From the Star Ledger:
Struggling to survive: 38 percent of N.J. households can’t meet basic needs
Every day, Kim Ticehurst walks a financial tightrope.
A single mother in Montclair, Ticehurst lost her job in the construction industry in January. At 50, she has decades of experience in project management, planning, organization and design, but the scores of resumés she has submitted have been met with no response.
“It’s a horrible feeling,” she said last week. “You definitely confront times when you’re like ‘how do I get through this day?’”
She has pieced together employment, working part-time in childcare while she tries to get her new home-organization business off the ground. For the first time in months, she’s feeling optimistic.
But she knows the littlest of things, from a toothache to a car accident, could turn her life upside-down.
…
A new study conducted by the United Way of Northern New Jersey shows an alarming number of New Jersey residents are in Ticehurst’s position. Data compiled by the group show that 38 percent of New Jersey households are struggling to meet basic needs. These households are just scraping by, one lost job or medical emergency away from potential fiscal ruin.
…
The report, called ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed), paints a stark picture of how widespread financial hardship like Ticehurst’s is in New Jersey.While 11 percent of state residents fall below the Federal Poverty Line, which stands at an annual income of $22,811 for a family of four, the report found that when adjusted for cost of living the same family needs nearly triple that — $61,200 – just to meet a basic survival budget.
In one of the wealthiest states in the country, 1.2 million households fall below this threshold. And while the state’s economy has shown signs of recovery in the wake of the Great Recession, the number of households struggling by the United Way measure increased by about 24 percent from 2007 to 2012, the most recent data available.
“I had expected things would have improved since the recession, to be honest,” said Stephanie Hoopes Halpin, the author of the report and director of the New Jersey DataBank at Rutgers University. “I think what strikes me most is how vulnerable these people are. You look at Superstorm Sandy, for example. You had tons of people who didn’t even take on any water during the storm, but had their savings wiped out just by not working for two weeks. You have to think about the fact that there are individual emergencies like that every day that don’t get national headlines.”
…
Among the findings:• ALICE households exist in every age bracket in New Jersey, but the largest segment of the group is those who are typically in their income earning prime. Households headed by those aged 25-64 represent 75 percent of those beneath the ALICE threshold.
• The average budget needed to provide basic needs, both for the individual and the family household in New Jersey, increased by 19 percent from 2007 to 2012.
• High paying jobs are scarce. Jobs paying less than $40,000 a year now comprise 53 percent of all jobs in New Jersey, and these jobs are projected to be the primary source of labor growth in the coming years.
“I think this sort of verifies for all of us that ALICE isn’t going away,” said John Franklin, CEO of the United Way of Northern New Jersey. “People really begin to understand that we’re not just talking about some number somewhere. We’re talking about a huge portion of our population.”
Wife stopped at Willowbrook around 3:30 yesterday afternoon, she said it was packed and everyone was crazy.
Lead article today made me think of this recent story:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/new-jersey-woman-worked-multiple-jobs-dies-napping-car-cops-article-1.1920260
I used to get up before the sun rose, go to work all day, then go to the gym, then head to night school to finish my degree and finish up at 10PM. Used to take a nap between work and school in the parking lot just to keep going.
Labor Day we attempted to stop off at the Jersey Shore Outlet mall right off 100 on the GSP to return something. The traffic was gridlocked…..you couldn’t even get off route 66…..it must have been a 30 minute wait on the entrance road just to even enter the parking lot to find a spot……I can’t even fathom what could be so important to queue up for that……
grim says:
September 15, 2014 at 7:19 am
Wife stopped at Willowbrook around 3:30 yesterday afternoon, she said it was packed and everyone was crazy.
My experience (from last thread) as well….
Who said you didn’t need to hustle? I worked full time in addition to going to school full time for most of my undergrad and two masters degrees. There were no student loans. I remember paying my tuition at the bursars office in cash a few times.
