Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => Politics => Topic started by: Perd Hapley on May 27, 2014, 09:23:29 PM
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I wanna sign that petition.
http://reason.com/archives/2014/05/26/a-modest-proposal-to-ban-volunteering
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Yes. Nit sure if the article is satire ir not, but some of it rings very true.
I was having a discussion with a coworker about this recentky..
He was talking about how his daughters needed a certain level of volunteer work fir high school and mire to get into a decent college.
I told him the only work I volunteer for is the type that someone else volunteers to pay me for. *
*I do volunteer to coach little league, onky because my son has a very strong interest in baseball and its a way to spend a lot more time around him.
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Yes. Nit sure if the article is satire ir not...
Sounds like it's been a long night for you. I'm sure it will be clear in the morning. ;)
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He was talking about how his daughters needed a certain level of volunteer work fir high school and mire to get into a decent college.
IMO, any "nonprofit" with a total payroll over, say, $100k/year should be required to provide a full financial disclosure, including details of total compensation of the top 10 highest paid employees, to all potential volunteers before they're allowed to do anything. It really pisses me off that, for example, the local parks department has 6 "full time equivalent" (2 FT, 4 PT, but the PTs are getting plenty of right at 30 hour weeks, so really 7 FTE by an un-spun measure.) maintenance employees and a $650k maintenance budget (I'm only counting maintenance employees and budget here; not the admins, pool staff, rec center program expenses, sports field maintenance, special event setup and cleanup etc. which are in the separate recreation budget) to basically maintain grass and fences on 130 acres, (You know, pretty much what a farm family of 2-3 can do themselves, except that the park doesn't have cows or crops other than grass.) but wants volunteers to come out and do cleanups, tree and flower planting, etc. while the paid employees "supervise." I wish someone would come do my job for me while I watch, drink lemonade and still collect a paycheck.
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IMO, any "nonprofit" with a total payroll over, say, $100k/year should be required to provide a full financial disclosure, including details of total compensation of the top 10 highest paid employees, to all potential volunteers before they're allowed to do anything. It really pisses me off that, for example, the local parks department has 6 "full time equivalent" (2 FT, 4 PT, but the PTs are getting plenty of right at 30 hour weeks, so really 7 FTE by an un-spun measure.) maintenance employees and a $650k maintenance budget (I'm only counting maintenance employees and budget here; not the admins, pool staff, rec center program expenses, sports field maintenance, special event setup and cleanup etc. which are in the separate recreation budget) to basically maintain grass and fences on 130 acres, (You know, pretty much what a farm family of 2-3 can do themselves, except that the park doesn't have cows or crops other than grass.) but wants volunteers to come out and do cleanups, tree and flower planting, etc. while the paid employees "supervise." I wish someone would come do my job for me while I watch, drink lemonade and still collect a paycheck.
Part of that is to give a sense of ownership to the people that use the park. The employees should be working along side of the volunteers. 130 acres of grass with equipment that parks use is a fulltime seasonal job for two people to keep the grass to manageable length.
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Oh. I thought the article was about the wrongheadedness of the minimum wage.
Sorry.
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Sounds like it's been a long night for you. I'm sure it will be clear in the morning. ;)
Yep was tired, and my type-fu on a tablet is weak.
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130 acres of grass with equipment that parks use is a fulltime seasonal job for two people to keep the grass to manageable length.
That still leaves 4 full time employees to empty about 2 dozen trash cans and dig the occasional post hole, plus all the off-season time for the two mowers. It's not irrigated other than the sports fields, so the middle of summer is pretty much off season too. Street department handles anything a car can drive on, and the trail only gets maintenance when someone raises enough hell about it crumbling into the river. (Even then, the section usually just ends up fenced off with t posts and mesh for 6mo-2yr until they feel like pouring a new 2' wide strip of asphalt a couple yards inland.)
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The article addresses mostly the economics of volunteering, I take issue with the community service requirement culture the most. The military has become horrible with it. Traditionally if you were scoring a nomination of a sailor of the quarter board community service would be given a max of 5 points, or 5%. That's livable. Worse, community service has long been one of the cutting lines between the top tiers of promotion recommendations. The people with the most suck-ass attitudes, or the most of their own kids in little league generally have the most glowing community service write-ups. Then along came the MOVSM or Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal. I called that when it came out and refuse to get it or even acknowledge any volunteer work in my evals. It is the Voluntold medal because no chance in hell at an E-7 or officer board without it.
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That still leaves 4 full time employees to empty about 2 dozen trash cans and dig the occasional post hole, plus all the off-season time for the two mowers. It's not irrigated other than the sports fields, so the middle of summer is pretty much off season too. Street department handles anything a car can drive on, and the trail only gets maintenance when someone raises enough hell about it crumbling into the river. (Even then, the section usually just ends up fenced off with t posts and mesh for 6mo-2yr until they feel like pouring a new 2' wide strip of asphalt a couple yards inland.)
Who fixes the outbuildings, trims the bushes/trees/empties trash cans, picks up trash. In the offseason who fixes the equipment, does delayed maintenance?
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Who fixes the outbuildings,
Contracted out, if no one volunteers...and if they get fixed at all. One of the three bathrooms has been locked for months rather than fix the toilet.
trims the bushes/trees/
Contracted out to the same company the street department uses. No decorative trimming is done. If the trail starts getting overgrown, they have one of those boom type shredders that can tilt up sideways and mangle the trees into submission.
empties trash cans,
As I said above, the park maintenance employees, but there aren't that many cans, nor do they get checked multiple times a day. Give me a pickup and a roll of trash bags and I could get them all inside two hours, alone. They always have two people in the cab of the truck and another riding the tailgate doing the actual bag changes when they make trash rounds. Before you ask, they have a big dumpster by the equipment shed, so they're not having to drive it 6 miles to the dump.
picks up trash.
Volunteers, community service workers or they wait for it to wash into the river and become somebody else's problem entirely. Haven't seen a paid cleanup crew down there in years.
In the offseason who fixes the equipment, does delayed maintenance?
Machinery is done by the municipal service center or a local garage. Playground equipment is done by the contractor who put it in for liability reasons.
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The article addresses mostly the economics of volunteering...
...in skewering the minimum wage. It's "a modest proposal," you non-literary jackanapes. :P If it's illegal to work for $5.00 an hour, because that's too low, it should not be legal to work for $0 an hour, which is lowerer.
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It warmed the cockles of my heart to see 'jackanapes'. A good word that is used all too little these days.
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It warmed the cockles of my heart to see 'jackanapes'. A good word that is used all too little these days.
It has been replaced by the unfortunate term "jackwagon."
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It has been replaced by the unfortunate term "jackwagon."
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FXLGM8bk.jpg&hash=f1603a3242c9c9f9bac08178bcb220d78dd66de0)
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...in skewering the minimum wage. It's "a modest proposal," you non-literary jackanapes. :P If it's illegal to work for $5.00 an hour, because that's too low, it should not be legal to work for $0 an hour, which is lowerer.
Yeah well I had to rush off to my non volunteer job and wanted to veer the thread first you literary jackalope. =D
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(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FXLGM8bk.jpg&hash=f1603a3242c9c9f9bac08178bcb220d78dd66de0)
You do!
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FO2TTMqv.jpg&hash=b69a42fdac3329a837cacfcbabb952470037f878)
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the aforementioned modest proposal was so subtly brilliant it almost requires pronouncing the B in "subtly."
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If growing wheat for your own consumption is interstate commerce, then doing anything without getting paid for it surely is too.