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Is it me....

Posted by Warhawk on 10/15/2024, 12:05 pm

or are the times to get parts just getting longer and longer? A month or more to get anything we need.

Re: Is it me....

Posted by FW24 on 10/16/2024, 3:13 pm, in reply to "Is it me...."

And music....I just now got the final part of an order that I placed with JW Pepper a month ago. It was 8 pieces of music that came in 4 different packages.

Re: Is it me....

Posted by Respectfully on 10/17/2024, 9:49 am, in reply to "Re: Is it me...."

It's almost as if we've had a great deal of difficulty with transportation due to weather conditions over the past month or so, and we've had to redirect shipping and trucking capacity to compensate..

Re: Is it me....

Posted by Supply chain on 10/15/2024, 4:51 pm, in reply to "Is it me...."

Materials, supply chain, qualified workers, everything having to get on a boat to get here, (because we for some reason can't seem to produce anything on this side of the ocean)....

Businesses running margins to the point that Just-in-time shipping is the only way to be able to cash flow without spending too much money for items to sit on a shelf and not sell.

Re: Is it me....

Posted by observer on 10/16/2024, 1:00 pm, in reply to "Re: Is it me...."

Good business analysis.

Re: Is it me....

Posted by Snerk on 10/16/2024, 11:56 am, in reply to "Re: Is it me...."

All of this is by design, in other words.

Re: Is it me....

Posted by Whose? on 10/17/2024, 1:21 pm, in reply to "Re: Is it me...."

whose design and to what end?

Re: Is it me....

Posted by Snerk on 10/17/2024, 3:05 pm, in reply to "Re: Is it me...."

Out of respect to TYB Host, I won't say too much - he prefers to keep this board politics-free.

However, this is what late-stage capitalism looks like. When corporations have profit margin and mandatory growth as the mindset, corners are and will continually be cut to reduce expenses and raise that bottom line.

Re: Is it me....

Posted by Small business on 10/18/2024, 9:51 am, in reply to "Re: Is it me...."

Most repair folks are small businesses. Heck, most businesses in the United States are small businesses. Balancing costs of parts and labor are a challenge. That also applies to larger corporations. Not just trying to create a profit for stockholders (your retirement also needs those stock values high before you completely trash the system).

Remember when everyone kept calling for increased wages (teachers included). Well when you increase wages you also have to increase costs and therefore have to increase income. A business, large or small, can't increase the pay to their employee without that income. Teachers can't get paid more without property taxes going up and when property taxes go up homeowners start asking for raises..... It's all a circle. I mean, I'm sure you want to tell your AC repairman to just eat the cost of those parts they need to keep your house cool because you needed a raise but they don't get to increase their costs even though the price of raw materials went up and thus the manufacturing costs (because those employees also got raises)...

And Just-in-time product management has been around 50 plus years and wasn't even an American idea...

Re: Is it me....

Posted by Snerk on 10/18/2024, 1:28 pm, in reply to "Re: Is it me...."

Talk to me when the big corporations that are setting the market for nearly every industry aren't making record profits year after year, without giving raises or COL adjustments.

Inflation went up over the past couple years. Wages were flat. Prices went up. Where did the money go? Into someone or some corporation's pocket or bank account.

I don't buy your "small businesses can't do it," argument and anyone who pays attention to economics doesn't either. People will pay for quality. People will pay to pay people a living wage.

Re: Is it me....

Posted by Economy on 10/21/2024, 9:09 am, in reply to "Re: Is it me...."

If you truly believed that you would not buy from Amazon. You would walk into local brick and mortar stores and pay a higher price than what Amazon will offer you. I'm pretty sure we could open your "check book" and we would find you, like most people, are looking for the lowest bidder on nearly everything. Your school is on nearly every purchase they make. Get 3 bids for an item or service and very, VERY seldom do you get to choose the highest-priced bid "because of the level of service".

