What is wrong with America?

[ibewgypsie]

You guys know by now I am "tight" I try to make each dollar get a dollars worth.

My partner and friend, the company he is in Maintenance with? They throwed away 20-30 2hp. 250vac single phase in 3phase out inverters. They hit the dumpster hard they tell me. Parts flew everywhere. I got one I ratholed.

ON ebay, they'd brought $100 each, on here I could have passed around them and made a lot of people happy. I have one in my shop on a twist-loc plug that works great. I am hunting more plugs for more tools. Polishers, sanders, and the funky circle cutter I made all ran off the same inverter. Very handy.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH AMERICANS? Have they all went crazy? Just because a company is Large can they afford to act like this?

When a company throwes away profits or equity they throw away thier future. Do you think they act like this in China? Most the people there complain cause they can't get a raise.

They put up a Million dollar bridge crane there too, took it down in a week and it is laying in the "yard". Not sure what the deal is on it. I got my ears perked thou. That'd do me NEXT YEAR for income. I'll rent a truck if I have to.

[IOWOLF]

Dont knock it, just go with it , and make a profit off of them if you can.

[Al Messer]

We have been brain-washed by the ad people to really believe that we live in a disposable society. Why is it that if you drive a car that is over 3 years old, you are not "with it" and are "un-cool"? If you have a washer or dryer that is over 10 years old, well--you are way behind the times. If you have a separate TV, Hi-fi, Stereo, etc, and not a "Home entertainment center", you are as out-dated as a square Derby hat. It is because we believe what the sellers want us to believe, that is why capital would rather dump machines, etc, rather than sell them to their employees at a big discount. Why did the Metro Nashville Police Dept. crunch and shred several hundred firearms last week rather than auction them off to law-abiding citizens? I saw one double barreled shotgun in the pile that was probably worth $2500.00 at least on the market.

[mattc]

gee I must be outdated I drive a car that is 12 years old (my newest one) that I paid $250 for and i laugh at those people that have $500 - $700 a month car payments I could throw away one a month and still be money ahaid

Matt in AK

[SGW]

It's also the weird tax laws. Often times companies can make out better financially by writing stuff off their taxes as a loss than they can by selling it.

[snowman]

And they can't give them away...that would be a lawsuit waiting to happen!

The good companies will let their employees dispose of tools. The bad ones will watch the stuff go into a dumpster and hire a guard to make sure nobody goes in there.

We used to trash everything, it drove me nuts...it also filled my garage...STILL trying to get rid of all that stuff.

The one that got me, we weren't a metal company...meaning we didn't produce a large amount of metal scrap. We always just tossed it all in the garbage. Most being aluminum.

If we could have put it all in a 55 gallon drum, we coulda had a company picnic whenever it was emptied.

Oh...then there's the story of the machine I robbed. I was told it was going to the scrap heap and I could pilfer what i wanted, so I pulled the PLC and all the relays and a couple DC motors and controls. A week later, boss goes through the roof...they decided they wanted to sell it. I spent 8 hours rewiring a machine so they could make a hundred bucks off it....literally.

I told em it was worth a grand in scrap stainless (all 304). One Ebay auction could have landed the company another 500 from the stuff I had already pilfered. Then there were the huge high pressure pumps.

-Jacob

-Jacob

[wierdscience]

I got my K&T #2 horizonal mill,Yuasa surface plate and pobably $5,000 in linear shafts,pillowbocks and pullies,all from the local can factory.It was all working equipment.They threw away a complete machineshop,I got it from the local scrapyard.

The reason they sold it for scrap was liability,thier lawyer told them the only way to keep from being sued was to sell it off as scrap.They had been sued before when a punch press had been sold as surplus to a machinery dealer.The dealer sold it to a customer and the customer had an employee who wired back a guard and mangled his fingers.He sued his company,they sued the dealer,the dealer sued the can plant and the mfg of the press.I don't think he won,but all the lawyers involved got rich.
They went to install a new press to replace an old one and the mfg of the new machine insisted they cut the old one up for scrap.And that is what they did,blow pipe right through the slides.

[CCWKen]

Part of the problem is the IRS rules for salvage. When a company has amortized the value of capital through it's useful life, Selling it for salvage increases the company's liability for capital gains. They then have to pay taxes on it at the capital gains rate.

It's "cheaper" to dump it. It's paid for and has been depreciated to zero value. Why pay for it again?

[Evan]

Yep, same problem when I worked at Xerox. When a product was "end of lifed" they had to destroy it. No parts could be recovered at all under any circumstances. The machines went to the car crusher otherwise the company is liable for Capital Cost Recovery. Really a shame since there are tons of neat bits in photocopiers, especially the big ones.

[rsr911]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by CCWKen:
Part of the problem is the IRS rules for salvage. When a company has amortized the value of capital through it's useful life, Selling it for salvage increases the company's liability for capital gains. They then have to pay taxes on it at the capital gains rate.

It's "cheaper" to dump it. It's paid for and has been depreciated to zero value. Why pay for it again?</font>

Yup, exactly it. The IRS is so screwed up it forces companies to waste stuff. I get first dibs on anything we through away at work. Got a stack of brass fittings from and old project, I couldnt use them so I made $300 on the scrap value.


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-Christian D. Sokolowski