wobbles - The only people who want to reduce wages are those big businesses who employ people in "dead-end jobs" because it improves their bottom line in the easiest way possible.

Unfortunately its nowhere near as simple as that. Among other issues, the still too high $AU, existing wage structure & inappropriate industries combine to render manufacturing here for the most part unviable. Reducing wages would help, however thats clearly impractical due to the steadily escalating cost of living. Fatcat salaries, particularly those awarded to totally non-productive corporate parasite CEOs are right off the planet, likewise public sector fatcat & political renumeration (what mindless lunatics approved a half million for the red-headed witch & only slightly less for the dying duck & RAbbott ??). Probably worst of all are the exponentially increasing gubmunt charges which vastly exceed cpi. The latter need to be the subject of ratepayer / taxpayer revolt.

how are you going to do when 90% of your customers can afford nothing more than sausage mince?
Grim,
It's that mentality that prevents our economy from recuperating. A slight drop in wages cost would not have a negative impact at all, it would be beneficial to all. We can not compete even amongst ourselves because of the immoral wages structure here. If the top earners reduce income & low income earners get a slight rise you will find an improving economy because of the increasing spending power of the masses. High income earners who do not produce nor employ are a hindrance as they don't spend either. It is spending that stimulates an economy not saving.

Grim, showing your ignorance again hey.

There is more profit in mince and sausages than there is in chops and steaks.

Why, simple, less wages.

If I had a shop that only sold mince and sausages, and turned over say $20K per week, I would need a mincer and an auto sausage machine, investment, $60K.

My staff would consist of One, myself.

I would by trims for lean mince at $4 per kilo, sell for say $7 and sausages would cost about $2.5 to make and sell for $5 per kilo.

Thats a gross profit of about $8000 WITH NO WAGES.

I suggest you don't pick a fight when you don't know what your talking about.

Now, if you can get off your high horse, and think about the thread, consider this.

Wages generally increase when the economy is doing well.

Well, guess what, it's contracting. And that's my point.

I'm not suggesting we slash wages, but seriously, don't you think it would have been wise for these fools to at least wait for the economic data to be released before increasing wages.

After all, we are talking about three or four DAYS. THATS ALL!

As for Rudds stimulus, not a stupid idea, just stupid implementation, as the way it was handed out led to billions being wasted.

What about price control? Fix those outrageous prices being charged in butcher shops. Butch you would be okay with that. Do bosses in butcher shops still tell new starters, ".remember to get your wages through the scales".
I went into a butcher shop the other day, the block had beef mince at an outrages $9.99 kg so I said " giv us a half kg of mince please." He hands me a bag and I hand him 5 bucks. Turn to walk out of the shop and he said "that's another 80 cents" I said " not when I went to school, mate!" Outrages overcharging in my book a 16% rip off 500 is 500 not 580 mate.

Paul1405

Your point is valid, however customers can boycott retail businesses in most cases because there are alternatives. Unfortunately they cannot boycott gubmunt departments (including local authorities) which have a monopoly & which regularly increase fees & charges many times over CPI. Probably the most obvious example of fee hikes is electricity prices. Successive gubmunts have systematically raped the state whilst doing their level best to set some of the people against another group (eg the solar power kerfuffle)

I'm currently embroiled in a matter with a local authority that has decided without any semblance of consultation to inflict 'user pays' charges on ratepayers despite all relevant services being paid for in rates payments. Seems the rates have been treated as consolidated revenue & the moment the local authority got into financial poo, they looked around for some convenient sheeple to fleece. That battle is far from over however, even the sheeple are starting to realize their elected officials are way out of order.

Queenslanders have had numerous other unnecessary costs imposed since General Disaster seized control, including MASSIVE increases in driver licence fees (like 50 times CPI), new charges in respect of renewable machinery tickets (previously untimed), etc etc, not to forget a $50,000 wage rise for the bloodsucking parasites (33% increase) when the state is supposedly so broke it can't give 2% to anyone else.

I suggest that costs like the aforementioned are probably even more significant than rising retail prices for groceries and the like. We all (well most anyway) 'need' electricity, we need to pay car registration fees, we need to renew our various licences, we need to pay local authority rates blah blah blah. When those costs are escalating daily & wages are stagnating or decreasing due to underemployment, even more pressure is placed on the hoi-polloi.

Paul, I don't know your age, however I am suggesting your not a young fella.

Now I ask you to cast your mind back to the year 1977. That's when I first started my apprenticeship as a butcher.

Mince, that same mince you are complaining about paying $9.99/ kilo cost about $3.99/kilo back then.

This blows holes in your theory of overbthe top butcher shop prices.

That same year petrol was about 19 cents per letre.

If only our cars run on food, we would now be saving a fortune.

Go back ten years ago, you could buy a whole rump for $5.99 kilo.

Today, you can still buy a whole rump for $5.99/ kilo, difference being, the costs of providing that whole rump have increased enormously and the profit margin is all but zero.

While the service industry can charge what ever they choose, food is, and will always be a product that is sold at a negotiable price.

As for your over charged mince, you actually received 580 grams when you asked for 500 grams.

My policy was to always tell the customer if it was over, and ask if that was ok.

As for adding weight on the scales, it's impossible with modern day scales, as they are too sensitive, unless you buy pre packaged goods.

While there are still some rougues out there, the majority are the discounted shops, with the likes of the Vic markets being a prime example.

Having been there recently, it still amazes me with the amount of substitution tha goes on, and the fact that shoppers still get sucked in.

Prax we are, without doubt, way over regulated, no more so than in our tourism industry, where doing the simple things that we used to do, are now more often than not, illegal.

Meanwhile, countries without the nanny state approach are flogging us to death here.

A DD election, getting rid of the greens out of the senate will be one huge step in the right direction, as they are poison and he'll bent on shutting us down in many areas.