Modern Vespa

The last pissed-off thread reached the traditional limit of 100 pages, so it's time to start a new one.

We're now up to FOUR pissed-off threads, while the cheered-up thread is still trying to get through only its second incarnation. So MVers seem to be about twice as pissed-off as they are cheered-up, and that is pissing me off today.

Also, the nonstandard Roman numerals in the title are deliberate, which I imagine will piss off someone, somewhere. You're welcome.

I read it not with pissed-offedness, but contempt.

Though, now that I think about it, I wonder whether you are using Fahrenheit Roman numerals or Celsius.

No need to call them Roman numerals. Just tally marks. Though how you'd present a strike-through when it's the fifth iteration escapes me. Someone might know though!

I can't think of anything funny to say.

That pisses me off.

As it turns out, writing 4 in Roman numerals as IV -- with the smaller I prefixing the larger V and thus subtracting one -- is a relatively modern invention. The Romans would have written 4 as IIII.

Or not. Apparently it is a watchmaker's thing.

But also, the Etruscans would have used tally marks.

Stupid people and more stupid people, idiot drivers, Then you have those folks who DEMAND tips for working fast food, like WTF, its fast food, your not taking my order at a table, getting my beverages, bringing me plates of food, recommending deserts, refilling beverages, generally checking on the meal and making sure everything is to satisfaction. My tip for you is don't piss into the wind, you might get more than you bargained for.

So you're in favor of raising the minimum wage, then, right?

RIGHT?!?!

I always thought that those minimum wage jobs were not intended to be a living wage. How people got to expect them to be a living wage career, is beyond me.

Perhaps one factor is that people are not willing to learn a trade or other skills to improve themselves, thus condemning themselves to low-skill occupations.

Seems to me this is a symptom of entitlement mentality.

Flame on, if you wish.

NO I am not.

there should be a skilled min wage that is earned thru technical trades or higher education in your field of studies.

outside of that, a burger flipper would get a federal min of $10.

Hell even ditch digger is a skilled trade.

It seems to me that the same people who are opposed to tipping (in part or in full) are also pretty much solidly opposed to the minimum wage being at or above the poverty line, and would also scream bloody murder if the price of their Big Macs went up.

So who, exactly, do you expect to make your burgers? Are you really opposed to those people making a living wage?

I think that's a problem. I also am pretty sure that slavery was outlawed in this country some time ago. Maybe that message hasn't reached the far corners of the US.

Dagnabbit!

I don't even know what that means

Definition from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/dagnabbit

dagnabbit

exclamation US old-fashioned informal (also dag nabbit)
uk /ˌdæɡˈnæb.ɪt/ us /ˌdæɡˈnæb.ɪt/

used to express anger or surprise:

* What's happened to this country, dagnabbit?
* We need real people on TV, dag nabbit!
* I tried, dagnabbit!
* Spinach means it's spring, dag nabbit, no matter what the weather forecast says.
* He is a hunk whose expressions include "gosh darn," "lickety split" and "dagnabbit."

NO. I know what dagnabbit means, it's "sorry you've used your thumbs down f or the day" that doesn't make sense. I've been speaking English for over 80 years and used dagnabbit more times than you've had hot meals. You youngsters seem To make up shit as you go along.

My fellow Americans are pissing me off today. Though to be fair, there's been a lot of that lately.

The true minimum wage is $0.

Care to explain that?

You can "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" a post. TIL (today I learned) that you only get one thumbs down per day, and I was expressing frustration because there's more than one post in this topic on which I would like to express my disapproval.

minimum wage was never a living wage. NEVER.

living wage is a skill set.

as far as my burger I don't give a rats ass on any of the fast food junk. I will go to a local mom and pop dinner pay a decent price, have a nice chat , tip well and say thank you.

face it your a west coast minded folk and I am a midwest conservative farm style person. you have your opinion right or wrong and I have my opinion right or wrong.

I served and retired from the USAF just so folks can have an opinion. Have a voice, even if they don't like mine.

So a kid in high school (16 yr old)living at home gets a job after school they should make living wage to afford a house , car, utilities, food, gas, health insurance.

Guess that makes sense

Why not just make everybody no matter what job they do get equal pay. $50 hr should be fair. across the board. from warren buffett to the burger order taker in McD's.

Then take everybody's savings account and investments they have worked to save and distribute those evenly to everyone across the country.

that would make everything fair and even

then we can only have 1 car in each family and they all must be exactly the same car.

every family can only have 2 ears of corn per week per person.

yeah I am an asshole

I'm actually from the midwest. Ohio, specifically. So, uhhh... yeah.

