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The main reason why prices tend to rise with wages is that public corporation stock prices are tied to their quarterly/annual earnings. Corporations that desire their stock prices to rise are always looking for ways to increase their profits and show earnings growth.
Increased wages raise expenses for a corporation by a factor of its total workforce affected by the wage increase. This lowers earnings/profits, and causes a chain reaction (via analyst downgrades) that results in their stock price declining. An obvious candidate for making up for the lost profits is to raise prices and/or find cheaper labor (Asia/Mexico) and cheaper materials/ingredients.
One complicating factor is that a general workforce with higher wages has higher purchasing power. Yet, as the workforce exercises this power in the market place, it signals higher demand which tends to trigger both higher prices from current suppliers and the entry into the market of alternative suppliers who try to compete on price and volume.
Not saying any of this is good or bad. Just pointing out the general mechanism. Perhaps someday we can return our society back to a 1950s/1960s business mentality when "maximizing shareholder value" wasn't the A#1 priority of corporate CEOs.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Monday, January 13, 2014
Announcing My Name Change
On this day, January 13, 2014, the day before I achieve 46 years on the earth since my birth -- I discard all names previously given to me or taken by myself and I choose and embrace a new name, Mark Donohue Valor.
tldr; Because I can; because the new name pleases me. All the world's a stage, and I have changed my stage name.
To the more interested: One year ago, I journaled that, on the way to embracing Transcendentalism (the affirmation that everything is eternal spirit, with the physical world as a transient illusion), I discovered that Materialism (the affirmation that everything is physical, with the spiritual world as a transient illusion) was the underlying reality of the universe. I've had 12 months to try out this mental 'suit of clothes'. Each passing day since has served only to strengthen this conviction. In the English summary of the ancient words of the Roman poet Lucretius: "There are atoms, and the void, and nothing else". Far from bringing any sense of depression or despair, this understanding has opened up a new and exciting life of wonder, joy, and personal growth for me. I wholeheartedly embrace it and already inject it into every expression of what I say, do, and create. I am such a different person today than I have been in the preceding two decades that it would rather be a fraud NOT to express myself by changing my name.
Honestly, I never was a "Buddy", a "Bernard" or a "Bernie" in my own mind. Loving, wonderful people hung these monikers on me to give me a good start in life. Each of these names has served to identify a particular epoch of my life through the years as I worked through important transitions -- from the meek child, to the scrappy young man elbowing his place at life's table, to the hopeful seeker of profound meaning. I freely confess that each of these past phases of my life has taken longer, far longer, than it has for some of my contemporaries. Yet, at each transition, I wrung more and more traces of magical thinking from the fabric that is my life.
And further: When I was young, my family used to travel to Indiana in a motor home to watch auto races. The very first 'idol' I ever had in my life was a thrilling race car driver named Mark Donohue. He dominated every racing circuit he drove in. He fundamentally changed the rules of racing with his knowledge of physics and his willingness to tinker and experiment with the mechanics of his racing cars. The title of his autobiography is "Unfair Advantage". He died as he lived while practicing for the Austrian Grand Prix in 1975, immortalized at the top of his game like Bruce Lee, Jimi Hendrix, and Buddy Holly To this day I am moved and inspired by his life.
If you insist on calling me by the name you knew when you first met me, I'm probably not going to knock myself out correcting you. Those who matter most to me understand that this is just as big an event for me as someone else's christening or marriage.
tldr; Because I can; because the new name pleases me. All the world's a stage, and I have changed my stage name.
To the more interested: One year ago, I journaled that, on the way to embracing Transcendentalism (the affirmation that everything is eternal spirit, with the physical world as a transient illusion), I discovered that Materialism (the affirmation that everything is physical, with the spiritual world as a transient illusion) was the underlying reality of the universe. I've had 12 months to try out this mental 'suit of clothes'. Each passing day since has served only to strengthen this conviction. In the English summary of the ancient words of the Roman poet Lucretius: "There are atoms, and the void, and nothing else". Far from bringing any sense of depression or despair, this understanding has opened up a new and exciting life of wonder, joy, and personal growth for me. I wholeheartedly embrace it and already inject it into every expression of what I say, do, and create. I am such a different person today than I have been in the preceding two decades that it would rather be a fraud NOT to express myself by changing my name.
Honestly, I never was a "Buddy", a "Bernard" or a "Bernie" in my own mind. Loving, wonderful people hung these monikers on me to give me a good start in life. Each of these names has served to identify a particular epoch of my life through the years as I worked through important transitions -- from the meek child, to the scrappy young man elbowing his place at life's table, to the hopeful seeker of profound meaning. I freely confess that each of these past phases of my life has taken longer, far longer, than it has for some of my contemporaries. Yet, at each transition, I wrung more and more traces of magical thinking from the fabric that is my life.
And further: When I was young, my family used to travel to Indiana in a motor home to watch auto races. The very first 'idol' I ever had in my life was a thrilling race car driver named Mark Donohue. He dominated every racing circuit he drove in. He fundamentally changed the rules of racing with his knowledge of physics and his willingness to tinker and experiment with the mechanics of his racing cars. The title of his autobiography is "Unfair Advantage". He died as he lived while practicing for the Austrian Grand Prix in 1975, immortalized at the top of his game like Bruce Lee, Jimi Hendrix, and Buddy Holly To this day I am moved and inspired by his life.
If you insist on calling me by the name you knew when you first met me, I'm probably not going to knock myself out correcting you. Those who matter most to me understand that this is just as big an event for me as someone else's christening or marriage.
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