My schedule was easy, I took the earliest classes offered, and usually a night class or two, the ones nobody wanted. If there were no early classes, I shifted my work schedule to start earlier and leave earlier so I could get in my classes. For a good while I was working 6-3 in order to get to Stevens in time to miss traffic (I think class was 6-9). I remember the best days were 5-10, but if I had a paper, work, would go long into the night. 4-5 hours sleep was the norm.
For a good while I worked a second job, as well as doing freelance coding. The pizza trade was good to us. I drove a shit car, didn’t have fancy clothes, and really didn’t spend money on anything.
Even now I’ve got 3 jobs. Once the distillery is up and running, I’m sure my schedule there will be 5-midnight during the week and at least a full 8 hours on the weekends.
You make a living working 9 to 5, you make your fortune working 5 to 12.
self-aggrandizing myths do not impress me
“A single mother in Montclair, Ticehurst lost her job in the construction industry in January”.
Where is her husband? Also how come kids are now working? Whre are her parents or her in-law parents? How come none of them want to help her?
The Monday after I graduated High School I got up at 5 am to get my butt from Staten Island to Newark, NJ via public transportation by 8 am. Prudential was my College of Insurance work study sponsor and my job was in Newark, ahh…the Newark Renaissance of 1979…… my whine is over…
The day I impress anon is the day I know I’m doing something wrong.
“the good one”…..self-aggrandizing indeed.
I used to do on Tuesday and Thursday the 8-11 class. Monday and Wednesday were two clubs that were great during week. Much Much hotter girls out on a Monday or Wedneday. Usually stewerdesses, nurses, bartenders, weekends were not for playas. So I usually stay out till around twoish or threeish on those nights which ment 3-4 hours sleep those nights. After school get two bagels maybe a chocolate milk head to GFs house which was between school and work. I swing by and eat, then knock her box out and watch some TV and take a nap, I actually worked with my GFs sister at time she worked 4-12 midnight at same place I worked. A little before three, the older sister would ask me what type of sandwich I wanted, I had GH starting at three and I had to catch my Luke and Laura stuff. I get my sandwich watch a little GH and knock her sisters box out again around 330Pm then we head out by 345 for work. I drive like a maniac and sister would always say cant you stop f7cking my sister five minutes earlier. I am like NO.
Thursday night was a good happy hour and I go with my other set of non-club buddies. And Thursday was more in a chill mode so I played more of wingman. Once some crazy stwerdess wanted the wingman and not the pilot and I told her straight up I got three hours sleep last night, had 9 beers already and did my GF twice today and did not shower yet. She goes I love a challenge and the taste of another women in my mouth. Went back to her crash pad and the women wow she was a majic women.
September 15, 2014 at 8:08 am
Who said you didn’t need to hustle? I worked full time in addition to going to school full time for most of my undergrad and two masters degrees. There were no student loans. I remember paying my tuition at the bursars office in cash a few times.
My schedule was easy, I took the earliest classes offered, and usually a night class or two, the ones nobody wanted. If there were no early classes, I shifted my work schedule to start earlier and leave earlier so I could get in my classes. For a good while I was working 6-3 in order to get to Stevens in time to miss traffic (I think class was 6-9). I remember the best days were 5-10, but if I had a paper, work, would go long into the night. 4-5 hours sleep was the norm.
I guess I should mention….one of the things I was concerned about as I napped in my car in the winter between school and work was whether or not to leave the car running for a few minutes with the heat on….I was concerned that the carbon monoxide would enter the car through one of the many holes in the exhaust.
Yeah my choom gang days were pretty limited.
Gas was like my biggest expense so I never left car running, sometimes I kill engine at traffic lights even.
