.... The only problem is, that the Chinese factory that you purchased is owned by the state and they have selected for you a “goodly” amount of workers that are willing to work at pennies a day… however, workmanship seems to be a big problem, as the watches now that are made there do not seem to work. Worse yet, the metal used to make the casings are lead-based (instead of steel) and not only are poisonous, but do not hold up to shipping across the sea. Whole shipments are refused and must be re-made, costing your company millions of dollars.
Meanwhile, Uncle John is having problems of his own. Silly thing, the market. What goes up must come down…but he forgot that one simple little rule. And now all those zero down, zero payments until next year are coming due…and oddly enough Mr. And Mrs. America (whose wages have not gone up in 5 straight years) cannot afford to even pay the interest accrued during those 12 payment-free months added on to the regular monthly payments. They cannot afford their mortgages and try to sell their homes…only to find that no one wants to buy them.
Some people that own the homes the Uncle John holds the Mortgages to have simply walked away from their homes, leaving them vacant. So now poor Uncle John is swimming in other peoples debts and cannot seem to sell a house to sell his soul. All this bad credit on his books does not allow him to concentrate on anything else.
Including the watch factory that had to somehow “eat” all those bad watches made in China. You have asked Uncle John for a loan to pay for those shipments of bad watches made in China…but Uncle John cannot afford to lend you a dime.
Add to that, the market suddenly seems saturated with people wearing watches, from you and your competition. Of course, you’ve concentrated so much on saving money and moving the operations overseas… you forgot to do something about new markets and new products (also known as Research and development….R&D). Now, is seems…all of a sudden people have stopped buying your watches. Added to that, is the fact that people are having a hard time making their own ends meet. Gasoline has skyrocketed, groceries have just cost more than you can believe… so, your little wrist watch thingys are just not as important. Sales drop like a lean balloon.
Because sales have dropped so dramatically, there is no way that you can keep your staff or your factory running. Not only that…but that nice house you were building is now going to have to wait, as you do not have the funds to build anything. You have to tell the builders you cannot meet your obligations. They get mad (after all, you signed a contract) and take you to court to get their money too.
Your property is sold to pay for the assets. You company has to shut down. You and your wife split.. (She only loved you because you were a success, after all.. let’s be honest here)… You end up living in an efficiency apartment in another town…as you had to take up a job. Of course, you have no skills other than running a damned business and building watches that no one wants anymore. So, now you work at McDonalds, and Menards, and cleaning rooms for some local cleaning company. Since none of these jobs are full time there are no medical benefits…. And that’s when you discover that you have brain cancer……
Uncle John had to go bankrupt and sell all of his assets to another bank… and now lives right next door to you in an efficiency apartment, hoping that his Rich Nephew’s passing will leave him enough money to start again (at the tender age of 59). Since he put all of his money into housing, he never bothered to worry about retirement. (don’t matter anyway, because the meager 401K plan he offered his own employees dried up when the stock market tanked last year).
So, do you like this story.. huh? Well, this is the story that is being played out all over our country even tonight. It’s a big pickle… and no one is really sure how to get out of it. Scarey… is it not? Yes, it is!
No comments:
Post a Comment