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Chris
12-27-2012, 07:52 AM
This is from the latest EconTalk podcast: Lisa Turner on Organic Farming (http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2012/12/lisa_turner_on.html). I'll listen today, but here is the interviewer's highlight:


Guest: …we hire some high school kids. And they are lovely people. But usually it’s one of their first jobs, like maybe they’ve mowed the lawn for their neighbor or maybe they did some babysitting. But by and large we’re their first job. So, everything else that’s happened in their life has happened for their benefit. They’ve gone to summer camp–that was for their benefit. They’ve gone to school–that was for their benefit. We as parents certainly do everything we can to benefit our children. And then they come to me and–yeah, there are a lot of programs that go on in the summer. And that’s not what this is. This is: You are going to work, and at the end of the week I’m going to give you money; and I expect that because you are here, I will make more money. And that’s a concept that I’ve had to explain to them. And it comes in really hard. And I have to say: Why would I have you here if I wasn’t going to end up with more money? Why on earth would I have you show up every day? And they kind of start to get that this should be a mutually beneficial arrangement, not just that I shouldn’t come out even because I think of–capitalism as me making money for the aggravation of having you here. And then we get the college kids; they’ve kind of gotten that kind of concept a little better. But then I’ll say: What do you want to do when you are done with college? And they’ll say: Oh, I want to work for a non-profit. And that one makes me angry. First, it’s like, well, non-profit, that could be a hospital, that could be a–like you haven’t thought about this any more–that could be a land trust, it could be anything. ‘Non-profit’ is huge. You don’t have any more direction than that you want to work for a non-profit? But also, they are telling me that profit is bad. So, I say: Well, look around at all this stuff you see, the tractors, the greenhouses, the walk-in cooler–like all this stuff. Ralph and I could have taken that money and even if we put it in the bank in a savings account we’d have earned like a percent or something, even now. But we’ve done this, and we’re risking that–it may not work out; we may not make any money from this; we may not get back the money we put in. Don’t we deserve a little more than what we could get in a bank by doing something safe? And they say: Oh, well yeah, of course you do. And I say: Well, that’s profit. And that’s all that profit is. And: Ohhhh. And then the light dawns. But they come with no idea about how capitalism works, even though capitalism is the economic system of our country.

Carygrant
12-27-2012, 12:12 PM
Will we be getting other scintillating excerpts from people involved in Highway Crossing , General Safety , Swimming etc ?
Will all of these also relate not one jot to Organic Farming ?
Sounds great to me .

Chris
12-27-2012, 12:54 PM
The topic is profit. The excerpt from a small business woman who runs an organic farm, her views on profit. Did you, cary, have something, even humorous, to say on profits? Do you agree or disagree with her, and why?

Mainecoons
12-27-2012, 12:56 PM
Of course not. They've been taught by a bunch of mainly unionized government workers (yep, folks, that is what teachers are) their entire lives.

If you're counting on these people to pay your social security and medicare, good luck. You'll need it.

Carygrant
12-27-2012, 03:34 PM
The topic is profit. The excerpt from a small business woman who runs an organic farm, her views on profit. Did you, cary, have something, even humorous, to say on profits? Do you agree or disagree with her, and why?

Why would you produce a topic on a general concept but based on one person's view which is so narrow ? Incidentally , we have TV programmes based on the assumption that 12 year old kids understand much wider information ?
That this might have a relation to Organic Farming is something you might know but we have to assume . But so what ?
It is incredibly boring except perhaps to other small organic farmers . And about as relevant to an economy as a single gnat bite . The concept of Organic Farming is being questioned more closely than hitherto and over here it is increasingly seen as a scam .
Does that seem a fair set of questions to raise ?
Selection is an important part of Comprehension and nobody will ever learn anything from just one small Organic Farmer in Wherever just because you imagine we will .

Deadwood
12-27-2012, 04:38 PM
As an employer since 1992, I have encountered this kind of thinking increasingly over the years.

I recall a computer technician we hired who was aghast that we would charge our customers $80 an hour for his services. After weeks and weeks of his protests I invited him to go out on his own and charge whatever he liked. He would pay his own overhead, rental space, tools, software and hardware training, AND the cost of finding customers.

The dumb fuck did.

He was broke four months later begging for a job.

BTW it was about 1995 and we were paying this 28 year old kid $40K a year with perks, dental, car allowance, hardware and software at our cost.

Chris
12-27-2012, 07:53 PM
Why would you produce a topic on a general concept but based on one person's view which is so narrow ? Incidentally , we have TV programmes based on the assumption that 12 year old kids understand much wider information ?
That this might have a relation to Organic Farming is something you might know but we have to assume . But so what ?
It is incredibly boring except perhaps to other small organic farmers . And about as relevant to an economy as a single gnat bite . The concept of Organic Farming is being questioned more closely than hitherto and over here it is increasingly seen as a scam .
Does that seem a fair set of questions to raise ?
Selection is an important part of Comprehension and nobody will ever learn anything from just one small Organic Farmer in Wherever just because you imagine we will .


Why would you produce a topic on a general concept but based on one person's view which is so narrow ?

Uh, to discuss it. There are many views on profit, this is one. Did you have a comment on the view expressed?


at this might have a relation to Organic Farming is something you might know but we have to assume .

None that I can see, she just happens to run such a farm, has certain views on profit, relates what the kids she has working for her think.


But so what ? It is incredibly boring except perhaps to other small organic farmers . And about as relevant to an economy as a single gnat bite . The concept of Organic Farming is being questioned more closely than hitherto and over here it is increasingly seen as a scam .

Then why are you posting here if you don't care and find it boring? How, shall we say, does it profit you to do so?


Selection is an important part of Comprehension and nobody will ever learn anything from just one small Organic Farmer in Wherever just because you imagine we will .

The idea is to get people to engage in discussion of her experiences and ideas, compare, contrast them with theirs, so on, so forth, in short, to join a discussion because we value it and exchange opinions and ideas and thereby each profit.

Try it sometime. You might actually enjoy it.

Chris
12-27-2012, 07:56 PM
As an employer since 1992, I have encountered this kind of thinking increasingly over the years.

I recall a computer technician we hired who was aghast that we would charge our customers $80 an hour for his services. After weeks and weeks of his protests I invited him to go out on his own and charge whatever he liked. He would pay his own overhead, rental space, tools, software and hardware training, AND the cost of finding customers.

The dumb fuck did.

He was broke four months later begging for a job.

BTW it was about 1995 and we were paying this 28 year old kid $40K a year with perks, dental, car allowance, hardware and software at our cost.

Exactly, and that is this woman's point to.

I think some of that attitude from kids is to be expected, but I agree it seems to be increasing more and more with the children of baby boomers.

Captain Obvious
12-27-2012, 09:12 PM
CaryGrant has been banned from this thread, please do not respond to his posts.