2024 draft discussion thread

[Pokerbrat2000]

Looks like the UFL is trying to poach the NFL's castoffs, if they become such.

Not a bad move really.

Packers lineman selected in 2024 UFL rookie draft

The San Antonio Brahmas took Donovan Jennings in the third round of the UFL’s rookie draft.

www.acmepackingcompany.com

 

[Heyjoe4]

Gute likes to reach in the first three rounds, especially the third. After that, he let's guys fall to him and the opposite can happen like getting Zach Tom in the 4th, Wicks in the 5th or Brooks in the 6th. Like I've said before, Gute's day three drafting is superlative and has saved his job from his early round blunders.

He's certainly done a lot better in 4,5, and 6 than 3. But getting starters in Tom, Wicks and Brooks is some pretty incredible drafting.

Hopefully Tom will get past his torn pec quickly. I guess we'll find out next week.

 

[Thirteen Below]

I will keep calling it unfiltered greed, until the NFL's monopoly like status is somehow toppled.

It's another example of predatory capitalism - a rogue model of capitalism that emphasizes maximum short-term profits for corporations and shareholders, and a complete disregard for social responsibilities, environmental protections, or the well-being (or for that matter, the very lives) of anyone who is not an owner or shareholder.

For roughly 30 years following WWII, corporate profits and personal income grew steadily, at roughly the same rate. Seen on a graph, the two lines are almost perfecty parallel. As the American worker produced more wealth for their employers, they earned proportionately more.

Beginning in the early 70s, personal income began to flatten out, and in real terms, has remained essentially flat for 50 years. Corporate profits have continued to climb sharply, rising over 300%. In other words, the people doing the work have produced 3 times as much product or service, and are still being paid what they were paid in the mid-70s.

This is just greed; corporations are squeezing every single penny they possibly can out of every single source they can find or create, for no other reason that they can and they want to. This is the primary driver of inflation; more than half of inflation is larger profits being taken by the corporations.

America was much healthier, and a better place to live by far, when corporations recognized that a healthy society was one where everyone did better when everyone was doing better. Corporations used to recognize that a stronger, educated, healthier labor pool was good for business. Henry Ford himself, who despised labor unions, knew that it was simply a smart business decision to build a car that the people who made it could afford to buy without going broke. Just try finding a corporation today who operates that way.

 

[OldSchool101]

I don't think it's "unfiltered greed". The NFL is just pricing at what the market will pay. I'm sure a similar analysis would show how crazy team valuations have gotten over the last, say 10 years. People love the sport and everything about it. For the owners who can afford it, owning a team has been a great investment.

I still think the NFL has continued to exploit its fan base. They make it so difficult just to watch a game now.

 

[Thirteen Below]

I still think the NFL has continued to exploit its fan base. They make it so difficult just to watch a game now.

I think this ******** of making selected games, that they know will be in high demand, only avaialble on expensive streaming services is really a bridge too far.

I'm all for maximizing revenue whenever you have a reasonable oppertunity. My wife has been a business owner since she was 17, and I'm sometimes embarassed at how damned cut-throat she can be. But even she knows when too much is just... too damned much. How much money do you really need, once you're past a certain point? It's bad business to consistently leave your partners and/or your clients/customers pissed of at how screwed they feel by you.

 

[Heyjoe4]

I think this ******** of making selected games, that they know will be in high demand, only avaialble on expensive streaming services is really a bridge too far.

I'm all for maximizing revenue whenever you have a reasonable oppertunity. My wife has been a business owner since she was 17, and I'm sometimes embarassed at how damned cut-throat she can be. But even she knows when too much is just... too damned much. How much money do you really need, once you're past a certain point? It's bad business to consistently leave your partners and/or your clients/customers pissed of at how screwed they feel by you.

Well you and OS make some good points, and in a straightforward way so thank you for that. And I'm sure your wife runs a competitive business, so that can appear cutthroat, but it's no different than a worker wanting to be paid fairly.

The NFL isn't a monopoly by the strict definition, but that's b-school stuff and kinda boring. OS makes the problem clear when he says the NFL makes it difficult to watch games.

It's not just the NFL though. The streaming services compete for those games and fall over each other trying to pay the NFL more than each other for the games. Those prices get passed to us if we'll pay them. So there's blame to go around.

The NFL business model is closer to drug dealers. Like the NFL, they have a captive audience and an addictive product. They have a great deal of pricing control, but it's not absolute as it isn't a true monopoly. And to that extent, the addict is at least part of the problem. So we can complain about the NFL, but as long as we keep buying (well, the majority of us), prices and practices will be hard to live with.

 

[Heyjoe4]

It's another example of predatory capitalism - a rogue model of capitalism that emphasizes maximum short-term profits for corporations and shareholders, and a complete disregard for social responsibilities, environmental protections, or the well-being (or for that matter, the very lives) of anyone who is not an owner or shareholder.

For roughly 30 years following WWII, corporate profits and personal income grew steadily, at roughly the same rate. Seen on a graph, the two lines are almost perfecty parallel. As the American worker produced more wealth for their employers, they earned proportionately more.

Beginning in the early 70s, personal income began to flatten out, and in real terms, has remained essentially flat for 50 years. Corporate profits have continued to climb sharply, rising over 300%. In other words, the people doing the work have produced 3 times as much product or service, and are still being paid what they were paid in the mid-70s.

This is just greed; corporations are squeezing every single penny they possibly can out of every single source they can find or create, for no other reason that they can and they want to. This is the primary driver of inflation; more than half of inflation is larger profits being taken by the corporations.

