Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Bogie on September 09, 2022, 05:06:43 AM
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I woke up at about 0200. Can't sleep, but hey, tomorrow, actually today, is my day off this week.
I want to make a bacon sammich. I neglected to go to the store on the way home yesterday. I have no bread.
Before everyone decided that the 'Rona spread best between 10pm and 6am, there were two 24 hour stores within a five minute drive. There was a 24 hour diner just minutes away.
No more. Vanished.
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It's become difficult to staff a store for daytime hours, so 24 hours is a big ask.
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I asked the manager of a large bog box store if they were going back to 24hrs, they said no. They also said that it was in the corporate plan to go away from 24hrs before covid. They got tired of drunk people in the overnight, got tired of calling the cops, and got tired of theft. Now they can shutdown, restock and clean the store in the off hours, plus not try to staff for a fully open store.
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I asked the manager of a large bog box store if they were going back to 24hrs, they said no.
Guess they have ample restrooms? :P
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It's become difficult to staff a store for daytime hours, so 24 hours is a big ask.
What the hell are all these slackers who won't work doing for a living? Haven't unemployment and COVID benefits run their course by now? Or have they all applied for (and gotten!) welfare handouts? They can't ALL be living in cardboard boxes or tents under bridges or robbing people.
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Guess they have ample restrooms? :P
:rofl:
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What the hell are all these slackers who won't work doing for a living? Haven't unemployment and COVID benefits run their course by now? Or have they all applied for (and gotten!) welfare handouts? They can't ALL be living in cardboard boxes or tents under bridges or robbing people.
Well, the problem here is you can get a no experience full time job in a factory, warehouse, etc. for several dollars more per hour, plus benefits than what the big box stores pay. Then the factories can't find anyone because there is a labor shortage where I live. Labor shortage is partially contributed to lack of affordable housing. There is like no available apartments or rental houses for the working class wages, here, a house under $150k is sold immediately. The run up since the great recession is to build houses here that sell for over $300k now or build luxury apartments/condos.
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I think a lot of them went on stuff like long-term disability, SSI, what have you... I wonder how many doctors are writing "Long Covid" diagnoses for clients of disability attorneys... And yeah, that's a business.
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I was talking to a former coworker yesterday, and she told me now that their part of the gov wants people in the office again a minimum of three days per week, a bunch of people in her office are going to a local "covid doctor" who writes "long covid" doctors notes for people to not have to stop telecommuting. They all got them and now have a one year reprieve until FY24 in which they can continue to "work" from home.
In quotation marks because there doesn't seem to be any accountability, and half of them are "telecommuting" from Hawaii, the Keys, the Caribbean, and all those other places conducive to sitting indoors in front of your computer 8 hours a day.
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Well, the problem here is you can get a no experience full time job in a factory, warehouse, etc. for several dollars more per hour, plus benefits than what the big box stores pay. Then the factories can't find anyone because there is a labor shortage where I live. Labor shortage is partially contributed to lack of affordable housing. There is like no available apartments or rental houses for the working class wages, here, a house under $150k is sold immediately. The run up since the great recession is to build houses here that sell for over $300k now or build luxury apartments/condos.
That's weird, because my friends in Marion own a bunch of units and houses throughout Iowa. Their building in Ankeny, either 12 or 14 units, has 5 or 6 vacancies right now. Their other units in Dubuque, Cedar Rapids, and Waterloo also have vacancies.
They did just agree to sell the place in Ankeny for something like a half million more than what they bought it for a few years ago so they're happy about that. Buyer is a regional real estate investment trust or some such.
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That's typical for a depression, though. People have surplus of goods that they can't sell (landlord). Nobody buys the goods because they don't have any money because nobody will buy their goods (laborers). The economy grinds down due to semi-mysterious causes.
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I think a major hit was an overall sense of decreased expectations.
Does the employee show up for work? Excellent? Can they breathe without constant instruction? Excellent!
