Digital Currency

grandpaul said:

I'll have to relate my bona fides on this topic and add that I'm speaking from a family with working-age kids (2) working-age grandkids (3) and numerous working age nephews and nieces.

In MY extended family, we were taught, and we teach, that NO job is "beneath" you, and minimum wage is ample as long as you are under our roof and behaving reasonably well. Our kids and grandkids have obviously taken those two simple concepts to heart and are doing well and staying out of trouble. If you have graduated, and don't want to work (a minimum wage job, at least), you have to live somewhere else!

Meanwhile, in this "bedroom community" that serves a decidedly liberal city (Austin, Tx), the "problem" grows.

$15 an hour jobs are unfilled, because the government handouts keep getting increased and extended for YEARS past the point of original unemployment. It is NOT sustainable.

...and don't forget, "digital currency" is NOT used to pay workers, generally...

(there, back on topic)

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In Northern Virginia, the fast-food places are paying $17/hour plus benefits. Trying to find non-employee help without benefits - tough! Only an idiot would work for minimum wage here - $7.25/hour

marshg246 said:

Only an idiot would work for minimum wage here - $7.25/hour

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I disagree. Sometimes, GOOD employers (they DO exist) will START people out (that's why they call it "minimum" wage) to see if they are worth investing in (training and benefits), before they gradually increase their pay to match their productivity. If they only DO the minimum, why pay them a penny more? If they show initiative, aptitude, reliability and appreciation, THEN give them a raise.

In MY opinion, only an idiot (or someone with too much money) would hire a bottom-rung worker for MORE than minimum wage.

I know, I know, define "too much" money. It varies with the situation.

grandpaul said:

I disagree. Sometimes, GOOD employers (they DO exist) will START people out (that's why they call it "minimum" wage) to see if they are worth investing in (training and benefits), before they gradually increase their pay to match their productivity. If they only DO the minimum, why pay them a penny more? If they show initiative, aptitude, reliability and appreciation, THEN give them a raise.

In MY opinion, only an idiot (or someone with too much money) would hire a bottom-rung worker for MORE than minimum wage.

I know, I know, define "too much" money. It varies with the situation.

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I'm fine with your old man (no offense intended) thinking - I think that way too. However, if you want the work done you have to find someone who will do it. Even the illegals here make MUCH more than minimum wage!

I have a need for help. It took me 7 years to find a helper. He's learning a lot but started from simply being a high school senior. He would make more money working at a fast-food place - I pay him WAY more than minimum wage.

marshg246 said:

I have a need for help. It took me 7 years to find a helper. He's learning a lot but started from simply being a high school senior. He would make more money working at a fast-food place - I pay him WAY more than minimum wage.

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Your problem is on the OTHER (employer) side of the equation. What you need is a bike junky kid who is willing to work hard to get into a business he will love, for less than he would make wrapping McBurgers.

grandpaul said:

Your problem is on the OTHER (employer) side of the equation. What you need is a bike junky kid who is willing to work hard to get into a business he will love, for less than he would make wrapping McBurgers.

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I agree - ain't any around as far as I can tell. I even had a neighbor kid who was graduating from high school talking to his friends who were not planning to go to college. At that time, I needed two workers - help on motorcycles and someone I could teach to be a programmer and lighten that load. He found no one interested.

I suppose I could have gone to Home Depot any morning a picked up an illegal to help, but I'm 100% against hiring illegals for anything.

The kid I have now is working out well, but it's only a few hours per week and he'll be back in college in a week or so. He's learning skills he may or may not use/need in the future. For instance, I can hand him some parts and he can sandblast, and powder coat them properly without supervision. He is big and strong and is REALLY helpful when I need to move bikes around - that's getting difficult for me. He doesn't know how to build a bike, but he can break them down without much help.

No surprises

Sam Bankman-Fried’s Lawyers Are Veterans of Ghislaine Maxwell and ‘El Chapo’ Cases​

marshg246 said:

In Northern Virginia, the fast-food places are paying $17/hour plus benefits. Trying to find non-employee help without benefits - tough! Only an idiot would work for minimum wage here - $7.25/hour

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Just to clarify, minimum wage in Virginia is now $12. 00. Federally it's $7.25 (cost of living in Northern Virginia is probably double what it is in rural Wyoming).

marshg246 said:

He would make more money working at a fast-food place - I pay him WAY more than minimum wage.

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Wow. So, $17 is more than your employee makes but you pay him "WAY" more than $12 an hour? So, what? $15? I know working on old cars/bikes is a difficult money maker but let's be realistic. In 2003 a young person could just make ends meet for $15 an hour (I know, I was young in 2003). In 2023, it's not possible in a metropolitan area.

By the way, you're the last person I'd want to start an argument with considering we have much in common other than age (VA, Feds, Science, Computers, British Bikes!)

Historical Perspective​

During the 2008 financial crisis, the price of gold increased from around $800 per ounce to over $1,700 per ounce within a few years.
In the 1970s period of stagflation, gold price skyrocketed from US$35/oz to US$800/oz.

