Article

2015-11-09 Economy

A Century of Hot-Dog Production Comes to an End in Madison, Wisconsin

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Posted by Fred 2015-11-09 00:00|| || Front Page|| [8 views ] Top

#1 Chinese hot dogs (热狗) are still made the old-fashioned way, using real dog meat.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2015-11-09 00:15|| 2015-11-09 00:15|| Front Page Top

#2 Hot dawgs do indeed taste funny anymore. The lack of Red Dye #deuce may be part of the problem. Jooo Nats still the best.

Posted by Shipman 2015-11-09 00:25|| 2015-11-09 00:25|| Front Page Top

#3 They teach that sort of thing in MBA courses. Cutting jobs = increased profits. Theoretically, a company with zero employees makes infinite profit.

I had a run in with similar thinking some years ago with the Becton-Dickinson Corporation. They had been a mostly family-run outfit and then started selling out...and the first time their earnings didn't QUITE make projections, the new leadership panicked and the character of the company changed overnight. (For instance literally measuring pencils before issuing new ones)

Anyways, they bought into the 'lean manufacturing' kool-aid in an effort to make that extra 0.000001% profit and dragged everyone in one morning to hear the Word. The Plant Manager his own self proceeded to read from the sacred tablets. The gist of it was that the goal was to increase production by 10% yearly for the next ten years while reducing costs and manpower by 10% yearly for the next ten years. When I pointed out that this would completely eliminate the factory's workforce by 2015 yet somehow double production, it was not well received and probably helped contribute to me being asked to seek other opportunities not long afterward.

As of this summer they now have about 1/2 of the plant staff as 'contractors', apparently the new term for 'temps'. They certainly found their savings.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2015-11-09 06:02|| 2015-11-09 06:02|| Front Page Top

#4 As of this summer they now have about 1/2 of the plant staff as 'contractors', apparently the new term for 'temps'. They certainly found their savings.

Gone are the days of employer provided healthcare benefits and pensions. Affirmative action, temps, part-timers, and H1B's are the preferred course of action. Less demanding, non-English speaking workers are definately needed. This is not your father's Oldsmobile.

When U.S. industry became the most heavily taxed in the world, the profits had to come from somewhere. Of course there is the 'move it offshore option' which is gaining in popularity. Everyone knows 'made in China' means high quality.

Welcome to the government controlled economy and the new normal.

Posted by Besoeker 2015-11-09 08:08|| 2015-11-09 08:08|| Front Page Top

#5 Plus you've have 3 generations of welfare state dysgenics (to de enrich the gene pool, funded by lowering the fertility of the middle classes) with the result that you have far lower average productivity from the average person.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2015-11-09 10:36|| 2015-11-09 10:36|| Front Page Top

#6 @#3: As a recovering MBA, I can sympathize with your heresy. Similar circumstances -> same outcome.

The calendar has gone around enough to now lend more than a little comedy to it, and I hope you will, if not already there, be able to shake your head with a smile on your face.

Posted by Vast Right Wing Conspiracy 2015-11-09 12:56|| 2015-11-09 12:56|| Front Page Top

#7 Real reason is that the Hot Dog Stuffers and Bun Bakers Association (HDS&BB Ass'n) could never agree on aligning the parts count in the dog or bun packs; so there was always an imbalance.

Posted by USN, Ret. 2015-11-09 14:28|| 2015-11-09 14:28|| Front Page Top

#8 As a practicing (til I get good at it) Roman Catholic, I stand by Hebrew National dawgs

Posted by Frank G 2015-11-09 14:56|| 2015-11-09 14:56|| Front Page Top

#9 When I pointed out that this would completely eliminate the factory's workforce by 2015 yet somehow double production, it was not well received

It is wreckers and saboteurs like you that keep CEOs and Progressives from implementing their Perfect World(tm), Mike. And by people like you, I mean those who have sense and can do arithmetic. I love the "increase sales by X%" line. I realize they need that number to make their totally genius plan work, but to quote a buddy at one of these events, "whose (posterior) did they pull that out of?"

My favorite part of the circus is the "We have to do more with less" speech. You can't do more with less. You can only do less with less. And if you could do more, why aren't we doing it now with what we currently have?

Posted by SteveS 2015-11-09 16:00|| 2015-11-09 16:00|| Front Page Top

#10 To give him his due, Soglin has been more pragmatic than you might expect given his history. He even had the effrontery to say that large groups of homeless people hanging out at the City County Building were causing problems and had to go.

Posted by James 2015-11-09 18:43|| http://idontknowbut.blogspot.com 2015-11-09 18:43|| Front Page Top

#11 Awwww, man, loved their food fairs.

I suppose this means SOLYENT GREEN looms increasingly on the horizon.

Posted by JosephMendiola 2015-11-09 22:37|| 2015-11-09 22:37|| Front Page Top

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