Minor rant thread. Post your rants o' the day here!

In reply to bigdaddylee82:

I have a few Win 7 Dell disks in my desk. PM me your address and I will send one your way.

You can live on minimum wage in many areas of the country. You can have a nice apartment, cheap used car, free TV, and a pay as you go cell plan. Many people saying it needs to be a "livable wage" think that means, owning a house, newer car, high speed internet, etc.

In reply to KyAllroad:

Amen. I know its stupid but that drives me nuts.

MDJeepGuy wrote: You can live on minimum wage in many areas of the country. You can have a nice apartment, cheap used car, free TV, and a pay as you go cell plan. Many people saying it needs to be a "livable wage" think that means, owning a house, newer car, high speed internet, etc.

Try it before you toss that around man. A single person living on minimum wage might be able to survive, but their life is going to be pretty miserable and they'll be one "event" (injury, illness, accident, etc) from homelessness and hunger.

And that's not even taking into consideration children. Kids are expensive.

Well, berkeley.

The guaranteed company car was just the recipient of a budget cut. And i sold the daily yesterday.

Looks like im daily driving the 162k salvaged miata.

KyAllroad wrote:

MDJeepGuy wrote: You can live on minimum wage in many areas of the country. You can have a nice apartment, cheap used car, free TV, and a pay as you go cell plan. Many people saying it needs to be a "livable wage" think that means, owning a house, newer car, high speed internet, etc.

Try it before you toss that around man. A single person living on minimum wage might be able to survive, but their life is going to be pretty miserable and they'll be one "event" (injury, illness, accident, etc) from homelessness and hunger. And that's not even taking into consideration children. Kids are expensive.

Like I said, its a livable wage, not a "live great" wage. It's not supposed to be a live great wage. It's $15k a year at 40 hours per week. I see apartments in Lexington for $450 a month, so it is doable. With both people working, it's $30k a year.

In reply to MDJeepGuy: You're being willfully obtuse about this. 15K a year gross is different than having 15K a year to spend (net). While someone earning minimum wage does qualify for various public assistance programs, that simply shifts the cost burden to the taxpayer and actually disincentivises people from seeking employment as they need to make nearly double minimum wage before they get clear of true poverty.

That "cheap used car" is a nice idea until the engine pops and they lose their job because McDonalds level employees don't have the cushion in their checking account to replace it.

So again, I challenge you to give it a shot. Find out what your actual take home would be at minimum wage and live like that for a month. It's berkeleying brutal and not everyone has the skillset to escape the poverty trap. We're a wealthy country, we should be able to do better by our weakest citizens and getting them into actual livable pay for the work they do would be a good start.

Appleseed wrote: Did it ever occur that the cost difference in raising the minimum wage will eventually be paid for by the consumer? $15/hr won't mean E36 M3 when milk costs $5/gal.

This.

KyAllroad wrote: In reply to MDJeepGuy: You're being willfully obtuse about this. 15K a year gross is different than having 15K a year to spend (net). While someone earning minimum wage does qualify for various public assistance programs, that simply shifts the cost burden to the taxpayer and actually disincentivises people from seeking employment as they need to make nearly double minimum wage before they get clear of true poverty. That "cheap used car" is a nice idea until the engine pops and they lose their job because McDonalds level employees don't have the cushion in their checking account to replace it. So again, I challenge you to give it a shot. Find out what your actual take home would be at minimum wage and live like that for a month. It's berkeleying brutal and not everyone has the skillset to escape the poverty trap. We're a wealthy country, we should be able to do better by our weakest citizens and getting them into actual livable pay for the work they do would be a good start.

I'm with MDJeepGuy, if that wasn't apparent.

Minimum wage is for one person, not a family. One person can live on minimum wage. A family cannot.

A single person doesn't necessarily need their own apartment either. If they get a room mate all the sudden cost of living halved, if they are married and have 2 people working the income doubled.

I say that it is irresponsible to put yourself in a position where you must support another person if you don't have the means/income to do so.

In reply to KyAllroad:

I agree, many people are not skilled enough to escape the poverty trap. But you know what? Skills can be learned. Often for cheap or free.

Anyways, I started this whole discussion, let's not get too heated. We're all friends here.

Fair Market Value. You keep using that term. I do not think that it means what you think it means...

The_Jed wrote: A friend and co-worker has been dealing with severe back pain and a nasty cough for a very long time. He finally relented and saw a doctor about 1 1/2 weeks ago. Over this past week the prognosis has gone from adverse reaction to meds then to lung and liver cancer then finally today I got word that it's stage 4 terminal cancer with "too many lesions to count". The doctor told him he could make it 6 weeks or 1 year at most. He's 46. berkeley CANCER!!!!

I last worked with him at the end of October/early November during our plant shutdown when we replace/rebuild the bevel drive gearboxes that turn the roll housings. He had mentioned how much his back was bothering him.

He is now gone. One month after toughing it out and working through the pain he's gone. One berkeleying month.

berkeley.

MIL, I'm going to cut my own tree for Christmas because I want to do it. Yeah, it is more work. Yeah, it is more expensive even though I'm doing the work. But you know what? I get a better tree, I get to spend time outside with my wife and my dogs, and I get to do manly things. And I'm probably going to drive an hour and a half to do it. Because I can.

In reply to AWSX1686:

Curious to how you solve a couple both working min wage job, and then getting pregnant? Or are you going to be one of those people who tell people to not have kids?

