# Anything else you motherfuckers need? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 16, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231 "2009-07-16T16:51:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 86
**Author:** ![Carol\_Stream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@Carol\_Stream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_Stream)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231/1701 "2009-07-26T22:29:34Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > I buy my socks by the bag at K-Mart and my sense of interior design is rudimentary. Well, it would have to be, given that you live in a trailer. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231/1702 "2009-07-26T22:45:44Z")
> [@Carol\_Stream](#): > > Well, it would have to be, given that you live in a trailer. 😛 Why do assholes like you and **Rand Rover** and \*\*curlcoat \*\*even get into discussions? Just submit your income tax return inthe “post” box, impress us all with your fabulous levels of annual income, which makes you right and poorer people wrong, and cut your losses? Every time you idiots try using language, or logic, or history, or really anything, you destroy your own case. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231/1703 "2009-07-26T22:48:11Z")
Some of us are born trailer trash, others achieve it, others have it thrust upon them. I’m all three. And too stupid to realize I’m supposed to be miserable. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231/1704 "2009-07-26T22:58:23Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Some of us are born trailer trash, others achieve it, others have it thrust upon them. I’m all three. And too stupid to realize I’m supposed to be miserable. Hey, at least you’re not irresponsible. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231/1705 "2009-07-26T23:40:35Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > Hey, at least you’re not irresponsible. 😃 Not necessarily. We haven’t seen his tax return, nor do we know if he got his trailer the responsible way (inheritance, spouse). -Joe ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231/1706 "2009-07-27T01:23:49Z")
:smack: You’re right—I forgot we’re supposed to second-guess or make assumptions about everyone’s situation. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231/1707 "2009-07-27T01:30:24Z")
Oh, hell, assume and second-guess all you like, no prob. Doesn’t mean shit to a tree. I know who I am, and I like the guy. What else is there? ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231/1708 "2009-07-27T01:44:23Z")
> [@Carol\_Stream](#): > > Especially when they break out the PC crap like “Birth Professionals”, and go on about doulas and monitrices, for the love of God. Do you doubt that “doula” and “monitrice” are actual professions? Do you dispute that their work directly concerns the birth process? What collective noun would _you_ use to describe the the variety of professionals and paraprofessionals who specialize in human birth? > [@Carol\_Stream](#): > > By any chance, are you a grad student? What the fuck does this have to do with anything? Even coming from you, this makes no sense. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_Stream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@Carol\_Stream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_Stream)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231/1709 "2009-07-27T02:31:02Z")
> [@cwthree](#): > > Do you doubt that “doula” and “monitrice” are actual professions? I don’t doubt it, I know for a fact that they are not professions. Being a doctor or a lawyer is a profession, a “doula” is not. What’s next? Is Tarot Card reader a profession? Palm Reading? New-Age Crystal selling? ---
**Author:** ![Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/13edae/32.png) [@Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interconnected_Series_of_Tubes)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231/1710 "2009-07-27T02:35:38Z")
Man this thread is a total disaster. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231/1711 "2009-07-27T02:36:38Z")
Good thing the guys at Lehman Brothers didn’t rely on a bunch of New Age hokum, if they had made their decisions by a Ouija board, they’d be in big trouble now, you betcha! ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231/1712 "2009-07-27T02:38:09Z")
> [@Carol\_Stream](#): > > I don’t doubt it, I know for a fact that they are not professions. Being a doctor or a lawyer is a profession, a “doula” is not. Holy freaking hell. Did you get your brain from a jar in a fridge somewhere? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231/1713 "2009-07-27T02:44:24Z")
> [@Carol\_Stream](#): > > I don’t doubt it, I know for a fact that they are not professions. Being a doctor or a lawyer is a profession, a “doula” is not. \< googles “[doula](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doula)” \> And why not ? It sounds like a specialized personal assistant; I don’t see why that can’t be a profession any less than a housekeeper or gardener. > [@Carol\_Stream](#): > > What’s next? Is Tarot Card reader a profession? Palm Reading? New-Age Crystal selling? If someone can make a living off it, of course it is. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231/1714 "2009-07-27T02:44:36Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Holy freaking hell. > > Did you get your brain from a jar in a fridge somewhere? It was labeled “Abby Normal”. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231/1715 "2009-07-27T02:47:31Z")
