shuffling paper, and thousands of people die because of illegible hand-written prescriptions and other medical errors due to unreadable paperwork.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

The problem with technology is someone is always inventing a better mousetrap, and companies lose their ass when they invest in the 'wrong' technology.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

The business problem we have in America is regulation by the government.

I dont mean regulation of quality, I mean regulation of competition. You can bet the darm that anytime government gets involved in a business problem, the involvement is a disguise to control the competition for the biggest players.