#1 2016-12-09 06:12:59
"He then got into his newish car and drove home to watch HBO on his 50" Flat Screen TV, naturally stopping to pick up a 12 pack and dime bag along the way."
People are whining like unskilled labor used to pay well, it's always sucked to not have skills - even back in what they now call "the economic hayday".
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#2 2016-12-09 06:57:15
Emmeran wrote:
People are whining like unskilled labor used to pay well, it's always sucked to not have skills - even back in what they now call "the economic hayday".
Not true. When me and my peak-of-the-baby-boom cohort officially reached the unskilled job market in 1972, wages WERE great for about a year, then supply and demand kicked in and student loan vultures began their feeding frenzy.
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#3 2016-12-09 08:13:26
choad wrote:
Emmeran wrote:
People are whining like unskilled labor used to pay well, it's always sucked to not have skills - even back in what they now call "the economic hayday".
Not true. When me and my peak-of-the-baby-boom cohort officially reached the unskilled job market in 1972, wages WERE great for about a year, then supply and demand kicked in and student loan vultures began their feeding frenzy.
Well the entire idea that everyone needs four more years of basically general education at a high cost is total bullshit. However I worked two jobs after I got out of the Corps and had already learned my lesson about credit so we didn't have all the fancy stuff. Worked hard and got promoted and finally have a good setup, but honestly many of my neighbors have nicer "stuff" on lower incomes. They also bitch about money a lot and do no where near the cool things that people on here do.
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#5 2016-12-09 13:27:17
I thought the consensus was that the early 70's were an aberrational economic bubble brought on by the Marshall Plan, the height of the unions power, cold war spending and the interstate highway system? The collapse of that bubble stuck us in a brutal recession that wiped out many industries.
Realistically speaking continued growth is a mirage, as we have a declining native population base it means that GDP growth without measurable cause is an economic bubble and will cause a correction.
However luxury abounds and work conditions are better than ever, this is a boom time baby. People are simply getting too much air time for their whines and mostly what they are saying is that work sucks cuz it's too "work" like AND they should have more money and time off. Real life is that winter is coming so put up enough wood and stock your pantry, play time is for children and grandparents.
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#6 2016-12-09 16:43:52
Add to all of this that the Almighty Dollar is no longer the gold plated standard it used to be. We had favorable trade relations (too favorable for some bleeding hearts and artists) all over the world and bought and sold with good credit. Now we have to send $Billions to every tin pot dictator and emerging nation just to keep them in bed with us, while providing them with security and clean water in the bargain. We got to the 1970s by being better than any other country at nearly everything. Now winners guilt about greed is killing our competitiveness and we are letting them have it. We don't go into international treaties looking for the best for America any more, we go in apologizing and end up giving away the farm. Every time. Sure, it's "best for the world", but it's 350 Million well to do Americans supporting 2 Billion on the dole. So I'm sorry, your wife will have to pull that double so we can build more apartments in Gaza or factories in Taipei, otherwise those poor savages will be living in dirt floored huts eating manioc and we can't have that, can we?
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#7 2016-12-09 17:02:25
GooberMcNutly wrote:
So I'm sorry, your wife will have to pull that double so we can build more apartments in Gaza or factories in Taipei, otherwise those poor savages will be living in dirt floored huts eating manioc and we can't have that, can we?
So you propose we continue to send them money to finance their anti-birth control campaigns AND you want them to fuck on the dirt floor? Do you work for Apple?
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#8 2016-12-10 09:19:55
Devil Dawg wrote:
People are whining like unskilled labor used to pay well, it's always sucked to not have skills - even back in what they now call "the economic heyday".
These folks have been making the same shitty wages under Barry Soweto but now it's Trump's fault? Go Figure.
Extra $$ needed? I picked up a second (at one point a third) job. Went to college while holding down a full and part-time job..simultaneously. Don't like where your working? Move the fuck on! Agreed, it sucks being laid off. You were a good worker? Then it was their loss. Fuck 'em. At one job, received a pay cut before my first pay raise. Another time, drove 4800 miles to work for a company that went bankrupt a month later.
