Archive for the ‘economy’ Category

DEI makes for dumb PCs

Posted: March 9, 2024 by navygrade36bureaucrat in economy
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One of the biggest concerns for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is the loss of TSMC, a huge company that makes around 80% of the world’s advanced microprocessors and chipsets and 55% of chips overall. Think about that for just one second…55% of all chips in the entire world are made by one company. In your home alone, there are chips in your computer, cars, certain HVAC components, smartphones, your wifi router, TVs, and even things like refrigerators. 55% of these chips come from one company.

That’s pretty crazy when you think about it. TSMC has facilities around the world, although the majority are located in Taiwan. Why wouldn’t it open more facilities in the US? Well, because its expensive due to all the red tape involved in making facilities in the US and because there is not enough talent in the US to make chips. If we drop the nice language, TSMC has basically said it costs too much and Americans aren’t smart enough to make these advanced chips.

Ouch. So much for all that STEM money we keep throwing at education that gets misused. Since chips are key components of most weapon systems, Congress passed the CHIPS act to subsidize and incentivize chip manufacturers in America. But guess what came along with the money? A whole lot of strings, including DEI strings:

The law contains 19 sections aimed at helping minority groups, including one creating a Chief Diversity Officer at the National Science Foundation, and several prioritizing scientific cooperation with what it calls “minority-serving institutions.” A section called “Opportunity and Inclusion” instructs the Department of Commerce to work with minority-owned businesses and make sure chipmakers “increase the participation of economically disadvantaged individuals in the semiconductor workforce.”

– The Hill

This is exactly why China and other nations can beat us at these high-end games. Americans are known for working hard and figuring things out, and until recently the advanced nature of American colleges and other education institutions was known around the world. But we’ve allowed morons (and if you support DEI, you are a moron) to write our laws and corrupt our institutions. The steady rise in costs from these morons has driven everyone away, from chip manufacturers and oil and gas production to basic tools and batteries.

We did this to ourselves. We can undo it too. Imagine a world without stupid bureaucrats running everything into the dirt. Imagine the US unleashing its potential and the hard work and smarts actually paying off, not being stifled by people insisting on laws and incentives that make no sense in the real world. A far better world, and one within our reach, if we choose to make it so.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.

Bidenomics Strikes and a Shake of DaTipJar

Posted: March 6, 2024 by datechguy in Blame Biden Administration, economy, personal
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In yesterday’s Under the Fedora I mentioned both that the reason I had not made it to CPAC lately was my full time job and also how DaTipJar has been falling short to the point where this will likely be the blog’s last year.

Well it only took 24 hours for things to get worse.

Things have been nasty at my work for a couple of years. The normal peak seasons at Christmastime that were crazy during the Trump years lasted less that a week. We closed two warehouses in the area and every single temp worker at our place was let go.

All of this despite the insistence of the media/left that our economy is absolutely fantastic and we need to thank the Biden Administration for it. Well I’ll give them this much, I do give Joe Biden/Obama credit for the economy we have. I got another dose of that economy last night.

Yesterday we were told that my shift, the 2nd shift is to be eliminated. I don’t know what my new shift is going to be but the end results at minimum are

  1. a 4% pay decrease
  2. Daily mass at best eliminated for 3 days a week and at worst eliminated completely
  3. A 67% chance that I’ll have to give up both running the parish Adoration and my two hours
  4. The joys of early mornings and rush hour traffic
  5. And not only a shift no longer corresponding with my wife but because she sleeps in a recliner due to hip issues an excellent chance of waking her each morning and disrupting her sleep every day.

At my age and with the economy we have there is not much I can do I’ve done two of the three things that can be done.

  1. I’ve arranged a Mass with all of us at the company as the Mass intention.
  2. I voted for Trump today when I had the chance.

The only other thing I can do is ask you to consider hitting DaTipJar and or Sharing this post for that purpose. I’ll cut back and we’ll get by the best we can.

But if you would like to give a hand it would be most appreciated.

The Fear is Palatable at Work

Posted: March 4, 2024 by datechguy in economy, election 2024, elections, politics
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When I saw this video:

All I could do is nod my head.

The vast majority of the people I work with have Spanish as their first language. They came here a decade or more ago. I don’t know if they came legally or not at the time but many if not most are now American citizens and they are scared for their jobs, their managers are scared for their jobs and as a guy about to hit 61 who had planned to work till 70 I’m scared for my job.

Even with COVID four years ago we were not.

And let me note, we are scared for our jobs after our company closed two warehouses in our area and laid off every temp we had.

Without a turnaround of the economy I don’t see how we avoid either further layoffs or a reduction of our workweek to below 40 hours.

That the democrats are polling over 40% is beyond me and I would bet real money that a lot of the folks were I am are going to vote for Trump because they know who was in charge when they were able to make a living and who was not.

They don’t care about mean tweets they care about feeding their kids and virtue signaling stuff like this

doesn’t enter their radar.

The only reason why I have no idea who will win in November is:

  1. I don’t know that Biden will be the Dem standard bearer no matter what happens in the primary
  2. I don’t know if Trump can win beyond the margin of fraud or if the GOP is taking steps to prevent it

It Comes Down to a Loaf of Bread

Posted: February 1, 2024 by datechguy in Blame Biden Administration, economy
Tags: ,

Today after mass I hit Market Basket before heading home. There are two advantages to such a trip.

  1. You get a chance to buy the “manager’s special” meats usually discounted 10-20%
  2. The donuts at their bakery are not only cheap but very good

With money very tights you look for a bargain here and there so rather than going out I figured find a nice steak and cook at home and if you can get it at a discount because the sell by date is tomorrow, so much the better.

When you first go into the Market Basket that I frequent there is a section just before the butter that usually has various breads that are offered on special. It’s handy for people who don’t want to hit the bread aisle at the other end of the store. I happened to glance at it and noticed they had the Market Basket Canadian White, a bread that I buy regularly at that area and I stopped cold.

The bread was marked at 2 for $5.

I do the shopping regularly at the house. I’ve seen the bread prices fluctuate over the years. I’ve seen a loaf of Canadian White as high as 2 for $4 and I’ve seen it marked down as low as .99 to get it to move. Over the past few years the regular price has stood stead at $1.79 though occasionally I’ll see it at 2 for $3 and buy an extra loaf to freeze.

I have never seen it at $2.50 a loaf. That’s a full 25% markup from the normal “high” price for the product.

I’ve seen the inflation that has been murderous in the country for the last three years. I’ve seen it in the price of all kinds of things, but to see it in the price of something that’s a basic staple as a loaf of bread and realize what that does to the people (and to the taxpayer because they’re paying that extra price for all those groceries) puts just how bad the economy is in bright focus.

And the worst part about it is that none of this needed to happen. This decline was a choice by those who decided that it was imperative to make a change at the White House and damn the consequences.

To a lot of people making the decisions that have led to this, a loaf of bread is nothing, but multiply that loaf by tens of millions struggling to meet basic needs and you have a powder keg just waiting to go off.

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