Anyone catch General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt’s interview on 60 Minutes Sunday night? Immelt, recently named by President Obama the national jobs czar, escorted Leslie Stahl to GE’s locomotive manufacturing plant in Brazil, a country that enjoys 8000 GE employees. Yikes!
GE was once the largest manufacturer in the city from its (now vacant) plant on Boston Avenue. With a stiff wind at your back you could spit from the entrance of GE’s corporate headquarters in Fairfield and hit the city line on Park Avenue. To a “global CEO” such as Immelt, with 60 percent of the company’s business overseas, the state’s largest city must seem like Mars away. Bridgeport is not loaded with Martians, just a bunch of folk wondering what GE will really do with its old plant.
When Stahl pressed Immelt about all those GE jobs and business in Brazil and China, Immelt reassured (after reminding her he has a responsibility to turn profits for shareholders) companies should invest in the US, imploring Stahl to “root for me.”
We’ll all root for you, Jeff. How about you rooting for Bridgeport?
Lennie, can you call your stepdaughter and ask her what brand of appliances she has over at her new place in Phil Kuchma’s building? It better be GE brand. If it’s not, GE should pull the loan to Phil. I don’t see Americans buying GE products (my stove) like in the old days–lots of Kenmore (my refrigerator), Whirlpool (my air conditioner) etc. As you can see by the brands I buy, competition is tougher than Obama’s re-election.
I don’t blame General Electric’s CEO Jeffrey Immelt for handling GE’s business the way he does.
Without getting into details, years ago a GE employee made an accidental discovery that led to the creation of better magnets. GE sold the patent to the process and the man who purchased it made millions. That discovery allowed me to create other techniques and products that could be patented and perhaps create jobs. What is missing in Bridgeport and Connecticut is capital and technical support to help inventors patent their inventions so they can then manufacture products. It’s been 11 years now I’ve been sitting on just this one idea. Lennie, don’t you think people like Linda McMahon, Ned Lamont and Peter Schiff would have been better off if they invested their money to start some new Bridgeport businesses to create jobs? Perhaps they can run for office after showing the people of Connecticut they can create jobs. Any one of them can call me if they like.
Joel–the overwhelming majority of products are produced overseas and then imported to the USA. It’s cheaper to import manufactured goods and then attach your very own name and logos for marketing purposes.
But not the “Made in America” sales pitch. It depends what percentage of parts and assembly is made in America.
323 Fairfield has all GE appliances.
Linda McMahon spent about $50 million on her failed Senate run. Ned spent $10 million on his failed effort. That’s a nice starting pool of $60 million.
With under a million, I can get off the ground. Just for the schematics or drawing of the entire patent costs $15,000. But before spending that kind of money, a prototype and a perfected model (Testing and Research) would be the way to go. There are too many issues when it comes to patents, bu, if you don’t get one, there will be even greater issues.
That interview sickened my stomach to the max, another rich guy who could care less about the poor and middle class. Obama made a horrible horrible decision picking this guy. Anyone been down to Manhattan yet to the Wall Street protest? It’s growing and growing.
donj, are you suggesting the people working in the GE plant in Brazil are rich? Think before you take a position. Better yet, here is one of my latest Facebook postings: Whenever you stop to think, remember to start again.
The people in Brazil and China are not getting rich working for GE but they are working. GE goes there for the cheap labor and the low import fees we charge. Joel, are you aware imports from China pay an import tax of 5% while we pay 20% to export to China? Immelt is a phoney who has driven GE into the ground. Look where GE was under the leadership of Jack Welch and where it is now.
Yes tc, I’m fully aware. Immelt may be “a phoney,” but you can’t call him gullorant. I would go to China too if they give me guarantees my intellectual property rights will be protected and enforced. Then again, the price for the cost of defending for or against those rights are included in the price of the products sold.
For the United States, the No. 1 problem with China’s economy is probably intellectual property theft. Technology companies, for example, continue to notice Chinese government agencies downloading software updates for programs they have never bought, at least not legally.
Intellectual property theft is a problem. Another problem somewhat associated with this is a patent does not protect the product, object or process invented–it protects the claims made in the patent application. If you don’t cover or mention other claims, another person or company can invent a similar product, object or process with a different claim and get a patent approval, thus rendering your original one worthless. A patent attorney would have cost me about $12,000 to start. I could patent parts of the entire invention, but when I decide to patent the rest I have to pay the patent attorney again. If I patent the first part and reveal the method behind it, others will expand on it and seek other patents even in the same patent category I’d be in.