Managed to never take unemployment. Negotiated for cash when kids needed to see a doc and we weren't covered...yes, lucky and thankful nothing more serious than fractures and stitches..but in reality, serious illness would be a rarity for most. Though I never needed a .gov bailout, nice knowing I lived in a country where it was available. It's just that (today) it appears most folks default to "victimhood" and see that .gov bailout as option #1 or #2 vs. the last resort. Thankfully, I never got there.
College is overrated and unskilled labor should never be a roadblock. Coupled with a good work ethic and adaptability, yuuuge dividends can be had in this country.
Oldest made it out of HS by skin of his teeth. No college. Changed jobs like underwear. Hard worker. Now supervises an exploration field on the North Slope, owns an excavation company on the side, along w/couple high-end rental properties. $1M+ net before he turned 27...co-habitates w/stripper...both respectable accomplishments in my book. One more thing, on occasion he hires three of his "college educated, debt laden, boomerang" siblings when they're in town and in need of "supplemental" income. Murica!
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#9 2016-12-10 10:48:32
JetRx wrote:
...co-habitates w/stripper...
Sweet
I lived with a stripper when I was in my mid 20s. It was awesome. Strippers always know where to get the GOOD coke.
I have always had a warm spot in my black heart for those girls.
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#10 2016-12-11 10:26:59
GooberMcNutly wrote:
Add to all of this that the Almighty Dollar is no longer the gold plated standard it used to be. We had favorable trade relations (too favorable for some bleeding hearts and artists) all over the world and bought and sold with good credit. Now we have to send $Billions to every tin pot dictator and emerging nation just to keep them in bed with us, while providing them with security and clean water in the bargain. We got to the 1970s by being better than any other country at nearly everything. Now winners guilt about greed is killing our competitiveness and we are letting them have it. We don't go into international treaties looking for the best for America any more, we go in apologizing and end up giving away the farm. Every time. Sure, it's "best for the world", but it's 350 Million well to do Americans supporting 2 Billion on the dole. So I'm sorry, your wife will have to pull that double so we can build more apartments in Gaza or factories in Taipei, otherwise those poor savages will be living in dirt floored huts eating manioc and we can't have that, can we?
It's the price we pay for being rich, free, and alive all at the same time. The Japanese businesses came over here in the 1970s to see why we were so great. They took that information home and implemented it and they became better than any other country in autos, electronics, etc.
Our #1 claim to fame these days is we're still the only true Superpower left in the world. That and a dollar will buy you a Coke, I guess...
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#11 2016-12-11 17:10:06
Baywolfe wrote:
Our #1 claim to fame these days is we're still the only true Superpower left in the world. That and a dollar will buy you a Coke, I guess...
But that's the heart of the problem. As the #1 world's superpower, we are also simultaneously the #1 criminal and #1 philanthropist left. Nobody goes knocking on the door of the Japanese when they want clean water in Africa. No Russian NGOs operate in remote Indian villages. (The Chinese give heavily in both Africa and South America, but that's with an entirely different aim.) And we *are* a generous nation, both on our own volition and on our 1040-EZ forms. We vote to extend hands to the downtrodden of the world.
But the problem comes when those same recipients of a grateful America slander and denigrate us for political gain, we have had a policy to suffer that hypocrisy silently, in the name of the greater good. "The good will be remembered", we say. And I hope it is. But if you read the foreign press, it would be hard to imagine it.
So I guess I would characterize it as a willingness to accept a lack of respect. It's present in all of us to some degree, and in some of us to more or less of an extent. It sounds so antiquated to say "To the winner goes the spoils", but one thing at least that we, as a nation, should expect as our just spoils to "winning" the Phyrric Cold War, are good relations with some of the countries we protected during that period. But that is water under the bridge, old political news at this point, I'm afraid. That's why I'm interested in seeing how the world reacts to a State Department that might not be singing from the same hymnal. What's the use of having the last saber in the room if you don't rattle it every now and then? (Snerk, I sound like W. Westmoreland...)
"May you live in interesting times..."
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