Count to a Million

[Magical Girl Mimi]

74060

Hiya!

[Teddy3333]

74061

Clackamas is correct... I just found it on google though, not my pic. I do have pics of OR though. Very pretty. Went out in '13.

[MsRowdyRedhead]

74061

Hey Roddy.. do remember you!!

Teddy, where in OR were you??

[Teddy3333]

74062

I'm afraid I don't remember roddy...

We (me and Mom) toured most of Oregon's coast. We entered through the Lakeview area (very pretty), went up to La Pine (very Pretty), went down and saw the redwoods, and then went all the way up the coast on 101 until we hit portland (also very pretty). It was all quite nice and made me want to move there.

[MsRowdyRedhead]

74063

I am in Portland proper, on the West side, just south of downtown, and right over the Willamette river.

This was taken from my desk... the river is under the fog..

[Teddy3333]

74064

Beautiful! My mom grew up in downtown Portland. Her family lived in various suburbs and apartments.

[MsRowdyRedhead]

74065

I am just above John's landing, and I-5

[SAMBO10794]

74066

[Trijhak]

74067

Trump is really skilled at seeming less and less intelligent every time he opens his mouth/types his tweets.

Year's almost over, fortunately enough. Maybe I'll wake up to the year turning to 2016 and not 2017 and the entire year was just one long nightmare everyone's simultaneously experiencing.

[Teddy3333]

74065

What person says he doesn't need intelligence briefing? Seriously. And all of his picks so far are beyond scary. Billionaires, magnates... people a lot like him, of course. In my opinion, I don't think the ultra-rich class has any clue what life is like for the rest of the country, or the rest of the world even. And Pruitt for EPA Admin? WHAT? There goes the environment.

[Saturn2.0]

74066

Rick Perry.... Although I can't really explain why most people hate him, he's certainly a terrible choice. I can only remember he's cut our education budget a good amount a few years back, toll roads, .... plus I'm against the death penalty (as opposed to in the past). The same person who "wanted to cut the energy position is now being put into office for that same position". That's clearly a very red light. I was originally a bit amused that the cheats of the Democratic Party got their just desserts for what they did to Bernie, forcing Hillary on us, but now I've changed my mind and would've just preferred Clinton to win; it's what Bernie would've wanted.

I do think Bernie needs to form his own party and pull away progressives from BOTH parties, liberal or conservative. His ideas I admit, though not impossible, seem a bit farfetched, so perhaps some conservative/moderate thinking could compromise or tackle the issues in a different way than just more spending.

I.e., rather than a flat out one-for-all $15 wage, why not mandate profit checks on top of a base wage (or if high enough, just pay in profit check)?

Oh, and I did vote for Clinton.

[Teddy3333]

74071

I voted for Clinton as well, although I do wish I had had a better choice. It made me feel a little dirty... I guess that makes us both commie-socialist scum? That's what I keep getting called, more or less. I also voted for Bernie. I think he would have been much, much better for the country than Trump. Some people, though, were not afraid of Bernie, but afraid of the person after him, riding on the coat tails of extreme progressive liberalism. A possibly valid concern, I will concede.

I'm not sure about $15 min wage. It's never been that high, equivalently. The highest it's ever been was about $8.50 or so.

I'm also not sure what you mean by profit checks.

[MsRowdyRedhead]

74072

Historically, when the minimum, wage goes up, the cost of ALL goods and services goes up. In addition, some businesses close entirely, leaving less jobs.  Companies like McDonalds turn to automation. Seattle has had it for over a year and the results are dismal. On top of that you have people with skill and training that have been working for years that are just barely making 15. Not to mention our armed forces.. google their salaries.

