First off, let me say a quick thank you to Michelle Malkin, someone whom I have never met or conversed with, for having the insight and intelligence to start her Twitchy site. This site is pure genius. yesterday, it allowed America to get an immediate glimpse of the past, present, and future all at the same time, from one event that a decade ago would have occurred almost completely in relative obscurity. That event of course was Papa John’s CEO, John Schnatter, discussing with Papa John’s shareholders, the current state of their business and what changes will be likely in the future in order to both maintain and enhance shareholder value. A decade ago, we lived in a nation where we ranked near the top of the list in terms of economic freedom. We ranked fourth in the world, and by no small coincidence, our per capita income also ranked fourth in the world. A decade ago, this phone call and its content would have been considered beyond boring for anyone who was not a Papa John’s shareholder or possibly a competitor. Today of course is a different matter. The political left now feels entitled to some explanation and say so when discussing the once private affairs of American businesses. With our level of economic freedom now placing us squarely out of the top ten nations in that category, not coincidentally, our per capita income has also declined relative to the remainder of the world. Consider it a hard lesson of cause and effect.
Bear in mind also that the entire kerfuffle is over an honest answer to a question posed by one of the firm’s owners who is justifiably concerned with the state of their equity position of Papa John’s. The owner wants to know what the top managerial employee, John Schnatter is going to do in order to mitigate the upcoming regulatory gargantuan increase in the chain’s expenses, due to hit January 1, 2013. Schnatter’s answer was simple, and it would have been considered boring just a decade ago. He said this, “we are going to attempt to shallow out the effects to the shareholder’s by passing along those costs to our customers. We estimate those costs to be between 14 and 20 cents per pie sold.” I do need to interject some of my own explanation here, since it has become painfully obvious to me that many do not understand this. If Papa John’s has the same operational margins as the restaurant industry as a whole, further assuming that by shallowing out the effects on shareholders, Schnatter really meant passing along 100% of the effects of Obamacare to his customers, this will translate to the price for a small pizza to increase by $1.40 and the price for a large increasing $2.00. This explanation will be important later on.
In answering this rather mundane, albeit important question from a shareholder who shockingly wishes to know what is happening with his or her investment, Schnatter set off a firestorm of reaction from everyone on the political left, who quite frankly do not have a stake in this game. He also highlighted perfectly, some of the central problems with Socialism, and further illustrated why it never works. The major problem highlighted here is the failure of the Socialists to consider the likelihood that human beings will change their behavior once presented with economic punishment for their successes, and economic reward for their failures. John Schnatter has a duty to perform for the people who hired him. His responsibility is to maintain or improve on the value to the shareholders of Papa John’s. So, when the government slaps them with an extra expense, that company can either just accept the economic loss, or find a way to adjust for it, so as to mitigate the effects. If John Schnatter were to announce that he intended to just accept the loss, I guarantee the shareholders would waste no time in finding a suitable replacement for him.
You may be wondering what the stink is, so click here to find out. What we have is the hypocrisy of the political left in full bloom. Those very same people who were preaching to the high heavens that they would be willing to pay the increased economic costs of everything so that we might turn every single commodity in the nation into a basic human right, are now threatening to boycott the very first company to speak honestly about the very real consequences of this asinine folly. So once again we learn that when it is somebody else’s money at stake, such funds are no object when considering the costs of achieving their appropriation of public largess. When it is their money on the line however, well, that’s a horse of a different color.
The other thing that I learned from Twitchy is that not a single person on the left exhibits the barest knowledge of how operating margins affect the prices of goods and services brought to market. There are literally dozens of tweets proclaiming that they consider it no big deal to pay an extra dime for their pizza. When we all pointed out four years ago that Barack Obama had never run so much as a lemonade stand prior to his run for the Presidency, we were all labeled as being racists for having noticed that. What I did not know, is that the 50% plus of Americans who voted for him had also grown to voting age without this all important lesson in basic economics and business.
