INTENSITY²
Politics, Mature and taboo => Political Pundits => Topic started by: Parts on August 02, 2008, 08:28:08 PM
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In general the US has become soft easy and cheap imports and the looking down upon manual labor has done much it hasten the problems we face now. Today most people strive to work in offices pushing papers back and forth while few want to make or do anything with their lives. There are some but not many. Fifty years ago a skilled workman was a noble profession now it's looked at as dirty. We as a people have lost track and I say that for most of western culture. So many people have no idea how to do the simplest manual labor and the people who are the experts at it are slowly dieing of old age as people would rather have cheep imports than fix quality items. I see this more and more everyday in my business very few want to go into trades or have the skills required to. On top if that it's looked down upon by people in my area. Without people to do the dirty work society would fall apart no matter how much paper you push at it. It has begun already fewer and fewer people going into vocational jobs in fifty years no one will know how to fix or make anything and that will be the end of us :soapbox:
Sorry for the rant but it's on my nerves along with Sam Adams and klonopin
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I got a real sense of this when the word "want" started cropping up in ads so much. "I want this feature," "I want that feature," "I want, I want, I want." I buy and use based primarily on need. I do indulge at times, but I try to not be profligate. It seems to me that because there is so much to be had--clothing, music, technology--people are not only conditioned to want new things, but that they deserve them and should have them as a matter of course. Rather like that scene in Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD, where the babies in their incubators are constantly exposed to such phrases as "I like my new clothes" and "New things are best."
This culture is in for one fucking HELL of a shock. IMO.
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Interesting. I'm not old enough to have seen a trend in ads, but I do often get baffled by the materialistic scramble. I have to talk myself into buying things - I'm "owed" a new monitor (meaning I told myself to get one) to help with freelance graphics work - the color correction on my laptop is pathetic - but it's been months and I can't even bring myself to shop for it.
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hey you old fart obsolete dinosaur stop picking on the helpless or would that be hopeless.
I also worked on my other house back in the subdivision, two of my neighbor wanted to know if they could help with my next project so they could learn something about home repair. There was no explaining it to them that it didn't work like on TV and 30 minutes later all done.
the guy across the street was middle aged and clueless anyone could do something without being trained.
I gutted my bathroom, put in a shower stall, tiled it and he couldn't believe anyone could do such a thing without being taught how to do it.
That when I brough home a banged up 1994 camaro and told him I was going to put the engine and trans in my Buick he said he didn't know i was a mechanic, beyond his comprehension somebody could rebuild an engine and make a camaro engine fit in a buick and rewire the whole car.
They sold the car in canada with a 305 small block chevy, so a small block chevy engine is a bolt in after fighting with the people at Buick to get me motor mount brackets for a canadian car.
A 24 inch wide dishwasher will fit in an 18 inch wide hole, check out car jack stand under cast iron sink, I put in a stainless steel sink after using a car floor jack to get that thing down on the floor
real estate lady said my 1950's wall oven and cheap ass cooktop where making the kitchen look dated, so I made a new stove fit.
bathroom was real pretty, funny thing was while looking for a house in vermont one place had the exact same colors, it was oh shit another yuk bathroom to overhaul, the people refused my bid on it and the bank took the house even though I offered them what they paid 1 year before
notice dual toilet paper holders :hahaha:
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How did you get the old tub out and the new tub in?
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How did you get the old tub out and the new tub in?
cast iron is no match for a sledge hammer, new ones are steel and light
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v449/zigzag1149/IM000067.jpg)
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had to tear out the closet and build a shower first or i would smell worse than a truck driver
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I offered to install my parents new garbage disposer for them, but my dad got a friend from work who is experienced to do it
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v449/zigzag1149/IM000463.jpg)
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I offered to install my parents new garbage disposer for them, but my dad got a friend from work who is experienced to do it
If your parents are the types that can't figure stuff out on their own, they think it's impossable for people without experiance to do things.
The challange is not reading directions first, than if all else fails wimp out and look at the pictures in the direction book and hope you don't actually have to read the thing.
