How Can the Government Think This?

[other one]

1 hour ago, missmuffet said:

I agree with you. McDonalds is one of the worst fast food restaurants for messing up your order. When I drive up to the take out window I do not leave the window until I have checked out my order to make sure everything is correct. 

some person posted a note on my facebook news feed that said he just walks up and places a $20 by the register place and tells the person there, "Just surprise me, you never give me what I want anyway."

[LonerAndy]

13 hours ago, missmuffet said:

It will not be long and all of us who drive up to a window of a fast food restaurant will be served by a robot. That is the way technology and our world is going. 

It depends.  Robots are horribly expensive to maintain.  The cost of labor has to be significantly higher.  We could get there if they raise the minimum wage.  But until then, human labor will always be preferable.

[Neighbor]

2 hours ago, missmuffet said:

Malls and stores are doing terrible because of Amazon and other on-line sales. 

Hi, That's the lament but, I live within easy walking distance of an indoor mall and an outdoor one over 485 stores.  I tried to get lunch today, what a madhouse. Cars backed up to get in  or out even. And it is that way most of the year now.  Plus there is the big box store outdoor mall. That one is near impossible to get into. Busy busy busy.

Maybe sales are down overall in the nation, but certainly the traffic is way up here. At one time I counted it was 485 stores at the two malls, now there are perhaps another hundred plus stores and restaurants at the other local intersection centers all within less than a mile from home. At every signal light by these stores we jokingly say as we wait and wait- It is the Looongest light in the Whooole world.

Plus the movies wow, what hard times? They are packed. It is definitely boom time here. Even the old down town areas are cleaned up many structures totally rebuilt. There is a shortage of help most everywhere, construction is slowed by lack of workers, contractors  can't meet construction schedules.

Churches are busy too, ours now meets on Thurdays as well as Sundays with the weekly worship service. Plus it spread out to establish two more churches not too far away. 

[Neighbor]

Prime vehicles are at the malls so too is UPS. I guess the brick and mortar locales are also online and are the warehouse for the internet sales division. I had to get around two Prime trucks  just an  hour ago at the outdoor shopping mall.

The stores have changed over the years, the Sears and Pennys and the KMarts and others are long gone, but they have all been replaced with Whole Paycheck Organic food store, and just a ton of stores I don't recognize, each seems to have customers in them. It  is lively, perhaps too much so  for my old body. The noise is intense.

Hard to buy into the idea that times are tough when arcades open up eight storefronts in the indoor mall and it is packed with  people throwing money to play  games that last but a few seconds or minutes. Plus the food court is just jammed.

But seeing the classic car auction prices dropping is perhaps an indicator of some caution  in play with discretionary funds and money  used for speculation.

[LonerAndy]

23 hours ago, Repose said:

Minimum wage service jobs are way more numerous. They aren't "college" jobs, where some pimple-faced kid itches his backside for 4 hours and gets a few pennies and he can get by all hunky dory. It's people trying to pay off debts, to cover cost of living, to support families. It's a job that bars you from working full time so they don't have to pay you as much or offer benefits.

Let's take for example a fellow named Frank. He comes from a low-income family, that lives paycheck to paycheck. He really doesn't have money just laying around. Even a tech school might charge 20k in total. So he has to get a low-paying job, $9 and hour at about 16 hrs a week, IF he is hired. That's $144 a week, $576 a month, not accounting for taxes. That means he's going to have to work 40 months in total to fully afford school. Over 3 years of parttime work. He wouldn't be able to afford rent, so he's either stuck with mom and dad or the messy business of multiple roommates (which would make saving up nearly impossible).

Getting a loan still means he would have a debt, with interest to boot. Sure, he could join the military and get it paid for, but why must one do so? One shouldn't have to put their life at risk just to try and go to school. I'm not fond of the idea of dying on behalf of some stupid banker, myself. If you graduate with a debt, you are barred from that diploma until it is payed off. Heck, if the previous year isn't payed for, a good number of them won't let the student continue taking courses until they are paid in full. Then many employers are super picky, even in service jobs. So you're over 18, with no degree, and aren't going to college? Dismissed. What, you don't have previous experience, when you can't gain experience if you are never hired anywhere? Dismissed. It's putting rubbish on a shelf, you long-neck twit, it's not rocket science.