Sometimes I was in such a coma at work it was comical. In summer when we work 4pm to 11:30 pm shift. (1/2 hour dinner break, one 15 minute break) and doing semi assembly type clerical work I be in a major fog. Imagine coming from Jones Beach after drinking 7-10 beers and laying in 90 degree sun then leaving beach at threeish and do mad rush to work and changing in car and coming up to an office at 4pm for an eight hour work day. Funny part we would get amped up at work on dirty black coffee and fast food at dinner break and go out that night again. Heck a great tan lets go. We always buy double beers for beach, sell half blanket to cover gas and beer so the beach cost nothing. I used to work Saturdays during busy time at Master Card and on weekends since everything was timed and on camera no supervisors. OMG we would process a ton of credit car transactions. But we were drinking beers out of big foam cups and folks were smoking weed in parking lots. I found out about unions first hand at that job as “techically” we were in a union. Since we were clerks. This itallian kid Jimmy came in straight from the clubs one Saturday and I was hung over too, a massive fire extingusher fight broke out which ended up with the extinguishers emptied, pizzas being thrown and a loud mouth girl thrown in a the dumpster. Well the girl reported it, and HR calls us all in with this serious thing. Turns out the union contract did not list fire etinguisher sparying, pizza throwing or putting girls in dumpster as a fireable offense or even affect our raise. Apparantly, we were all on time that day, did not leave early, and met our quoto for work processed.
Toxic Crayons says:
September 15, 2014 at 8:37 am
I guess I should mention….one of the things I was concerned about as I napped in my car in the winter between school and work was whether or not to leave the car running for a few minutes with the heat on….I was concerned that the carbon monoxide would enter the car through one of the many holes in the exhaust.
What exactly is self-aggrandizing about saying you worked hard to get what you have?
Only in America is this a problem, since there should be equal opportunity no matter how lazy, ignorant, or dumb you are. How dare you say you worked harder than someone else.
CEO and executive positions should be hired through a raffle I guess, it’s only fair.
What you don’t realize Comrade, is that even back in the motherland, your equal opportunity was only to be a shit-shoveller, not the boss.
Perhaps more people should be so self-aggrandizing, maybe it will serve as a bit of inspiration.
“Al Gore was right in one respect: Climate change is a moral issue — but that’s because there is nothing quite so immoral as well-fed, well-housed Westerners assuaging their consciences by wasting huge amounts of money on futile anti-global-warming policies, using money that could instead go to improve living standards in developing countries.”
In the runup to the Sept. 23 UN Climate Summit in New York, Leonardo DiCaprio is releasing a series of films about the “climate crisis.”
The first is “Carbon,” which tells us the world is threatened by a “carbon monster.” Coal, oil, natural gas and other carbon-based forms of energy are causing dangerous climate change and must be turned off as soon as possible, DiCaprio says.
But he has identified the wrong monster. It is the climate scare itself that is the real threat to civilization.
DiCaprio is an actor, not a scientist; it’s no real surprise that his film is sensationalistic and error-riddled. Other climate-change fantasists, who do have a scientific background, have far less excuse.
Science is never settled, but the current state of “climate change” science is quite clear: There is essentially zero evidence that carbon dioxide from human activities is causing catastrophic climate change.
Yes, the “executive summary” of reports from the UN’s International Panel on Climate Change continue to sound the alarm — but the summary is written by the politicians. The scientific bulk of the report, while still tinged with improper advocacy, has all but thrown in the towel.
And the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change lists thousands of scientific papers that either debunk or cast serious doubt on the supposed “consensus” model.
Oregon-based physicist Gordon Fulks sums it up well: “CO2 is said to be responsible for global warming that is not occurring, for accelerated sea-level rise that is not occurring, for net glacial and sea ice melt that is not occurring . . . and for increasing extreme weather that is not occurring.”
Consider:
According to NASA satellites and all ground-based temperature measurements, global warming ceased in the late 1990s. This, when CO2 levels have risen almost 10 percent since 1997. The post-1997 CO2 emissions represent an astonishing 30 percent of all human-related emissions since the industrial revolution began. That we’ve seen no warming contradicts all CO2-based climate models upon which global-warming concerns are founded.
Rates of sea-level rise remain small and are even slowing, over recent decades averaging about 1 millimeter per year as measured by tide gauges and 2 to 3 mm/year as inferred from “adjusted” satellite data. Again, this is far less than what the alarmists suggested.
Satellites also show that a greater area of Antarctic sea ice exists now than any time since space-based measurements began in 1979. In other words, the ice caps aren’t melting.