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My mum gets really worried about things going wrong, so she'll hire people to do very simple jobs, just for the reassurance that it's being done by people who know what they're doing, and who'll fix it if there's a problem. Often she declines my help because she's scared that I'll mess something up, even though I have a pretty good track record of doing jobs about the place.
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The woman who bought my house wanted to know who put in the hot water heater a few weeks after she moved in.
I put the shower heads up nice and high first of all and drilled out the no flow crap so they produced some serious water flow, she probably was annoyed she ran out of hot water in minutes and thought something was wrong with the hot water heater which was new. The area has serious water pressure so it's easy as hell to blow threw a tank of hot water with the shower on full blast.
nice having a shower & tub in case you are ever busted up and unable to safely use the shower in the tub.
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My mum gets really worried about things going wrong, so she'll hire people to do very simple jobs, just for the reassurance that it's being done by people who know what they're doing, and who'll fix it if there's a problem. Often she declines my help because she's scared that I'll mess something up, even though I have a pretty good track record of doing jobs about the place.
That is the way to learn, do things and hopefully know your limits. There is also the why die with somethings trying to do stuff without the right equipment, always take into consideration the risk factor. i learned that the hard way trying to save money cutting down tree's, got nailed in the hip when a large branch went the wrong way and was like near dead for a week.
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Nice work Johnny good to know not everyone is helpless though I knew you were not. You know what it's like in Ct though everyone seems unable to do the simplest things
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So what if I don't know how to repair a fucking door? Not everyone is capable of doing the same thing as everyone else.
Don't bitch about our lack of home improvement skills just because you fuckers are losing business. Why don't YOU try and learn some new skills to get back on the job market, preacher?
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Nice work Johnny good to know not everyone is helpless though I knew you were not. You know what it's like in Ct though everyone seems unable to do the simplest things
thanks
it is strange how lots of them look down on people who can work with their hands yet can't do squat themselves. Trained office monkeys who really think they are high IQ because they can preform a few simple office tasks most teenagers could be trained to do in a few weeks or something else to be looking down their noses on people who can think for themselves.
The 1st reply on page 2 re-enforces the veiw people have, the poster thinks you or we need to learn some new skill for some reason. More work out there than the few people willing to actually work for a living can do considering most people can't do nothing themselves and hire people to do everything for them.
Some of them just let their houses fall apart and move into a place in good condition every 10 years or so.
The guy who put in my furnace last summer said he is booked solid all the time and turns down work and if I hadn't called him the beginning of the summer to arrange an august job i would have never found anyone if i started calling people in september.
One guy who came to look at doing it said he wasn't licensed to do electrical work or touch gas lines, he was just a plumber and advertising he installed furnaces, yet had no subcontractors he worked with to do what he couldn't do and thought I would hire 3 people to do the job. Hey if he wants part of the job, he needs to line up subcontracotrs.
Local lumber yard advertises they put up garages but want nothing to do with excavating and don't even have a list of excavators to recomend to people who call asking about a garagem, once again I found an older fellow who said he would do the whole job.
Problem is the school system and society disrespected jobs in the trades so bad sinse the 70's and used shop class as a dumping ground for various types of idiots and unruley students there are few people with the skill and work ethic to run a bubba business and the guys with the people & business skills long ago gave up with hiring employee's because all they got was total slackers who took shop class or went to trade school.
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So what if I don't know how to repair a fucking door? Not everyone is capable of doing the same thing as everyone else.
Don't bitch about our lack of home improvement skills just because you fuckers are losing business. Why don't YOU try and learn some new skills to get back on the job market, preacher?