People act like being a waiter is a job for some stupid college kid when that's just not the case. Minimum wage barely covers the amount of gas you put into your car each month, much less food, rent, whatever else. Just because they did not or are not going to school does not mean that they should be treated like dregs. Mopping the floor isn't glamorous work, but someone has to do it. They all fulfill vital functions to society, important cogs in the machine, and yet "oh just get a better job, why not go to school, what do you mean 'people don't have money', blah blah". Outdated and ignorant ways of thinking from schmucks who have or had it easy. 

Maybe they aren't smart enough for schooling, for some jobs. Must they starve and struggle just because they aren't bright? Must they be regarded as of little worth when they're trying to make a living?

I'm sorry for blabbering, but this just kind of sets me off.

The problem is, I have no skills, no college degree. no abilities, nothing.  I am the very definition of a human zero.

Even so, because I show up on time, and work the entire time, and I get along with coworkers, I have not worked minimum wage, since I was 16-years-old in high school.

If you are telling me that Frank has a family, and is still working for $9/hour, and he's not even putting in 40-hour weeks..... then something is wrong.

Frank needs to move to where better jobs are.  Or frank needs to get a second job.  Or Frank needs to work harder.   By harder, I don't mean physically moving boulders around, I mean is Frank working the entire time he's on the clock, or is he taking smoke breaks, or chatting with people?  What's Frank doing, that they don't promote Frank?

When I was at the parts store, we had a guy that worked his butt off.  He worked constantly.  And they promoted and promoted, and now he has his own parts store.

Had a lady that was working as a cashier at Mejiers, and now she's a district manager.

Is Frank asking to join the management training program?

Is Frank taking advantage of Walmart's tuition reimbursement program?   Had a friend who worked at Walmart, used the Tuition reimbursement program to get a degree in civil engineering.  Now she's a civil engineer.

And you mentioned about being a waiter.   The average income for a waiter, is $35,000 a year.  If he was working as a waiter, he should be making enough to feed a family, and pay for some college if he wanted.  Or he could move up the management at whatever store he's working at.

why must one do so?

You asked this question.... why must someone do something.

The answer is, because that's how you win.   Doing what is hard, is how you win.   I remember reading the story about a big company, I want to say it was Snapple, but I'm not sure.  But the guy who started the company, was so poor at the time, that he slept in his car, outside the factory.     That's how he ended up super wealthy, because he put in total effort into making it work.

I have a friend, who immigrated here, from Bangladesh.  He was renting out my spare bedroom for a year or so.  I watched this guy as he struggled to work.  He was learning to program computer stuff.  He would work from 8 AM, until 6 PM every day.   He would work out at the gym for one hour, then he would come home, and turn on his computer, and practice writing code at home until 12 PM.    Go to sleep at midnight, then get up and go back to work.

Every other Saturday, he would practice coding, or he would go to the office on Saturday.

Last year, he got a job offer from a company in another state.  $120K a year to start, 2 months vacation a year.

You know how he got that job?  He worked, and worked hard.

Now if a foreigner, and a Muslim, knows how to succeed in our country, why is it we Americans think we can't?

And especially for Christians...

Our entire faith, is based on picking up your cross, and bearing the load.  That means doing things we don't like.  That's life.

 

[LonerAndy]

1 hour ago, other one said:

some person posted a note on my facebook news feed that said he just walks up and places a $20 by the register place and tells the person there, "Just surprise me, you never give me what I want anyway."

I hate to say it, but that is as much a fault of parenting, as McDonald's.    I personally have never had a problem with my local McDonald's.

The bottom line is, kids that grew up with parents who taught them excellence, will end up being excellent, even if they work at McDonald's.

[LonerAndy]

9 hours ago, The Survivor said:

Interesting comments.