A 2012 IPCC report concluded that there has been no significant increase in either the frequency or intensity of extreme weather events in the modern era. The NIPCC 2013 report concluded the same. Yes, Hurricane Sandy was devastating — but it’s not part of any new trend.
The climate scare, Fulks sighs, has “become a sort of societal pathogen that virulently spreads misinformation in tiny packages like a virus.” He’s right — and DiCaprio’s film is just another vector for spreading the virus.
The costs of feeding the climate-change “monster” are staggering. According to the Congressional Research Service, from 2001 to 2014 the US government spent $131 billion on projects meant to combat human-caused climate change, plus $176 billion for breaks for anti-CO2 energy initiatives.
Federal anti-climate-change spending is now running at $11 billion a year, plus tax breaks of $20 billion a year. That adds up to more than double the $14.4 billion worth of wheat produced in the United States in 2013.
Dr Bjørn Lomborg, director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, calculates that the European Union’s goal of a 20 percent reduction in CO2 emissions below 1990 levels by 2020, currently the most severe target in the world, will cost almost $100 billion a year by 2020, or more than $7 trillion over the course of this century.
Lomborg, a supporter of the UN’s climate science, notes that this would buy imperceptible improvement: “After spending all that money, we would not even be able to tell the difference.”
Al Gore was right in one respect: Climate change is a moral issue — but that’s because there is nothing quite so immoral as well-fed, well-housed Westerners assuaging their consciences by wasting huge amounts of money on futile anti-global-warming policies, using money that could instead go to improve living standards in developing countries.
That is where the moral outrage should lie. Perhaps DiCaprio would like to make a film about it?
Tom Harris is executive director of the Ottawa-based International Climate Science Coalition. Bob Carter is former professor and head of the School of Earth Sciences at James Cook University in Australia.
17 – Crazy talk, of course climate change, just look at this year, not a single hurricane threatened the most dangerous place in the United States. Not one hurricane, who heard of such a thing, we scared them all away.
Maybe Leo has political aspirations and is considering running for president?
Was one of the coldest summers on record in Central Park. Actually the last few years have had colder than normal summers. I’m going to protest the march.
In other news, decided to try to train it in to work again. NJT got me to NY Penn on time, which honestly occurs about as often as the Giants win on Sunday. Got to the ACE platform and you couldn’t get through the turnstyles. The C train had stalled so tried the A to 59th Street. Additional traffic from the busted CE lines were causing major traffic. Took 15 minutes to go one stop to PABT. Got off there and switched to C train since somehow, one was there. Took that to the next stop (5oth St) and walked. It took 50 minutes for me to get to 53rd and 6th. Good times. Back to the car.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2014/09/11/rapid-city-sees-earliest-snowfall-on-record-as-winter-weather-plunges-into-u-s/
Canada’s not the only place seeing painfully early snowfall this year. East Rapid City, S.D. saw their earliest recorded snowfall on Thursday. Weather records there go back to 1888. The previous earliest snowfall date was September 13, which was set in 1970.
Nearly an inch of snow has fallen thus far at the weather station in East Rapid City, but higher amounts are accumulating across western South Dakota. Eight inches has been reported in Custer, S.D., and seven inches has been recorded so far on Mount Rushmore, in the midst of “heavy snow” reports. Downtown Rapid City has seen about an inch of snow as of Thursday morning.
A winter storm warning is in effect as snow is expected to continue through the morning hours, and then diminish in the afternoon. The Weather Service is expecting four to seven inches of heavy, wet snow by the time it lets up, which could cause damage to trees and subsequent power outages.
On climate change. Better watch what you say. Lots of Prius drivers are going to be super pissed when they find out they’ve been driving under-powered, overpriced, unreliable rice burners for nothing. Perhaps they can allay their need for a guilty conscience and claim they wanted to pay reparations for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Looks like jj was in Maine this wekeend:
http://abcnews.go.com/Weird/wireStory/100-onions-grown-maine-5th-graders-stolen-25376359
weekend, not wekeend. Sorry for the typo.