READ what I said
It's not about lack of home improvement skills it's the lack of skill in general. Everyone seems helpless when confronted with the simplest repair or problem and fewer am
and fewer are going into any type of skilled labor. Everyone wants to work in an office soon we will not know how to produce anything. As far as learning new skills and getting back in the job market I learn new things everyday and becuse of the helplessness of the general public I am rarely lacking work and have just expanded by business and am thinking of hiring people. Why don't you learn some new skills and get back on the job market :finger:
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http://www.reformer.com/localnews/ci_10076678
wow the little wennies made some wooden boxes and it's big news
Self esteem is a big part of this and the girls come out at the end doing a lot of things they didn't think they could do."
must have lived real sheltered lives if making a wooden box does all that for them. What next washing cloths will be front page news ?
even back in the stone age when I went to school a lot of kids had never touched a tool before shop class. It's probably worse today, bike gets a flat they call a wrecker for it and have it towed into the shop or throw it out and buy a new one. Ok I got carried away with the wrecker, mommy takes it to the repair shop.
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The lack of skills doesn't bother me as much as people who aren't even willing to try to do even the simple stuff.
90% of the vacuums I've ever picked up either needed a belt, or were clogged. I've got 2 weedeaters sitting in my shed right now that needed gas and a spark plug, mowers that needed something as simple as a new cable. It's not rocket science, this is simple shit, but many just seem not to want to be bothered, it's easier to just go out and drop $75-$100 on a new one.
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http://www.reformer.com/localnews/ci_10076678
wow the little wennies made some wooden boxes and it's big news
Self esteem is a big part of this and the girls come out at the end doing a lot of things they didn't think they could do."
must have lived real sheltered lives if making a wooden box does all that for them. What next washing cloths will be front page news ?
even back in the stone age when I went to school a lot of kids had never touched a tool before shop class. It's probably worse today, bike gets a flat they call a wrecker for it and have it towed into the shop or throw it out and buy a new one. Ok I got carried away with the wrecker, mommy takes it to the repair shop.
After I got out of the locked psych ward (spent a month there--thank G-d one of the night nurses was a King Crimson fan--and yes, it was in a nice suburb etc. but they had me on so many drugs I spent the first week in a fog and NEVER EVER want to repeat that) I spent about a week refinishing and repairing my parents' coffee table. It was the first time I'd tried such a hands-on project since I attempted to build an oscillator from a Heathkit DIY package. (I do MISS that company.) Working on that coffee table was essential to my recovery, esp. after being on a locked ward for a month. When I was done, I felt really good. The table looked better than it did before I started, and I did it.
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http://www.reformer.com/localnews/ci_10076678
wow the little wennies made some wooden boxes and it's big news
Self esteem is a big part of this and the girls come out at the end doing a lot of things they didn't think they could do."
must have lived real sheltered lives if making a wooden box does all that for them. What next washing cloths will be front page news ?
even back in the stone age when I went to school a lot of kids had never touched a tool before shop class. It's probably worse today, bike gets a flat they call a wrecker for it and have it towed into the shop or throw it out and buy a new one. Ok I got carried away with the wrecker, mommy takes it to the repair shop.
Well, they are sixth grade to eighth grade girls and they did more things than just make boxes. They also learned how to work on cars, for example. I think that where I grew up, girls tended to be less exposed to learning carpentry and automobile mechanics and more exposed to learning cooking and sewing. I wonder if it is the same for these girls?
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It should be normal skills learned at home by helping mom & dad around the house. Most of it is just common sense normal people can figure out on their own.
It starts with when a kid cries they have a flat tire on their bike, let them fix it instead of babying them.
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The girls in the article are homeless and living in a shelter, as far as I can tell - where the heck else are they going to get access to carpentry tools and practice?
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I think it's a good program, sometimes there just isn't a mom or dad around to teach them this stuff.
I've got a 13 yr old down the street from me, dad hasn't been around since she was 2, mom works double shifts and has to leave her with the grandparents, grandpa burnt out 98% of his brain cells over 20 years ago and is busy chasing women half his age most of the time & grandma is sick, and doesn't know much herself.
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Four decades of liberal rule and that's what you get : a nation filled with degenerate weaklings who can't take care of themselves anymore and who don't have anything to believe in anymore.... and then people wonder why I'm a traditionalist....