_missed it by thaaaat much!_ ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231/1716 "2009-07-27T02:49:30Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > _missed it by thaaaat much!_ 😛 😃 ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231/1717 "2009-07-27T03:00:55Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > \< googles “[doula](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doula)” \> > > And why not ? It sounds like a specialized personal assistant; I don’t see why that can’t be a profession any less than a housekeeper or gardener. > > If someone can make a living off it, of course it is. It depends whether you’re using the more formal, sociological definition of a profession, or the more general definition. For sociologists and others who study them, professions have particular characteristics that separate them from other occupations. Usually, certain levels of education and certification are required, and the members of the profession generally assert their right to control access to the work through such certification. I did some of my undergrad honors thesis work of professions, and a couple of quotes from my notes give a pretty decent summary of how sociologists view the professions: > [@](#): > > A profession is not…an occupation, but a means of controlling an occupation. Likewise, professionalization is a historically specific process which some occupations have undergone at a particular time, rather than a process which certain occupations may always be expected to undergo because of their ‘essential’ qualities. > > Terence Johnson, _Professions and Power_, Macmillan, London, 1972, p. 45. and > [@](#): > > Professionalization might be defined as a process by which an organized occupation…obtains the exclusive right to perform a particular kind of work, control training for and access to it, and control the right of determining and evaluating the way the work is performed. > > Eliot Friedson, “Professions and the Occupational Principle,” in _The Professions and Their Prospects_, ed. Eliot Freidson, Sage Publications, Beverly Hills (CA), 1973, p. 22. By contrast, many people tend to use the term profession in a much more general way, to simply mean anything that someone does for a living. So baseball playing or bartending or being a personal assistant can be a profession, as long as you make money doing it. But this isn’t really what sociologists are talking about, and there are some important differences between a regular occupation, on the one hand, and the types of occupations that sociologists refer to as professions, on the other. I’m not saying either is necessarily a better definition, only that we need to be clear what the word profession means to us when we use it in discussions like this. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231/1718 "2009-07-27T03:03:44Z")
Sounds like, um, monitrice-ing would count as a profession under either definition, since it appears to be a specialization of nursing. ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231/1719 "2009-07-27T03:32:40Z")
> [@Rubystreak](#): > > Most people do not have 6 figure savings. So your position is that if you do not have a 6 figure savings then you have no responsibility to save for the future? Maybe that is why so many people in this country no longer bother to save. > [@](#): > > Now, many people have equity in their homes, but if you tap into that for an emergency, and you don’t recover from your illness, then you will lose your house. And? Yes, if we had to take a bunch of equity out and were not able to pay it back, we could lose our house. How is that the responsibility of the taxpayer? Particularly since you seem to advocate taxing the hell out of us to the point that all we have available to cover an emergency is the equity in our house. Even my _phone_ bill is mostly taxes. > [@](#): > > What if some catastrophe had happened to you before you had amassed all this wealth, like your husband got laid off, and you lost your insurance because he was out of work for 2 years (it happens)? Then, because of your pre-existing medical conditions, when he got another job, you weren’t covered, and had an emergency that required you to have an extended hospital stay? You would be as screwed as anyone else. This is not an usual scenario. Whether or not this is unusual or not, if all of that happened at some point 15 years ago when we owed more on the house than it was worth, yes we’d be screwed. And we would have to rebuild. Your solution seems to be to tax other people, who have zero to do with us, to give us money simply because we had a series of bad luck. Why do you feel that those taxpayers have to be responsible for us, rather than responsible for themselves? > [@](#): > > My point is, you can have savings, but very few people have THAT much in savings. I don’t know anyone who is middle class around my age who has a six figures in liquid assets. Which has nothing to do with what I said, which is there is an attitude in this country that we don’t need to be responsible for ourselves. One of the signs of this is the lack of savings by a majority of US citizens. > [@](#): > > Please cite where I said that. Somebody did that - if it wasn’t you, it was **Broomstick** - I have trouble telling you two apart. ETA: I read further and I see it was **Broomstick** - excuse me for mixing the two of you up. > [@](#): > > Because it would eat up half their take home pay for the month? It’s fucking expensive, and maybe they want to eat, or pay the rent instead. The thing is, we don’t know that. **Rand Rover** , or maybe it was **Carol Stream** , seems to feel that the majority on this board (or at least in this thread) are either unemployed or under-employed, so maybe this isn’t a realistic cross section of the US. [QUOTE=Blalron] What about people who desperately want to find a job that offers health insurance, but they live in an area that has 14% unemployment and can’t find one? Because I’m in that situation. Am I lazy and irresponsible? Do I deserve to go into massive debt? [/QUOTE] I have no idea what you “deserve”, but apparently you think I deserve to pay to keep you from going in debt. Why is that? [QUOTE=pseudotriton ruber ruber] What typo? What did you intend to write, and why didn’t you correct it instantly? Or within a day of my post? [/QUOTE] At this point, I have no idea what you are talking about, but I can tell you that I didn’t correct whatever you wanted corrected in the time frame you wanted it corrected because I am not spending hours on the computer answering your silly demands. As some people have noted, I am pages behind the rest of you. So if I made a typo I didn’t correct right away, it most likely I didn’t see a post pointing out the error until at least that day later. The rest of your post was just spew. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231/1720 "2009-07-27T03:45:31Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > Even my _phone_ bill is mostly taxes. No it isn’t. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231.md?page=85) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-else-you-motherfuckers-need/503231.md?page=87)