Guard Dog

Nah we already have cities no one lives in. Ever heard of Detroit?

Doing what? I don’t think turning them all into cops is a good idea and the drivers license office is crowded enough as it is for its limited productivity. And besides Only about a third of the 50 states are financially solvent enough to add workers like that

Can you believe the Panthers choked on a two goal lead with less than two minutes to go against the Predators last night? Bobvrosky lets a hell of a lot of shots get by him for the kind of money he’s making. Whenever he’s in net the Panthers have to put at least five on the board to win. They still got a point and I’m really happy about that but Jesus man a two goal lead two minutes you can’t put that away? Hell even the Red Wings scared us last week the same way and they were terrible. But for all that they still have 12 points and no regulation losses. I’ll take that.

https://news.yahoo.com/off-road-off-grid-modern-100032869.html more and more as I confront the realities of retirement this is an option I am considering. Buying a camper for my pickup truck bed, selling off all my assets, and hitting the road with Sunny for as far as the road goes.

I wonder if we will ever again come to a time when such a thing could happen as this: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/04/jackie-kennedy-white-house-visit

I think they are recyclable. At least I’ve been putting mine in my recycle bag. I don’t have garbage pick up where I live so I take all my stuff to a public dump usually once a week. But they have one dumpster for plastic recyclables, one for paper, and one for regular trash. I’ve been putting them in with my plastic stuff

I disagree that the government has been unfriendly towards unions. They still enjoy a considerable amount of protection. In fact you might say I am pro union but I am also pro “right to work“. I think unions have something to offer but they should not be compulsory

I’m sorry I didn’t know They made the combo once. I know Mr. coffee and a couple of other knock off brand did so I just assumed

Well it was nice when you just wanted to make one cup. So there certainly was a convenience but yeah you’re paying a lot more for coffee going with K cups. Plus coffee grounds are useful for gardening. But yeah those Keurig machines are not very durable. Like Giftd said the knock offs last longer

so you agree that in the end all costs are passed on to the end-user in terms of cost increases. So If the price of services that rely on minimum wage labor are increased with the minimum wage the buying power of the laborers stays about the same. So despite getting a nice pay raise they’re not able to consume at a higher level than they were previously.

OK, it’s great that their business model allows them to do that. What happens to the businesses who are operating on thinner margins? There are a couple of grocery store chains in Long Beach California that are closing stores because of a mandated four dollar an hour increase in wages by the city. The problem is those stores are operating on a 1 to 2% margin and the increase in worker salary puts them into the red. Businesses do not have an obligation to operate at a loss because the “government “ at any level sets an arbitrary price on their labor. They’re going to make adjustments. Like I said before which is preferable eight employees making $10 an hour or five employees making $15 an hour? These are the kind of choices are going to be made. Aldis for example pays their teams more than $15 now. But they never have more than four employees on shift at any time. They also cut expenses another innovative ways. Like selling generic and somewhat lower quality merchandise. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not but it’s a thing. My whole point being adjusting wage levels arbitrarily is not going to maintain the status quo. Things are going to be different afterwards. There will be fewer people working. Prices are going to go up, service is going to go down, and everyone has to decide whether the juice is worth the squeeze.

I’m done with k cups. I’ve had two of those things crap out in four years. I was looking at drip coffee maker is with espresso/Cappuccino attachments. In the meantime the old stove top coffee pot will do fine

Well I blew about $400 today. I ordered 5 pounds of Blackthorne 209 synthetic black powder, 1k .50 AeroLite projectiles, two hundred .30 cal with . 50 sabots, 1k .72 cal Steel slugs as well as a couple of big boxes of paper patches and overshot wadding. The only thing I didn’t buy were primers but I’ve got plenty of those. We’re going to have some fun this weekend. I can see why the people who are into muzzleloaders are so passionate about it. It is a lot of fun. Plus I am convinced there is a proper shot and powder mixture that will make my rifle effective up to 800 m.

Trump and his “support” and the people who tied themselves to it remind me of the old saw of Churchill’s about the men who ride to and fro on the backs of tigers.

