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  7. Wally world death match

    in Dumpster

    Posted

    Indoor aerial drones... $100/hr flight time, includes 3 paintballs

    Additional armaments = $100 for radar jamming, $100 for emp pulse (AA artillery), $200 for single shot Taser, $500 for one rubber buckshot

    All items billed only if used.

    Deployed at obnoxious retail establishments.

    Best use case scenarios:

    Cover for self and family whilst shopping

    Entertainment for non-shoppers / CoD Fans

    #BusinessIdeas

    Copyright JRMMiii 2012

  8. Wally world death match

    in Dumpster

    Posted

    "The goal for the corporations is to maximize profit and market share. And they also have a goal for their target, namely the population. They have to be turned into completely mindless consumers of goods that they do not want. You have to develop what are called 'Created Wants'. So you have to create wants. You have to impose on people what's called a Philosophy of Futility. You have to focus them on the insignificant things of life, like fashionable consumption. I'm just basically quoting business literature. And it makes perfect sense. The ideal is to have individuals who are totally disassociated from one another. Whose conception of themselves, the sense of value is just, 'how many created wants can I satisfy?' We have huge industries, public relations industry, monstrous industry, advertising and so on, which are designed from infancy to mold people into this desired pattern."

    -- Noam Chomsky

  17. Health costs?

    in Dumpster

    Posted

    My employer offers a HSA plan. It was VERY expensive compared to what my wife's employer hits us to add me to her plan. My wife's insurance is going up, and coverage decreasing as well. I thought Obama was going to save us from rising healthcare costs?

    He can't control if you have an a$$hole employer or insurance company that will milk the cow dry until they're absolutely forced to comply.

  18. Health costs?

    in Dumpster

    Posted

    Where are HSA accounts going to be banished?

    That'd be something I'd be interested in since everyone at my employer was forced to go to an HSA instead of a traditional plan... they cost about 50% less than the old traditional plan, but it's basically maintenance and catastrophic coverage... the intermediate or people that need pharmacological assistance are kind of screwed.

  21. Funny picture thread.

    in Pics and Vids

    Posted · Edited by JRMMiii
    zealous, not jealous...

    481758_554952651185017_1310341027_n.jpg

    That's probably true.

    Overzealous OSU grad painted his Caddy to honor his alum, but the Michigan State student that was supposed to top his tank off totally did the math wrong and it ended up on the tracks.

    Of course, the Michigan alum was operating the train, because actually requiring them to "steer" would be mental overload, so throttle and brake is near max brain capacity for them... and even though the Michigan operator saw the car miles away, he still didn't have the wherewithal to react and get the train stopped.

    Pretty sure the guy in this clip is another Michigan alum...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdctnPIR5kA

    • Upvote 1

  23. Not only does Walmart have low prices.

    in Dumpster

    Posted · Edited by JRMMiii

    I survive on keystrokes and anger. Oxygen and food is for you people.

    Getting swingset aggravated enough from my office chair on my day off to say

    You're fucking retarded.

    And rant on about my perceived views, along with putting words in my mouth - since he knows me so well, just shows me that my work here is never done. I also sense bitterness about education and income level.

    Perhaps it's along the lines of "I need these people to keep making minimum wage, so I can feel superior because I make more... the closer these poor people get to my wages, the less I'll be able to judge them". I dunno... perhaps.

    :stirpot:

    Predictable. You won't see the good, just flat out refuse.

    So, how was the area before? Dead, dying, housing prices slumping and businesses going out instead of springing up. It was a wasteland, and those types of jobs were never here, ever, anyway. It's a smallish town with few white collar jobs. If you can damn Walmart for bringing normal jobs and retail, then you also need to blame tech companies and medical conglomerates for not building high-tech, high-paying places here. Walmart did something good for where I live, but it's not your utopia where cart pushers can afford to raise families on their wage or go to college for free...so it sucks. That's fucking retarded. You're fucking retarded.

    What Walmart did was provide shopping, dining and entertainment to a part of the city that needed it. Housing has gone up, not down. Families are moving in, some that work here, some that work in Columbus, some that start these small businesses. Sure, there are a lot more menial jobs than before, but also more managers, owners, accountants, and college-educated people who WANT TO LIVE THERE...regardless of where they work. It's now a nice end of town, and Walmart contributed to that....in addition to helping the same working poor you don't actually give a fuck about have access to cheaper goods and services.

