politico headlines

[SithZedi]

We have a controlled immigration system.

If the current situation on the border fits your definition of controlled than how about we tighten it a bit?

 

[panteragstk]

No labor shortage, it's a wage shortage. Want to hire people? Compete by increasing what you offer. Business' have to understand that they don't have a right to cheap labor. The business' that do understand this don't have a problem attracting and keeping employees.

Exactly. Too many people don't realize this. Today is the first day that I've seen a help wanted for under $15/hr. It was $13.50/hr and my first thought is "McDonalds is hiring for much more than that". This was a restaurant as well, so they aren't keeping up with their competition.

So, the "labor shortage" was brought on by the actual wage shortage and low unemployment in my area. Plenty of jobs outside, and not far outside, the area for people to stay here to make as little as $15/hr.

 

[panteragstk]

Same in my area. Just an observation, I partially blame current standards for this shortage. I.e., where is the teenage workforce that existed when I was growing up? I had my children working from age 12 doing odd jobs, mowing lawns or babysitting. No sitting on their ass playing video games and texting with friends. The too much homework issue? if you watch kids doing homework these days, half the time they are on social media. I had friends do the same with their kids. The results were pretty uniform. They learned how to deal with bosses, finances, budgeting their time, learning how to work with people other than their parents older than them, the list is long. This later helped them greatly when they attended college. Obviously all kids are different but there's much waste going on.

No kid can compete with the lawn company that mows my lawn for $25/wk. No way. Wouldn't be worth their time.

If my kid told me they wanted to bag groceries for minimum wage I'd laugh at them and tell them I'll pay them double to help me around the house. Granted, nobody pays minimum wage around here. It's usually close to double, and that's a joke with housing prices and everything else going up.

 

[Mikado463]

No kid can compete with the lawn company that mows my lawn for $25/wk. No way. Wouldn't be worth their time.

given todays gas prices I know of NO lawn that is being cut for 25 bucks, more likely dbl that !

If my kid told me they wanted to bag groceries for minimum wage I'd laugh at them and tell them I'll pay them double to help me around the house.

and there in lies the problem, back in my day we were expected to help with the household chores. In other words a weekly allowance was earned !

I then went out had two other lawns in the neighborhood to cut !

 

[panteragstk]

given todays gas prices I know of NO lawn that is being cut for 25 bucks, more likely dbl that !



and there in lies the problem, back in my day we were expected to help with the household chores. In other words a weekly allowance was earned !

I then went out had two other lawns in the neighborhood to cut !

Hell, I'm not talking household chores, I'm talking unloading a few tons of gravel, helping me screen in a porch or build a cabinet.

Allowance is dumb, I pay all the bills and feed them. Chores are the bare minimum to continue eating for free.

Funny story, I have a friend who's dad always had him do odd jobs and such around their house and property. Tax time came and his dad handed him a W2. Guess having an account for a father has some quirks.

They want to help now, but all single digit ages. We'll see how it goes when they get older. I'm sure I can find plenty of nonsense for them to do.

 

[MaxInValrico]

agreed, with the help of main stream media

Trump did all the work. The media didn't have to make anything up.

you mean you can't see Walter Cronkite rolling in his grave ?

Different time not comparable to today.

 

[MaxInValrico]

given todays gas prices I know of NO lawn that is being cut for 25 bucks, more likely dbl that !

Cheapest weekly estimate of the 4 I received for my years was $70 per week. As a result, I went and bought a riding mower.

 

[Dude#1279435]

Trump did all the work. The media didn't have to make anything up.

A pretty accurate pic of the era IMO.

Edit: if you pour gasoline on the fire, you might get burned. I thought that was why Trump lost the '20 election. People on the right who reveled in it. Then they were trying to defend it based on fake news. (Great marketing by Trump btw.) CNN/Msnbc ran his behavior problems 24/7 in the lead up to the election. Tyt, Damage Report, Brian Tyler Cohen etc were airing this the entire time. Conservatives would debate this while not watching fake news. Pretty LOL.

Some got it. They agreed with his policy and left it at that. Then there were the Trumptards.

 

[highfigh]

The media didn't elect Biden anymore than they elected Trump. Stop blaming the media for what the parties do.

Trump elected Biden.

If the media is as bad as you state, you are free to start your own, you'll get 60 days free on AWS.

OK. Whatever you say.