You see, that’s why I decided to keep it to myself. If I can’t make it and reap benefits which I can leave for my children, no one will either. When I die, I won’t be able to take anything–money, cars, jewelry–with me. I can take my ideas with me.
www .nytimes.com/2011/01/12/business/economy/12leonhardt.html
Many of Kenmore’s products are manufactured by GE wherever they are manufactured.
Our population is rising and our employment opportunities are dwindling.
Can someone tell me where success in the future is going to come from?
What do we tell our grandchildren? The American dream now comes with a fortune cookie?
It is sad the Roman Catholic Church all over America must close down local parish churches because the number of worshippers have greatly diminished each week. St. Raphael’s, Holy Rosary and St. Ambrose once were vital components of Bridgeport. Especially St. Ray’s. That’s where the Italian immigrants went to pray.
Catholicism has suffered greatly. The days of standing room only at all masses has long passed and it is not coming back. Tough decision to close, but an economically sensible one.
I read so long as one mass per month is celebrated in these closed churches, they can maintain their tax-exempt status. Bullshit.
If you are a ‘boomer’ (born 1946-64) or older and were raised Catholic, you know weekly Mass was basic. Sin and guilt were also basic to instruction and the tradition. Continuing formation as an adult Christian was not a strong part of parish life in many places. So as a cultural Catholic, when the revelations about clergy sexual abuse of youth really hit the spotlight in the US about 10 years ago (and have continued to spread on the international stage since then), the notion of “Father says” lost much of its power to very many people. And when the revelations further showed Bishops, all over the world, kept the sinful, illegal, and power-abusing behavior against youth secret, to the extent of moving those priests to other parishes, real outrage surfaced among the laity. Finally, when no consequences seemed to be suffered by those in the hierarchy, the notion Bishops may have just been following instructions and corruption was present at all levels has taken hold of many.
Catholics began to fade away. They felt treated as children, left in a place where the men with collars were the only ones with responsible roles that meant anything in the earthly church. As Americans, people felt this was not a fair sharing of ‘church ownership’ and responsibilities. And aside from major demographic movements that had occurred in urban areas, when attendance drops, so do collections. And money is a subject many dioceses, including Bridgeport, keep away from their public.
For instance, the Diocese of Bridgeport continues to post results for only three activities, Catholic Charities, Faith in the Future Fund and the Diocesan Corporation that leaves the bulk of funds raised for, used in and spent by in the Diocese of Bridgeport unaccounted for. But the last years reported are 2007 and 2008. Really OPEN, ACCOUNTABLE and TRANSPARENT, aren’t they?
Rome may be prohibiting the deconsecration of Church-owned properties in some places, that would normally precede the sale of assets like land and buildings, but if the people of active faith communities are not present or engaged in parish life, including future decisions about “their local parish Church” and are merely informed after decisions are made at higher and collared levels, it would seem the church may find itself in a real bind. Maintaining edifices including heating year ’round, paying for liability insurance, etc. and continuing to meet guidelines for freedom from property tax will be an interesting dance in place. The Diocese has too many buildings and properties where the people aren’t today and transitions are difficult. If change is necessary and inevitable, why not begin to change the dynamics of Catholic values where we participate as adult Americans in the management of our affairs including election of Bishops (historically accurate), ownership of local Church assets with lay trustees (colonial America) and two-way flow of comprehensive info about the money??? Time will tell.
People are tired of the church ways of just profit. What about serving the Lord Jesus and do what he said to do? I stopped going to church three years ago when I saw what it was really about and it is not just in the Catholic churches but also in the black churches as well. I saw a picture of Rick Torres with a Bridgeport pastor and I know for a fact that is a money-hungry pastor. Democrats and Republicans are both indulging with these people, I see. I think I’m voting for the ind candidate for mayor. Matter of fact I might not even vote this cycle.
donj, look for another church the same way you are looking for another leader. If you don’t vote, someone else will choose for you. If you don’t go to church, someone else will receive the blessings.