    See, you're very transparent. You don't give a rat's fuck about Walmart's workers, or poor people, or mom & pop. All this is to you is anti-establishment bullshit, straight out of the DU monthly flyer. Walmart is bad, because you need them to be. Capitalist, Big Box, Evil, Corporate, a bully, thoughtless, heartless Big Retail! Oh, the horror.

    See, Walmart doesn't always do great shit. Neither does Sears, or CVS, or Chipotle, or Apple. I don't pretend to say they're a force for good. They're a business, not an advocacy group. They do what they exist for. They sell shit, they employ people, and in the context of that existence they affect people in good ways and bad. The question of which outweighs the other is a fine argument, but you have to have at least one eye open to do it - and you can't see through the Che shirt pulled over your head.

    Mom & Pop were actually worse for working families and first-time workers....healthcare and that mythical "living wage" was NEVER part of that employment, choice was limited, pay and advancement almost never part of the equation. Look at the standard of living for "poverty" households 20 years ago and now...what your money could buy you and the quality of life. It's better now, not worse. College educated people didn't work in Phil's Grocery in 1972, either...you ignore that too and focus only on the damage that Walmart might do, maybe, if you look at it with your blinders. And, in cases like I listed above they actually can and do supplement a communities ability to support Mom & Pop. Not always, not in every city, but it's part of the benefits that go along with some of the negatives.

    And, for the 12th time, it's always completely up to the consumer and the communities where they live to decide what they want, what's a better fit for their lifestyle, and where they choose to work and shop. They are the final arbiter of this, and most times they prefer Walmart.

  24. Not only does Walmart have low prices.

    in Dumpster

    Posted

    Awesome. Now how many employ college grads (or pays a living wage/benefits per the poverty standards set by the gov't)? How much revenue do they bring to the city vs. the burden placed on it? How many employees of those establishment reside in the city that employs them? How is the housing market in that area before and after?

  25. Not only does Walmart have low prices.

    in Dumpster

    Posted · Edited by JRMMiii

    There are probably quite a few "Walmart came to town, stimulated the local economy and now I have a low paying job, but at least its a job and now I can survive" situations out there as well. So should we play off of those positive emotions too? Most of the time I just hear the negative, so if you're going to use the negative stories to paint a picture, I think you should use the positive ones as well.

    Good <--> Bad is on a continuum. I agree there are some short-term positive effects, but they don't outweigh the long term negative effects. I guess that's the point I was trying to drive at. If Walmart comes in and employs 120 new "associates", but displaces 200 other local jobs, then is that a win? I guess it depends on your perspective. The selfish consumer says it's a win because it's "market efficiency" and "lower prices" -- that's what they see, they don't see the hidden costs of their tax dollars now supporting the 200 families that've been displaced (in addition to some of the 120 that don't make a living wage), or if they don't get on the taxpayer dime, they've drastically reduced their discretionary spending (affecting other local businesses), downsized their homes, and now the town has a reduced tax-base because home and property values go down.

    Fact would be something like - walmart has directly caused X eliminated jobs at Y income, and only created P number of jobs at Q income.

    Life isn't always as explicit as a mathematical formula. These analyses can be performed, but it takes years sometimes to determine whether it's correlation or causation, in addition to statistically eliminating other potential factors in play.

    Emotion (which is a lot of what I'm hearing) is - Sally lost her job and it scared her so she hates walmart. You should relate to her emotions and hate walmart too.

    And that's not why I'm not a fan. Emotions aren't a factor for me... granted they are for a lot of people which is why people use anecdotes and empathy stories as persuasive devices. Not going to work on enginerds, but not everyone is an enginerd.

    Maybe I take too much personal responsibility for my life outcomes.

    And while casting judgment, what would you have done in Sally's situation? How do we prevent this from happening in the future or mitigate the effects of this happening?

    There is a minimum wage. If cart-pusher, deli-counter girl or grocery clerk is not a minimum wage job, then what is? If grocery clerk is your end game, then maybe you shouldn't start a family. If cart-pusher starts paying $13/hr with benefits, you better be pretty fucking good at cart-pushing because there is going to be a long line for that job.

    So, why don't we just take that thought exercise to the point and just say people making less than $50k/yr shouldn't have kids? Or people without the $200k set aside to raise a child BEFORE they have one, can't have kids?

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