America was much healthier, and a better place to live by far, when corporations recognized that a healthy society was one where everyone did better when everyone was doing better. Corporations used to recognize that a stronger, educated, healthier labor pool was good for business. Henry Ford himself, who despised labor unions, knew that it was simply a smart business decision to build a car that the people who made it could afford to buy without going broke. Just try finding a corporation today who operates that way.

Much of what you say is true. The times when we were growing up were different than now. Automation, driven largely by better software, has lowered the cost of production for many companies. AI will further lower corporate costs of production. And because of these trends, they need fewer workers, and they can get away with paying less. The destruction of public and private unions has also contributed to the problem.

The other part of the problem then is making a living wage without 2 or 3 specialized degrees. Minimum wages only destroy small businesses. But people without money can't buy much of anything. So something has to give, sometime. The average American worker though seems lazier than people from less-advantaged companies. There are Chinese, Indian, and Russian immigrants here on H1 work visas doing work that could easily be done by Americans with some education. And these are high-paying jobs and still hard to fill.

 

[Poppa San]

Beginning in the early 70s, personal income began to flatten out, and in real terms, has remained essentially flat for 50 years. Corporate profits have continued to climb sharply, rising over 300%. In other words, the people doing the work have produced 3 times as much product or service, and are still being paid what they were paid in the mid-70s.

Women left the steno pool and entered the labor pool en masse. Companies saw they could get away paying them 78% of a man's salary (yes I know that was debunked but it is still fun to say.) Actually they almost doubled the size of the labor pool keeping wage growth stagnant.

Much of what you say is true. The times when we were growing up were different than now. Automation, driven largely by better software, has lowered the cost of production for many companies. AI will further lower corporate costs of production. And because of these trends, they need fewer workers, and they can get away with paying less. The destruction of public and private unions has also contributed to the problem.

I install and repair this automation. It is quite useful when my employer cannot find competent help. Earlier this week the packaging department put customer A label on one side and customer B label on the other. For 4 hours though every hour per SOP's someone signed off on the verification. My back burner project to install cameras to read the labels to verify has now moved closer to the top of my priority list.

The other part of the problem then is making a living wage without 2 or 3 specialized degrees. Minimum wages only destroy small businesses. But people without money can't buy much of anything. So something has to give, sometime. The average American worker though seems lazier than people from less-advantaged companies.

Both my youngest sons bought houses in the past year. Both have 2 year degrees and make a 6 digit salary. One travels, the other works remotely from his basement. Neither are married. One split the cost with his fiancée and the other rents a room to his sister.

There are Chinese, Indian, and Russian immigrants here on H1 work visas doing work that could easily be done by Americans with some education. And these are high-paying jobs and still hard to fill.

Can't recall which company a few years back fired all their programmers. Hired HB1 replacements because they were cheaper. As a parting gift the fired workers had 2 weeks to get their replacements up to speed on the projects. Saw that in one of the "bad bosses" threads somewhere.

 

[Heyjoe4]

Women left the steno pool and entered the labor pool en masse. Companies saw they could get away paying them 78% of a man's salary (yes I know that was debunked but it is still fun to say.) Actually they almost doubled the size of the labor pool keeping wage growth stagnant.

I install and repair this automation. It is quite useful when my employer cannot find competent help. Earlier this week the packaging department put customer A label on one side and customer B label on the other. For 4 hours though every hour per SOP's someone signed off on the verification. My back burner project to install cameras to read the labels to verify has now moved closer to the top of my priority list.

Both my youngest sons bought houses in the past year. Both have 2 year degrees and make a 6 digit salary. One travels, the other works remotely from his basement. Neither are married. One split the cost with his fiancée and the other rents a room to his sister.

Can't recall which company a few years back fired all their programmers. Hired HB1 replacements because they were cheaper. As a parting gift the fired workers had 2 weeks to get their replacements up to speed on the projects. Saw that in one of the "bad bosses" threads somewhere.

I'm glad your sons have done so well. You should be proud and I'm sure you are. Education helps, but it also takes good old fashioned goal setting and the hard work that follows. Good for your sons. I wish then continued success.

And my experience with HB1 contractors came from my days in IT staffing in CA. My clients were big enough that they put limits on the % of workers who could be on work visas, usually 20%. That made my job harder because, for example, we couldn't find an American citizen who could program in Java. At the time that was a very common programming language and there were a ton of people on HB1s who could do that work.

I never had a client fire citizens and replace then with contractors, fortunately, but have heard the horror stories you describe. Companies that do that have fools for executives. Eventually those HB1 contractors have to leave, with many cities limiting their length of service to 18 months. It's just a lousy way to try and build a business.

Sorry but I couldn't help but laugh at the example of the double-labeled package. Well if it helps you personally, that's great. And hey, if one line of bad code in the kernel can take down most of the world's computers - well there will always be a need for guys like you, at every level of production, including, ummm, quality assurance.

 

[Poppa San]

I'm glad your sons have done so well. You should be proud and I'm sure you are. Education helps, but it also takes good old fashioned goal setting and the hard work that follows. Good for your sons. I

Forgot to mention one is 28 and the other is 24.

 

[Heyjoe4]

Forgot to mention one is 28 and the other is 24.

That's awesome. Good for all of you. My nephews both graduated from Whitewater and crossed the six figure mark last year. They are about the same age as your guys, 28 and 26. And no fancy degree from a high-priced university necessary. Just take advantage of what is taught and have the will to turn it into something. I feel especially good about my first nephew. He knew what he wanted to do but had to settle for a door-to-door sales job out of college. He gutted it out for a year and finally got hired by the place he wanted to work, doing what he wanted.

I admire that kind of goal setting and personal determination in people of any age but especially the young. What's sad is that there are so few people like your sons and my nephews.

Anyway, to you and your wife, and my brother and his wife, great job raising your kids. I wish them all the best.