The federal minimum wage is regulated by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor. Although the federal minimum wage rate is subject to change, it has not increased since 2009. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.

Seems like the government does have its hands in people's pay.

A side note about praying. Yes, I suffered and I prayed. But I still lost a lot I prayed to not lose. Family. Friends. Credit. Evictions. Embarrassment. It took me years to dig out of the ground from a job loss, but I still suffered even more no matter how much I prayed. I may not be a good prayer, but I do know who God is and what He can do. I just do not expect Him to do anything I ask for because He is not a genie. Praying may work for other people better than I.

Let me clarify one bit, so people do not need to go crazy about my lives... I am not looking for a job. I do work in high end tech, but I am also subjected to high taxes, high rent, stuck not saving, and unable to leave town due to obligations. Chances of layoff are always floating around. But I am not looking to work at McDonald's (today anyway). So I am not looking for work. Just in case that has to be clarified. I merely mentioned past experiences and experiences of what other people are going through. With lack of jobs, people who I know are stuck in smaller roles having to take up another part time job or two just to have enough to feed their kids. So my question is more to this country as a whole because all the stuff I read (and my attention span is short) is people suffering with job losses (not really the governments fault there) and lack of new jobs they want... or need to survive.

I do enjoy reading most of the comments people have posted and your viewpoints. I hope to read more.

We're not saying that the government does not mess with people's pay.

We're saying they morally have no business affecting people's pay.   It's not the governments job to fix people's lives.

The minimum wage, rarely helps anyone.

Let's say you need an oil change for your car.   Today you go to the shop, and it's $25 for an oil change.   But now the government says oil change guys, can't make a living off of that.  So the government says you have to pay $100 per oil change.   Do you still get your oil changed?

Unless you are rich, no.  You go to the car parts shop, and change the oil yourself.   It's not worth $100 for a simple oil change.

As a result that guy who does oil changes, is now unemployed.

Do you see the problem?   The value of the labor, does not change, because government said so.    Every time you increase the minimum wage, the people whose labor is worth less money than the minimum wage, end up unemployed.

https://fee.org/articles/15-minimum-wage-laws-are-wiping-out-jobs-in-new-york-and-illinois/

This is a well documented fact.

Additionally, the cost of higher wages, is passed on to customers.   This is effectively inflation.  As the cost of labor goes up, the cost of everything goes up with it.

There really is no lack of jobs though.

There are jobs everywhere.  Criagslist, Indeed, Monster Jobs, there are thousands on thousands of listings for jobs everywhere.

You have to move to where the jobs are.

I mentioned this before, I had friend from Bangladesh.  He had to leave his friends and family, to come to America, to get a good job.   Then even when he was here in America, he had to leave his relatives, to move to Chicago where his $120K job is.

The Bible says Ephesians 5:31 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh".  That whole thing about leaving your mother and father, means leave.  Flat out, leave.  You need to go to do what is best for your family.

This pagan man from Bangladesh, is acting more Christian, than Christians today.  They stay where they are, and then complain there are not jobs.   This entire country was built by people who left friends and family in Europe, to live in this country and be successful.  

[LonerAndy]

9 hours ago, Neighbor said:

Hi, Also  it may be that the industry is suffering a lack of existing store growth. Seems the bigger outfits have been selling off their franchises in order to sustain bottom line revenue. It seems to  me not to be a great place t advance up the corporate ladder, if the corporation is selling it's stores. For there will be fewer managers needed, and far mor eindependently run franchises where the local owner is the manager.

https://brandongaille.com/19-shocking-fast-food-sales-statistics/

"To counter weak sales, Wendy’s sold off 400 company-owned units in 2013 to franchisees.

Other companies have done the same: Yum! Brands sold off more than 680 company-owned restaurants in 2012-2013. McDonald’s has gotten rid of over 200 locations.

Burger King owns less than 1% of its total locations in the United States.

Last year, McDonald’s got about two-thirds of its revenue outside the US. 50% of Yum! Brands sales comes from China.

