sábado, novembro 20, 2010

Jogadores de bilhar amador há-os em todo o lado

Não é só o ministro Vieira da Silva que pensa e diz "Acham que a função de um Governo é estar a antecipar uma evolução negativa para a qual não tem ainda nenhum dado que o confirme? Se o estivesse a fazer, seria um profundo erro", há, ainda, que recordar a pérola “Nós não estudámos até ao fim todas as consequências das medidas que sugerimos”.
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A nossa Assembleia da Republica é pródiga em jogadas de bilhar amador, cheias de boas-intenções, imbuídas de um espírito de catequese religiosa ou profana, sem pensar nas consequências decidem algo por que sim.
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O Carlos deixou há dias uma história preciosa na caixa de comentários, mais uma história que ilustra a ausência de pensamento estratégico:
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""We had an interesting case at Harvard Business School. Basically, union organizer César Chávez, a hero of the left, felt grape pickers were under paid. He organized grape pickers and urged American to boycott grapes until the growers gave in to union demands.

Do you question that César Chávez was a hero to the left? There used to be a street in San Francisco called Army Street. To many in the past, our Army soldiers were heroes. They changed the name of that street to César Chávez Street.

So what did the hero do for grape pickers in the final analysis?

Generally, farmers do not want to employ union workers because they are too expensive and render farming less profitable or unprofitable. Also, farmers and ranchers are not the kind of guys who like to get pushed around by unions or anyone else. They would rather make less profit than employ union workers.

Driving up the cost of grape pickers in the U.S. has two anti-job effects. It makes U.S. grapes less competitive with foreign grapes and grape products like wine. It also changes the economics of automation. A farmer or rancher can afford to pay more for automation if the pickers cost more.

Many agricultural products like cotton and wheat have been automated by the use of elaborate mechanical harvesters including some that actually not only pick but also automatically box the product for shipment right in the field.

Grapes, however, were tricky. They grew on trellises. Some ripened before others. Chávez and others figured the growers have to employ us because they cannot automate grape picking.

Turned out they could automate it if Chávez drove up the price of union pickers thereby enabling the automation companies to charge more for their machines.

Farm machinery researchers figured out the following. Plant the vines a little farther apart so a grape-picking machine can have a set of wheels on each side of a line of grape vines. Have the grapes grow on a trellis made of wires of a certain thickness and composition and set at a certain tension level. Then pick the grapes with a machine that has a trough under the vines and a set of steel wands that strike the wires at a particular speed and force. The wand force and wire tension is set so only the ripe grapes fall into the moving trough attached to the picking machine. During harvest season, the machines move through the vineyard repeatedly until the number of ripened grapes falls below the operating cost of the machines.

Another “hero” in this is Edward R. Murrow. He did a 1960 TV documentary called Harvest of Shame. It showed the “plight of American migrant agricultural workers.”

I do not know if Murrow got a street named after him, but I would not be surprised if the farm machinery manufacturers have statues of Murrow and Chávez at their headquarters.

The now unemployed pickers have statutes and schools and streets and all that honoring Chávez.

Ignorance is bliss."

Em: http://johntreed.com/jobs.html"
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Um exemplo da nossa terrinha.

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