The world has relied on "Just in Time" delivery or maintaining minimal backups to cover brief weather interruptions for many years as globalisation became the norm.
That's the major problem. Nobody has any stockpiles anymore. In previous times, villages had granaries to store food to hedge them through a tough period. Today, the financial equivalent is futures contracts, but that doesn't help when the physical delivery can't happen. Your average neighborhood grocery store has maybe a couple or three days of supply; they don't have canned foods and such in the back now. That's inefficient, particularly for taxes where you have to pay tax t the end of the year on inventory.
Our system is horribly broken. Our supply lines are shot. Remember, "an army marches on its stomach."
Are they stupid?
Yes. Remember that these are the same kind of people who push shit like Starfleet Academy (aka Kurtzman Trek) and wonder why it bombs.
That's a great question. What typically happens, I think, is that most people answer something along what they made for their last contract. (Yeah, I'm talking 1099s here.) That means that they work themselves out of a raise and lose due to cost of living and inflation. On the other hand, prop yourself too far up and you'll never get an offer regardless of how qualified you are.
So a question to the Slashdot community to make this thread useful: How do you go about that in negotiation? How do you determine your opening offer? Of course, this assumes that you are a good candidate to begin with.
1. I have exclusive control of it.
2.The data never leaves my possession.
3. I have total control over the decision matrix it uses to do things.
I can just see some piece of Altman-ware trying to go through my email and signing me up for everything from dates to "friendly gatherings" to business meetings to.... Just no.
Your computer account is overdrawn. Please see Big Brother.