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That's typical for a depression, though. People have surplus of goods that they can't sell (landlord). Nobody buys the goods because they don't have any money because nobody will buy their goods (laborers). The economy grinds down due to semi-mysterious causes.
Except I was specifically addressing central Iowa, where Charby is. Mason City, the area where he lives, isn't that much farther north than Ankeny, Dubuque, or Waterloo, but those areas don't seem to be having the same shortage of apartments.
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Circling back to the employer expectations thing...
My company, AT&T, is absolutely huge. During covid a significant portion of the workforce, depending on what they did exactly, was WFH.
I never worked from home because my job can't support that give the nature of the program I'm on.
Some months ago AT&T started to announce a return to the office policy.
Only... I've not seen *expletive deleted*it about that from corporate in literally months.
The building I'm currently in? AT&T's been in there for decades. But the lease is ending in 2025, and they're not going to renew it.
So, instead of bringing people back to that building? They're dismantling the employee seating areas -- completely cleaning them out and either disposing of the furniture or putting it into storage. It's really weird to see a HUGE room that had 100 or more cubicles completely emptied out... even the carpet stripped out.
I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do when I finally have to vacate the SCIF I'm in. A few months ago they tried to move me to the new facility and I flat out refused because it would have increased my drive and commute time by an incredible amount (my current office is 2 miles from my house). I'll figure that out when I get there, I guess.
But it seems to me that AT&T isn't putting any real emphasis on ending the work from home model. After 2+ years I'm wondering if the company is seeing more benefit than drawback to the model?
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I wonder how many REITs were in rental office space?
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Here's a pretty good indication that AT&T isn't really pushing hard on its return to work program.
Just got a message that, due to low use, 8 company sponsored/operated fitness centers are being closed, apparently permanently, including the one at my office. It's already known that the building I work in, which has a capacity of about 3,000, will be going away when the lease expires in a few years.
But these other locations? As far as I know, none of those are slated for closure.
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I wonder how many REITs were in rental office space?
My guess: a lot.
A lot of them also invested heavily in shopping malls. >:D
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What the hell are all these slackers who won't work doing for a living? Haven't unemployment and COVID benefits run their course by now? Or have they all applied for (and gotten!) welfare handouts? They can't ALL be living in cardboard boxes or tents under bridges or robbing people.
How did that quote go, that when you get enough people that won't work but will instead vote for free stuff your country is done for? There clearly are highly treasonous elements in government that want to bring down the US in service of a more "globalized" approach to hegemony. What better way than fostering unemployment, homelessness and lawlessness. You don't need a foreign invading army if you have a dysfunctional army of slackers and leeches within that will actually vote for traitors in exchange for free peanuts.
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That's weird, because my friends in Marion own a bunch of units and houses throughout Iowa. Their building in Ankeny, either 12 or 14 units, has 5 or 6 vacancies right now. Their other units in Dubuque, Cedar Rapids, and Waterloo also have vacancies.
They did just agree to sell the place in Ankeny for something like a half million more than what they bought it for a few years ago so they're happy about that. Buyer is a regional real estate investment trust or some such.
Sorry for the slow reply, shitstorm in my personal life
Those are all unique towns, granted I'm only 80-minute car ride to Waterloo, but that metro area is 200k vs the 40k in the entire county here.
Cedar Rapis is a probably 300k metro zone.
Dubuque is a 200k metro area, plus WI and IL across the river
Ankeny is a part of a 1M person metro area.
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Except I was specifically addressing central Iowa, where Charby is. Mason City, the area where he lives, isn't that much farther north than Ankeny, Dubuque, or Waterloo, but those areas don't seem to be having the same shortage of apartments.
Cheap houses in town are getting snatched up by the rental companies or home rehabbers too, so if it's under $50k and not falling in on itself it is gone pretty quick.
I had that conversation with a city council member recently, related to another light manufacturer opening up shop in town to make accessories for golf cart and UTVs. They are going to hire over 100 new people starting at least $18/hr. I asked him where are they going to live? He really didn't have an answer because most available apartments are at least $1k a month that aren't Section 8.
