No wider than going from “rice and beans are better than ramen noodles” to “live on rice and beans and nothing else.”
That should read “from” rapist monsters.
That was truly dumb. The fact is that almost all poor people in the past ,started out that way. These kids are starting out with everything against them. Few will escape poverty.
The old saw about America being a land of opportunity is dead. The biggest predictor of being poor ,is being born to poor parents. Yes there are exceptions and they are getting rarer and rarer. These kids in poverty have an ugly future because the jobs are not coming back. The rich will end as many social programs as possible.
It will be a time of unrest.
How the hell did you get from reforming adoption rules to giving children to sex offenders?
That is one massive damned leap you took there.
ETA: Too slow on the submit button I see.
This is “Great Debates,” not “Self puffery through snide remarks toward others.”
Make your points without the attitude.
[ /Moderating ]
Even ignoring the typo, this comment is so far out of the discussion as to prompt the question, “What thread are you reading?”
So what are you trying to say? That poor people make shitty parents? Or that you don’t think poor people should be allowed to raise a family?
This one, where saying “rice and beans are better than ramen noodles” becomes “emacknight thinks poor people should live on rice and beans and nothing else.”
Where gonzomax can write
Where suggesting putting plastic on windows to reduce heating costs means “living in the dark with the heat turned off.”
Where pointing out the amount of money people living in poverty waste on gambling, alcohol, and tobacco means you’re a condescending jerk.
Welcome back to the thread.
So, you are aspiring to argue as well as gonzo?
OK.
I try, but I can’t seem to find as many random links as he does.
Sweet, found one, and I don’t even bother referring to it, I’ll just post the hyperlink
There are no jobs anymore for people even with collge degrees-example there is an overflow of young people with law and architecture degrees.
The statistic you are seeing is caused by people not having any income whatsoever. These people live in rent controlled houses,get food stamps, are generally in areas with major crime or drug problems, and are stuck.
If you have a job you don’t know this-but a job at WalMart is very desirable in many areas now. I live in a supposedly well off state with supposedly efficient govt.
However,there is the lowest number of people under 35 in the entire country. -this means there are no jobs being created-
If you drive 10 minutes out of the wealthy nice areas you start to see obese people, people in very shabby clothes, more cops, lots and lots of trailer homes etc. Also,if you drive at night it can be dangerous due to drunk drivers.
It turns out in these areas the govt is paying for a lot. Another interesting fact is that illegal marijuana is keeping a huge section of the state from destitution.
We have legal medical pot now,but unlike other states there was no announcement because they don’t want to affect the price.
Another interesting fact about this areas is it is suer hyper liberal, yet there are open gun laws,no license needed, if you look inti the economy it turns out a huge other section of the state is supported by selling guns that go over state lines,the state supplying most of the guns found in crime and other busts over state lines.
So, I dont know if you are younger or just have been very well of and not encountered this-but especially within the last 10 years, there are massive amounts of people with 0% chance of even attaining a job.
I thought personal remarks were bannable. that was poorly disguised and you should be ashamed of yourself as a moderator. How do you presume to correct other people when you can be as petty as that? I suppose in moderator land personal remarks are OK. But you surely are making a personal comment after chastising others for the same thing. You should have a one moth hiatus for that one.
OK. I have put my moth on hiatus until the end of Lepidoptera season.
No one gets banned for personal remarks. I tend to discourage personal comments that lead to feuds and interfere with the discussion, but a one-liner comparing the quality of your posts to that of another poster is not quite going to do that.
Sorry.
Have you been reading gonzomax’s posts? Because I’m not getting this impression at all from what he’s posted here.
What’d I miss?
Yes it is.
**loshan ** and Broomstick, I have a question I’m hoping you’ll answer.
You both are in similar situations having been middle class, lost your jobs, and now struggle to live off about $13k a year. But you have both managed to make things work. Obviously it’s not ideal, or desirable.
If a neighbour/friend/co-worker of yours was making $20k a year, but in worse shape financially, how would you explain that? (ie unable to make ends meet)
I’ve read enough of both of your posts to confidently assume if you suddenly received a windfall of $7000*, or earned an extra $583 per month, you would be significantly better off. And I’m also confident that at the end of the month, you’d still have some of that money left.
My guess is that you’d use a small amount of it for luxury, a bit of entertainment, something pleasurable. But most of it would be invested. No not in the stock market, but in your lives to make things better. Replacing drafty windows, upgrading a furnace, expanding your grow-up.
And of those investments my guess is that they’d be well thought out. You probably wouldn’t run off and buy a $7000 car, because you know a car has expenses that go along with it. It’s unlikely that you’d run out and *lease *a brand new car at $583 per month.
I think it’s very unlikely that you’d sink it all into a new apartment that costs an additional $583 per month.
Lastly, I’m quite confident that you’d be reluctant to spend it all, probably putting away a sizable chunk for future emergencies. You both know income isn’t guaranteed so money would be set aside in case of future lost income.
