[Leica] Don't be so harsh on Sal -

[Edward Caliguri <caliguri@rcn.com>]

Hi all-
    Sal does have some salient points - Just replace Leica with Canon, Nikon
etc, when you read his post-
- -
> 1.- Many of you feel the employees of Leica do not deserve an increase
> in salary.
        Sure - I bet they work their buts off as we all do - The design
teams needs to attract new talent and keep them. The only way to do that is
to be competitive in salary. And they HAVE produced over the last few years
(witness the 28 f/2 ASPH M, the M7 itself, a 'reasonably' priced 21-35 R
zoom made in Solms, not an outsource. And just the cost of living is going
up, not to mention health care benefits etc.
> 2.- Leica AG never has any increases in the cost of doing business.
        Witness the advertising campaigns - that costs money. And Leica,
when you take in rebates , Leica Days etc, really has not had a price
increase in a very long time.
> 3.- Their suppliers do not have or are not permitted to have increases
> in their cost of doing business.
    If the cloth they make the shutters from, electronic components, new
computer design software etc. etc. increase in price, they can only toe the
line for so long.
> 4.- Leica should lower its prices and eventually go out of business.
        They could, but do you want to sacrifice the quality we all know and
love? You can't praise their glass on one hand, then say it's not right for
the consumer (us!) to pay for it to remain so.
> 5.- Most of you have absolutely no idea of how to run an international
> business. 
Some of us do, and some of us don't. I think Leica has a pretty good handle
on how to run it's affairs in the 'niche' market the photo division
occupies. It's got to be tough for them, tougher than it is for Canon and
Nikon for certain! I don't run an international conglomerate, but that looks
obvious.
    
    Just some thoughts on his points :-)   Ed

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