Ah, probably caught his reflection in the camera lens then

Right? It’s one of my favorite anecdotes to bring out whenever talking about out-of-touch boomers

It works on a few topics too. Valuing your employees, the cost of turnover, and how “unskilled” labor is mostly a myth. I didn’t really mention it in the original comment, but the reason they had to hire 2 people to replace him was because there was so much to learn

The gas station had an attached car wash. My friend was able to run and fix any issues in either the store or the car wash. Being able to fix a fountain machine, ice machine, register issues, etc. are relatively easy on their own, but stack them up and it becomes quite a bit of training for a new assistant manager to learn on top of normal management duties like operating the safe, reviewing cameras, doing the books, etc.

The car wash was at least as much work since it constantly broke down. Have to basically become a mechanic to keep it running. You also have to learn a lot of risk management. Plenty of dumb people ignore the signs saying to turn your car in neutral, or they accidentally put it in reverse and back into the very expensive door that closed behind them

Hence they had to hire two different people

Ooh, you are correct, but unfortunately no bonus points for that one. It was the free space due to the town being named “Whitesville”

No, but that’s the reality of living in America

Even more on the nose when you notice it’s across the interstate from Brownsburg

Whitesville was a sundown town and the hate and racism are still going strong

That’s also not including the increased shrinkage and turnover costs to Walmart

As their own workers get desperate, they’ll have to choose between going hungry and risking their job. Many will justifiably choose to steal, increasing shrinkage. Some will, inevitably, be caught increasing turnover. Both will cost Walmart

On the other hand, Walmart may see a boon as shoppers who typically spent their SNAP benefits at other stores go to Walmart with the little bit they have left due to the perceived cost savings

Statute of limitations alone would kill any case he has, but even if it didn’t, he would be required to be able to show a court proof of debt owed, which it sounds like he wouldn’t be able to

Trump’s inhumanity aside, it galls me that using collective bargaining to lower the prices of weight loss drugs is acceptable, but doing so with all the other life saving medications would somehow be socialism

Huh, TIL. Didn’t realize the US had an exit tax. Sounds like it forces a sale of US based assets when you renounce citizenship, then you have to pay taxes on that

That is true, although I doubt many rich people care where the tax money goes. They just care about the amount they get taxed

Can’t take a private jet, but you can take a helicopter

That being said, does traffic suck for a billionaire? They can have a big vehicle with a driver. Could easily be effectively an office for them. I wouldn’t care much about traffic if I didn’t have to do the driving

I feel you :(

I pay less than $1,000 a month in rent and utilities in the midwest. I work fully remotely and could afford NYC, but moving there would cost me more than 3x as much to live. Even though I hate midwest suburbia so much, I plug in that $2,000/month into an investment calculator and it feels impossible to move. It’s the difference between maybe retiring at 65 and retiring at 50

We could have both, reform for leadership performing trades AND we can stop paying them when the government shuts down

Okay, so we give a lot of power to the wealthy members of congress. It doesn’t change the fundamental calculus that your suggestion would shift power from working class members of congress to the wealthy members. Even without insider trading, many of them are multi-millionaires and will not care at all that they don’t receive their salary for a while

But this story was about the FAA workers who don’t get paid with stocks

That one has an easy solution that doesn’t involve giving more power to the wealthy: Continue paying ATC during the shutdown

A much better generalized solution would instead to be forced budget continuation. Can’t pass a bill? The old budget continues until you do

Yes, that’s exactly what I mean. Dedication doesn’t have an inherently positive connotation

I’ve been thinking about almost the same thing a lot lately

Specifically the impact and ethics of donating to support private assistance programs. I worry that donating to things like St. Jude’s is just reinforcing the status quo. Similarly, if I’m donating to support food shelves now, would that be reinforcing the idea that government benefits, like SNAP, are unnecessary? Would I be reinforcing the idea that government doesn’t work?

By and large, poorer people that need a social safety net tend to vote Republicans into office. Is the negative impact of conservative policies obfuscated by private support temporarily plugging the gaps?

Healthcare especially. The US has a fundamentally inefficient healthcare system, but most people don’t realize how inefficient it is because the costs are spread around so much. The fact employers pay much of the premiums makes people forget that the premiums are actually absurdly expensive. Same story with ACA subsidies. Most people couldn’t afford ACA without the subsidies. Rather than racking up more debt, I feel like we need to fix our inefficient system first. We lack the political will to do so though, since most people don’t understand how expensive health insurance actually is

I feel like I’m the only one, but if someone is trying to rob me, I’d rather let them than kill someone. A bunch of stuff isn’t worth living with the guilt of killing someone for the rest of my life. Especially because of the odds of accidentally shooting someone innocent

Pretty sure I’m alone on this one though

I think it’s accurate for late-2021

People used the pandemic to up-skill, or otherwise find a better job, so when things started re-opening in 2021, most retail and service industry places had a very hard time filling roles

Story time

In 2019, just before the pandemic, a friend of mine worked at a gas station for years as the assistant manager. He loved it. Some responsibility without having all the responsibility. Lots of overtime, enough money to live off in a LCOL area. He was making something like $14.75 an hour. The store manager bumped him up to $15.75/hour, since he was doing the work of two people, showed up on time and sober, and was generally a much better employee than a gas station has any right to have

After he had already gotten his raise, corporate went back to his manager and said no (a decision by the current head of the company). Corporate rolled back the pay increase. According to them, he was already the highest paid assistant manager in the chain (~20 stores in the midwest). They wouldn’t approve the pay increase, even though employee pay is generally at the discretion of the store manager

He started looking for a new job the next day. COVID happened shortly after that and upended the job market. He got a job as the equivalent to an assistant manager at a warehouse making $27.00/hour, with much better hours (generally 8:30-5:00), and better benefits. The gas station had to hire 2 assistant managers to replace him. They also started at $16.00, even more than the raise that corporate had rolled back

I can’t tell what he’s trying to do with that expression. It feels like he’s trying to be intimidating, but for obvious reasons he can’t. He just looks like Mr. Burns to me

I clicked on 6 sites

• 4 were personal portfolio sites

• 1 was a personal blog

• 1 was a web design company

Pretty disappointing, and I’m not going to keep clicking on more in the hopes I find something interesting

So Square Enix is demanding OpenAI stop using their content, but is 100% okay using AI built off stolen content to make more money themselves

As a developer, it bothers me that my code is being used to train AI that Square Enix is using while trying to deny anyone else the ability to use their work

I could go either way on whether or not AI should be able to train on available data, but no one should get to have it both ways