We're people, people.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Christ

If you don't shop at Wally World, that would be why. They're the "service retailer". I'm not fond of them, but there's nothing about my phone service providing my money to off-shore beneficiaries (that I'm aware of), so I'll bite it and use their service if it's of the same quality as my current service.

Plus, any unlocked/rooted GSM phone works. You just buy a SIM from Wal-Mart and install it in your phone and install the service package, then buy a card and put in the code for it.

You can even use an iPhone, and I hear Apple will help you unlock an AT&T phone as long as it's not the "newest" one on the market.

My gf was given an older iPhone that she uses only as an MP3 player. Her current phone is on the fritz, so this is the ideal situation. If we were neighbors I'd buy you lunch for being so timely/helpful.

From what I have read of your posts, you come across as being politically conservative. I imagine that is uncommon for this site, but maybe that is just me projecting my imagination of liberals driving tiny cars.

I don't shop at Walmart often, but I have no objection to it. Price is the most important consideration to me, and as long as Walmart and their brands employ people willing to work for the wages and conditions that are provided, then I am happy to purchase at the lowest price (almost all of my purchases are online).

In a global economy, "off-shoring" is a natural consequence of free-market practices. The US is among the leaders of free-market capitalism, which is one of the major reasons the country rose to such great economic prosperity. The notion that the loss of menial jobs to overseas workers causes economic hardship is preposterous. Americans don't want to work for such low wages as would be required to be competitive with Chinese workers, so we let the Chinese do those jobs while Americans are free to do something else. While it's true that the Chinese may profit from this, that doesn't mean that we are proportionally poorer. It's the idea that a rising tide lifts all boats. Since that idea works locally (in the US), it must also work on a global scale.

[Christ]

Libertarian, actually. Thanks for playing. :P I'm also a strict Constitutionalist.

I prefer to support local economy, is all. I've never been a fan of supporting a company that makes billions and pays it's workers a pittance for their slavery, but looking at the average Wal-Mart worker /almost/ justifies that.

I am by no means a liberal. I hold certain socialist views, but I don't believe in government enforcement of a human standard. We're socialist by ourselves for the most part. That ends when people start getting all political and drawing boundaries. With less Government, the rift gets smaller, believe it or not.

I firmly believe that people need less direction and more education. Laws don't prevent crimes, they /create/ them.

And I have to add the disclaimer now:

THIS IS NOT TO TURN INTO A POLITICAL THREAD. If you wish to share your social beliefs, that's fine, I imagine, but don't bring politics into the discussion, and I'd really rather not see "you're wrong because blah" happening, and nor do the mods in my experience on this forum.


PS - I like your avatar.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Christ

Libertarian, actually. Thanks for playing. :P I'm also a strict Constitutionalist.

I prefer to support local economy, is all. I've never been a fan of supporting a company that makes billions and pays it's workers a pittance for their slavery, but looking at the average Wal-Mart worker /almost/ justifies that.

I am by no means a liberal. I hold certain socialist views, but I don't believe in government enforcement of a human standard. We're socialist by ourselves for the most part. That ends when people start getting all political and drawing boundaries. With less Government, the rift gets smaller, believe it or not.

I firmly believe that people need less direction and more education. Laws don't prevent crimes, they /create/ them.

Hah, I was half tempted to link a Youtube video of Stossel on outsourcing, but didn't want to risk disturbing the mods. Stossel's Libertarian view on that matter sums up my opinion.

Heck, if we were neighbors I'd buy you lunch just to hear more about saving money on cell phone service, felling trees, and buying/selling things. If I were to loose my job or quit in frustration, I would seriously consider tree felling and buying/selling things for income. Where do I find your tree cutting videos?

[Christ]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Hah, I was half tempted to link a Youtube video of Stossel on outsourcing, but didn't want to risk disturbing the mods. Stossel's Libertarian view on that matter sums up my opinion.

Heck, if we were neighbors I'd buy you lunch just to hear more about saving money on cell phone service, felling trees, and buying/selling things. If I were to loose my job or quit in frustration, I would seriously consider tree felling and buying/selling things for income. Where do I find your tree cutting videos?

They've in a private file I keep for references, but the next couple times I cut some, ill try to teach my father to use my phone and upload some.