Despite trying to add healthy options to the menu, salads and similar items account for as little as 2% of total sales in the industry.

In 2012 those with annual household incomes of less than $70,000 spent an average $1,718 a year on food away from home.

Encouraging repetitive customers also helps. 6% of the American population will eat at a fast food restaurant 7x per week or more."

 

The poor including the working poor are with us, and many of us are that poor. It is not just the other guy.  The problem is real  it is individual, and government cannot solve it! One either goes forward gaining in income or one falls back and into eventual poverty, for anyone on a fixed income knows it doesn't buy this year what it bought lat year. That is just the way  it is.

So how does the local body of Christ Jesus  bring some help one to another becomes a hard question to ask and especially hard to  try to respond to or answer. Government is not a viable answer.

What are ways Christian bodies might band together to lift all  up to sufficiency of food clothing housing and medical services? Is there any way? Might Christians start with interest in the subject and with prayer to God to become more enlightened?

Most Christians that I know are families that cannot raise $400 cash  in an emergency need. As most got financially devastated in 2007-8. Most live on next Friday's income alone. So while the stock markets roar with speculation rather than real growth in production by  companies, most of Americans anyway are not,  are not, seeing  increase in personal assets.  They are just holding their own hoping nothing more that is bad hits before Friday comes.

To prosper as a worker is simply going to cost the worker more time spent working  every day and every week and every year. The idea that 40 hours is a normal work week just isn't so. It has always been flawed thinking. It isn't working out well for many  if not almost all hourly  wage workers, yet government planners want us to think in those terms. 

Got to just up and grit it out praying for the opportunity to work more each week and to find self employment  or find talent that is more valuable to employers. Start with gritting out more time in prayer.

To be honest, I really don't understand any of this.

How are people not able to save money?   What are they spending it on?   Cells phones?   Cable TV?   Is your rent too high?    Where is the money going?

The truth is, you can't make people do what they need to do, to be self sufficient.  They have to make the choice to either make more money, or spend less money, on their own.

No amount of praying, is going to make someone decide... ya'know... maybe I don't really need a new car.  Maybe I don't need a 3-bedroom apartment.  Maybe I do need a roommate.   Maybe I do need to get a second job.

There's a guy Jim Gaffigan.  Two bedroom apartment, 6 kids.  You can live on very little.  You can.  It's a choice.

Now I didn't say it was easy. It's not easy. Life isn't easy.  There was a time, I had to work 3 different jobs, to pay the bills.  But I did it, and paid off my debts, and saved money.

[Neighbor]

4 hours ago, LonerAndy said:

Two bedroom apartment, 6 kids.

Not too many landlords would tolerate that.

Anyway I tend to agree that many  spend or spent way too much, got deep into debt, just plain living over their capacity to pay for their lifestyle if a down turn hit the ecoomy.

 I do have to concede however that  some are just poor, poorly educated and are facing  rather incredible increases  in cost of a residence.

Plus health insurance cost changes are a real serious budget killer for  a family today.  Really unaffordable  for most anyone and the new high deductibles make it almost worthless.

I received a decent wage when I went back to work after retiring young.  I went back into working fo ra company rather than  being self employed o or really retired as a landlord, mostly to get then excellent group health insurance. Once my own insurance out of pocket  commitment hit $30,000 before benefits kicked in. 

With the present USA health insurance fiasco that no politician  wants to try to resolve, nor perhaps can they, the costs today are just wiping out families.  An illness becomes devastating. It is a horror that  is real.

I am privileged to now have Medicare and a policy that costs me  almost nothing. I get great care wherever I am. Now that is nuts, I get great care, but a family can't afford insurance for their kids.

There are very serious problems that are really beyond the capacity of most families or  individuals to handle even if they do combine multiple incomes working multiple jobs each. I do pray for all that are facing this crisis.

It is no wonder that the young are excited about promises  of universal medicare for all. Those of us that are living long lives are chewing up limited resources to keep us patched and living  perhaps longer than is even desirable. The idea of comfort care only after a point is  a hard sell I suppose, but really even insects know enough to shift their community  assets to  the benefit of the young.

