The Economy, Can The Answer can be found in a Can of Peanuts?

The Economy, Can The Answer can be found in a Can of Peanuts? At least we can all agree that the economy is bad. But figuring out whose fault it is and how to fix is where we have trouble. Some say it’s the left, some say the right, some say the government, some say the private sector, some say the rich, and some say the poor. Yet some folks say it doesn’t matter whose fault it is just fix the economy.

I don’t claim to be an economic expert by any means but I know you can’t fix the problem until you first figure out what caused the problem to start with.  In other words, if you want the lights back on you have to figure out which circuit breaker was thrown.

Sounds crazy but I say the answer can be found in a can of peanuts. Please just hear me out. I was at the grocery shopping the other day and I bought a can of peanuts, which is something I haven’t done in awhile. Now this little can of peanuts was over six dollars.  I have a little background in peanuts. No relation to Jimmy, but I grew up on a peanut farm. Now that I live in Alaska and it’s been over twenty years since I’ve lived on or near any peanut farm, I have to buy peanuts from the grocery store just like everyone else. In case you didn’t know the average American peanut farmer usually gets somewhere between $300 to $850 for a ton of peanuts. I said ton! That’s it! Most of the time the price is nearer the $300 range. And it’s been that way for the last twenty plus years. Yet if the grocers were selling peanuts by the ton figuring the average peanut can is eight ounces the per ton price would be around $24,000. So somewhere in between the peanut farmer and the store shelf there is a hell of a markup. So I decided to figure this out. I asked myself could drying, parching, canning and trucking to the store really warrant this massive increase. Then it dawned on me; needless middlemen.

Non-Value Added Positions (NVAPS)

I’m not referring to the wholesalers, food processors or even the grocery stores. Although middlemen they all add value to the product. However, sometimes I feel they over charge for their value.  Every organization whether it’s the government or private has employees who are a drain because they have no economic value yet still receive a paycheck, sometimes a very hefty one. These are folks that have a position instead of a job. Some call these people middlemen, I think a better term would be non-value added positions or (NVAPS) for short. Less NVAPS means more jobs and a greater GDP.

Who Foots the Bill in America? Anyone who’s not an NVAP

Here are some examples; it’s the mechanic, the carpenter, the plumber, the store clerk, the bus driver, the military member, the factory worker, the teacher who actually educates kids or anyone who provides a value added service. You know the folks that earn their money by the sweat of their brow, which is the way the good lord intended. In other words, the middle class. A Wall Street short-term trader adds no value to the company’s products.  On the other hand a long-term investor does add value to a company because they are providing long-term capital for the company. Most government employees are hard working value adders yet some are overpaid bureaucrats that we could do without. When I was a kid, my school had a head principal and a vice principal. And they even taught classes. Anchorage is one of the most expensive school districts in the country; the district has several principals per school not to mention about five hundred administrators. Although most teachers are good, there are far to many that hide behind the teachers union. When I was a kid most schools had about 30 kids in a classroom. But now the teachers union says that is way too much.

My dad worked in a factory that had almost half of the people in administrative positions. In the early 90’s they wisely decided to down size and eliminate the dead wood NVAPs. I’m not bashing administrators. Every organization has to have some administration and a good administrator is worth their weight in gold. But the Latte Lazies that hang too much around the coffee stand need to go.

Oh and the banks, granted they do provide a value. But their cost greatly exceeds the value they produce. So the banksters fall into the NVAP category. Wouldn’t you love to be able to loan money out and have the government catch you when you fall? Talk about a no risk business opportunity. And what about those CEO’s and upper management? How can anyone justify paying an employee millions of dollars per year while the company is failing? I personally feel that if the tax payer bails your company out they have every right to dictate CEO salaries.

Let’s not forget the social service racket. Granted every American who payed into the system deserves their Social Security and Medicare. It’s their money and they earned it. I have trouble when folks call it an entitlement. If someone is disabled then yes they have the right to collect disability. But unfortunately today we have to many able young able-bodied couch potato NVAPs on the government doles. Social service organizations are a multi billion-dollar industry. And there is cooperate socialism as well.  It’s a little hypocritical to line up for a bail out and then tell the government to stay out of your life.

It’s all in that Little Can of Peanuts

It’s in there. All in that little can of peanuts is the high cost of all of the folks that don’t earn their money. From the Wall Street deadbeat to the able bodied couch potato deadbeat. It’s all in there. It’s not just in the peanuts, but also in your taxes, your house payment, and your grocery bill and yes your paycheck. Don’t you think it’s funny how everything is going up except your paycheck? Well it’s because the number of NVAPs are going up.

It wasn’t always this way

America had a vibrant economy from the 40’s through the end of the 60’s.  Then toward the end of the 60’s several things happened. The old company heads that started at the bottom began to retire or die off. Everyone began to buy into the college bit. The baby boomers were the first generation to go to college. Formal academic education is wonderful when combined with practical experience. Experience is also a form of education. Both the private sector and government began to hire young college graduates and place them into management positions. By the late seventies many companies began to fail and the OPEC oil crisis didn’t help. We also saw an explosion in the size of government. Oh and after president Johnson more and more Americans jumped on the social service band wagon. But I think the biggest problem was a cultural change. Many young Americans wanted a position instead of a job. They snubbed their educated noses at their WWII parents. Being a mechanic or a laborer wasn’t good or fulfilling enough. So once these guys infiltrated the private and public sector they began to create positions that weren’t needed to secure their position. It was these people who ran Americas greatest companies into the ground and placed the blame on the factory workers and said we must ship manufacturing jobs overseas. It was these people who created the monstrous controlling government bureaucracy that we have today. It was these people who decided to buy peanuts from Mexico because they felt the American farmers were overpaid. How dare they! Funny how it’s always the non-producers who criticize the producers.

The generations that came after such as generation x and generation y are far worse and even more self-indulgent. Although I agree with the Occupy Wall Street movement on many points and I certainly don’t want to paint a broad picture of anyone. But some of the generation y folks are angry because they don’t want to start at the bottom and work their way up. They are no better than the people they are railing against.

The sad part is that these people are your friends; your neighbors and they are many.

Imagine if say 40% of the American people are NVAPS then it truly stinks to be a member of the 60% who are footing the bill. The middle class is being pushed to the breaking point. Why do we put up with this as a nation? The NVAPs are the elite of the nation. They have secured their positions through political lobbies and through rigging the markets. Unless the peasants take back control of their country they will continue to be peasants. I’m not exactly sure how this can be done but it has to be done. But I have a few ideas. To start we need to downsize government, enact trade barriers to protect American jobs, a fair tax structure, kick able-bodied people off the government doles, and we need more competition. More competition forces companies to eliminate unneeded positions. And finally we need Wall Street reform. We need to go back to the government and business models of the 50’s and 60’s. All of this I think would be a good start. But most importantly we need to go back to an older better culture. Back then laziness was considered shameful and hard work was considered honorable. So next time you buy a can of peanuts, think of what you are paying for.