How many jobs depend on the Detroit Three?

You are correct, but the fact remains that most cashiers can't do simple
counting in their heads. But it is still a math problem. . .

SC Tom

 

My **** is a regular troll and spammer. If he has a clue, he must have lost
it
in a dice game.

I killfiled this shit a long time ago.. He is not even worth responding to.

 

That is certainly high for a guy that sorts apples and bananas.

Definition of Carpologist
Car`pol´o`gist
n. 1. One who describes fruits; one versed in carpology.

 

I never heard of private insurers, but cant say that they dont exist in
Texas.

When I was running my own company about 10-15 years ago, I had to
pay $800+ per month for my wife, son, and myself.

No matter how well we followed the rules they established, they always found
a "catch 22" and would not pay.

Changed to another insurer.. Same thing.

For that amount of money, I and my employees could have set up an unofficial
pool and paid all our own bills. ALL of them.

Under Norwegian national health, there were no claims to file at all. You
just went
to a doctor, paid your "egen andel", or surcharge, and that was the end of
it. Surcharge
was waived for those in economic low levels.

I much prefer the Norwegian system. There ARE private doctors there if you
dont like
the triage system of the national health system. They are, I suppose,
subsidized too and
neither health care nor prescriptions are overly expensive.

 

The gotcha on that is that all it takes is a couple of people in your
pool to get cancer and run up well into 6 figures in bills each to
bankrupt your self-funded kitty.

The same effect happens if you work for a small company with a 3rd party
carrier and a handful of covered employees or family members come down
with something catastrophic - the insurance company then looks at your
company as an isolated high risk group and the rates for just your
company go thru the roof.

My philosophy with warranties and insurance in general is to self insure
whenever possible except for things that could wipe you out financially.
I used to think about shopping for a catastrophic health insurance
plan to replace what I get thru work, but the irony is that employer
provided insurance anymore has become just that, except they don't call
it that.

Norway has its own problems. I've seen figures of what it costs in
taxes and fees to buy a car in Norway. There ain't no free lunch.

 

Cars are expensive due to the tax system, no doubt. But almost everybody
owns
one. Wages are much higher than here.

For the foreigner coming into Norway, it looks hopeless. But in a small
system
(large country, small population, and great wealth) of this type, things
seem to work
well despite themselves.

We have been paying $6-8 per gallon for gasoline for a long time.. About
10% less
for diesel.

It is difficult, but not impossible, to amass wealth there. But wealth is
not really needed.
Everything is taken care of including retirement. Goes very counter to the
American way
of life...but, it works and works well.

When I first got there, I paid 92% in income tax. Later it dropped to 52%.
And that
paid for my social health, retirement, governmental expenses, etc, and I had
money left
over. If you look at US income tax, starting with about 28%, and add about
15% for
social security, plus healthcare, etc.. it is surprisingly near the
American model.

And the advantages under Scandinavian socialism is that we have little
crime, essentially
no homeless, very low unemployment, high levels of education, and little
cultural difficulties.

Not for most Americans, but it worked well for me, and I would have never
repatriated
had it not been for the problems my wife had here with her aging parents.

 

I'm sure it was a typo, but still funny.

 

Actually, I did it on purpose. You're the only one that caught it, or at
least commented on it

 

You mean "there question" ?

 

There or their?

 

There are many imbalances in society. None, however, will be solved by just
throwing money at them and allowing the government to fix them.

Single parents working crappy job can still check a child's report card and
demand good grades. They can at least take an occasional peek at he
homework. They can encourage their children to do better.

Both parents and schools have to be allowed to discipline a child. We used
to respect, maybe fear, some of the teachers, elders in the neighborhood,
and our parents. Today, you cannot touch a kid or give them any sort of
serious punishment. The kids just tell parents and teacher to "go f#$%
yourself" and nothing is done about it. Teachers complain they have 15 kids
in a class and cannot maintain control. My grammar school classes had 45 to
60 students and we behaved.