 A booming stock market and low unemployment rate is not going to overcome the fear of serious illness affecting one's children. People are going to vote this year not for the good stock market, but instead for promise of healthcare.

It's  tough one. May God help us all.

 

 

[LonerAndy]

5 minutes ago, Neighbor said:

Not too many landlords would tolerate that.

Anyway I tend to agree that many  spend or spent way too much, got deep into debt, just plain living over their capacity to pay for their lifestyle if a down turn hit the ecoomy.

 I do have to concede however that  some are just poor, poorly educated and are facing  rather incredible increases  in cost of a residence.

Plus health insurance cost changes are a real serious budget killer for  a family today.  Really unaffordable  for most anyone and the new high deductibles make it almost worthless.

I received a decent wage when I went back to work after retiring young.  I went back into working fo ra company rather than  being self employed o or really retired as a landlord, mostly to get then excellent group health insurance. Once my own insurance out of pocket  commitment hit $30,000 before benefits kicked in. 

With the present USA health insurance fiasco that no politician  wants to try to resolve, nor perhaps can they, the costs today are just wiping out families.  An illness becomes devastating. It is a horror that  is real.

I am privileged to now have Medicare and a policy that costs me  almost nothing. I get great care wherever I am. Now that is nuts, I get great care, but a family can't afford insurance for their kids.

There are very serious problems that are really beyond the capacity of most families or  individuals to handle even if they do combine multiple incomes working multiple jobs each. I do pray for all that are facing this crisis.

It is no wonder that the young are excited about promises  of universal medicare for all. Those of us that are living long lives are chewing up limited resources to keep us patched and living  perhaps longer than is even desirable. The idea of comfort care only after a point is  a hard sell I suppose, but really even insects know enough to shift their community  assets to  the benefit of the young.

It's  tough one. May God help us all.

 

 

The one problem is, it is directly because of Medicare, that health care costs so much.   I realize it is great for you, but you need to understand that your good benefits, are costing the rest of us a fortune.   Medicare does not cover the full cost of treatment.  The rest of us, have to pay more, to cover the money lost on Medicare.    You talked about some other family having huge medical bills, and a good part of that is paying for people on Medicare.

The hospital gives a Medicare person $10,000 worth of treatment, and Medicare only pays out $17,000.   That means the hospital has to charge the poor family an extra $3,000 on whatever service they are getting, to cover medicare.

This by the way, is exactly why the politicians don't want to touch this problem.   There isn't money for just everything we want.  And more medicare, means even higher prices for the rest of us.   So no matter what the politicians do, the result will be devastating.

This is also why medicare for all will be disaster.  Without hospitals being able to make up the loss of money on Medicare, by charging private patients more, the result will be that either hospitals across the entire nation will go bankrupt, or Medicare will have to increase spending by at least 30% or more.   That would result in additional taxes on even the poorest people, by I would estimate about double.   Much like Europe levies taxes of almost double on the poorest people.

If people are poor now, how poor will they be when they lose half their income in taxes?

Moving on though......

I still don't understand why being poorly educated matters.    I have no education at all, and I have money in the bank, and investments.   I'm not making big money, but I'm certainly not making minimum wage.   I've seen the poorest people in the world come to the US, and be able to get a decent job.  Even with virtually no education at all, they are able to find jobs, and work their way up.

Anyone can tile a floor for example.   Had a guy that tiled his kitchen.  Had people over at his house, to show off the kitchen.  Some asked him to do their kitchen.  Then he had others ask.   A month or so later, Wendy's called him and asked them to tile their store.    Soon he was making more money working a few hours on the weekend tiling floors, than he was at a his full time job.

Does it take a college degree to tile a floor?  Or fit pipes together without leaking?  Or put up some dry wall and paint?

But of course those jobs are hard work, and boring.  But anyone can do them.  That's why immigrants come to this country and succeed when they barely know english.  So why can't a poor American be productive?  It's something I don't understand.