Should be doing a few in the next couple weeks to clear some land I plan on removing.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

I have been searching no-contract cellular providers for my gf, but somehow have never heard of Straight Talk until now. This looks very interesting; thank you for mentioning it!

One of the Engineering lab support personel at the college I went to had a funky cordless phone with a big antenna, he had modified it and the handset it matched up to to transpose to shortwave and back, he had a bigger than normal battery on it so it looked like a 1st gen cellphone.

He could talk for free within 20-30 miles of his house to people in his house and could answer phone calls on his land line.

Rather interesting apparatus.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

...but maybe that is just me projecting my imagination of liberals driving tiny cars.

On the other hand, I see lots of SUVs with Obama bumper sticker on. And I'll never forget seeing, shortly after 9/11, a brand-new (still had paper plates on) Cadillac Escalade with a "No Blood for Oil" sticker.

The notion that the loss of menial jobs to overseas workers causes economic hardship is preposterous.

Wouldn't say it's exactly preposterous, but it does overlook the obvious fact that it's generally cheaper to hire Chinese (or Malasians, Bangladeshis, etc) than to invest in industrial robotics, but the robots are cheaper than hiring Americans. So most of the manufacturing jobs aren't coming back, regardless.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

The notion that the loss of menial jobs to overseas workers causes economic hardship is preposterous

Wouldn't say it's exactly preposterous, but it does overlook the obvious fact that it's generally cheaper to hire Chinese (or Malasians, Bangladeshis, etc) than to invest in industrial robotics, but the robots are cheaper than hiring Americans. So most of the manufacturing jobs aren't coming back, regardless.

Our REAL employment (workforce participation corrected for partime labor) has been dropping since 1980, it dropped massively during the reagan era as real jobs were replaced by part time and minimum wage.

The truth is we are at a real unemployment rate of roughly 62% from a brief stint during clinton where we were nearing a real 37% unemployment since most labor was more than 32hrs a week.

We have steadily stagnated from Bush through Obama to where we are today. The sad truth is there are people who have not had a job for many years and likely only could do menial jobs if such a thing existed, many people are working jobs that have nothing to do with their training either, meaning their schooling has gone to waste.

I have been lucky enough to maintain a job for many years but most people do not have that luxury, nor have any of my friends

[TheEnemy]

Originally Posted by rmay635703

Accidents would drop in half, suicides would be cut in half and people would have enough cash in their bank accounts to get off food stamps, but I digress.

Be glad you don't live in my state. I have had neighbors in the rental across the street who are on welfare (which comes with food stamps) have a high end cell phone, better cars, TV's, game systems, go through a 24 pack of beer every other day then still have the gaul to give me crap for being rich (well richer than them).

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by TheEnemy

Be glad you don't live in my state. I have had neighbors in the rental across the street who are on welfare (which comes with food stamps) have a high end cell phone, better cars, TV's, game systems, go through a 24 pack of beer every other day then still have the gaul to give me crap for being rich (well richer than them).

Too bad "Needs" aren't actual ones Eh?

If they didn't have all that crap they wouldn't need welfare!

When I was a kid my father broke his back and was permanently disabled and could not find work because no one wanted to hire a liability.

My folks had a house that wasn't paid for and had an ancient beater (hmm a rambler in the 80's), they were having trouble paying bills and providing food and looked into getting welfare. They were told unless they lost the car, house and everything else they did not qualify. They couldn't easily sell the house because they owed almost the full value anyway and the $50 car was basically worthless back then (only 1 & 3 worked on the tree)

I ended up only getting whatever food they could grow out of the garden and whatever deer my father could hunt, needless to say I was very skinny. I did get free school lunches (eventually)

Odd how times change, a good reason to make it easy to get on welfare and even easier to get back off.

The trouble is if these people have no job to get and no skilz, what then, put them and the kids in the street or maybe put the kids in foster homes?

No good solution there.

[shovel]

Looks like this already got political.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics Bureau of Labor Statistics Data

Shows that since about 1980 we've had more than 63% labor participation. Before that we had less. Before 1965, less than 40% of women were employed outside the home. Play with the BLS query tool for kicks

The TLDR graph looks a lot like this


(be sure to observe the scale on the left side there, so that the contours of the graph can be viewed in context)