CEO's blame layoffs and reduced hours on Obama re-election

[Vongimi]

There's this thing we learn in economics 201. Essentially, every firm will produce the maximum amount of product it can while still making money on each item. Each item to produce takes more money then the previous one, since they have already used their most efficient production resources. So they keep going until it becomes more expensive to produce then the profit from that item redeems. Now when you increase the cost of production (via obamacare/taxes or other methods), you have now crossed the line, and now are producing things at a cost that is more expensive then the profit you get from them. Thus, its time to scale down to stay in line again. Obviously this is simply generalized, but that's how economics works. If you increase the cost of production you WILL get layoffs, everytime, no matter what. And its not simply political.

[ptwonline]

When are CEOs going to realize that it's a BAD idea to get openly involved in partisan politics? This is not the 1970's where a boycott was something that a few angry mothers would do in after writing a letter of protest. This is the 21st century and the age of social media. The things you do and say can become public very quickly, and social movements like boycotts can spread far and wide.

Chick-Fil-A learned their lesson the hard way. Even Rush Limbaugh learned (a bit) after protests led to him losing many of his sponsors after he attacked Sandra Fluke. Papa John's may learn their lesson the hard way too.

[darkpower]

Too many are talking about Papa John (fuck them: Pizza Hut and Domino's has always been my favs), and not enough going on Massey Energy, which seems to have played the "agree with my views or else" card.

Massey was the one that was found responsible for the mining disaster in 2010 because they were too lax in their safety protocols ( http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/2...virginia_probe ). And their owner, Don Blankenship, has been outspoken about who he supports politically (all you have to do is look on his Wiki page to see it and the many ways he's come under fire for them, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Blankenship#Views ). He's also widely known as a union buster.

In other words, this is probably one of the biggest slimeball CEO's ever. And that's probably saying something!

[ptwonline]

There's this thing we learn in economics 201. Essentially, every firm will produce the maximum amount of product it can while still making money on each item. Each item to produce takes more money then the previous one, since they have already used their most efficient production resources. So they keep going until it becomes more expensive to produce then the profit from that item redeems. Now when you increase the cost of production (via obamacare/taxes or other methods), you have now crossed the line, and now are producing things at a cost that is more expensive then the profit you get from them. Thus, its time to scale down to stay in line again. Obviously this is simply generalized, but that's how economics works. If you increase the cost of production you WILL get layoffs, everytime, no matter what. And its not simply political.

The price of something like pizza is by and large determined by competition, and not actual production costs. You choose a price point based on competition factors. Increased costs like this will also hit your competitors and so as an industry either you eat (pardon the pun) the extra costs and lose profits, or the industry average cost for a pizza will rise by a few cents to pay for these increased costs.

[Dispersedshadow]

Too many are talking about Papa John (fuck them: Pizza Hut and Domino's has always been my favs), and not enough going on Massey Energy, which seems to have played the "agree with my views or else" card.

Massey was the one that was found responsible for the mining disaster in 2010 because they were too lax in their safety protocols ( http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/2...virginia_probe ). And their owner, Don Blankenship, has been outspoken about who he supports politically (all you have to do is look on his Wiki page to see it and the many ways he's come under fire for them, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Blankenship#Views ). He's also widely known as a union buster.

In other words, this is probably one of the biggest slimeball CEO's ever. And that's probably saying something!

Probably because the most one can do in the case of Massey is write our utility companies and ask them to stop doing business with Massey and it's owner Alpha Natural Resources.

Many more can boycott Papa Johns' by making a superior product in their own home with homemade garlic butter and a piece of cardboard.

[Deleted]

Why are more and more adult people acting like children these days?

"oh buhu, it didn't turn out as I wanted, so I'm going to fuck these people to show you all what harm this has brought me instead of increasing the cost of my pizza by 14 cents or supporting the cost to get my people free healthcare so they'd live happy and long lives"

These things seem to be more and more frecvent. It's like watching children in school arguing over toys. "buhu, if I don't get the toy, nobody will, I shall destroy it!".

[darkpower]

Probably because the most one can do in the case of Massey is write our utility companies and ask them to stop doing business with Massey and it's owner Alpha Natural Resources.

Many more can boycott Papa Johns' by making a superior product in their own home with homemade garlic butter and a piece of cardboard.

Which is kind of scary, because it takes little effort to stop buying a shitty pizza because a CEO is too fucking greedy to know better.

It takes a LOT more to stop someone as sleazy as Blankenship when you have to jump through hoops to get something accomplished.