Grim,
You’re doing the sort of thing that made America great, and certainly earn my admiration. Working to your own highest potential is morally good, just as not working to achieve one’s potential (and achieve self sufficiency) is a moral failing. I had about 10 years where I was busting it pretty hard, and that helped me accomplish a number of goals, professionally and financially.
#24..Teddy Roosevelt would have been “DE-Lighted!”
[2] toxic,
Stories like that one are the reason that I find myself not unsympathetic to some (assuredly not all) of the views of the leftists here like cobbler, 223, and even (very rarely) HeWhoMustNotBeAcknowledged (who is back after an all-too-brief hiatus).
While I feel some deserve the squalor in which they willingly wallow, those trying to better themselves or just Do The Right Thing seem to deserve better. How to help those struggling without creating dependency or distortions, and without creating ill will by overreaching has been a constant and intractable battle. Sometimes, I think that, here at least, an enlightened and Solomon-like dictator is needed.
Had an argument with a climatologist once, it was a fun one.
I argued that if there was global warming, it was particulate emissions standards that were to blame, and not carbon emissions alone. Because when emitted in conjunction with one another, they tend to cancel each other out. Particulate in the upper atmosphere tends to cool the planet, as more sunlight is reflected away. It then follows logically, if you believe in global warming due to carbon, you must also agree that by attempting to eliminate pollution, we’ve caused the problem to be worse than it would have been otherwise. By attempting to fix the problem, we’ve made the problem worse.
So what next when we attempt to sequester carbon? What will the unexpected consequence of that be? I guarantee that it will be far worse than simply releasing the carbon.
That said, I drive an electric car because I detest middle eastern oil. It tickles me to no end, every evening when I plug the car in, to know that it’s powered by burning shale gas from Pennsylvania. Fracking that puts Americans to work, and puts dollars in American pockets.
I was going to say the same thing to clot. When you shop at a place like kohl’s, no one pays full price. I would not bet that kohl’s is going out of business anytime soon. Don’t read stuff like this, it’s just doom and gloom. It will cloud your mind and ruin your perception of reality. They only focus on the negatives. They do not focus on the positives. The economy will never be perfect. There will always be some negative angle where it could all come to an end. The thing you have to keep in mind is that it almost never comes to an end. Human beings are problem solvers. When confronted with problems they adjust and try to fix them. If the economy didn’t crash in 2008, it’s not going to happen anytime soon.
grim says:
September 15, 2014 at 7:19 am
Wife stopped at Willowbrook around 3:30 yesterday afternoon, she said it was packed and everyone was crazy.
Uzis for Tykes says:
September 14, 2014 at 10:05 pm
“As a side note on the accuracy of this government data, in a previous role at IKEA, when I was a much younger man, I was responsible for filling out the monthly government retail surveys for the Census Bureau. The government drones collecting this data do not check it. They do not require proof that it is right. It is self reported by retailers across the country. Filling out this crap for the government was about as low on my priority list as whale shit. If I was really busy, I’d make the numbers up, scribble them on the form and put it in the mail. The numbers the government are accumulating are crap. And then they massage the crap. And then they publish the crap as if it means something. It’s nothing but crap.
When you see the headlines touting strong retail sales, you need to consider what you are actually seeing in the real world. RadioShack will be filing for bankruptcy within months. Wet Seal will follow. Sears is about two years from a bankruptcy filing. JC Penney’s turnaround is a sham. They continue to lose hundreds of millions every quarter and will be filing for bankruptcy within the next couple years. Target and Wal-Mart continue to post awful sales results and have stopped expanding. And as you drive around in your leased BMW, you see more Space Available signs than operating outlets in every strip center in America.
My anecdotal proof of this relentless slow motion retail trainwreck is twofold. We received our second 30% off discount coupon from Kohl’s in the last three weeks. We are so indifferent to these constant offers that we didn’t even use the first one. I have to wear dress clothes to work every day, so I went over to Kohl’s this morning when they opened at 8:00 am to get some dress shirts and pants.
