Murray Energy Fires 163 Workers, Citing a ‘War on Coal’

Yeah lol they're dumb and don't know how to run their business. Are we to seriously believe costs imposed by coal regulations and insurance mandates mean less money to hire people? Yeah right! They just hate Obama! A smart manager would hire employees that cost more than the money they bring in!

 

the first wingnut to say coal is overregulated.

commodore, if natural gas is cheaper, why should power plants stick with using coal?

 

I think all these companies (the few named ones, plus all the mythical unnamed ones) who are claiming they can't succeed because of Obama's re-election should simply close down if they don't think they can successfully compete in the marketplaces. Simply pass their customer lists to their competitors, who will then hire the displaced workers to keep up with the sudden increase in business.

Isn't that the way a free enterprise marketplace should work... those than can compete do, and those that can't disappear?

 

why is natural gas cheaper?

 

No, the way markets work is that a certain quantity of labor will be demanded for a given cost of labor (wages and benefits).

If the cost of labor goes up, the quantity of labor demanded goes down (layoffs).

At some point the marginal benefit of hiring one more worker is outweighed by the marginal cost to higher them. That's the point at which companies no longer benefit from hiring more people.

Discouraging that people think the government adding costs to businesses is "the way a free enterprise market should work". I'm sure all those small businesses with razor-thin profit margins are real sympathetic to this argument.

 

are you freakin kidding? first of all natural gas used to be burned off at wells before oil men saw its value. natural gas is at about $3 a dekatherm, a price it has hovered around for eight years.

have you not seen any article or thread in this forum on fracking. look it up, look up gas boom in north dakota, and then respond when you have a more educated opinion. i'll give you a head start, supply and demand. supply has boomed recently.


but its funny that you may be implying obama and democrats made it cheaper somehow or made coal more expensive because of evil regulations

you're outta your league on this topic

 

Razor thin?

Murray Energy is a private company, but somehow have a hunch that their profit margins aren't razor thin either...

 

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7.5% profit margin is razor thin. After Obamacare, it will drop more. Try living on 7.5% take home pay and say it's not razor thin.

 

dude,

coal and natural gas are two different commodities. they have no correlation other than the fact that if one is cheap, people will choose that to create heat.

why do you think homes for the last fifty years, use natural gas. its much cheaper. and its cheaper because it is abundant, not because coal is regulated more. do not make yourself look like a fool on this subject. this is a texas message board with a lot of people in the natty gas industry. quit while you are ahead

 

...I always think right-wingers take Economics 101, then stop somewhere after they learn how basic algebraic supply and demand curves work. This kind of analysis does not shed me of my belief.

How should a free enterprise market that doesn't take into account human capital gains from health, externalities from coal pollution, and macroeconomic fluctuations subject to private credit cycles work?

 

These things are especially amusing given that the regulation doesn't take effect until 2014. There are stupid people everywhere - including at the top of various businesses. Those businesses will fail, and better run ones will succeed.

 

You are talking to someone who is (1) currently unemployed and (2) not on unemployment and (3) paying 100% of his own health care insurance for his family and (4) paying $500 a month for his 18 year old daughter who was rejected due to a preexisting condition (heart surgery when she was 5 days old) who instead is insured through the Texas High Risk pool. So forgive me if I don't feel too sorry for Papa Johns after raising their profits guidance for the year.

It might be more compelling if you cited the % of total company expenses that are directly attributed to health care insurance costs. Otherwise, all we have is speculation...

 

money money money money money

 

And this is related to your razor thin profit margin comment, how?

 

It was in response to your comment:

I am living on 0% take home pay. And yet somehow I continue to make sure the people I care most for are insured, including one that should be protected by the very law being argued.

And unlike the millionaire owner of Papa Johns, you don't see me trying punish employees because the candidate I didn't vote for won, especially when (1) my company profits are on the rise and (2) the very program I am supposedly laying off employees doesn't go in effect until 2014.

 

amen brother, god bless america