This is pretty much the kind of absurdist line of reasoning I was expecting. Not at all surprising, but disappointing just the same. If you say so.

But the guy flipping burgers has got a University degree - it's the only job available to a 22-yr old with no other work experience.

So skills are there, but there's a dearth of jobs to suit the skills that get taught.

My take is that further education should split much more evenly between academic and vocational. We desperately need more hands-on skilled people in the community, rather than yet more desk jockeys and cubicle hermits.

A different angle: who do you expect to make your burger at 11:30am on a Tuesday in February? Because if you're expecting it to be a high school kid, you're seriously lacking critical thinking skills.

So if it's not a high-school kid, then who should fill that role, and how much should they get paid?

I expect that, for some, the answer is "I don't care". And that really underscores my whole point.

A lot of minimum wage jobs aren't held by HS kids. Things have been going south, job-wise for a while now. My wife has been at our public library for a couple of decades now, full time, with benefits. Not a professional librarian, as her prior narcissistic department head used to let her know, but still, challenging enough work, and pretty much needs a college degree. It's a comfortable job, but when she retires, no one is going to move up to her level, benefit-wise.

What has happened, is that the library is now hiring, professional and assistant librarian positions at 29 hours per week, so they don't provide health insurance. Several younger employees that fit that description have second jobs, one in particular in retail, to make ends meet. Retail, at least around here pays crap wages.

The point is, there are a lot of people doing good work, for various reasons hold two or three jobs, and some are minimum wage jobs....

By the way, "living wage" just means able to pay rent, buy food, and generally meet the minimum financial requirements of existing. It doesn't mean they are able to buy a house or even a car.

People who are against a living wage are literally advocating for their fellow citizens to live in a state of impoverishment.

"California's fast-food minimum wage was raised to $20 per hour on April 1, 2024, and there are discussions about a potential increase to $20.70 per hour in 2025."

Emphasis mine.

Not complicated - set the minimum wage artificially (I.e., different from what the market will bear) high and reasonable and sane business operators will adapt and work to reduce that increased wage, though any means they can, whether automation, reduced staffing. Etc. eventually a minimum wage set too high leads to less hours being compensated. Ultimately, it can be $0 for some or even many.

Managed to get my bus (one of five) up to Crazy Horse Monument parking lot while it was puking all of it's coolant out, now it's going to be here for at least a day while they figure out how to bring it back to the Spearfish garage.

I'll have to hitch a ride back with one of the other drivers tonight.

My general rule of thumb with this bus company, is that 'if three go out, two come back', so there being five busses in this group, they're ahead of the odds with only one of the five breaking down.

Luckily, I'm driving the 'spare bus' empty, and was the backup if one of the others had problems, and here I am, the busted one. Oh, the irony!

I think you're projecting.

It's not the burger flippers aspirations in earning a living wage you need to worry about, it's the billionaires not paying their share of taxes that we should be more concerned with as shown in the below fact.

As America's richest .01 percent have accumulated more wealth, they have paid a smaller share of total U.S. taxes. In 2018, the tax share of the top .01 percent was close to what it was in 1953. By contrast, their share of the nation's wealth nearly quadrupled during that period, rising from 2.5 percent to 9.6 percent.


The UK isn't far behind those figures in it's wealth inequality either.


Oh, and I played like a complete novice at Golf yesterday afternoon and lost 2 & 1 shooting an embarrassing 54 on the back nine.

Yeah. Life's not fair is it.

If we could embed pictures as well as text you could put a picture of a garden gate.

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shit happens is all you need to know about life

And comparison is the beginning of all disappointment.

It's been raining steadily for 3 days now.
The forecast is calling for more until tomorrow morning.....

In 2014 I was making sub $25/hr programming coordinate measuring machines (six of them between two facilities) in the automotive sector with more than 20 years experience. That was just ten years ago. I was paying a mortgage and the average US gas price was $3.36/gallon. This is in the second largest city in Michigan. I guess I should have spent more time complaining.

That is only ten years ago. Some things have changed. In 2015 my wife lost her job of 28 years significantly reducing our household income.

I made a job change and it sucked. For two years I mentally quit my job at least twice a week. But I am making more money now. And things are better.

I am not against a living wage. I am not against people being able to afford anything they want. What I am against is people acquiescing and waiting for society to just be better so they don't have to make changes.

Making changes in your life can be ball-breaking work, but if you aren't happy with your circumstances it is on your shoulders to do something about it. These words have always resonated with me.

I guess my question for anyone in a position where they are unhappy with their circumstances is "What are you doing to change that?"

Fair enough. Have a nice day.