[Spectral]

Too many are talking about Papa John (fuck them: Pizza Hut and Domino's has always been my favs), and not enough going on Massey Energy, which seems to have played the "agree with my views or else" card.

Massey was the one that was found responsible for the mining disaster in 2010 because they were too lax in their safety protocols ( http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/2...virginia_probe ). And their owner, Don Blankenship, has been outspoken about who he supports politically (all you have to do is look on his Wiki page to see it and the many ways he's come under fire for them, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Blankenship#Views ). He's also widely known as a union buster.

In other words, this is probably one of the biggest slimeball CEO's ever. And that's probably saying something!

Fuck Massey. The sooner the coal industry is completely driven out of business, the better. I heard some coal executive say that it'll be gone by 2030 at this rate; that sounds like about a good enough amount of time to get better energy sources on time, so it seems that we're planning quite well.

[Absolem]

Why are more and more adult people acting like children these days?

"oh buhu, it didn't turn out as I wanted, so I'm going to fuck these people to show you all what harm this has brought me instead of increasing the cost of my pizza by 14 cents or supporting the cost to get my people free healthcare so they'd live happy and long lives"

These things seem to be more and more frecvent. It's like watching children in school arguing over toys. "buhu, if I don't get the toy, nobody will, I shall destroy it!".

Kind of an oversimplified way of putting it I guess, but yes that is exactly the case here.

The fact that it happened right after results were announced kind of confirms it's a stunt.

[Greeney]

I think I'd prefer it if europe and Canada gave the US free health care in exchange for all the free military service they've been providing for almost 100 years.

Free military service? Excuse me? Please show me a list of countries that in any way posed a a serious threat to Canada? Maybe we don't go around trying to police the world and force democracy everywhere? Really, let me know what your country saved us from aside from being next to us with a bigger army? The way I see it, less decent Americans ended up dead when friendly Canadians sacrifice their lives in American wars. How about you get off your patriotic high horse?

[The One Percent]

That's fine, I just won't eat there anymore.

[Sunseeker]

Here's a protip for all the big business corporate assholes out there: we don't need you. We vastly outnumber you. You will lose.

[Spectral]

Incompetent CEO lies to cover his own ass. More at 11.

[Deleted]

Their response can be completely reasonable. They waited until election to see if there was any way to avoid downsizing, Obama won and they laid off these people. These folks would've been laid off ages ago if they knew Romney would lose.

Publicly listed companies will not fire people for political reasons, they do it to maximize shareholder value. Some obscure small family company might do it for political reasons though. In general people aren't willing to sabotage their own companies and thus their wealth to make a political point.

[Absolem]

I think I'd prefer it if europe and Canada gave the US free health care in exchange for all the free military service they've been providing for almost 100 years. Its so easy for them to sit back and pretend they don't need to spend on military when they know if anything bad happens, America will rush in and protect them and clean it up (Bosnia for example).

How about a little give back? We protect europe, europe pays for American health care. Fair trade?

Or America could make deep cuts to its military to pay for health care. Of course, that drives up the costs to europe when it comes to military spending.

I was going to reply to this laughably inaccurate post you just made. The sheer stupidity and lack of perspective in what you just wrote is astounding.

But, I can't stop laughing.

Infracted. Post constructively

[Deleted]

I was going to reply to this laughably inaccurate post you just made. The sheer stupidity and lack of perspective in what you just wrote is astounding.

But, I can't stop laughing.

Well you ended up replying anyway didn't you?

[Spectral]

Publicly listed companies will not fire people for political reasons, they do it to maximize shareholder value.

This is only an actual rule of thumb if we believe that publicly listed companies are always rational actors with perfect information. The biggest contribution to economics that came from Hayek was a better understanding and emphasis on imperfect information; it confounds me that libertarians seem to forget it at times.

[Absolem]

Here's a protip for all the big business corporate assholes out there: we don't need you. We vastly outnumber you. You will lose.

Chick-Fil-A learned this the hard way.

It's time to tutor good old Papa J.

---------- Post added 2012-11-10 at 11:28 PM ----------

Well you ended up replying anyway didn't you?

If you actually read what I quoted and what I wrote down, then no I did not reply to his post.

I am not sure what your point was in the first place though.

[Spectral]

Free military service? Excuse me? Please show me a list of countries that in any way posed a a serious threat to Canada?

The United States poses a threat to Canada. Check and mate.

[Slammin Shaman]

I've told a few of my friends about this happening. One of them disagreed and said that it was Obama's fault because he was increasing the cost on "finacially strained companies"