In general the US has become soft easy and cheap imports and the looking down upon manual labor has done much it hasten the problems we face now. Today most people strive to work in offices pushing papers back and forth while few want to make or do anything with their lives. There are some but not many. Fifty years ago a skilled workman was a noble profession now it's looked at as dirty. We as a people have lost track and I say that for most of western culture. So many people have no idea how to do the simplest manual labor and the people who are the experts at it are slowly dieing of old age as people would rather have cheep imports than fix quality items. I see this more and more everyday in my business very few want to go into trades or have the skills required to. On top if that it's looked down upon by people in my area. Without people to do the dirty work society would fall apart no matter how much paper you push at it. It has begun already fewer and fewer people going into vocational jobs in fifty years no one will know how to fix or make anything and that will be the end of us :soapbox:
Sorry for the rant but it's on my nerves along with Sam Adams and klonopin
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So what if I don't know how to repair a fucking door? Not everyone is capable of doing the same thing as everyone else.
Don't bitch about our lack of home improvement skills just because you fuckers are losing business. Why don't YOU try and learn some new skills to get back on the job market, preacher?
READ what I said
It's not about lack of home improvement skills it's the lack of skill in general. Everyone seems helpless when confronted with the simplest repair or problem and fewer am
and fewer are going into any type of skilled labor. Everyone wants to work in an office soon we will not know how to produce anything. As far as learning new skills and getting back in the job market I learn new things everyday and becuse of the helplessness of the general public I am rarely lacking work and have just expanded by business and am thinking of hiring people.
No-one wants to do something that doesn't interest them. So what if fewer people are into carpentry or DIY shit? Elitist bollocks from old farts ain't going to rectify that, gramps.
Why don't you learn some new skills and get back on the job market :finger:
Well what do you call A Level English then, dickhead? :hahaha:
Shows what you fucks know about me -- fuck all.
Oh well, that ain't good enough because I'm not hitting fucking nails into wood eight hours a day. :violin:
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So what if I don't know how to repair a fucking door? Not everyone is capable of doing the same thing as everyone else.
Don't bitch about our lack of home improvement skills just because you fuckers are losing business. Why don't YOU try and learn some new skills to get back on the job market, preacher?
READ what I said
It's not about lack of home improvement skills it's the lack of skill in general. Everyone seems helpless when confronted with the simplest repair or problem and fewer am
and fewer are going into any type of skilled labor. Everyone wants to work in an office soon we will not know how to produce anything. As far as learning new skills and getting back in the job market I learn new things everyday and becuse of the helplessness of the general public I am rarely lacking work and have just expanded by business and am thinking of hiring people.
No-one wants to do something that doesn't interest them. So what if fewer people are into carpentry or DIY shit? Elitist bollocks from old farts ain't going to rectify that, gramps.
Why don't you learn some new skills and get back on the job market :finger:
Well what do you call A Level English then, dickhead? :hahaha:
Shows what you fucks know about me -- fuck all.
Oh well, that ain't good enough because I'm not hitting fucking nails into wood eight hours a day. :violin:
A level English gets you what type of job? What type of job do you have what type might you get? It's not just DIY or carpentry but any type of vocational training. A country full of only people with A level English will spell very well and have good grammar but won't produce much or get much done. Sure you need office people but you will not get far with only them
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So what if I don't know how to repair a fucking door? Not everyone is capable of doing the same thing as everyone else.
Don't bitch about our lack of home improvement skills just because you fuckers are losing business. Why don't YOU try and learn some new skills to get back on the job market, preacher?
READ what I said
It's not about lack of home improvement skills it's the lack of skill in general. Everyone seems helpless when confronted with the simplest repair or problem and fewer am
and fewer are going into any type of skilled labor. Everyone wants to work in an office soon we will not know how to produce anything. As far as learning new skills and getting back in the job market I learn new things everyday and becuse of the helplessness of the general public I am rarely lacking work and have just expanded by business and am thinking of hiring people.
No-one wants to do something that doesn't interest them. So what if fewer people are into carpentry or DIY shit? Elitist bollocks from old farts ain't going to rectify that, gramps.