Standards for both students and teachers must be raised to a higher level.
It has been allowed to backslide in the past 20 years or so. Too many
teachers are too stupid to be teaching. My granddaughter had an English
teacher that could not speak fluent English and could not spell. It has
been years since my own kids were in school, but I remember getting a note
from a teacher. I sent it back with corrections!

Get rid of many of the government mandates that schools have and let the
good teachers teach. Don't hamper them with lawsuits because they spoke
harshly to Johnny. One nun with a yardstick could handle 80 first graders
or either graders. Today she'd be in jail for threatening.

Oh, and 65 is failing, IMO.

 

Generalizations are generally wrong, but yes, the line worker is often, but
not always, more skilled. Some janitors are doing that job becuase it is
the best they have the ability to do. Others are doing it waiting for an
opening as an assembler or fork truck operator and will jump at the chance
to advance.

No, it is not. That is why apartments and used cars have a market. What
should everyone make? Doctors can make $200k a year so should we pay
everyone that much?

Most people that think they are overpaid are either jealous and don't have
the skills or motivation to do more, or are just plain cheap even though
they are making more. I honestly don't know what the job is worth on the
line but I'd guess at $20 to $25 with higher rate for higher skills or
performance bonuses. Certainly not $10 or $40.

We all want to buy cheap TV (or fill in name of your favorite appliance),
but we don't want to pay $25 an hour to assemble them in the US if it means
we'd have to pay a lot more for them. We won't pay $399 for a dishwaster at
the local dealer because Home Depot has them for $379. This is the reason
for my Pogo reference in my last post. . If you are too young to know, Pogo
was a comics character who said the famous line "we have met the enemy and
it is us"

IMO, the minimum wage should be $10/hour and yes, some people should be
earning that amount. Such as a high school kid stocking shelves at the
grocery store.

 

Performance bonus in a Union auto factory? I'd like some of what you
are smoking!!!

 

That is one reason I never wanted to work in a union shop. I want to be
recognized and paid for my skills, ability, performance, and whatever else
gets me a raise. I'm certainly not thrilled about carrying some drone doing
the minimal amount of work.

If this was 1928, I'd be pro-union and probably be one of the organizers.
Not in the world today.

 

Depends on the kind of test and the grading system. The first paper I
got back at an Australian university got 8/10. The teacher told the
whole class: "Just so you know what your grade really means, we think
that anyone who gets 8 1/2 should be up here teaching the class." The
overall grading system was from 1 up to 7, with a recommended
approximate "curve" for "sufficiently large" classes. (4 was the lowest
"regular" passing grade; 3 was "we'll call this a pass, but it doesn't
qualify you to take a class for which this was a prerequisite.") It was
expected that approx. 3% to 5% of the class would get the top grade of
7, and faculty would get "please explain" notes if they deviated from
the recommendations too far or too often. Some faculty -- and even some
whole departments -- simply did not give grades of 7, especially if they
could argue that the class was *not* "sufficiently large" for the curve
to apply. I don't know what changes might have been made there since my
time there.

I talked recently with a retired prof. from a US private college. He
said that when he graduated from that same college, there would be one
Summa cum Laude and a handful of Magna cum Laude; now there is a whole
slew of names on the Summa list.

Along with the grade inflation there is title inflation in US academia
when compared with the UK/Australian system. In the US almost every
faculty member is some kind of "Professor," whereas a UK or Australian
university might have only one Professor per department, the ranks below
that being Reader, Senior Lecturer, Lecturer, Senior Tutor and Tutor

Perce

 

Whenever I was looking for a job, if the HR guy told me they give all
employees a turkey for Thanksgiving as well as a turkey and a bonus at
Christmas, I walked away. Companies that were offering me turkeys and
bonuses were obviously NOT going to pay me enough ALL year LOL

 

There is no question problems in our schools can be placed directly on
parents that do not have control of the children.

The fact that the majority of students in any school provided with the same
learning opportunities,
are LEARNING in those very same schools, proves that fact.