What Happened to the Gold Watch?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Seacowboys, Aug 19, 2015.


  1. RightHand

    RightHand Been There, Done That RIP 4/15/21 Moderator Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    Malden Mills - a case study in business practice and consequences

    Malden Mills
     
    chelloveck likes this.
  2. duane

    duane Monkey+++

    We seem to assume that a company is either privately owned or a corporation. A lot of the ownership now is in the hands of leveraged buyout firms, raider investors, T Boone Pickens comes to mind, or private equity firms that only buy a company to free up its "excess value". They use as much borrowed money as possible, take everything out of it that they can, cut expenses as much as they can to make the numbers look good, or move it off shore and then when it is run into the ground and there is no more money left, they either sell it to a holding company that may exit or be a front, or let it go broke. If the manager of one of those funds makes a billion dollars in one year using someone else money , he may be cutting some corners, legal or ethical, and has no interest in the long run existence of the company or the fate of the employees. The new business model brings Apple to mind, total value of all the stock highest of any firm in the US. As far as I know they do not own a factory and all their products have a finite life, no continuing revenue stream. It will continue to exist only as long as it can come with a new idea every few years that dominates the business in that sector and then only if the net profit on the product is in the 40 to 50 % range. Anyone remember Kodiac , the old Xerox, GM before the bailout, Pan American Airways, and 100 other major companies that are now history. The gold watch is gone in many cases because your career outlived the company or the industry that you worked in. Being self sufficient and debt free is not just a goal, at 70 + , and seeing the farce of our Medicare and social security benefits and the absolute theft of our buying power, loss of income on fixed assets, and sheer gambling nature of wall street, it is an absolute necessity. You may face TSHTF on any one particular day. It will not be an EMP event, that I could at least be somewhat able to handle, it will be your spouse going into a nursing home or needing an expensive medical procedure that is only partialy covered. If you are, 40 and have a medical event, you do not even have that protection and the odds are great that you will lose everything.
     
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