So how do you explain people making a lot more money than you, but it worse shape financially?
*Ignore for sake of argument any benefits that might be clawed back
None? Zero? Zilch? Do you have a cite that shows that?
Here is at least one in Philadelphia
http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/jjj/
0% is very low, do you have anything that backs up that claim?
I enjoy coding, I enjoy programming. I still do it today, usually building e-commerce scripts for friends or friends-of-friends or cousins I never knew I had. It’s fun. College taught me there is a lot more to building and coding applications/programs than just the code itself.
I may use it one day; I haven’t ruled it out. The economy certainly hasn’t, either, despite what you may believe.
It’s not like I haven’t kept my skills current. I have a fairly large portfolio that I can show any employer.
I value the degree; I value my time at college away from home and on my own. Best investment I ever made.
Again, it’s a specialized skilled trade, as in I use my hands and head. Mainly my head but the hands come through every once in a while. This sort of work, like any trade (plumbing, HVAC, welding, electrician) cannot be outsourced - period. End of discussion. You cannot terminate junction boxes from India, etc.
I’m not an architect.
Not a civil engineer, not anything remotely close.
Because a skilled trade requires hands on work. Could you outsource my desk work? Well, theoretically, but given the relationship between my hands on work and my desk work, it would absolutely never become feasible.
For example, I’m about to undertake a 3 year, $1.2 million dollar project at the hospital that I will be designing, implementing, and maintaining all on my own. That $1.2 million is hardware costs, they aren’t factoring in my labor/time which is already calculated in the payroll budget.
There is no way, no way at all, that anyone could ever outsource such a project to India or an independent contractor in our city to complete the job at anywhere as low as the cost I will be doing it for my company. None. Can you imagine the labor costs a project that will require 3 years of 40 hour weeks and $1.2 million in hardware costs? I gaurantee it won’t be any less than my $65,000 annual salary. I’d bet my life on it.
By my math, you’d have to get someone over here from India (assuming they’re already qualified to get licensed because per state law, they can’t perform the work unless they are), and you’d have to charge my employer roughly $10.42 an hour for your labor costs. That’s what any company (overseas or not) would have to be fine with getting paid an hour in order to break even with my costs.
Good luck with that.
Again, the degree is not useless. I still maintain it with my freelance work. My skills are current. If I break my legs, I can still code from the wheel chair. My degree is my fallback, if nothing else.
I didn’t change my degree because I started an apprenticeship my 2nd year in college. I was effectively getting training in two career paths. One I paid for, one paid me.
Do you realize how flexible I am with regards to a job right now?
Mommy and daddy didn’t help me either. I was living on my own dime when I started an apprenticeship while being a full time student and making $0.50 over minimum wage in 2007 ($7.00 an hour! Woo hoo!).
Got to support another person? Oh well. Your choice.
Read above.
Seem to have plenty of time to post on the Straight Dope forums.
So move? Re-locate? You do realize that jobs increase exponentially with population, correct?
Why would I work harder for less money than my current job? You’re obviously struggling with the wages and I know what they make in my area ($10-15 an hour, starting). Sorry, insulting my manhood isn’t enough reason to drop a lucrative job to prove a point.
As I stated previously, he’s offered a position with the company that paid quite well. And, as stated previously, I’m only interested in relocating after my fiance has completed her doctorate program (which won’t be for another 5 years). She gets paid $29,000 to go to school (a very good school) and perform occassional research. We’re not jeopardizing that deal so I can make a bit more money.
Your lunch break must extend throughout the afternoon. Your post times have been all over the time spectrum, haha.
A boy can hope.
Oh ok, then what? 2 1/2 times?
Neither. In fact, I could have got it for substantially less had I not done the honest and right thing and told them.
Let’s do this!
Fingers crossed!
Typically a proposal is the first step in that process. A yes is the second. So far, I’m off to a good start!
Ohhh, and they do!
Being the highly cautious and thorough individual I am, I went with her to meet with the insurance policy representative. I proposed the scenario, “What if I got on her plan with my injury?”
After running through the specifics, I was told, “That wouldn’t be a problem at all.”
I read through the paperwork just to be sure.
I’m good to go!
Yes.
Catastrophic coverage! I don’t get sick, ma’am.
Going back to ‘there are no jobs’, here is a link from the Sept. 10th Economist:
Chart 3 is all the way at the bottom of the link. The gist is that even with so many unemployed people, companies (worldwide) are having a hard time finding qualified people to hire. I’d take it with a grain of salt- the report helpfully points out how well investment bankers are doing- but a quick look at what categories of jobs are going unfilled reveals that their point applies across the spectrum. Technicians, sales reps, skilled trades, accouting, IT- companies are struggling to fill all these positions.
So, why are people so poor? In some cases anyway it is that they aren’t qualified.
Skilled trades, ah.
Thanks for the link.