Teenagers hit by strong labor market

[MilSpecs]

Wages have always been a race to the bottom because customers buy the cheapest goods possible. The motivations are the same.

And yet it didn’t used to be that so many companies were bottom feeders with so many more to feed from. There was a range of quality and a concurrent range of workers.

I don't think I agree. Aside from a few outliers, I suspect people have always paid their workers what they can get away with, while customers have always sought the cheapest price.

I just modify it to "pay what they can get away with for the standard they want" and "cheapest price for the quality they want." In other words, it used to be that companies had a standard and wouldn't hire below that standard for a cheaper price. People wouldn't buy garbage because it was the cheapest thing. Maybe I'm wrong, but there seems to be no middle now. I can even point to about when it happened: in the 80s.

[doc_loliday]

I just modify it to "pay what they can get away with for the standard they want" and "cheapest price for the quality they want." In other words, it used to be that companies had a standard and wouldn't hire below that standard for a cheaper price. People wouldn't buy garbage because it was the cheapest thing. Maybe I'm wrong, but there seems to be no middle now. I can even point to about when it happened: in the 80s.

I'm not sure I believe that either. The world has always been filled with snake oil salesmen hocking shoddy goods. At least now, I can go to Walmart and return anything, even if I've used it already. Walmart knows this and still bites the cost.

If you want quality goods, you can get them, you just have to pay for it. And quality is relative, if you're the best at what you do, you'll be compensated well for it.

[doc_loliday]

I'm not saying there aren't critiques of capitalism. Emerging markets reap the benefits of growth and established economies enjoy no such advantage. I'm not sure what to do there, but the alternative is worse. Until a better solution is available you're going to have compete.

[TheReal_ND]

Wages are fine, you’re all living in bigger houses with more conveniences than your grandparents ever did. You’ve simply fallen for the socialist smoke-and-mirrors redefinition of terms that seeks to convince citizens of the most prosperous nation on earth that they really live in Honduras.

You should probably be able to look at the sheer amount of possessions you own, your access to every kind of convenience and vice, your handheld computer phone tablets and temperature controlled housing and figure out you’re being lied to.

But most people aren’t. They see a color graph or a meme of two grocery baskets side by side and believe the lie that 30 years ago everyone had gold plated swimming pools, but today we’re a society of busted sharecroppers. And you’ll immediately grab your iPhone so you can post to FB about how poor we all are compared to the WW2 generation.

Lulz

Wake up.

We have so much shit we have an addiction to storage units, fucking things are everywhere.


I've read a lot of dystopian future fiction, one of the thing they all get wrong is Americans ability to get things. We have so much shit it would be like clothes after the Black Death, everywhere.

In my job as a mover I am daily amazed at the sheer amount of possessions people own. I've never had much and even living with my parents who had managed to make their way to upper middle class, they never had as many things as some of these people have. I'm just blown away when I show up to a single ladies town house and end up hauling away three truck loads of furniture, or a single baby boomer one bedroom apartment with a full truckload worth of stuff. Amazing really.

[Kath]

I just modify it to "pay what they can get away with for the standard they want" and "cheapest price for the quality they want." In other words, it used to be that companies had a standard and wouldn't hire below that standard for a cheaper price. People wouldn't buy garbage because it was the cheapest thing. Maybe I'm wrong, but there seems to be no middle now. I can even point to about when it happened: in the 80s.

I'm not sure I believe that either. The world has always been filled with snake oil salesmen hocking shoddy goods. At least now, I can go to Walmart and return anything, even if I've used it already. Walmart knows this and still bites the cost.

If you want quality goods, you can get them, you just have to pay for it. And quality is relative, if you're the best at what you do, you'll be compensated well for it.

Have to agree with doc lol, here, MilSpecs...

There have always been choices for cheap, good, better, best. I have 12-15 furniture stores within a 10 mile radius. You can get a couch for $300 or you can pay $15,000 for a couch and anywhere in between. The key factor is usually quality/workmanship. As a consumer, I make choices. We adore change, so we would not be happy with a super expensive couch, because we would want something completely different in 8-10 years, so we tend to purchase the less expensive couches. There are other areas where I spend the extra $$$, because I want it to last forever and I am willing to pay for that, up front.

We've almost always had some sort of options, now we just have MORE options that are cheaper, so more people can have those things than ever before in the history of humans. The issue is there will always be people who can have the better things, the more leading edge things, etc.,

Keep in mind, though, I know a not-insignificant number of Apple Fan Bois who wait in line to be there at midnight to get the latest upgrade at the highest possible price. These are people who complain about how shitty it is to live here.

We are truly fortunate people. Yeah, lots of problems. I wonder if there exists a time in history where that wasn't true.

[Speaker to Animals]

No, people. No. Fuck.



How do you not understand what these corporations do to the little guys?

[TheReal_ND]

I just moved a 12k couch yesterday. Blown away. I suppose I always knew people payed prices like that but I had never seen it in person. Still, I guess it was a nice couch. It was silk with down stuffing.

[DBTrek]

Sears lost a $6M lawsuit to the wrench guy.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ ... story.html

Sears is near bankruptcy
https://www.thestreet.com/story/1445039 ... -2018.html
(So I guess evil mega-millions corporate thieves narrative may be a little off, given they're on the verge of going bankrupt)

... meanwhile Americans can afford more convenience, food, technology, and useless shit than any humans on earth ever before.
Yep.

Our system is clearly terrible.
Laws punishing corporations for patent infringement.
Corporations getting out-competed and making way for more successful businesses.
Average citizens living at standards undreamed of only fifty years ago.

... but that dollar folks, it's a'slidin'! DOOM! Capitalism and rich people fucked us all.
Quick everyone, make a fast exit to the socialist Central/South American nation of your choice.

lulz

[doc_loliday]

I know there are a lot of people that get fucked, but the US has a long history of protecting the man with the idea, going back to our founding. It's a very much anti-libertarian idea too, and I'm kind of surprised we pay so much respect to the notion.

[Kath]

So, this happened, in this sucky, restricting hell-hole where nobody can do anything they want because the man is keeping them down.

(Before I posted, I had to make sure this wasn't Nerd's gofundme.)


Bathing in KFC Gravy

Hello Sir/Madam,

I am raising money to fulfill a life long dream of mine, to bathe in KFC gravy. You maybe thinking, ‘why does this young man desire such a strange venture?’. Long and short of it is, I bloody love KFC gravy and it would a pleasure of not just mine but also other lovers to see such a feat.

Nerd says his gofundme would be homemade gravy to be used in creating a bathtub hurricane. He calls it the gravycane.