PhineasC

Retail is dead. Who said anything about retail?

I don't think Jeff Bezos dodging taxes when he owns one of the most liberal newspapers in the country and one of the most liberal grocery store chains in the country is really a "MAGA problem."

Again, sounds great, but the large corps dodge taxes and just pass the cost down to consumers and small suppliers. The smaller businesses that can’t write-off a billion dollars take this on the chin.

In ECON 101 did they tell you it’s good to be in competition with the Federal govt for staff? With all due respect, this is very far from being the free market you learned about in school. Get out of VT sometime, the labor shortage is real and acute. Paying all the busboys 25/hr is not the solution.

The govt has created an artificial labor shortage, but here we are pretending like there really aren't enough unskilled 18 year olds out there to deliver pizzas so we need to pay the delivery boy $25/hr with PTO and full bennies. Just don't be shocked when the jobs simply evaporate and now even more people are on the govt dole. Or your cheese pizza costs $22.

I mean, this sounds good, but the govt needs to butt out of the equation for this to work. Small restaurants are basically competing with the govt now for employees. That's grossly unfair. And it isn't just the unemployment thing, the govt also has been manipulating this with stimulus payments and initiatives such as free broadband at home and the push for free healthcare and college. Rent and eviction moratoriums also contribute. Talk to younger Millennials; a decent number of them are literally waiting for the free school and free healthcare (and some are holding out for free housing too).

Here comes a GIF.

@UMB WX doesn't like the idea of being healthy now? Dude, read the posts before you hit them with a weenie, at least.

Imagine an army of 40k of these farm dudes dressed in iron armor with sharp swords and spears just going at it in a field somewhere 2,000 years ago. Must have have been brutal. LOL

Haven't you heard? Millennials are very, very special snowflakes and they can be an astronaut, the President of the United States, or even a unicorn if only they follow their dreams!

Barring a fluke, looks like about 157" will be the final total for my Randolph neighbor. A good recovery in April helped to somewhat offset the dreadful March.

The Randolph number is 154.8" but that is missing about 3 inches from early April when I was still there and the observer was not reporting. So call it 157" or so.

There has been very, very little talk from the "scientists and experts" out there in the media telling fat people that they are at greater risk and this should be a wake-up call. Instead, we are still in "fat acceptance" mode in the mainstream media, for the most part.

The stone mason who works on my house up in NH has a grip like steel and he moves big rocks around like it's nothing. Dude doesn't go to the gym at all but looks like one of the Spartans from the movie 300.

I think COVID split society (as usual) on this topic. Close to 50% of Americans gained weight during the pandemic, and we have also seen the stats about increased alcohol and drug use. I haven't seen stats in the other direction, but I suspect a certain number of people went the other way and decided COVID and teleworking afforded them the perfect excuse to finally get in shape. Use that hour spent in the car on working out instead.

I wonder though, as society has become more sedentary, if it ends up being better to stay active in a trade job rather than sitting at a desk gaining weight and snacking all day? The balance on the health aspects between the jobs may have shifted a little.

I have thought about getting into the restaurant or hospitality business given the deals to be had there, but it seems risky to me given the social climate and the fact that we have now learned the governor can shut you down with the stroke of a pen at any time. What if there is a resurgent, bad flu next year? More restrictions? Also, finding help is nearly impossible for businesses like that now, we will see if that changes. I have noticed a handful of closed restaurants around here have reopened under new management. We will see how they do, but clearly some folks are thinking the way you are.

It depends what your employer reports and your stated reason for quitting. Under COVID, very broad leeway has been granted in these matters.

Has there ever been a generation that refused to go back to work in favor of sitting at home and collecting unemployment? Seems like a rather major defect in work ethic right there.

It's outrageous, and that's at least for a field with good earning potential. There are people paying that much for a BA.

My tradesmen friends all complain about the "helpers" and how that drives them to work alone as much as possible.

I'm sure the electricians here have many stories of them trying in vain to explain basic concepts to a mousy homeowner who surely has very impressive degrees in English or history but can't change an outlet.

The average college grad from a low to mid-tier school with a BA is dumber than a box of rocks at this point and will have an incredibly warped worldview that makes it nearly impossible to put them to work. Kinda hard for them to deal with starting an entry-level job with a company they have been taught is raping Mother Earth and oppressing everyone (AKA all companies)... grade inflation is real and makes a lot of college degrees pretty suspect. I will take someone with a HS diploma and 10 years of real experience in many cases. In some of our jobs, the degree is needed because it signals a basic proficiency with certain mathematical and engineering-related concepts; that's a different story.

College is basically an indoctrination camp now, and deciding to learn a trade instead is akin to telling the Soviets to shove their gulags up their ass. It doesn't go over well with certain people.

I noticed in my family a lot of the young men ended up becoming cops over the last 10 years when they should have become tradesmen. It was a bad move driven by bad advice from their parents.