The parking lot was an oasis of empty spots and there were maybe 5 customers in the entire store. I went to the mens’ section and was shocked to see about two dozen 60% to 80% off racks. There are usually two or three racks. The store was overflowing with summer merchandise. Summer is over. The store should have been overflowing with Fall merchandise. They are clearly in the midst of an inventory disaster. I found excellent dress shirts on the 70% off rack. Everything I bought was at least 50% off, even before my 30% coupon and another $10 menswear coupon.
I live in a relatively upscale suburban area and still this Kohl’s is an absolute disaster. Their gross margin is going to be hammered. Profits are going to implode. Kohl’s has always been a favorite retailer of the middle class. Decent quality at reasonable prices. Their comp store sales were between positive 5% and 15% for years, until the 2008 financial collapse. Their struggles since then coincide with the decline of middle class incomes and the fake jobs recovery. The fact that they are spiraling downward flies in the face of the propaganda being spewed by the government and media.There is no recovery for the average American.
My second data point happened on Thursday. An accident on the Turnpike forced me to take Lincoln Drive and Germantown Pike home from work (1 hour and 55 minutes of agony). I hadn’t taken this route in about six months. Germantown Pike winds through the Chestnut Hill section of Philly. This is an artsy fartsy area with boutique retail, chic outlets, and fancy restaurants. The upper middle class frequents the area. The retail stores were always open, occupied and busy.
Not anymore. I saw dozens of empty storefronts, Space Available, and For Lease signs. The open stores had no customers. The trendy eating establishments had few patrons. Even the yuppie latte drinking areas are beginning to crumble. Every office park I passed had Space Available signs in front. The amount of vacant retail and office space in this country is too vast to comprehend and is being under-reported by the real estate whores whose job it is to rent space. Ignoring the facts and the truth doesn’t change the facts and the truth.
Do you believe the government and the corporate media, or do you believe your own two eyes?”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-14/kohls-and-rest-retailers-are-deep-trouble
28- You had your time the past 10 years calling the gloom. You looked intelligent making these calls. Don’t throw it all away saying the economy is done for good and that some crash is inevitable. You can’t really tell me that you truly believe that is true. So don’t get brainwashed by the negative bs.
Ahhh, went out this morning to a nip in the air (no JJ, not an asian), a sign that fall is upon us. And this weekend, the season got off to a good start, especially in football where balance was restored to the Force.
FWIW, tough way for the Jets to lose yesterday. I don’t disagree with the call because once anyone yells time out, any further play is tainted. Also, a team that calls an illegal time out should be penalized even if only by calling back the play. But I did feel, for a brief nanosecond, that it may have been an unfair result.
[6] grim – same here, FT school and FT work. Drove school busses morning and afternoon working classes in afternoons and evenings. Late at night I drove limos for the same bus company. Living on campus in Teaneck and working in Paterson my company let me have my limo as a company car so they could call me late at night and send me to the airports if there was a last minute job.
My big money maker was tutoring HS and college kids in Physics. I charged $10/hour if you came to me and $12/hour if I had to come to you. That was huge money in ’82-’83 so much that I was banking all my paychecks and living off my tutoring cash. I hated that trip to the bursar’s window as I would hand over more money than I had ever saved before in one lump sum. I also graduated with no loans.
It’s a real shame that kids no longer know the work ethic of hustling through college independently and being rewarded for their hard work by tripling your income on graduation with no loans to pay back.
every single person i know works very hard. i fully reject the notion that only a few ppl are hard workers. it is right wing propaganda to position the argument that if you are poor is only because you don’t want to walk 5 miles, barefooted in the snow, uphill both ways
you posted above:
“• High paying jobs are scarce. Jobs paying less than $40,000 a year now comprise 53 percent of all jobs in New Jersey, and these jobs are projected to be the primary source of labor growth in the coming years.”
[20] toxic
“Canada’s not the only place seeing painfully early snowfall this year. East Rapid City, S.D. saw their earliest recorded snowfall on Thursday. Weather records there go back to 1888. The previous earliest snowfall date was September 13, which was set in 1970.”
