If you are a business-owner and your clientele base ages and dies off, who will buy your product?
Last edited Tue Jun 26, 2012, 06:59 AM - Edit history (1)
I saw this firsthand as my Aunt's boutique clothing business "died" off as she aged. She was as vigorous as ever, and still a crafty entrepreneur, BUT her customers were a very niche-y bunch of women. Right across the street from her shoppe was the Bell Telephone office (chock-ful of most of the women workers in our town ...aside from the waitresses, nurses etc and others who wore uniforms at their jobs). There was also a "business school", where they churned out class after class of "newly liberated" young women who would go on to become secretaries, office managers, stenographers ...think Mad Men..for real).
For about 20 years she had a little goldmine, and more customers than she could accommodate sometimes. She ordered with them in mind, and they paid her back by being loyal shoppers.
During the '60's , I was her one and only employee, so of course she started catering to the teen-set, but we were a fickle bunch, and we shopped all over the place.
But she still had her loyal phone company/business school ladies.
but I digress....................
The one thing she did not figure into her business plan was that slowly but surely automation/mergers and family creation would eat into her sales, and then of course as women "retired" and stayed home with babies, they no longer shopped on their lunch hours and they no longer needed new dresses, shoes, coats & jewelry.
The final blow was, after many years, the women who stayed loyal to her shoppe, started really retiring.
Her shoppe was a small fish in a sea of malls that sprang up, and the death knell probably was due to that as well, but the real business-killer was the fact that her specialty clientele "outgrew" her place, and new customers either were pickier or more fickle or both.
The health care insurance industry is facing a similar fate sooner rather than later, and they should be on their knees, kissing Obama's feet, instead of behind him with a dagger.
WHO WILL PAY THEIR EVER-INCREASING PRICES FOR COVERAGE?
The ONLY thing that has kept them viable & has made their CEOs rich-beyond-all-comprehension is the HUGE pool of Boomer-workers who caught the tail-end of what was left of the "American Dream" job market.
The workers **(C.O.B) who followed the Boomers, are likely to be at opposite ends of the wage-spectrum. A few will be in speculative or highly-prized/paid occupations and will always sit at the front of the Gravy Train, still making big bucks and retaining the ability to pay high premiums, but the majority are having wages lowered/eliminated; they are clinging to a raggedy rope as they are dragged down the tracks behind the caboose and they can no longer even participate in the ponzi scheme.
The "mandate" was the bon mot tossed into the gaping maws of the insurance companies, to force people to continue to "buy" from them. If SCOTUS axes it, the insurance companies have the MOST to lose, since their product ...."permission slips" is becoming too costly for the 99%ers, and the 1%ers don't "need" the coverage.
The "Greatest Generation" is dying off, and they have been on Medicare for a very long time now. The "Largest Generation" is ticking days off the calendar as they too graduate into Medicare, and out of the clutches of **"G.B.I.C."
The "<insert appellations here> Generations" that follow are mostly uninterested and unable to participate in the scheme as we go forward.
Just how on earth does a generation of **"E.C.D" get into the "game"...or even want to play the game.
** Children of Boomers
** Greedy Bastard Insurance Companies
** Extreme College Debt
= new reply since forum marked as read
I have only 2 more years until I turn 65 and I am anticipating that birthday more than any other..even 16 or 21..whodathunkit 
it's like they want us all to just fucking die 
Excellent post. Great analogy. I'm still 8 years away from Medicare and 8 years is a LONG time to go without medical care. 
and of course the advertising every 3 minutes about all the horrible diseases/meds side effects/ cancer hospitals are not helping either 
..
I have nearly worn out my mute button .. 
We simply need to cut government regulations on the health care insurance industry, and lower taxes on corporations and the rich. That'll take care of the problem lickety split. It's true! It will! I don't need to explain it, justify it or provide data and reports on why it will work, it just will.