Once again, it's quite the assumption that there is OPPORTUNITY if you learn skills. There's one manager to how many workers? If they are all trying to be a manager, then the odds are pretty thin. Besides, it's not as if they have it that much better, in many instances- I was a manager at a fast food place, and my wage was barely above min wage. Good think I was still living off my parents. But the other managers lived pretty hard, as I could see.

The whole training thing has been tried, too. You've mined for X for a decade, and that's the 80% employer. Your good at your very useless skill, all of a sudden.

Besides- between Md's paying back $1B of the net profits and us paying a small increase in the cost of a burger- that goes a long way in keeping the economy going. We've spent decades in the rush to the bottom cost of everything, we forget what the point of the whole thing is.

In reply to alfadriver:

I guess the solution is just demanding that "someone else" has to do "something" without bringing anything to the table yourself.

No one owes you anything, there are a lot of people that think they do for some reason.

alfadriver wrote: In reply to AWSX1686: Curious to how you solve a couple both working min wage job, and then getting pregnant? Or are you going to be one of those people who tell people to not have kids?

Don't have kids if you can't afford them.

Can we go back to minor rants?

My minor rant - I'm sick of the constant bickering on the news, on FB, and apparently, on here. Oh, and my neck hurts. At least it's Friday.

EvanB wrote:

alfadriver wrote: In reply to AWSX1686: Curious to how you solve a couple both working min wage job, and then getting pregnant? Or are you going to be one of those people who tell people to not have kids?

Don't have kids if you can't afford them.

I sincerely hope that was a deliberate troll.

In reply to cmcgregor:

I will not continue the minimum wage rant then. :)

My minor rant, last weekend I messed up the threads on the driver's front upper control arm on my miata. Haven't gotten to drive it all week since that part isn't due in till today.

AWSX1686 wrote: In reply to cmcgregor: I will not continue the minimum wage rant then. :) My minor rant, last weekend I messed up the threads on the driver's front upper control arm on my miata. Haven't gotten to drive it all week since that part isn't due in till today.

Agreed!

I buggered the threads on my Miatas drivers' rear outer control arm bolt last week. And haven't touched it since (sad panda)

In reply to mtn:

Many years ago my dad gets this idea to dig out a tree for Christmas and then replant it in his yard. So the tree place says okay and we start digging. After two hours a guy swings by to tell my dad the ball we need to dig out will weigh 500# and he gave my dad a saw. We left with our tree ten minutes later.

KyAllroad wrote:

EvanB wrote:

alfadriver wrote: In reply to AWSX1686: Curious to how you solve a couple both working min wage job, and then getting pregnant? Or are you going to be one of those people who tell people to not have kids?

Don't have kids if you can't afford them.

I sincerely hope that was a deliberate troll.

How about this then? If you have kids before you can afford them, don't bitch that you can't afford them. Especially if you're solution is to just demand more for nothing.

This is a useless discussion, no one will suddenly change their view on it.

Maybe I can just demand you see it my way, that's about as good as demanding $15 an hour.

cmcgregor wrote: Can we go back to minor rants?

Sure:

I'm not a Dave Matthews fan, I admit. But I berking hate their stupid "Fire Dancer" mascot / logo / window sticker thing all the smug DMB fans seem to have.

I hate it out of all reasonable proportion to how it affects my life, which is basically not at all.

mtn wrote: MIL, I'm going to cut my own tree for Christmas because I want to do it. Yeah, it is more work. Yeah, it is more expensive even though I'm doing the work. But you know what? I get a better tree, I get to spend time outside with my wife and my dogs, and I get to do manly things. And I'm probably going to drive an hour and a half to do it. Because I can.

My family stayed at my MIL’s house for Thanksgiving.

Her house is located in a small and shrinking pocket of nice surrounded by a lot of not so nice. At 7:45 PM while my wife and eldest daughter were out shopping and my youngest daughter was in the shower, the doorbell rang and my MIL blindly opened the door without doing anything to check who it was first.

The visitor turned out to be a scammer trying to appear affiliated with the gas company but he had no legitimate identification and he delivered a weak sauce sales pitch riddled with nonsensical drivel.

Given how bad his pitch was, I suspected he was either casing the place or distracting us while someone else got into position.

Being a guest, the best weapon available to me was a five inch tall iron Scottish terrier door stop. Seriously, the only thing standing between creepy guy and my little daughter in the shower was a two pound ornamental figurine.

Thanks mom, way to go, real smart, you can bet we’ll be back to stay again soon.

Datsun310Guy wrote: In reply to mtn: Many years ago my dad gets this idea to dig out a tree for Christmas and then replant it in his yard. So the tree place says okay and we start digging. After two hours a guy swings by to tell my dad the ball we need to dig out will weigh 500# and he gave my dad a saw. We left with our tree ten minutes later.

This sounds like something that I would have done if I didn't have the internet (for reference, I'm 26 and almost 27; I've basically always had the internet).

More minor rant: Just bought a pair of insulated Carhartt overalls online, for cold weather stuff like shoveling snow, walking dogs, ice fishing, working on the car in the winter, etc. I probably will use them about 2-3 times a year for the next 20-30 years, so I figured what the hell and did it.

I got them online, because no place around me had them (not even Cabellas and BPS?). I measured myself and researched 10 ways to Tuesday and ended up deciding to order the 28 inch inseam, since I'm about a 29.5 inch inseam for regular pants. Everyone online said to do it shorter than you think. Makes sense.

I forgot that I'm about 5'10" to 6', depending on who is measuring me, but that the 29" inseam is pretty close to accurate no matter what. Get the overalls. Put them on. With the suspenders adjusted all the way out, the pants are pulling up my butt. That ain't gonna work. Send them back, try again...