Whats wrong with America?

sharpeknives said:
We are.
I came home from work the other day, just mad. So I went out to the shop and just sit. I was trying to figure out why I hated my job so bad. I used to love it. I was proud of what I did and how I did it. Then it hit me. The pride is gone. I am a mechanic at a dealership have been for 30 years. I truly believed in the brand motto "Quality is job 1".
So when did I loose that pride? Had to do some more thinking. A while back dealers started competing with smaller chains like Firestone, Good-Year and Jiffy Lube. Our priority turned to brakes tires and battery's. We started selling aftermarket crap like BG products a RAU products because of higher profits that can be gained. Ford sells items that do the same job just not as high a profit. So the aftermarket stuff is pushed.
I think we have become so money oriented that quality has suffered, to the point that, made in America, is seldom seen. We are to blame. We buy cheap crap. Which ups the demand for cheap crap. If you think I'm wrong how many of us buy from Harbor Freight and Northern Tool."Hey I'm guilty"
OK, I'm rambling. I guess my point is when we started thinking about how much money we can make if we make it cheaper instead of how we can make it better, we as a whole started on a down hill run.
I hope that I never drop the quality of my knives so I can sell them cheaper. No matter what the demand is.
OK I'm done.
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Last year I was in the same boat. I was hating a job that I once loved. It wasn't the Job. It was my Love of making knives. I was resenting my job from taking me from that. Knives kept pulling me. Till one day I went to lunch and never went back.
I never think how I can make a knife cheaper. I always focus on making it better. How I can make next price point. How can I get someone pay more for my knife.
I am guilty of using HB too. Why? Not because it is cheap, Because it works.
I use a HB Horizontal band saw as my metal cutting band saw. I live in rural town and 64'' saw blades are readily available. I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Make your money not by selling them cheaper. Make your money by making them better and selling them higher. Why make 5 knives when you could make one.
 
I am going to work a few jobs now and then and focus on my knives. Black Toe just gave me some great advice. Jim
 
You guys are right . Exspecially about the pencil pushers running a business. I learned alot from my dad so I'll use him as an example again.
After he retired dad made trailers. Just little utility trailers, I have a 5 X 8 he built. Anyway my step-mother was complaining about how he didn't charge enough for his trailers. So she did the math, steel ,tires, axels, welding rods, shop electric, and all that crap. It seems dad made about $200 profit on a trailer. A very meager sum for a couple weeks work. So she started priceing dads trailers. He had 2 sit in the yard for almost 3 years. That from haveing a backlog he couldn't keep up with. So he went from working in the shop doing something he enjoyed to doing nothing. He was a happy man, working everyday( at 72years old) produceing a high quality product. And haveing a few extra bucks in his pocket. to doing nothing.
America is doing the same thing. We are listening to the pencil pushers and the union reps, telling us we need more, we need more. We became a country of gotta haves. I may be an ass but, no 10yr old kid needs a $200 pair of shoes and no 12yr old needs a $600 cell phone. But you see it all the time. We don't think about quality of our work as much as we worry about how much less were making than the guy down the street. These things have to change, we have to change.
 
Hollywood and the mass media start brainwashing children at a very young age. What little girl do you know that doesn't think she is going to have a perfect cinderella wedding with hundreds of people at the reception. And the 'tradition' that the girls father has to pay for everything it ridiculous. If people want to get married they should foot the bill themselves and not think about spending $40,000.00 on a wedding reception.

We are made to believe that if we are not keeping up with the Jones's and spending every last penny, even ones that aren't ours, that we are not an acceptable part of society.

Ooh, our nice beautiful home that we bought 4 years ago has gone up in value $50,000.00 so we just have to buy a new house worth $75,000.00 more than this one. Then BAM, goes the market.

People need to start thinking for themselves instead of thinking about what the neighbors think about their clothes they wear or the vehicle they drive or how big their house is.

The Federal Reserve is at the very bottom of a lot of the mess. the debt based, fractional reserve monetary system is an evil entity meant only to enslave the country. There are many necessary evils but the Federal Reserve is an UNnecessary evil.
 
NO, they are not. The Fed is not part of our Government although the government gets to appoint a board of governors, it does not get to pickk the directors. They are an independent organization that lends money to the government. A Private central bank.

It has several parts

#1 The presidentially appointed Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, a governmental agency in Washington, D.C.
,
#2 The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which oversees Open Market Operations, the principal tool of national monetary policy,

#3 Twelve regional privately-owned Federal Reserve Banks located in major cities throughout the nation, which divide the nation into 12 districts, acting as fiscal agents for the U.S. Treasury, each with its own nine-member board of directors,

#4 Numerous other private U.S. member banks, which subscribe to required amounts of non-transferable stock in their regional Federal Reserve Banks,

#5 Various advisory council

Read all about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_System
 
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