Getting Ready for (Economic) Winter

Financial Armageddon is Getting Ready for (Economic) Winter by examining how A Snowblower Maker Braces for Slump's Blizzard of Woe.

I was intrigued how the owner was getting productivity improvements:

Every two weeks, small groups of workers are assembled and assigned to tackle a new set of problems. One group, for instance, was recently assigned to figure out how to reduce the number of steps needed to collect the parts for an edging machine. Mr. Ariens says he would be pushing for these incremental changes even if business was booming. However it's even more crucial now to cut costs, he says.

The important thing is the workers know enough to devise ways of productivity improvement but have to be pointed in the right direction.

This passivity of the proletariat in the face of change has to be overcome before Communism can be implemented. Union activity enables workers to stand up to owners. This gives the workers confidence in themselves and their ideas.

The workers need to know how the economy works. It is no good to say that something will come along. Always waiting for someone else to start doing things.

The current economic crisis is a good start for workers to examine the current economic system and start devising alternatives.

The Capitalists will be hoping for a short recession so that the workers can be put back to sleep. A prolonged recession means that workers may start to wonder about the system.