Tina Dupuy@TinaDupuy
All that’s stood in the way of Papa Johns workers having health care is 14 cents per pizza!? Papa John is a model deadbeat dad.
9 Aug 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite
Rachel Caine@rachelcaine
You know what, @PapaJohns … I’d LOVE to pay 20 cents more for pizza so that someone else could get decent health insurance.
9 Aug 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite
BrooklynWeGoHard@PureSimpleDair
I will pay 11 to 14 cents more a pizza if everyone gets health care. Food chains need to stop with the politics. I’m looking @ U #PapaJohns
9 Aug 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite
INGERIVERSEN@KRIS10INGER
@PapaJohns thanks 4 letting us know how CHEAP you are. 10 cents?! REALLY! Officially on my DO NOT BUY LIST even if you don’t up the price.
The reason why a 20 cent increase in cost will translate to a $2.00 increase in price is easy to understand for anyone who has ever actually held a job. In order to make up for that 20 cents of gratuitous expense, Papa John’s will have to increase its sales, which also costs Papa John’s money. Every penny of expense comes straight off of the bottom line, and to make it up, they must increase that number. Selling more pizza means using more dough, sauce, cheese, electricity, people to make it all, people to count it all, and will not be made up from simply tacking this added cost to the back end of the process. This is not only true for Papa John’s pizza, but for any business anywhere. So, it’s not only Papa John’s, but probably every other pizza chain, auto manufacturer, clothing manufacturer, cell phone manufacturer, computer manufacturer, and any body else doing business in America will be forced to identify and quantify the impacts of this upon their bottom line, and then react to those impacts accordingly.
It is telling of course that the same fine people who were so willing to have the rest of us accept all of this in order to inflict their will upon us, are the very first people to cry like banshees when the inevitable becomes reality.
BadChad @badchad360
Guess I can add #papajohns to the list w/ #chikfila #notgettinmybiz
9 Aug 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite
atlgsuboy02@atlgsuboy02
No mo #papa johns #pizza for me I support #aca #obama2012
9 Aug 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite
mikell young@mikellyoung
Used to love me some @PapaJohns too bad they are now boycotted.
9 Aug 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite
Will Regla@willregla
I wouldn’t have minded 14¢ to ensure your employees had health coverage, but I don’t want my pies coming from a GOP mouthpiece. #papajohns
9 Aug 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite
Queen INDY ♍@IndiaAlmighty
Papa johns is against Obama? They jut lost a customer.
Welcome to the new America that Barack Obama envisioned. His post modern Presidency seeks to heal the wounds of division simply by ostracizing any who disagree with the collective. The intolerant tolerance of the left would be hilarious if it weren’t so scary. Political correctness is a bizarre and sick joke being inflicted upon those of us with functioning grey matter not destroyed by years of substance abuse. In a world where the people tasked with our national security are legally prohibited from using the phrases Islamic Terror, jihad, Muslim Extremists, and so on, while at the same time Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano has stated that the Tea Party officially represents the top threat to our country’s well being, a small thing like Papa John’s chief being stripped of his First Amendment rights should be considered no big deal. It is of course huge. Political Tolerance will only be extended to those who agree completely with the Liberals in charge, and that’s a scary thought indeed.
We can not afford Four more years of this nonsense. November 6, 2012, our very future depends on taking this opportunity to oust this current group of dolts, not just from the White House, but from every single elective position from Dog Catcher on up. We can never again allow these people to gain another iota of authority anywhere. Liberalism must be roundly defeated, each and every time it raises its destructive head.
Cross Posted from Musings of a Mad Conservative.
Good article. Yes, the tolerant left is intolerant of any that dare disagree with them. I must confess I am beginning to feel that way about leftists anymore.
This election is crucial. We either defeat Obama and take back Congress, or the Republic is done. The choices then will be meekly accepting the coming tyranny or the states that still cherish freedom split from the totalitarian states and re-take the constitutional republic with a lesser number of states.