Wages are flat but the cost of doing business has gone up. Every piece of the supply chain raised their prices so raising prices on goods and keeping the salary flat might look like record income but it isn't in reality. It might be a way to ride out the storm and keep the company in place for another year when things might level off. Also - insurance costs went up. Fuel prices and delivery prices are up. Literally everything is up just to do business.

While I know lots of folks like to complain about the evil corporations take a step back. Do you have any employees that are 100% dependent on you for their job? Do you have 10 or 100 or 1000 people that depend on you to make good decisions so that they can continue to receive a paycheck? I've watched my spouse work for small and large companies over the years. I'm type A take charge and let me make decisions. They are not. And thankfully the owners of the companies they've worked for are because it's THEIR job to make sure there are new projects lined up to keep the company running. They fail and the company fails. That's a little pressure....

Just like our principals when we get mad because they don't think we, band, are the most important thing in the building because they have a thousand students in their school NOT in band who also have parents and expectations and needs. Maybe there is more to these companies bottom lines and profit dollars than, "stock your shelves with stuff even though you need to pay for it now and not sell it for 6 months just so I don't have to wait for anything"...

Re: Is it me....

Posted by Not Bill Gates on 10/20/2024, 12:13 am, in reply to "Re: Is it me...."

There's nothing evil about wanting to make a profit. If a person has $100,000, he could choose to open a small business, work hard, and take a risk OR invest it in the stock market, relax at home, and earn almost 12% annually on his investment. A 20% profit for a business is not unreasonable. If wages or other costs increase, expenses have to be cut or prices will have to increase to maintain the profit margin. Customers may WANT to pay for quality, and may WISH a living wage for everyone, but if they can't afford it, then they don't buy your goods or service. Only the government gets to print money.

Re: Is it me....

Posted by Snerk on 10/20/2024, 9:34 pm, in reply to "Re: Is it me...."

The difference is, the modern business world thinks your business is a failure if you don't make increasing profits every quarter, or if you're not profitable enough.

In a sane world, what you say makes sense. This world isn't sane.

Re: Is it me....

Posted by Question on 10/21/2024, 9:14 am, in reply to "Re: Is it me...."

So what you are saying is you never expect to increase your income?

Do you try and grow the number of students in your program or do you have the exact same number of kids every year with no growth?

Does your principal expect testing scores to continue to grow or do they accept wherever the school currently is on their testing numbers with a plan to only "maintain" the current levels?

Re: Is it me....

Posted by Snerk on 10/21/2024, 1:30 pm, in reply to "Re: Is it me...."

How many of us got a 15% raise over the past two-three years?

That's how much inflation has hit us. 8% and 7%.

Oh, and consider cost of insurance went up by about 15% as well.

So - yes, I expect my real take-home income to continue to decrease. I know I didn't go from 65k to 74k. We got 3% two years ago and *zero* this year.

Regarding your second point, I teach every kid in school, so it doesn't matter. We have 100% participation in my class.

Third, if a school has a 100% pass rate, how will that school improve? There are a few that are that high, and the report cards rated them a C campus the first year they came out because the school didn't show growth.

Re: Is it me....

Posted by Not my question on 10/21/2024, 2:48 pm, in reply to "Re: Is it me...."

That wasn't my question. I asked if you expected your income to stay the same with no raises.

You got a raise. All teachers got raises. While many businesses were flat coming out of Covid teachers were getting raises. Those businesses should be able to also "increase" their income just like you expected your income to increase. Those businesses and their employees are what actually PAY your salary. And since every teacher I know is constantly talking about how they need bigger budgets I guess we better get those businesses growing so they'll build bigger buildings to get bigger evaluations to pay higher taxes to fund your budget... Or to have more income they need to hide from taxes and make donations to your program.

So businesses SHOULD have a mindset of growing their business every year the same as you have the mindset of expecting raises. And even if a school hits 100% passing, (how many are there in the state of Texas), did 100% get a 100%? If the answer is no then there is still growth opportunity.

lastly - 100% participation meaning 100% of the students on your campus are in your band?

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