Great. Another snowy winter. About the only thing good about last winter was knowing we could ridicule the Warmists mercilessly, and skiing in the Poconos was actually pretty decent (the snow in Park City sucked).
My anecdotal proof of this relentless slow motion retail trainwreck is twofold. We received our second 30% off discount coupon from Kohl’s in the last three weeks. We are so indifferent to these constant offers that we didn’t even use the first one.
Getting two Kohls coupons in the mail is sign of economic collapse? What the f*ck is this guy talking about? Clearly he doesn’t follow the retail space.
Kohls retail pricing strategy is widely known, and has been widely documented. You are an idiot to buy anything from Kohls without a coupon. No, really, you are an idiot, you are overpaying. Kohls coupons don’t represent a discount, they represent standard retail pricing. The only time you get a discount is if you combine multiple offers.
Most of the US is already desensitized to Kohl’s pricing strategies, so they don’t bother not using coupons, everyone has them. You’d pay $59 for a set of Dockers at Kohls if you took a pair off the rack and walked to the register. At JC Penney if you did the same, you’d walk out paying $39.
You think it’s magic that they are 30% cheaper at Penney’s? (Look up the prices, I just did). Don’t tell me you are surprised if I told you that Kohls adjusts their rack pricing based on the promotions they are running, right? You think it’s just cute that they have digital LCD price tags on the items that are purchased most often?
Spend 10 minutes in Bed Bath as well, watch the register lines, you’ll see everyone has a stack of 20% off coupons.
chifi, libturd:
@BreakingNews: Pre-orders for Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus top 4 million in first 24 hours – @BloombergTV
[31] expat
” FT school and FT work. Drove school busses morning and afternoon working classes in afternoons and evenings. ”
Same here. I drove buses for the PVTA in western Mass. while going to school full time.
Yeah tutoring was the big money, I knew a kid that would do SAT prep for side money, he made a damn mint selling to parents in Montclair and Glen Ridge.
[31] Forgot Saturdays. A dispatcher at the bus company had his own moving company. We used to meet for breakfast at 5AM in Little Falls and then move 2 to 3 houses in a day, sometimes Sundays too. As we were low cost movers, of course our clients were rich. Glen Ridge, Montclair types with big houses and tons of crap. That job was my first time making $100+ in 1 day.
[36] Nom – You probably had the same mentality I had: Anybody who would pay me to drive was paying me to have fun…and footing the gas bill too.
Same here. I drove buses for the PVTA in western Mass. while going to school full time.
I want to say I think he made about $50 an hour, and could usually get in 3 clients a day. He never had an opening. I know he stole the curriculum from one of those big SAT prep places. Most of the parents were glad to pay, they got more for their money than paying a mint to the test prep mills. I think more often than not, he even ate dinner with at least one of the families every night, brilliant move really.
[38] expat,
Too funny. Summers and breaks, I used to help a friend who sold furniture. He also arranged to handle all of the deliveries and installations (the store specialized in waterbeds) so we did deliveries and installations.
You get some good JJ stories installing and maintaining folks’ waterbeds.
[39] expat,
Yup. And the true benefit of that job was the fact that we serviced Smith and Mount Holyoke as well. And I do mean serviced.
[39] expat
But I did drive for awhile for a school bus company, mostly breaks and summers, and I hated it. F’ing kids.
The guy who owned the bus company was a neighbor and was mobbed up. Irony was that my dad was a cop. So here I am, son of a cop, working for one of the local goodfellas. At least I knew I wasn’t going to wind up like Spider.
Serviced? At Smith? Did it go down like an episode of Bosom Buddies? Were they surprised when they realized you were male? Shame they only ever got two seasons out of that gem.