Has the scandal of pedophile priests driven people away from the Catholic faith or has faith-based spirituality in general caused a steady decline in active participative worship across all iterations of Christianity? I am Roman Catholic, my wife is Episcopal. Neither of our parishes are packing ’em in on Sundays. The Episcopals are in as much a financial crisis as are the Catholics.
When asked these days, most people are comfortable stating they are ‘spiritual’ but not religious. I have yet to figure that one out. I guess it gives these lapsed Christians a way out. “… I believe in Jesus and God, but I just don’t physically attend services anymore. I pray whenever and wherever the mood strikes me; on a hill top, at the beach, at the A & P, wherever.” Lazy. Pure and simple.
Let’s face it. Standing room only was a function of guilt. One mortal sin for missing mass and a Catholic is condemned to an eternity of hellfire and brimstone. Eat meat on Friday and think Judy what’s-her-name has a nice tush, BINGO, same thing. Use a condom and you know every once in a while, BINGO again. Episcopalians are a little less demanding. So long as the pastor sees 52 envelopes each year; God Bless.
Unused church property should be converted to the grand list and put to use for commerce or housing. Once Father So-and-so has to write a check to the tax collector you can bet we’re gonna see condos go up quick. Why not?
The communities of faith that make for the practice of religion in our region I have learned about do not generally remove the faithful from decision making on the temporal matters of their religion. Boards of lay trustees act as stewards of property and financial assets and report to the respective communities.
This is not the way property is managed or owned in the Catholic Church. There are no 990 forms filed, like not-for-profit firms do to maintain their tax-free status. And while Bishop Lori has established financial management requirements for parishes and presumably for all Diocesan activities, nowhere does he provide any current or comprehensive accounting of Diocese finances, even though reporting would likely indicate more than One Billion dollars of assets. That accounting would let supporters begin to see whether the works of mercy and compassion encouraged in Matthew 25 were truly benefiting regularly and substantially, or whether lawyers fighting statute of limitations changes, Bishop ‘private charities,’ or embarrassing confidential payoffs and settlements are the real beneficiaries of Diocesan expenditures. For years the Church said payments were covered by insurance. So what, the parishes had to pay premiums from the offertory receipts, and I’ll bet you have not heard of an insurance company going broke because of paying Church claims, have you? And that means the insurance dollars as well as other settlement dollars really came from the people in the pews for the most part. It’s just we cannot prove it, because the Bishops feel we are not worthy of that information. Is it not rational in such stalemates to stop funding in any significant way leadership who acts in such ways? We can always find ways to provide food to the hungry, drink to those who thirst, clothe the naked, help others find shelter, visit those who ail or are behind bars; in other words, to serve those who need service. And we can do that without forwarding funds through a Bishop, I have found.
Why does secrecy feature so much in Church practice? Turn all the lights on! Personally combine your talent, your time and your treasure into a project to assist neighbors in need, near and far. Time will tell.
I remember growing up in the State Street area. When we lived on Colorado Avenue next to the old Saint Anthony’s Church, the priest would walk the neighborhood and talk to the parents and children. That practice stopped many years ago. By the time the neighborhood children became teens and then adults, we were all lost in poverty and the lack of spirituality. When these same children and adults got mixed up in the cycle of crime and violence, the church started to demand a greater police presence, crackdown on crime and having community meetings with police and city officials.
What irony! The cycle continues, but I can say much credit needs to be given to the churches that did not walk away on the less fortunate. As I visit different churches, I run into people who at one point in their lives were evil people which the criminal justice system could not change. Most of them I hadn’t seen for years and I believed they had died; were in prison; were still lost in crime and drugs; or moved out of the area.
I met two of them in early August of this year when I volunteered to go to a church on E. Main Street with Mary-Jane Foster and some of her staff. The spirit of God can do amazing things. I haven’t missed a Sunday service since that day.
This is off the current subject. Has anyone heard of a Wall St.-type demonstration in Downtown Bpt tomorrow at noon at the Bank of America building?
I heard they were planning on having it in the heart of the financial district and then realized THERE IS NO F’N FINANCIAL DISTRICT IN THIS ECONOMICALLY DEPRIVED CITY.
Immelt and his ilk including his predecessor Welch were/are blood suckers draining the life out of the middle class, not only in CT but across the country.
Those putrid little fascists who support this prick on these posts should go fuck themselves …