Current Perspective​

Look at the HANDS of young people.....
You can see bones & ligaments/tendons. NO MUSCLE AT ALL.
They DO NOTHING. They don't mow lawns. They don't wash cars. They don't take out the trash. They don't shovel snow.

We are so screwed.

concours said:

Look at the HANDS of young people.....
You can see bones & ligaments/tendons. NO MUSCLE AT ALL.
They DO NOTHING. They don't mow lawns. They don't wash cars. They don't take out the trash. They don't shovel snow.

We are so screwed.

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Yes we all are in the shit.... im afraid regardless of how the media try and play down this global/sovereign currency crisis.

But to your point ...when the covid lockdowns started I thought man we need to focus our support/spending on local business and manufacturing to keep our economy afloat so we can endure all of this government spending on the hope our country/govt focuses more on export commodities and adding value to our timber exports etc by firing up most of our redundant saw mills employing the young unemployed to turn export logs into cut timber to support our local economy and our people (just one of many things we could do)
What does the government do...increases unemployment benefit money...
Continues to massively import goods and services from places like China..Shuts down our only oil refinery (now we have to even import bitumen for our roads which is second grade crap)... and gives no incentive for our younger privileged generation to lead or to work at all...
Mean time we bring in migrant workers to service our industries (good on them) while our young sit and watch the world go by.
If I had my way they would be subject to compulsory military training to harden them up a bit...did me no harm...the irony of it all is that OUR govts are doing it on purpose...and thats why we are so screwed Bro ....as you know.
What happened to "build back better"
Some simple Arithmetic

Anglophile said:

Wow. So, $17 is more than your employee makes but you pay him "WAY" more than $12 an hour? So, what? $15? I know working on old cars/bikes is a difficult money maker but let's be realistic. In 2003 a young person could just make ends meet for $15 an hour (I know, I was young in 2003). In 2023, it's not possible in a metropolitan area.

By the way, you're the last person I'd want to start an argument with considering we have much in common other than age (VA, Feds, Science, Computers, British Bikes!)

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Slightly confused - I pay WAY more than Federal minimum wage which is $7.25/hour and way more than VA minimum wages which was $11/hour last year and is now $12/hour.

I'm not comfortable saying how much, but I pay more than $15. If he were full-time and not living with his parents, he could not live in this area without a roommate. I know companies with full-time office workers with a bachelor's degree who they pay $28,000 to start, and those company owners can't get it through their thick skulls that people working at fast food have about the same benefits and make $17/hour (34,000/year) to start.

We're not far apart - you'll have to come visit my mess sometime.

US To Hit Debt Ceiling One Week From Today, Starting Countdown To Epic Chaos​

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concours said:

View attachment 102776View attachment 102777TView attachment 102778View attachment 102778

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Thats them... we got em here... just like that in many forms/styles...covered in chrome pimples and all ...unemployable rejects of society ....and who will run the country one day...if ya get to them early enough ...they can be saved...

Meanwhile, the lazy snowflake man-boys are too lazy to shovel/snow-blow/salt the walk ways to a multi million dollar company. And too stupid to even THINK about the ramifications.
Because their Mommy's & Daddies never made them do a mothereffing THING for themselves.

concours said:

Meanwhile, the lazy snowflake man-boys are too lazy to shovel/snow-blow/salt the walk ways to a multi million dollar company. And too stupid to even THINK about the ramifications.
View attachment 102783

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This disease starts to progress more so with our failing socialist education/school curriculum.

concours said:

Look at the HANDS of young people.....
You can see bones & ligaments/tendons. NO MUSCLE AT ALL.
They DO NOTHING. They don't mow lawns. They don't wash cars. They don't take out the trash. They don't shovel snow.

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Why should they? They make more money posting tic tocs

KiwiShane said:

US To Hit Debt Ceiling One Week From Today, Starting Countdown To Epic Chaos​

Nation closing in on $31.4T borrowing limit

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct debt ceiling estimate. We regret the error. The federal government is closing in on the $31.4 trillion borrowing limit, meani…

thehill.com

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In about 1972 I was driving to work early one morning listening to the radio. The announcer said that the US economy was a little over 1T dollars. To show how big 1T was, he said to lay one dollars bills flat and when you reached the moon the stack would be 1T dollars. Their math was flawed as the stack would only be 67,866 miles tall.

Did the math for today. US $1 bill is .0043" thick. 31,400,000,000,000 * .0043 / 12 / 5280 = 2,130,992 miles. The moon is (average) 258,866 miles away. So, the debt would take about 8.92 stacks to the moon!

marshg246 said:

In about 1972 I was driving to work early one morning listening to the radio. The announcer said that the US economy was a little over 1T dollars. To show how big 1T was, he said to lay one dollars bills flat and when you reached the moon the stack would be 1T dollars. Their math was flawed as the stack would only be 67,866 miles tall.

Did the math for today. US $1 bill is .0043" thick. 31,400,000,000,000 * .0043 / 12 / 5280 = 2,130,992 miles. The moon is (average) 258,866 miles away. So, the debt would take about 8.92 stacks to the moon!

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Really so are you the mathematician ?