Why don't you learn some new skills and get back on the job market :finger:
Well what do you call A Level English then, dickhead? :hahaha:
Shows what you fucks know about me -- fuck all.
Oh well, that ain't good enough because I'm not hitting fucking nails into wood eight hours a day. :violin:
A level English gets you what type of job? What type of job do you have what type might you get? It's not just DIY or carpentry but any type of vocational training. A country full of only people with A level English will spell very well and have good grammar but won't produce much or get much done. Sure you need office people but you will not get far with only them
A job at Wal-Mart, if you're lucky.
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The education system in this country does it's utmost to railroad people into a narrow range of occupations; everything is geared towards pushing people through university so that they can get a white-collar job with some large organisation. Vocational training wasn't even discussed as an option when I was at school, and was regarded as something for people who were too dim for anything else.
It's an enormous waste of resources to put someone through a 3 or 4 year degree in 'media studies' just so that they can make coffee and shuffle bits of paper in an office for £12K a year at the end of it, and it's also devalued degrees, so that now you have to have one for many jobs, just because everyone else does. While university is necessary for lawyers, geologists, historians and other expert professionals, for most of the population it's become a competition over who can grow the most expensive, time-consuming and useless antlers to impress prospective employers with, and the fixation on university education has meant that alternative modes of education have been marginalised. Even people who don't succeed at school and can't get into university often don't take the hint because they've never been exposed to alternatives, and spend years going through access courses so that they'll one day get a chance at the idolised and unitary goal of a university education.
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I did the whole University thing even earning a degree in Environmental Biology and in Marine science but stuck with my summer job because entry level jobs in my field paid so low. This house was built for a plumber who started his own business back in the 1970's and expanded it now he just supervises his crews and goes on vacation
(http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q131/parts67/014-4.jpg)
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A job at Wal-Mart, if you're lucky.
And that's a bad thing because...? Plenty of people work in supermarkets, including students.
Speaking of which, I'm applying for a job at Asda. Guess I won't count on your support then. :lol:
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A level English gets you what type of job? What type of job do you have what type might you get? It's not just DIY or carpentry but any type of vocational training. A country full of only people with A level English will spell very well and have good grammar but won't produce much or get much done. Sure you need office people but you will not get far with only them
I'm not doing it to get a fancy job. I'm doing it mainly because I want to improve my education. Is that a crime? I might not be getting a big fat salary, but at least I'll be working hard.
Stop trying to drag down those who are smarter and more successful than you (not saying I am). You're every bit as bad as an intellectual snob.
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So what if I don't know how to repair a fucking door? Not everyone is capable of doing the same thing as everyone else.
Don't bitch about our lack of home improvement skills just because you fuckers are losing business. Why don't YOU try and learn some new skills to get back on the job market, preacher?
READ what I said
It's not about lack of home improvement skills it's the lack of skill in general. Everyone seems helpless when confronted with the simplest repair or problem and fewer am
and fewer are going into any type of skilled labor. Everyone wants to work in an office soon we will not know how to produce anything. As far as learning new skills and getting back in the job market I learn new things everyday and becuse of the helplessness of the general public I am rarely lacking work and have just expanded by business and am thinking of hiring people.
No-one wants to do something that doesn't interest them. So what if fewer people are into carpentry or DIY shit? Elitist bollocks from old farts ain't going to rectify that, gramps.
Why don't you learn some new skills and get back on the job market :finger:
Well what do you call A Level English then, dickhead? :hahaha:
Shows what you fucks know about me -- fuck all.
Oh well, that ain't good enough because I'm not hitting fucking nails into wood eight hours a day. :violin:
A level English gets you what type of job? What type of job do you have what type might you get? It's not just DIY or carpentry but any type of vocational training. A country full of only people with A level English will spell very well and have good grammar but won't produce much or get much done. Sure you need office people but you will not get far with only them
A job at Wal-Mart, if you're lucky.
You should tell that one to some of the students at my university, doing the top English course in the country, all whom of course have English A-levels. I would love to see the reaction.
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You should tell that one to some of the students at my university, doing the top English course in the country, all whom of course have English A-levels. I would love to see the reaction.
