The point of a company is to make money while keeping the workforce from quitting. The point of a country is as a place for people to live in, without making them ill and unhappy most of the time. You can't run a country by spending as little as possible, because it doesn't just mean your employees all find another job, it affects every hour of their lives. Some of us can leave for other countries, but people who aren't doctors, academics or millionaires can't do that.
I wouldn't leave for another country if I could - I've lived in quite a few other countries and found none that I prefer, not even Denmark (where quality of life is much better but society is less laid-back, open-minded and tolerant , on the whole. Wild generalisation, but I'm trying to get across a general trend without writing a really nit-picking post.
That does not, however, mean I don't think this country should be improved, and I agree wholeheartedly with your original statement. It's precisely because we are, in many respects, lucky enough to have a good quality of life that I think we should be keen to make it a lot better.
I'm afraid I have to agree with beingjdc (is that a first? ;¬p) about migration into Britain, or at least London. People get hysterical about migrants from poorer, less 'desirable' countries, but ignore the huge proportion from places like Australia especially, and the USA, South Africa and other Western European countries.
However, if you are keen to emigrate, there are certainly plenty of countries where you could get an equivalent standard of living for far less, or a better standard for roughly the same amount or only a little more. You don't always need to be wealthy to get away - I grew up with expats and few of them were that well-off or prestigious. Not that money doesn't always help, natch!
Well, there's a point. You can make a profit in the trucking business, buying ramshackle bangers and running thin into the ground with the minimum of maintenance permissible by law (and, all too often, less); or by taking the Eddie Stobart route of buying top-of-the-range kit and training both the drivers and the maintenace technicians to the highest standards in the industry.
The de minimis approach breaks down in any business that competes on quality - for employees as well as for customers - and is all to often a recipe for failure when competing on cost: efficient production requires investment in staff and machinery.
Effective cost-cutting is an essential commercial discipline; indiscriminate cost-cutting is bad management and the sure and certain route to a permanent loss of competitive advantage and eventual closure.
I would add that Stobart's are the most profitable freight haulier in the transport sector.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-07-11 04:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-11 09:16 pm (UTC)That does not, however, mean I don't think this country should be improved, and I agree wholeheartedly with your original statement. It's precisely because we are, in many respects, lucky enough to have a good quality of life that I think we should be keen to make it a lot better.
I'm afraid I have to agree with
However, if you are keen to emigrate, there are certainly plenty of countries where you could get an equivalent standard of living for far less, or a better standard for roughly the same amount or only a little more. You don't always need to be wealthy to get away - I grew up with expats and few of them were that well-off or prestigious. Not that money doesn't always help, natch!
no subject
Date: 2007-07-12 08:49 pm (UTC)Well, there's a point. You can make a profit in the trucking business, buying ramshackle bangers and running thin into the ground with the minimum of maintenance permissible by law (and, all too often, less); or by taking the Eddie Stobart route of buying top-of-the-range kit and training both the drivers and the maintenace technicians to the highest standards in the industry.
The de minimis approach breaks down in any business that competes on quality - for employees as well as for customers - and is all to often a recipe for failure when competing on cost: efficient production requires investment in staff and machinery.
Effective cost-cutting is an essential commercial discipline; indiscriminate cost-cutting is bad management and the sure and certain route to a permanent loss of competitive advantage and eventual closure.
I would add that Stobart's are the most profitable freight haulier in the transport sector.