On January 5th, a door plug blew out of the side of a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane flying for Alaska Airlines from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California. (A door plug is a section of the plane’s fuselage bolted in to take the place of an optional emergency exit.
Stupid narrative is right. Hadn't heard that one. The one thing we know for sure about diversity, there is very little at the big hedge funds that are swimming in those stock buybacks.
Are the buy back then sold with a further margin so the company makes a buck and investment corps continue to grow and add more muscle to expand their influence?
Good points. I go over that study that shows that rather than reinvesting, the military contractors increased their stock buybacks. You can find it in Wall Street's War on Workers which will be out in a month.
I realize this is a troubling portrait. But the power of Wall Street to pressure companies to move wealth up and away should not be underestimated. We had a chance to really contain the damage after to 2008 crash, but we let them wriggle off the hook. It's harder now, but not impossible....I hope. Thx for your comments.
Thanks for the info and good point. But I think the pressure to extract wealth for the big boys does a great deal to create and perpetuate that kind of culture.
Labor was never the issues to costs. Look to Materials first and then Overhead. It is far easier to whack Labor than it is to lower Overhead or Materials. Materials being #1, Overhead #2, and Labor the last cost. If you whack Labor you impinge upon the quality of the build. As Boeing has found out. The installation of the door was probably done incorrectly. Where was QC in all of this? And the Labor installation? Laid off, probably.
If you wish to lower costs, look to materials and throughput first. Done so many times over 40 years of working in manufacturing and supply chain.
This is an incredibly important article full of vital information about how US business and industry have become a cash cow benefiting Wall Street investment and hedge funds to the detriment of everyone else in society, workers and consumers alike. It shows the basic corruption in our capitalist system that is destroying our nation. You can see the same mechanism at work with military weapons companies where the billions voted by Congress for arms for Ukraine circle back to the aerospace firms such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics, etc. Proponents claim that the money goes for jobs in the US at these firms, but it's a lie. The money goes to the dividends and stock buybacks that end up in the pockets of the already-rich top executives and investors. It's one big reason why the US military cannot cope in a modern proxy war against Russia. In Russia, they no longer put up with this type of BS. The oligarchs work with the government or are gone. In the US, the oligarchs OWN the government and always come first at the feeding trough. Good-bye America, I knew ye well....Also please see my own book on the rise and fall of the American empire, "Our Country Then and Now."
#1 son worked Boeing assembly twice at two different plants....quit both times. The assembly floors in Washington State are a mess. Retirement home workers with attitudes during day shift, kids on swing, older MAGAs on swing resentful they're not on mornings yet. FOD and tools go missing far too much. Managers scream "I have bigger problems that your tool issue today" rather than authorize requisition for a replacement tool. "Borrow from another pause." Then that tool goes missing. Not enough bolts for a door plug? Spirit likely got the same problems. It's more than buybacks. It's the whole culture of the place.
Highlighting the insane amount of money going to stock buybacks and amount of workers fired is important. There was an article on Palladium Magazine blaming Boeings failure on "diversity hires" clearly shifting the blame to something more culturally divisive. Articles like this are important to counter stupid narratives like that that blame diversity.
Stupid narrative is right. Hadn't heard that one. The one thing we know for sure about diversity, there is very little at the big hedge funds that are swimming in those stock buybacks.
Must be criminal
Are the buy back then sold with a further margin so the company makes a buck and investment corps continue to grow and add more muscle to expand their influence?
Good points. I go over that study that shows that rather than reinvesting, the military contractors increased their stock buybacks. You can find it in Wall Street's War on Workers which will be out in a month.
I realize this is a troubling portrait. But the power of Wall Street to pressure companies to move wealth up and away should not be underestimated. We had a chance to really contain the damage after to 2008 crash, but we let them wriggle off the hook. It's harder now, but not impossible....I hope. Thx for your comments.
Thanks for the info and good point. But I think the pressure to extract wealth for the big boys does a great deal to create and perpetuate that kind of culture.
Bit late to the party here.
Labor was never the issues to costs. Look to Materials first and then Overhead. It is far easier to whack Labor than it is to lower Overhead or Materials. Materials being #1, Overhead #2, and Labor the last cost. If you whack Labor you impinge upon the quality of the build. As Boeing has found out. The installation of the door was probably done incorrectly. Where was QC in all of this? And the Labor installation? Laid off, probably.
If you wish to lower costs, look to materials and throughput first. Done so many times over 40 years of working in manufacturing and supply chain.
Well said!!
Unfortunately, all too true.
Agree. Manythx
Thx for our kind words.
This is an incredibly important article full of vital information about how US business and industry have become a cash cow benefiting Wall Street investment and hedge funds to the detriment of everyone else in society, workers and consumers alike. It shows the basic corruption in our capitalist system that is destroying our nation. You can see the same mechanism at work with military weapons companies where the billions voted by Congress for arms for Ukraine circle back to the aerospace firms such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics, etc. Proponents claim that the money goes for jobs in the US at these firms, but it's a lie. The money goes to the dividends and stock buybacks that end up in the pockets of the already-rich top executives and investors. It's one big reason why the US military cannot cope in a modern proxy war against Russia. In Russia, they no longer put up with this type of BS. The oligarchs work with the government or are gone. In the US, the oligarchs OWN the government and always come first at the feeding trough. Good-bye America, I knew ye well....Also please see my own book on the rise and fall of the American empire, "Our Country Then and Now."
https://www.claritypress.com/product/our-country-then-and-now/
#1 son worked Boeing assembly twice at two different plants....quit both times. The assembly floors in Washington State are a mess. Retirement home workers with attitudes during day shift, kids on swing, older MAGAs on swing resentful they're not on mornings yet. FOD and tools go missing far too much. Managers scream "I have bigger problems that your tool issue today" rather than authorize requisition for a replacement tool. "Borrow from another pause." Then that tool goes missing. Not enough bolts for a door plug? Spirit likely got the same problems. It's more than buybacks. It's the whole culture of the place.
Highlighting the insane amount of money going to stock buybacks and amount of workers fired is important. There was an article on Palladium Magazine blaming Boeings failure on "diversity hires" clearly shifting the blame to something more culturally divisive. Articles like this are important to counter stupid narratives like that that blame diversity.
What terrible picture you paint ...”then a panel falls off” what is the future of safety when profits go to the top end ..
Great idea: cut costs in the short term, kill people, and lose money in the long term!
Gotta' love those mentally-unsound billionaires.
Terrific research. How did these sociopathic CEOs gain so much power?
People over profits !