Originally Posted by
elZorro
FP, you're right, I don't believe that these other operations are unethical, I was looking for a better word, but traded the effort for the surety of a response. I've only been self-employed for about 20 years, and for all of that time I have employed others, through thick and thin.
My operation has relatively low capital employed, high profit margin on normal turnover. My investment has been in IP, the edge we have with our goods and services. If I had $50mill available, I'd produce startling results for NZ Inc, and I'd employ more staff in top-notch premises, paying better wage rates. I wouldn't touch low-tech areas, as these have too much competition. But unfortunately this doesn't mean I'll head off to the bank and borrow money to realise these ideas, at least not in the current environment. In any case the bank would run out of property security fairly fast.
Maybe that's what disturbs me: the very people who have the freehold assets like farms and commercial buildings, flats etc, are precisely the ones who will never make industrial or manufacturing investments with spare capital, because they have a fixed opinion on staying away from the employment risks. And they can be some of the tightest skinflints, ensuring no NZ supplier can make a dollar off them either. What sort of a country will we end up with if we all get our stuff made somewhere else, join the global trend completely? Where are your children and grandchildren going to get their income and training from? McDonalds?
We are still one of the highest-wage countries in the world, although it may not seem like it. When businesspeople give up on the idea of paying people good wages because they are producing a healthy profit through the business they've established together, I suggest we're heading for a heap of trouble.