When I had a minimum wage job back in the dark ages.. less than 2 bucks, by the way... I had a roommate,  no car, and we shared a phone.  We pretty much never went out to eat.
I put myself through college with the help of a couple of grants, working as a bartender. even after I had my son, I went to school part time and to work. And I traded babysitting with a neighbor who worked opposite hours of me.  I started at a community college the first two years, and my grades earned me a scholarship. I worked my tuchas off.  AS did most of my generation.  I still don't have a smart phone.. but my house and car are paid for..
I started out as a bartender, but by the time my son graduated HS, I was making 100K a year, and in 2002 I started my own small company.
Find work you love. Go to college, OR even better, go to trade school. If you want a good life, you have to make a good life. Unless you were born rich (I sure wasn't) you have to work for it. But YOU CAN DO IT!  I am nothing special. Not brilliant or particularly talented. Just stubborn. Give it a try.

[Teddy3333]

74073

Sounds like good advice! I've generally thought that people should try and do what they love. It makes sense to me. If you get a job just for the money, odds are, you're not going to like it as much. I'm in college for a wildlife biology bachelors. I've already been in for 4 years, and let me tell you, I'm getting so tired... LOL. I'm going in for finals tomorrow and the last ones for the semester. Already did 4, have 2 more tomorrow. Argh! LOL. I also work as a carpenter and contractor whenever I have time, which isn't too often will classes. I still have about a year left, to boot, due to my slow pace.

[MsRowdyRedhead]

74074

It took me 6 years for my bachelors, the masters took two more. Stick with it, you won't regret it.

[Saturn2.0]

74075

The real problem is wealth distribution, however not all businesses have owners that make x2000 the amount the average employee does. That's why I suggest profit-checks.

Heheh, I want to be an airline pilot, so I'm choosing to be poor for several years (training is expensive and you have to get that experience of 1500 hours first somehow....). I'm studying engineering because that's what everyone who is a pilot suggests; don't get a degree in piloting.

[MsRowdyRedhead]

74076


The AF Reserves might be an avenue to your goal...and I admire our choice to live poor and work for what you want. Bravo,

[Magical Girl Mimi]

74077

Um, just want to step in here just to address the comment about automation...

I honestly think as tech increases, regardless of minimum wage, there'll be a lot of automation. Maybe not as much to begin with, but now that we have better ways to handle stuff like orders without having to deal with people(which happened here even without much change to minimum wage), it will happen.

It's not because of them having to pay more, it's whether they can cut out paying as much as they can. I don't like to be all about 'evil businesses', because I like to believe there's a lot that -aren't- evil, despite what people like to claim. But businesses are about making money, and if they can find ways to make more money and keep more money, they'll take it.

The problem here is that automation isn't bad, but it's when there's no alternative things, that things start to get... bad. Like, making the purchasing process for things easier is a good thing, since then you have people having more time to themselves and their family, and less stress. It's especially good for cashiers, to whom people really like to be rude to sometimes. It's bad when there's not as many chances for income other than that, though, but that circles back to people being rather... set in their ways about different things.

[Teddy3333]

74078

technology will continue to increase and slowly but surely take over our lives whether or not we like it or not. Many cars have cruise control, which allows you to set a speed and keep it there. Newer cars have smart-curse control, which can follow a car at exactly the same distance and even come to a complete stop with said car. Tesla, Google, and several other companies have jumped on the auto-pilot car bandwagon. It's only a matter of time before every rich Mercedes driver out there is being toted around in an autonomous vehicle. It doesn't look like it, but it's the perfect example of a robot taking care of us. And we won't even notice it because the transition has been so slow.

Sure, we'll have plenty of luddites trying to pull us back. Because, quite frankly, maybe we should be a little worried about our own creation taking over everything from us. In the Star Trek era, everything's perfect. People work hard to different goals that make society and the galaxy a better place to live in, and get most of their traditional entertainment from sterile holo-decks. Hmm. But isn't working part of what makes us strong? And jobs are a crucial part of the economy. How many jobs are going to get displaced? What are all those truckers going to do in 15 years when all the semis tote themselves around? We'll have 15 million people out of work if the entire fleet converts.It probably wouldn't come to that, but a lot of companies will be considering it. Machines can be replaced, and don't argue with you, replace workmen's comp, etc etc.

[MsRowdyRedhead]

74078

Remember that this equipment is quite costly, and it will take many years of no wages to offset the cost. By then it will need repair or replacement.

 The $15 minimum has hurt more people than it has or will ever helped.