I am not crazy about Papa John’s pizza but in this case, I’ll get some.
These are the same kind of ignorant fanatics that populated the Khmer Rouge. There is no doubt in my mind that they wouldn’t gleefully run the same kind of Killing Fields here in America if they were given the chance.
Good Mornin All….make it a Pappa Johns day
I only hope they quit selling Caribou Coffee…which, last time I checked, is invested in by Muslims.
hey ya’ll
there is a report about crowd size
RR 10,000 people
http://wizbangblog.com/2012/08/13/romney-revived-obama-slumps/
Obama has a $51 fundraiser and the room is only half full
https://twitter.com/jodikantor/status/234747381097328640
Whoops
that post seems to be gone
well
what about this one
https://twitter.com/jodikantor/status/234766001923817473
@ rain of lead:
Right now the contest is all about fundraising, and Romney is winning that one running away. I, too, am encouraged by the size of the crowds turning out for the Romney Ryan ticket. I am more hopeful now than I have been since Romney became our nominee. I think that we can win this one, and I think that Romney is committed to being more than Obama-lite.
@ rain of lead:
The young hip guy aint Obama no more.
@ Iron Fist:
Mitt Romney is like Constantine the Great. He is a convert to Economic/Fiscal Conservatism. I am happy to finally have a Ticket I can vote for!
The tolerance of the left will ensure that not only will the employees of PaPa John’s will be without healthcare, but also the Joe Biden’s great three letter word ‘JOBS”. Way to go you socialist as asswipes!
@ Rodan:
I am glad. For me, Ryan brings the best of the bedrock principles of the Tea Party base. He’s pro-Second Amendment, pro-Life,an economic and social conservative. He was, at the beginning, my first pick for the top of the ticket. Eight years of Romney followed by eight years of Ryan, and we might just save the country.
how low can they go?
Al Qaeda’s brutal new weapons: Children kidnapped and kept in chains to be taught how to become suicide bombers
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2187374/Al-Qaedas-brutal-new-weapons-Children-kidnapped-kept-chains-taught-suicide-bombers.html#ixzz23QqKOH7b
@ Iron Fist:
Paul Ryan was if not people’s first choice, many’s 2nd choice. That’s why everyone is happy. Hey we dodge the Christie bullet. Romney was really considering him, but Christie didn’t want to resign as NJ Gov. Thank God!
@ Rodan:
Christie would have been a poor choice, but that is water under the bridge. I am very excited about this. Ryan was the best choice available.
‘MR. PRESIDENT GET YOUR CAMPAIGN OUT OF THE GUTTER’ More, please.
Obama has personal animus toward Ryan as well as Romney and he’s so thin-skinned and self-centered that he’s incapable of masking it. Romney and Ryan are coming off like happy warriors with bold ideas and Obama’s increasingly looking small, mean and petulant. I was sitting with my wife in the hospital yesterday and the TV was on Fox News with the sound down, and Obama’s facial and body language was startling, even though I know what he is.
Ryan’s a rock star and Romney knew it. Romney knows he has a stiff manner, and he knows he chose a man who’ll likely steal the show whenever they’re together. This tells me that Romney knows it’s about the country, not him. A good manager raises up his star employees and has enough self-confidence to be comfortable with not being constantly bathed in the limelight. Romney’s selection of Ryan said so many good things about Romney on so many levels.
I’ve heard that Romney’s going to have a war chest of upwards of $800 million after the convention -- it’s going to be political shock and awe like we’ve never seen! It’s gonna be an amazing thing to watch!
The new slogans of the left:
Let us become all equal jobless. Unemployment for everyone ! Equality ! Social justice !
@ Guggi:
Socialism has always been like that. I am reminded of the saying in the Soviet Union “They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work.” That is always how socialism works. It assures equality of misery and poverty. Of course the elites are somewhat exempt from that, but there is always the chance that they will wind up with a short gig between a wall and a squad of riflemen as an Enemy of the People.