But are they building houses or repairing pipes for a living, eh? EH?!?
Stupid, I know. So much for trying to improve oneself. :yawn:
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English majors here get to be teachers or journalists usually. Depends on if they do something different for their masters or phd program of study. Engineers and bachelors of science graduates in general fare better than English majors.
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A level English gets you what type of job? What type of job do you have what type might you get? It's not just DIY or carpentry but any type of vocational training. A country full of only people with A level English will spell very well and have good grammar but won't produce much or get much done. Sure you need office people but you will not get far with only them
I'm not doing it to get a fancy job. I'm doing it mainly because I want to improve my education. Is that a crime? I might not be getting a big fat salary, but at least I'll be working hard.
Stop trying to drag down those who are smarter and more successful than you (not saying I am). You're every bit as bad as an intellectual snob.
It's good that you are trying to improve your education. I understand that and think it's good your looking for a job at Asda but that goes to show it takes all types. Many people here look down on those jobs and only think your worth anything if you work in the white collar world those are the ones I am taking about. BTW I have never had any desire to work in an office and was offered at my last job. My people skills suck and I'd end up shooting up the place
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A job at Wal-Mart, if you're lucky.
And that's a bad thing because...? Plenty of people work in supermarkets, including students.
Speaking of which, I'm applying for a job at Asda. Guess I won't count on your support then. :lol:
Yes, I already knew that, Peaguy.
That's why I said that was the job you could get with your A level English, if you were lucky.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with working in a supermarket, just like there's nothing wrong with working with your hands.
Like Parts said, that goes to show it takes all types.
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http://mikadigital.com/home/index.html
a carpenters house :thumbup:
did he make it working for people as a hired hand, no he went in business for himself, bought all sorts of equipment and hired people to work for him. But he wasn't a clipboard hero, he worked and also built most of his house himself, not by picking up the phone, by picking up tools.
http://mikadigital.com/home/Aerial_sm.jpg
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I learnt most of what I know in the university of hard knocks, as did a good many other people. Seems nowadays you need a degree even to work in a supermarket. Far as I'm concerned, most universities are glorified babysitting centres for teens and people in their young twenties and they make the unemployment statistics look better because students aren't counted amongst the unemployed.
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Looks like I may be going at the right time, then, in my 30s. Did over 10 years of physical work and now my body is punishing me for it.
I don't "want" all the time like a lot of those people on tv. Some people want instant gratification, I guess.
It would be nice to fix up the house we are in at the moment but we are renting and so not allowed.
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In general the US has become soft easy and cheap imports and the looking down upon manual labor has done much it hasten the problems we face now. Today most people strive to work in offices pushing papers back and forth while few want to make or do anything with their lives. There are some but not many. Fifty years ago a skilled workman was a noble profession now it's looked at as dirty. We as a people have lost track and I say that for most of western culture. So many people have no idea how to do the simplest manual labor and the people who are the experts at it are slowly dieing of old age as people would rather have cheep imports than fix quality items. I see this more and more everyday in my business very few want to go into trades or have the skills required to. On top if that it's looked down upon by people in my area. Without people to do the dirty work society would fall apart no matter how much paper you push at it. It has begun already fewer and fewer people going into vocational jobs in fifty years no one will know how to fix or make anything and that will be the end of us :soapbox:
Sorry for the rant but it's on my nerves along with Sam Adams and klonopin
I agree totally.
Welcome to Idiocracy.
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tl;dr. Somebody please
dumb it down sum it up for me. :bigcry:
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tl;dr. Somebody please dumb it down sum it up for me. :bigcry:
Think you'll get someone to help you? Fat chance.
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tl;dr. Somebody please dumb it down sum it up for me. :bigcry:
Summary: Learn how to fix your own broken crap yourself.
You're welcome. :zoinks:
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tl;dr. Somebody please dumb it down sum it up for me. :bigcry:
Summary: Learn how to fix your own broken crap yourself.
You're welcome. :zoinks:
Well, he is fat and he is kinda chancy.