Hobbes

John Hanson said:

The Hobbes in the 2.60 a frickin gallon thread sounds exactly the way
I'd picture Keith sounding if he were an American.

Hardly. Our Keith is fair and decent. I quickly figured out that the
Hobbes there was a shallow imposter.

Dally

On Sat, 13 Aug 2005 23:22:21 -0400, Dally <[email hidden]> wrote in
misc.fitness.weights:

Quoted message said:

John Hanson said:

The Hobbes in the 2.60 a frickin gallon thread sounds exactly the way
I'd picture Keith sounding if he were an American.

Hardly. Our Keith is fair and decent. I quickly figured out that the
Hobbes there was a shallow imposter.

The other Hobbes seems to be fair and decent also. I see nothing
wrong with wanting lazy Americans to take menial jobs and work their
way up the "food chain" instead of taking handouts. I'm sure our
Keith would feel that way as an American and seeing all of the abuse
of the welfare system. Hell, I thought it was him at first but he was
far too opinionated politically.

"John Hanson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On Sat, 13 Aug 2005 23:22:21 -0400, Dally <[email hidden]> wrote in
misc.fitness.weights:

Quoted message said:

John Hanson said:

The Hobbes in the 2.60 a frickin gallon thread sounds exactly the way
I'd picture Keith sounding if he were an American.

Hardly. Our Keith is fair and decent. I quickly figured out that the
Hobbes there was a shallow imposter.

The other Hobbes seems to be fair and decent also. I see nothing
wrong with wanting lazy Americans to take menial jobs and work their
way up the "food chain" instead of taking handouts. I'm sure our
Keith would feel that way as an American and seeing all of the abuse
of the welfare system. Hell, I thought it was him at first but he was
far too opinionated politically.

I think that our Keith is plenty opinionated (for a Canuck!)

In article <[email hidden]>,
John Hanson <[email hidden]> writes:
[snip]

Quoted message said:

I see nothing
wrong with wanting lazy Americans to take menial jobs and work their
way up the "food chain" instead of taking handouts.

The problem is, John, that many, if not most, of the menial jobs to
which you refer simply do not pay enough to support even the
individual, much less a family. Most of the "menial" jobs that once
provided a decent standard of living have been off-shored.

I'm most definitely *not* a "liberal." But even I, a die-hard
capitalist and libertarian, can no longer ignore the evidence that's
before my eyes: There is a relative handful of rich, getting richer,
and richer, and richer all the time. Then there's the
barely-making-sustenance-and-below class, which is rapidly growning
in size. The middle class, what made the U.S. economy really thrive,
is being wiped out.

I wonder if people will wake up to what's happening before it's too
late? I'd like to think they will. I fear they will not.

Quoted message said:

I'm sure our
Keith would feel that way as an American and seeing all of the abuse
of the welfare system.

[snip]

Nothin' unique about the U.S. welfare "system"--social systems
similar to it the world over are likewise abused.

--
Jim Seymour | "It is wrong always, everywhere and
WARNING: The "From:" address is a | for everyone to believe anything upon
spam trap. DON'T USE IT! Use: | insufficient evidence."
[email hidden] | - W. K. Clifford, ca. 1876

On Mon, 15 Aug 2005 16:13:13 -0000, [email hidden] (Dopey
[censored]) wrote in misc.fitness.weights:

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
John Hanson <[email hidden]> writes:
[snip]

Quoted message said:

I see nothing
wrong with wanting lazy Americans to take menial jobs and work their
way up the "food chain" instead of taking handouts.

The problem is, John, that many, if not most, of the menial jobs to
which you refer simply do not pay enough to support even the
individual, much less a family. Most of the "menial" jobs that once
provided a decent standard of living have been off-shored.

There are Burger King's and MacDonalds around here paying $10.00/hour.
That's a decent wage for a young kid and a good way to break into the
labor force. Hell, I know a guy who graduated a year ahead of me who
started working at the MacDonalds here. He's now the manager and has
been for a number of years. Some of those guys are in the six figure
range.

Plus, there's always construction and the trades which still pay
really good money for the most part.