 

[highfigh]

Read this, Biden is spot on where he mentioned that the petroleum industry was just sit on idle Wells. Just to wait till price shoots up than they'll open the wells up. Some of you guy's know I worked the petroleum industry for over 15 years 80% in the Gulf of Mexico. Which by the way close to half of oil and natural gas supplies come in from the Gulf for this country. I have been in many well bay areas all over the Gulf and have seen first hand Wells with the down hole or master valves close off. I sat in many meetings with production with them discussing just that how many Wells to shut in just to get the price they want. Gotta give Biden credit on this one for calling out the petroleum industry for price gouging. In reality it's a monopoly that the petroleum industry has, which should be against the law.
View attachment 55062

The oil industry had idle wells when the US started buying oil from OPEC because it cost less to import than to produce. Not a new thing and the US became dependent on foreign oil sources, much like being dependent on foreign manufacturing of just about every damn thing we buy now.

 

[highfigh]

That's basically what I was getting at. We want it, and we want it now!

The guys on a morning radio show describe America as "a place where you can get what you want, when you want it, a lot of it, all the time".

 

[highfigh]

Everywhere around me is dying for people to come work for them. We don't have a job shortage here, we do have a labor shortage.

It's a shortage of people who don't want to accept the offered wages. Many people were paid to stay at home- let's not forget that. Some got $600/week on top of their state's unemployment- that's more than they made when they had a job and when they had time to enjoy it, they came to expect it. In the MKE area, we have lost a lot of businesses and one restaurant owner decided to temporarily close because her staff was treated so badly by the customers who were finally able to eat in. Many companies laid off or fired people who knew what they were doing and the replacements are effing useless- in consumer electronics, this is rampant and I absolutely hate calling distributors and manufacturers for information that they should know, but don't.

Many businesses offer a signing bonus for jobs that pay $15/hour. I don't know what people expect to be paid for jobs that don't require a lot of knowledge and skill, but they really should have been paying attention as prices were rising through the years that they wouldn't be able to afford much of anything in the future. One thing that has been causing a huge problem is corporate property owners jacking the rent on any properties they can get their greedy hands on. It costs far more to rent than to buy a small house and I can only imagine being in that position.

Welcome to the New (ab)Normal.

 

[highfigh]

We have a controlled immigration system.

What are you on? By controlled, do you mean someone in charge tells others "OK, let 'em in!"?

 

[highfigh]

given todays gas prices I know of NO lawn that is being cut for 25 bucks, more likely dbl that !

and there in lies the problem, back in my day we were expected to help with the household chores. In other words a weekly allowance was earned !

I then went out had two other lawns in the neighborhood to cut !

Same here- my parents were born in the 1920s, which means that money had more value to them because they didn't have much of it when they were young and if I wanted something that was more expensive than what would be normal for a gift, I was going to earn the money and buy it for myself. Cutting lawns, painting fences, shoveling snow....did all of those and did them a lot.

 

[highfigh]

Cheapest weekly estimate of the 4 I received for my years was $70 per week. As a result, I went and bought a riding mower.

Air conditioned, with drink holders?

 

[MaxInValrico]

What are you on? By controlled, do you mean someone in charge tells others "OK, let 'em in!"?

How close is the nearest international border to you? Go to Canada or Mexico and try to get back in the country without going thru a border crossing.

 

[MaxInValrico]

Air conditioned, with drink holders?

Nope, just a grass bag attachment.

 

[Mikado463]

How close is the nearest international border to you? Go to Canada or Mexico and try to get back in the country without going thru a border crossing.

come on Max, I know you're a Bflo kid but you do know the difference between legal and illegal don't you ?

 

[Replicant 7]

The guys on a morning radio show describe America as "a place where you can get what you want, when you want it, a lot of it, all the time".

Petroleum industry as I stated with my post has a whole lot of idle Wells, been like that for the last +20 year's or so. Of course there are mitigating factors, Pipelines coming from the Gulf can only handle so much. But mostly production platforms that have more than 20 wells that they pull oil and or natural gas from will have Wells sitting idle. Plus the plants off of HWY 225 in Pasadena, Texas and in Sulfur Louisiana can only handle so much production. There are more plants alone the Gulf States.

Gas price here at the pump as of Monday for 87 octane, $3.56 a gallon.

 

[MaxInValrico]

come on Max, I know you're a Bflo kid but you do know the difference between legal and illegal don't you ?

I wish I were a kid. And yes I know the difference. However, with respect to illegals, we won't solve the problem of illegals entering the country until such time as the people who hire them are prosecuted. When that starts happening, the word will get out and the flow of illegals will slow down and it's not just illegals from Central America, there are illegals from Europe and the Far East as well that are brought into the country to work in sweat shops no different than they were 120 years ago.