The only strategy that the Obama campaign has when campaigning against Ryan is instilling fear in older people, and it’s a loser. The fact is, older people are a lot healthier, more active and more well informed than they were just 10-15 years ago. They’re increasingly internet-savvy and are becoming resentful of ad campaigns designed to frighten them like children.
One of the prime groups behind the “Reagan Revolution” were NeoCons; former leftist and left-leaning Boomers who, as they say, were “mugged by reality”. A lot of those Boomers are now members of the Medicare/Social Security set and they/we are not fucking stupid, drooling fools that buy the cartoons that the Left is selling; we didn’t buy it in the 80s and we’re sure as hell not buying it now.
@ MacDuff:
Hey Mac, how is your wife doing?
This is Marx & Gump vs Team America.
The choice is clear & we will know a lot about
this country after this election.
MacDuff wrote:
Rasmussen’s most recent O-Hole Disapproval Rating confirms that. Today at -21.
If I understand this correctly, Papa John’s is saying that the new mandate(s) imposed by Obamascam will cause the price of their product to rise.
But since all the fabulous benefits that Obamascam was supposed to deliver were also supposed to be “free,” people are upset that Obamascam will cause the price of products to rise.
Have I got it right?
@ buzzsawmonkey:
yeppers
@ buzzsawmonkey:
you’re pretty close, it’s not that they didn’t expect for the costs to end up coming out of someone’s pocket at some point in time. It’s that they believe that in their Socialism 101 text book of how the world should work out to achieve their sense of Social Justice, the evil corporations, like Papa John’s for instance, are honor bound to simply eat those costs and negative impacts to their bottom lines, as a part of their civic duty to the state.
Remember, it’s only the object of the mob’s hatred that is greedy, never the people angry mob members see in their collective mirrors.
RIX wrote:
She’s doing wonderfully! She went in a rehab facility last night for a week, but her surgeon said she’s recovering spectacularly well. Thanks for asking!
@ MacDuff:
Glad to hear that.
What those ignorant boycotting leftards apparently fail to understand is that every single other restaurant chain and independent eatery are going to do the same exact thing; pass on the regulatory costs to customers. They really have no choice in the matter. Don’t do it, go broke.
RIX wrote:
She got a copy of the x-ray of the new knee and it’s so friggin’ cool that I almost want one for myself!
Under ObamaCare she probably would have just gotten a big ol’ bottle of Vicodin.
Alberta Oil Peon wrote:
In the immortal words of Jack Nicholson; they “can’t handle the truth!” That’s why they’re having the vapors over Ryan, and why Romney chose him -- he’s been telling the America the truth with his budget proposals.
Said the Left to Papa John’s, “We gotta
“Subject you to a strict boycotta,
“We’re outraged you’d declare
“Sacred Obamacare
“Will increase the price of your ricotta.”
Alberta Oil Peon wrote:
Perhaps the liberal boycott list is going to get mighty huge! If so, then that’s more places for us conservatives to eat in peace!
@ buzzsawmonkey:
Maybe we could convince the Left to boycott food altogether. Get them to go out and graze in the parks. Then we could lay off a whole whack of union guys with lawn mowers. Win-win!
MacDuff wrote:
Thats all I got as a Marine from Air Force docs when a car fell on me. Too bad they missed the vertical break in my Left Scapula where the frame of the car landed. Walked around with it for 12 more years. Broke it 14 more times till a retired Navy Ortho doc caught it on an MRI… 2 Surgeries and 6 months of rehab.
Alberta Oil Peon wrote:
The amount of grass it takes to get to dietary iron levels should keep them busy and out of other people’s lives
@ MacDuff:
That’s actually true. The Committee does a cost/benefit
analysis.
They’ll probably just put me down.
“Soylent Green is people!!!!!!!!!!”
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