Quoted message said:

I'm most definitely *not* a "liberal." But even I, a die-hard
capitalist and libertarian, can no longer ignore the evidence that's
before my eyes: There is a relative handful of rich, getting richer,
and richer, and richer all the time. Then there's the
barely-making-sustenance-and-below class, which is rapidly growning
in size. The middle class, what made the U.S. economy really thrive,
is being wiped out.

I'm not seeing that.

Quoted message said:

I wonder if people will wake up to what's happening before it's too
late? I'd like to think they will. I fear they will not.

Quoted message said:

I'm sure our
Keith would feel that way as an American and seeing all of the abuse
of the welfare system.

[snip]

Nothin' unique about the U.S. welfare "system"--social systems
similar to it the world over are likewise abused.

That doesn't mean you have to like it.

John Hanson said:

There are Burger King's and MacDonalds around here paying $10.00/hour.
That's a decent wage for a young kid and a good way to break into the
labor force. Hell, I know a guy who graduated a year ahead of me who
started working at the MacDonalds here. He's now the manager and has
been for a number of years. Some of those guys are in the six figure
range.

What BS.

TBR

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and
more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day
the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the
White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
"Anyone with degrees from Yale and Harvard is presumed to be intelligent,
but George W. Bush has managed to overcome that presumption."

"The Bill Rodgers" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

John Hanson said:

There are Burger King's and MacDonalds around here paying $10.00/hour.
That's a decent wage for a young kid and a good way to break into the
labor force. Hell, I know a guy who graduated a year ahead of me who
started working at the MacDonalds here. He's now the manager and has
been for a number of years. Some of those guys are in the six figure
range.

What BS.

Just because you had a cleaning contract for the local McDonalds doesn't
make you an expert

In article <[email hidden]>,
John Hanson <[email hidden]> writes:
[snip]

Quoted message said:

Pretty hard to ship trade work overseas. It's also hard to ship
service jobs there too. Sure, they can import people but customer
relations is half the job. At least as far as service jobs are
concerned.

The best thing about the trades is the side jobs. You can have
contractors go belly up but the tradesman will always find work.

You make good points about trade jobs, I concede.

--
Jim Seymour | "It is wrong always, everywhere and
WARNING: The "From:" address is a | for everyone to believe anything upon
spam trap. DON'T USE IT! Use: | insufficient evidence."
[email hidden] | - W. K. Clifford, ca. 1876

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
John Hanson <[email hidden]> writes:
[snip]

Quoted message said:

Pretty hard to ship trade work overseas. It's also hard to ship
service jobs there too. Sure, they can import people but customer
relations is half the job. At least as far as service jobs are
concerned.

The best thing about the trades is the side jobs. You can have
contractors go belly up but the tradesman will always find work.

You make good points about trade jobs, I concede.

There will always be jobs for repair work, but not building new structures.
That is very cyclical. There's been a boom for years now,

In article <[email hidden]>,
Charles <[email hidden]> writes:
[snip]

Quoted message said:

Did anyone live up to his pseudonym more than Jim, who is without
doubt a real "dopey [censored]"?

It is really difficult to keep up with his constant change of opinions
as he seeks to curry favour with all sorts of people.

[snip]

Quoted message said:

Would you care to point-out where I've expressed an opinion on U.S.
employment, its economy and trade, here in MFW, ever before, "Charles"?

I fear you've fallen into the same trap as most left/liberal and
right/conservative sheep: If somebody believes in "this and that,"
they must, perforce, support "the other thing." Well, Charles, I'm
neither left/liberal nor right/conservative. I don't fit neatly into
any political pigeon hole. I'm closer to being a libertarian than
anything else, but I'm liberal-ish on the environment. I'm becoming
somewhat protectionist (dunno whether that's left/liberal,
right/conservative or neither) on trade.

[snip]

Quoted message said:

Have a nice weekend old chum -

[snip]

I plan on it. It started-out great with a productive day at work on
Friday. The weekend began with a good work-out, incl. HIIT, after
work, and stopping by my favourite brew-pub for one of their terrific
square, deep-dish "Carnivore" pizzas, for dinner, on the way home.
Whilst awaiting my pizza, I enjoyed a 25 oz. mug of their Summer Brew.
Delicious!

