Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 27, 1994 TAG: 9410280040
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A15 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT I. ALOTTA
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
An estimate is really the lowest possible price. No matter what a repairer says, the price of the job will always go up, never down. An estimate, they contend, is a good starting point.
The introduction of new industry to an area not only increases the tax base, it also causes taxes to rise for the local residents. New businesses or industries require utility connections, and the increased traffic generates calls for new and enlarged streets and roadways. All require money, tax money. The same is true with increased employment.
More jobs mean increases in taxes. When a community increases its work force, the workers usually bring their children - who have to go to school. The schools didn't expect such an increase and need additional taxes to handle them. The same is true with social services.
No one enters business ``to break even.'' No business worth its name is going to give away a product or service. Businesses are not nonprofit. If they were, they would not be in business. So, when you see a 50-percent-off offer, really that means the previous price was greatly inflated.
Even the best-made products fall apart. Nothing lasts forever, especially if made in a Third World country. There is no future for a business that creates indestructible items.
The words ``new'' and ``improved'' are words on packages - nothing more. Manufacturers know the American public wants the latest of everything. Rather than change the product, they change the label. Have you noticed how frequently products announce they have no cholesterol in them?
What goes up never comes down. It doesn't matter what the product or service, the price is more likely to go up. If it ever comes down, it is for a brief period - just enough time for the manufacturer to yell ``gotcha!'' Remember the threat to the coffee crops in South America? How soon did the coffee prices change?
There is no such thing as amortization in the medical profession. When you or I buy anything on time, we pay it off and then have excess money; not so with the medical profession. After they've paid back their medical-school expenses, the fees never go down. A codicil to that theory applies to the pharmaceutical companies.
Research and development costs are never recovered by drug manufacturers. Have you ever noticed how the cost of prescription drugs never goes down ... even years after they were introduced? What about the R&D funds the government supplies these pharmaceutical companies? Do you think they return the money?
Credit means negative. The more credit available to you, the deeper you go into debt. Think about it!
When in doubt, call Iraq. Arab nations stick together, even those who give lip service to the United States. When one oil-producing nation needs money, Saddam Hussein moves in and threatens Kuwait. The United States intervenes and, before the troops arrive, the price of a gallon of gasoline goes up.
It's always a seller's market in real estate - until you decide to sell your house. Have you ever noticed how everybody makes a killing on the real-estate market - except you?
Change is welcomed by everyone, except the ones that change affects. Everyone wants to see changes in government, business and society, but no one wants the change to affect them. Everyone agrees we need to house the poor, but don't build public housing on my block!
The only people not encouraged by decreasing unemployment figures are the people still out of work. Politicians can boast about reducing the level of unemployment in this nation. The figures mean nothing, however, to the person on unemployment compensation - or the person whose benefits have ended.
The level of a middle-aged job applicant's maturing is tested by the age of the interviewer. Usually the interviewer is a year or two younger than your youngest child.
Employees work harder when their jobs are on the line. Don't let anyone kid you. If you know that your job is safe, you're not going to work as if your life depended on it. Look at tenured college professors!
The major cause of recession is forward-thinking politicians. The ones who cause most of the problems in this nation's economy are the ones who have never really had to work for a living.
After rereading these theorems, I demand a recount of the Nobel votes!
Robert I. Alotta of Harrisonburg is an author and historian.
by CNB