I was more referring to the tone than the actual act itself. Perhaps I should be somewhat sympathetic to government employees who lose their jobs considering... but I’m not.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.politico.com/amp/news/2021/02/02/parental-leave-trump-aides-465302 Wow. Team Biden has some nasty and vindictive characters on it.

Comparing what one business in one industry does to another business in a different industry does is not even an apples and oranges comparison. Hell it’s hard to even compare two of the same businesses operating in different neighborhoods of the same city. Each has its own challenges to deal with. Suppose for a second you are talking to a small businessman operating on a 6 to 9% profit margin and the cost of your labor, already your biggest expense, doubles. Now your business is no longer profitable. What do you tell that man or woman? Which is preferable? A pizza joint that has eight employees making $10 an hour or five employees making $15 an hour? Or even no pizza joint at all. Once again I am not arguing that changing the minimum wage is a bad thing overall but it’s certainly going to be bad for some people and it’s going to come at a cost that I think the biggest proponents of it or not reckoning with. The extra money will certainly be nice for the people who are earning it. And the increased revenue from taxes on those people will be a boon to a community. But it might be a net loss with fewer people working. One thing that will not happen is the status quo being maintained.

That’s cool I didn’t know about that

Glad to hear that. The last nuclear plant built in the United States was in the 80s if I remember correctly. To me that is just a no-brainer when it comes to electricity production. Coal is bad and unsustainable long term. Solar power is a pipe dream in on large scale‘s would be less environmentally friendly than coal for reasons I have discussed here at length. Wind in geothermal have local potential. Ditto for kinetic energy creation like tide and water. But to produce electricity cleanly and on a mass scale you cannot beat nuclear. But try to build a nuclear plant in the United States right now and people will look at you like you want to poison children.

you know what I love about the Simpsons? There is no comment to ever appear on this board that does not remind you of a clip! lighter regulations certainly doesn’t mean no regulation. Also I’m not arguing that raising minimum-wage is a bad thing per se. Like I said I really don’t care. Philosophically speaking it’s wrongheaded but as Achilles is keen to point out textbook logic doesn’t apply well to real world most of the time. But I am saying raising minimum-wage artificially is going to come at a cost and that’s something a lot of people are not considering. Whether things will be better or worse afterwards is debatable.

This is one of those good news good news stories. More and more of the auto makers are going to be producing electric vehicles rather than internal combustion vehicles. For the folks that want that product that means competition will soon before seeing price is lower. There’s the first good news. For those of us who have recently purchased a internal combustion vehicle and will not give it up (ever) that’s also good news because the price of gasoline will be going down due to decreased demand. And for those who think this is going to be a big win for the environment I will just say “bless your heart“ and not trouble you with explanations about how electricity is actually created in most of the electric grids in the United States. https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/gasoline-is-becoming-worthless-210636353.html

Too keep prices competitive they will have to lower costs. The “average” profit margin for a business to be considered profitable in the US is 10%. IMO that is one bad month away from being broke but that is where many are. In fast food for example according to Upserve is 6-9% by franchise. In most franchise businesses they are compelled to buy materials and expenables from the parent company. So that price cannot be cut (by the franchisees at least). They cannot cut the cost of utility use and you KNOW the municipality and state are not going to cut them a break on taxes to deal with their new labor cost. Where does the cost cut come from? Labor of course. You retool with computer sales kiosks or automate the cooking process somewhat. If the cost of labor doubles then you do with less labor to maintain the status quo. Or pass the cost on to the consumer. Neither option is particularly good. Glad I don’t have to choose.

Fast foods in terms of their flag ship corporations are doing quite well. However individual franchisees the people who actually pay the burger flipper and order taker generally are barely scraping by. If you owned four or five McDonald’s you’re probably earning a decent living off of them. If you own one you’re likely not doing a lot better than you were a store manager assuming that’s not you also

I just threw that number out for arguments sake. I have done no research on this at all. Like I said I don’t really care. I don’t eat that trash anyway. And the truth is I consume very little in terms of buying things.