--
Jim Seymour | "It is wrong always, everywhere and
WARNING: The "From:" address is a | for everyone to believe anything upon
spam trap. DON'T USE IT! Use: | insufficient evidence."
[email hidden] | - W. K. Clifford, ca. 1876

Dopey censored said:

The middle class, what made the U.S. economy really thrive, is being
wiped out. [...] I ain't buyin' a damn thing that isn't
*absolutely* *necessary*. Companies want to out-source labour, ship
their manufacturing overseas, hire cheap(er) H1 visa labour? Fine.
They just lost a customer.

Yes, show them who's the boss! I've lost my job in Kryzhopelsk which
was to smelt frying pans nobody needed, shortly after the US defeated
Soviet Union. So I had no other option except to move to the winner
country on a cheap H1. Although once they installed ATMs in Russia I
asked to offshore-outsource me back, because of the cheaper vodka. I'm
very sorry that it has contributed to the demise of the middle class.

(not so)Dopey censored said:

You can believe what you wish about jobs
and the economy, but I'm far from sanguine
about the near future. Lemme put it this
way: I still have a relatively high-paying
job. My family is taking advantage of
that current situation by suspending *all*
discretionary spending as of this week.
That means I ain't buyin' a damn thing
that isn't *absolutely* *necessary*.

And that, unfortunately, is what a lot of families fail to do.

People buy houses they can't afford, purchase vehicles they don't need,
and more.

What's the good of having an $80K a year job if all you're doing is
supporting your $5K a year /insurance payment/ (alone) on your
Mercedes, Corvette, etc. and your $30K a year mortgage?

People get extremely $to0p!t when it comes to money.

But, yes, $5.15US an hour minimum wage is criminal. Especially funny
(or insane) as Pennsylvania legislators just voted themselves a
whopping (minimum) SIXTEEN PERCENT pay raise
<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8898589/> to at least $81,050 - more
than any state except California.

And I don't think their $80K-plus salary includes the additional $150 a
day per diem they receive if they live a certain distance from their
office. Maybe I've got the math wrong, but isn't that $50K-plus per
year in a travel allowance alone? Cool for the legislators, but sucks
for the taxpayer who's footing the bill. Someone please tell me I have
that aaaaaall wrong. Please?

--
Curt
http://curtjames.com/

D*Z* said:

Dopey censored said:

The middle class, what made the U.S. economy really thrive, is being
wiped out. [...] I ain't buyin' a damn thing that isn't
*absolutely* *necessary*. Companies want to out-source labour, ship
their manufacturing overseas, hire cheap(er) H1 visa labour? Fine.
They just lost a customer.

Yes, show them who's the boss! I've lost my job in Kryzhopelsk which
was to smelt frying pans nobody needed, shortly after the US defeated
Soviet Union. So I had no other option except to move to the winner
country on a cheap H1. Although once they installed ATMs in Russia I
asked to offshore-outsource me back, because of the cheaper vodka.

Now, Dmitri stands on street corner with a cardboard sign: WILL
CALCULATE REGRESSIONS FOR FOOD.

JMW said:

D*Z* said:

Dopey censored said:

The middle class, what made the U.S. economy really thrive, is being
wiped out. [...] I ain't buyin' a damn thing that isn't
*absolutely* *necessary*. Companies want to out-source labour, ship
their manufacturing overseas, hire cheap(er) H1 visa labour? Fine.
They just lost a customer.

Yes, show them who's the boss! I've lost my job in Kryzhopelsk which
was to smelt frying pans nobody needed, shortly after the US defeated
Soviet Union. So I had no other option except to move to the winner
country on a cheap H1. Although once they installed ATMs in Russia I
asked to offshore-outsource me back, because of the cheaper vodka.

Now, Dmitri stands on street corner with a cardboard sign: WILL
CALCULATE REGRESSIONS FOR FOOD.

That's not the complete sign, John.

WILL CALCULATE REGRESSIONS FOR FOOD. NO KISSING ON THE MOUTH!