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Topic: Blaming the government for costs of doing business
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Klingon
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 4625
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posted 30 November 2004 11:33 PM
P'Tachk! Greed and elite dictatorship never go well with honesty and sincerity.I agree there are many federal, as well as provincial government rules that negatively impact on small business: namely the GST and rules that are designed to enrich the banks. The Conference Board of Canada two years ago released a report that confirmed what Statistics Canada and other economic organizations were claiming: that the biggest cost to small business was not wages or taxes, but bank interest. In larger businesses, the biggest costs are clearly the cost of capital (as in high rates of return on investment) and management/bureaucracy (as in the bloated remuneration for CEOs and other high-level hacks). The economic idiocy think tank the Fraser Institute whines constantly about the "high cost of employment," and blame everything and everyone for this except what t=is the main source of the problem: the employer itself. High capital costs, high corporate bureaucracy costs and high bank interest costs are what stifles every economy more than anything else--especially since these are largely unproductive costs that add nothing (and in fact take away from) economic power. Ain't it interesting how most of these corporate business whiners never talk about these key factors that have such a huge negative impact on our businesses and economy.
From: Kronos, but in BC Observing Political Tretchery | Registered: Nov 2003
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verbatim
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 569
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posted 01 December 2004 05:57 AM
Angrymonkey, keep in mind that a large number of booksellers on ABE are nothing more than people operating from their homes. As Anchoress wrote -- many of them have never even considered the real costs involved.I am, at the moment, responsible for the ABE side of things at my mother's used bookstore here in Victoria, so I am quite familiar with the parameters in which this fellow actually operates. The ABE shipping matrix is set in USD, and based on a book weighing 1 kg or less, which is a pain in the ass to convert backwards and forwards according to the prevailing exchange rate, and so many vendors just go with ABE's suggested values. ABE, even though it is a Canadian company, concerns itself mainly with American booksellers because, as in everything else it seems, they dominate the marketplace and so must be catered to first. In any event, many booksellers who can't be bothered to research and set their matrix according to their actual costs will just play fast and loose with you. The bookseller you dealt with seems like a real amateur if he's indulging in political commentary while completing a transaction. "Handling fees" are simply a cash grab, and I frankly wouldn't deal with a seller who tried that crap. Any business worth its salt builds those costs into the book prices. Of course, you may be dealing with one of the volume sales businesses who list all their books at $3.99, regardless of worth, and then try to make up for it elsewhere.
From: The People's Republic of Cook Street | Registered: May 2001
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