'A crime a day'

[Nebrfarmr]

The thing of it is, around here, at least, if you are willing to work, and willing to learn, you can work your way up to a very nice job.

I know of plenty of places, looking for workers, who are willing to train, with plenty of room for advancement, for the right person.

Someone can start out, with a salary good enough to put food on the table, a roof over their head, and put them behind the wheel of a reliable viechle.  After a few years, if they apply themselves, they can start eating steak fairly regular, plus afford the payments on a new house and car.

The problem I see, is there are too many people, wanting to start out with a salary that can buy them all that, right from the start, while still spending 10 hours a day, texting friends, and playing games on their $500 phone.

[highyields]

I agree

[tom s. in tn.]

Rural law enforcement, not unlike Fire & Rescue, are becoming very thin in every region of our country regardless of size or population density.

The pseudofed meth (what ever you call it) drug issue has become so dangerously problematic here, that many people have gone to the sheriff and volunteered to receive temporary deputy status good for enforcing the road they live on.

The sheriff knows them and the other law enforcement know them as to where they live and are located. If a non 911 emergency arise, either call your neighbor or the dispatcher who also has their # and many times they can arrive before an officer with a badge who might have to drive across the county in an old worn out police car.

Tom S. in Tn.

[k-289]

A fair amount of storm clouds for local governments with services on all fronts being fiscally strained --- very few things operate conditionally in  a  ""stag -inflated "" economy  ---  

[smokeyjay]

There are the obvious dead beats like you suggest.  There will always be those who like to work the system.  We need to send them packing, charge them with fraud or make it hard for them to continue their lazy lifestyle.

However, the ones I know about in my community are hard workers willing to work for a living wage.  Those last words are the key.  They already are working several part time jobs to try making ends meet.  They don't need more of these low paying jobs.  It's not working.  They are slipping down the economic ladder into deeper poverty.  

[Nebrfarmr]

That's why we need to MAKE stuff in this country.

Look around, the countries that are best off financially, as a whole, tend to be the ones that export energy and products,  We are killing ourselves, by importing so much stuff.  Every dollar that stays in the US, tends to get re-spent in the economy.  Every dollar that goes overseas, adds to our indebtedness.

You can just look at the 50 States of the US, and see that.  Go to the Dakotas, where they are drilling for oil, they have waiting lists for jobs. 

Look at Canada, they are shipping high-dollar oil all over the world.

Ditto the UAE.

The countries that have their standards of living growing the slowest, or even going backwards, are the ones not doing the producing.

[sw363535]

smokey,

Reminds me of a discussion I witnessed at an auto dealer a couple years back.  It became quite public as I sat in the waiting area.

Lady was upset at the auto dealer because she could not afford to trade her older tahoe on a newer one.  She had a 50 mile drive to work daily and needed it. ------toward the end of the loud discussion the statement came out that she would loose her job and have to work at the convenience store down the street if she could not trade it.  And on top of that take a 50 cent/hr pay cut.-----------------------

I kept thinking about it.  Some basic math skills missing there.

Smokey, I think lots of folks confuse technology with education.  Looks to me like we are becoming more techno advanced and loosing basic skills of budgeting, lifestyle, solid math skills, etc.  I have witnessed employees leave a job with $2000 a month side benefits,  for a job that pays $1/hr more with no benefits---pulling family off health ins--etc. because the first job didn't pay enough.  And I think they were sincere, just didn't have the basic math or budgeting skills to know the difference.

 Nebr has a point on those issues---------his statement

The problem I see, is there are too many people, wanting to start out with a salary that can buy them all that, right from the start, while still spending 10 hours a day, texting friends, and playing games on their $500 phone.------------

Is probably too much of a generalization-------but we all witness it in the workplace or in "on the clock" conditions.  Many workers don't care if their productivity is enough to pay their wages and are therefore locked into a future of low wage jobs.  The better jobs seek out the caring productive young person that will give their best at a low income job. --------At least that is how it has been for a few of us.---------probably not as commonly as I would like.

Lifestyle can be good --------unless the lifestyle of desire has no patience------------or limits.

There will always be low paying jobs----------and employees to fill them--------and I agree there are too many of both.

The best Thought in this thread is the last one-----Starting with;  

That's why we need to MAKE stuff in this country.  

We really got our leadership "eye off the ball" when we let(sent, pushed, regulated, or maybe didn't care(not sure of the proper word)) manufacturing out of the country.------but we got rid of a lot of low paying jobs.  But then it seems like everyone who works for a wage thinks they are getting low wages, even auto workers and long shoremen.

I love to visit the JD plant for that reason.  It always seems like the workers there appreciate their work relationship.

[sw363535]

Sorry John,

I got a little off topic on the last comment.  But,  the crime issue runs directly with the substance abuse issue and as long as we harbor one we will live with the other.  

Petty Crime may boom for a while if congress actually cuts back spending.  And speaking of public spending-------that is another cost of the substance abuse issue that is costing us all dearly.  Every state is spending heavy on housing and rehab.  I remember seeing a stat several years ago from Wisc. showing how the spending on inmate dental care had risen as the effect of the meth problem.

When states are concerned with that detail of data, the overall cost is big.

[weedman]

It reminds me of the ignorant statement made by hourly wage earners, "If I work more overtime I just pay it all in taxes." I think tax rates are too high but that statement just frosts me.

[smokeyjay]

I don't doubt that what you say is true.  I've seen this firsthand as well.  This lack of understanding of fundamentals, lack of ability to correlate math and reading skills to interpret what we do is part of the reason why people haven't a clue about their lives.

That's only a part of the current climate we have, however. There are employees who do have these skills and are working hard to maintain their level of employement and financial status.  We have employers who intentionally reduce full time hours into part time work simply to avoid paying benefits.  Or they tell their workers the health plans are no longer a part of the employment package.  A local college renegotiates its health care plan every two or three years, and they are shifting more of the cost of that plan to employees without any further changes in their salary package, or in some cases, offering a token raise that makes up a fraction of the increased cost of the benefit plan they are now obligated to pay for.  They increase load time on full time faculty by dramatically increasing students per class, without a corresponding increase in salary, and expanding cirriculumn through the use of underpaid adjuncts that are seriously unqualified, let alone experienced in their field.

We also have families that are working up to three and four part time jobs and no benefits, and they are slowly losing ground.  They look for full time work but none are available. 

Though I see help wanted ads in our papers highlighting full time job openings, the current climate is an employer's market.  Some of them are unfilled because the applicants are unqualified to do the work.  A couple of openings are from dubious employers.  I am familiar with their employee business practices, having worked there back when I was young, poor and ignorant of their ways.  And yes, there are some jobs left begging because of the entry level nature of the work.

As I mentioned in another post, WalMart keeps its wages low by intentional turnover, though they do this under the radar screen to hide from the Justice department.  A relative lost her job held for 5 years after her annual evaluation that showed no deficiencies.  She was promoted and given an hourly raise.  Within three days, she was let go on a technicality...her time stamp on a time card indicated she was less than 5 minutes late from punching in on time, though at the time a "customer" happened along and desparately needed immediate assistance and it could not wait.  I seriously doubt this was a real customer.  According to her, she was the last employee hired under old rules and an older benefit plan.  She was offered her old job back immediately under new rules, lower pay and no benefits.  I smell a big WalMart RAT.