On Tue, 22 Feb 2011 13:10:54 -0800, Hawke
wrote:



Read the classified ads. See how much the jobs pay. Hardly any pay even
50K a year. With 90% of the jobs paying low wages how many people do you
expect to have a surplus. Everybody who gets ahead gets a job that pays
a lot. It's as simple as that. Those are scarce.

Hawke

"Getting ahead" is not an entitlement or a right. Not everyone can
get ahead of most others, except perhaps in Lake Wobegone.

Some who find ways to get lots of money go bankrupt while others
prosper on much more modest incomes with prudent planning, spending
and conservation.

People with high-paying jobs are not given them lightly. They
prepare, educate, maneuver and compete to sieze and retain them over
dozens or hundreds of others who covet the very same jobs.

On Monday, I was looking out the front door with dismay. I'd slipped
on the ice the previous night, went down like a headshot groundhog,
collided my ribs against a watermelon-sized mound of ice under the
snow and corner of the roof where an icesickle drips to create an icy
stalagmite on the pavement below.

I yelped. I don't yelp easy, but Gawd that hurt!

I thought I'd broken a rib or 3 but later inventory indicated
otherwise: no swelling, no parts sticking out and one 500 mg Tylenol
suffices nicely to manage.

Then it snowed. Lordy did it snow! 20 inches, with 30 mph winds
blowing it into my north-facing driveway, between the cars and up
against the garage door. I couldn't just hibernate until Easter
because I gotta go help Mary each evening and with appointments later
this week here and in Rochester.

As I opened the front door to see just how bad this was gonna be
(while favoring my hurty place and a generally bad attitude) I saw a
young man standing on my walk grinning at me. I opened the storm door
to ask him what he was up to. He said,
"would like me and my two buds to clear your driveway for $30?"

"Clear the driveway, and the walk, including between the cars?" "Yeah,
sure" "OK, deal!"

My driveway isn't that long. The goin' rate for an easy plow job in
the Cities is about $25 but here were 3 young guys wanting to help
right then right there so thirty bux sounded fair enough to me!

They had two shovels and a little ****ant 1-stage sno-pup. Oh my! I
have a 2-stage 8-hp 22" blower, small enough for me to handle easily
and ample for my needs. That second stage makes all the difference.

I started it up, brought it out, showed one kid how to run it. It'd
throw that fairly cold, dry powder snow a good 30 feet.

I don't think the job took those young men 20 minutes total, they did
a good job and I was delighted to pay them a bit above market rate for
being there when I needed a hand. 30 bux an hour for unskilled labor
certainly isn't "high pay" but it beats welfare whining and it earns
both self-respect for them and the respect of their customer.

Don Foreman wrote:

I don't think the job took those young men 20 minutes total, they did
a good job and I was delighted to pay them a bit above market rate for
being there when I needed a hand. 30 bux an hour for unskilled labor
certainly isn't "high pay" but it beats welfare whining and it earns
both self-respect for them and the respect of their customer.

It was also right neighorly of you to let them use your blower; another fine
example of Minnesota Nice. ;-)

Cheers!
Rich

On Wed, 23 Feb 2011 03:23:00 -0800, Rich Grise
wrote:

Don Foreman wrote:

I don't think the job took those young men 20 minutes total, they did
a good job and I was delighted to pay them a bit above market rate for
being there when I needed a hand. 30 bux an hour for unskilled labor
certainly isn't "high pay" but it beats welfare whining and it earns
both self-respect for them and the respect of their customer.

It was also right neighorly of you to let them use your blower; another fine
example of Minnesota Nice. ;-)

Oh, sure. I reckon he had both thumbs tucked under his suspenders and
a big grin on his face when the kids saw his BigUn, too. wink

P.S: That's $30/hour APIECE for 20 minutes' worth. They'll not starve,
and they're doing the community a service. win/win.

--
"Human nature itself is evermore an advocate for liberty.
There is also in human nature a resentment of injury, and
indignation against wrong. A love of truth and a veneration
of virtue. These amiable passions, are the latent spark. If
the people are capable of understanding, seeing and feeling
the differences between true and false, right and wrong,
virtue and vice, to what better principle can the friends of
mankind apply than to the sense of this difference?"
--John Adams