Iowa just passed a law where statewide golf carts and UTVs can be licensed used on certain roads under a certain mph and with certain accessories. So, this new operation is going to make those accessories.
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Golf carts/UTVs are going to be the next "Model T" or "Volkswagen Bug."
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I have to reflect occasionally that it was only last January that we were still required to wear masks at work and the Supreme Court struck down the vaccine mandates (for most people). Seems like it was longer ago, not earlier this year.
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How did that quote go, that when you get enough people that won't work but will instead vote for free stuff your country is done for? There clearly are highly treasonous elements in government that want to bring down the US in service of a more "globalized" approach to hegemony. What better way than fostering unemployment, homelessness and lawlessness. You don't need a foreign invading army if you have a dysfunctional army of slackers and leeches within that will actually vote for traitors in exchange for free peanuts.
That is called selling themselves into political servitude. Their votes are for sale to the highest bidder. Soon, though, they will no longer have a vote to sell. They'll likely be disarmed by then as well. The biggest problem I see is that they will drag all the rest of us down the drain with them. I have a bigger and better plan for myself, though. I'll not go down with them. I will stay armed. As I've stated many times, "Knowing the past, I'll not surrender any arms and march less prepared into the future."
Woody
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Golf carts/UTVs are going to be the next "Model T" or "Volkswagen Bug."
Been seeing them all over the place lately. Don't know if it's just because they're cheaper than a car (or motorcycle?), or if they're also a loophole that allows you to drive when you've drinking, maybe?
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Been seeing them all over the place lately. Don't know if it's just because they're cheaper than a car (or motorcycle?), or if they're also a loophole that allows you to drive when you've drinking, maybe?
In Iowa if it's motorized, electric or internal combustion, you can still be charged with driving under the influence, even on private property. So you technically could be charged with a dui if your drunk mowing your own lawn with a riding mower.
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Iowa just passed a law where statewide golf carts and UTVs can be licensed used on certain roads under a certain mph and with certain accessories. So, this new operation is going to make those accessories.
We have those laws here. Basic safety equipment and you can take your UTV on most county roads. Interestingly, pretty much everyone where I live has UTVs, but none of us take them to town. I guess maybe because we're far enough out of town that it's just easier and faster to drive a real car. Another town I visit has lots of little one to five acre "gentleman farmer" places all over the outskirts, and it seems like at least 30% of the vehicles you see in store and restaurant parking lots in that town are UTVs.
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In Iowa if it's motorized, electric or internal combustion, you can still be charged with driving under the influence, even on private property. So you technically could be charged with a dui if your drunk mowing your own lawn with a riding mower.
I wonder how many people drive drunk in those, thinking it's legal.
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I wonder how many people drive drunk in those, thinking it's legal.
Probably the same percentage of those in automobiles and pickups.
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Golf carts/UTVs are going to be the next "Model T" or "Volkswagen Bug."
My ex just moved to a 55+ gated community in Phoenix, and apparently street-legal golf carts are all the rage to be driven around lower-speed surface streets there.
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I wonder how many people drive drunk in those, thinking it's legal.
It is all fun and games until you fall off under your own mower deck.
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My ex just moved to a 55+ gated community in Phoenix, and apparently street-legal golf carts are all the rage to be driven around lower-speed surface streets there.
I drove through The Villages in FL around ten years ago when I was in the area looking at some swampland I own near Lake Weir, and it was pretty much all golf carts. Whereas in many areas of Suburbia, you'll see houses that have a three bay garage - two cars and a third bigass bay for a bigass RV, in the Villages it's two bay garages with a car bay and a little golf cart bay. :laugh:
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One of the guys I used to shoot with had a house in Florida. It was little big bigger than his pusher RV, and had an umbilical that went to the thing's door. Basically, the RV almost doubled the floor space.