Nom – I had to look up PVTA, http://www.pvta.com/ , I guess. So you drove diesels? Stick shifts you had to double clutch or did they have autos? Our busses were all gasoline with stick shifts. I preferred the International Harvestors to the GMCs. IHs drove just like a car, it was a 5 speed, but 1st gear was off to the side and you never needed it unless you were on a super steep hill, so you just drove it like a 4 speed using 2-5 in the standard H pattern. The GMCs were true 4 speeds, but also with a super low 1st gear, so you drove them like a 3 speed using gears 2-4.
[44] grim,
The idea that everyone at Smith is a lesb1an is a gross exaggeration. Trust me on that.
[45] expat,
The fleet was all 35 and 40 foot RTS IIs from GMC. All auto. We did have a school bus fleet for field trips and those were stick. Yes, double clutching, which is how I learned to drive a stick.
Decades later, I applied for a job as Asst. Gen. Counsel to the Inspector General for the Department of Transportation. That college job got me the interview. The IG actually offered me the job but I declined for a clerkship. Sometimes I wonder how life would have turned out had I accepted.
[43] LOL – If our bus company wasn’t mobbed up, it was definitely mob-friendly and Italian owned. Most of the mechanics spoke only Italian. Lots of talk about the owner being in pretty deep to someone for gambling losses. They also had diesel charter busses across the river, Elmwood Park, I think. I never drove the diesels.
The guy who owned the bus company was a neighbor and was mobbed up. Irony was that my dad was a cop. So here I am, son of a cop, working for one of the local goodfellas. At least I knew I wasn’t going to wind up like Spider.
[45] expat.
Technically, ours was an operating company for PVTA. It actually qualifed as the largest student-run business in the world and the largest free transit system in the nation at that time.
http://www.umass.edu/transit/
Photo gallery shows that they still use the RTS’s and the color scheme hasn’t changed.
[49] redux,
Apparently some of the older RTS’ were retired to field trip duty. I remember the numbering and Bus 3040 was one I used to drive three decades ago.
http://www.umass.edu/transit/ft_rts.html
Lest this turn into the NJ Real Estate and Bus Report, I am going to disappear into the salt mine now . . . See you all at sundown.
@BreakingNews: Pre-orders for Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus top 4 million in first 24 hours – @BloombergTV
Maybe that’s why 38% can’t afford their most basic needs.
[40] grim – I know the type. My last semester in college (and actually for several months while working as an engineer) I had a family that paid me to come over 4-5 nights a week to tutor their HS daughter who was attending private school. I essentially made sure she completed all of her homework every night and understood it.
I want to say I think he made about $50 an hour, and could usually get in 3 clients a day. He never had an opening. I know he stole the curriculum from one of those big SAT prep places. Most of the parents were glad to pay, they got more for their money than paying a mint to the test prep mills. I think more often than not, he even ate dinner with at least one of the families every night, brilliant move really.
I’d preordered the iPhone 6 that was supposed to have the highest level of availability:
Expected ship date: 09/23/14 – 10/02/14
Grim [16];
Only in America is this a problem, since there should be equal opportunity no matter how lazy, ignorant, or dumb you are. How dare you say you worked harder than someone else.
CEO and executive positions should be hired through a raffle I guess, it’s only fair.
Speaking of which, I went to opening night of Atlas Shrugged — Part III: Who is John Galt. Your comment could easily have come from “Head of State Thompson” announcing the follow-up to Directive 10-298.
Unfortunately as a movie it was rather disappointing; rough around the edges due to budget constraints and artistic (casting, editorial) choices. Still glad I went to see it, and wish more would.
On Kohl’s.
My investment club considered owning their stock and chose not to. From reading their 10-Qs, one learns about how dirty their marketing is. The research confirmed what I always assumed after seeing their digital price displays attached to their sales racks. They actually change their prices in store to counteract their coupons and sales. So a 30% off coupon on ‘most’ of their products really just gives one the aura that they are receiving a discount, when in actuality, they are paying the same thing if they brought in a 20% discount the prior week or a 10% discount two weeks before. Just like employee only pricing, it’s a complete farce, yet the sheep (including this dumb writer) eat it up. Go in there without a coupon (like Grim says) and you are a real idiot. Of course, if you were weren’t aware, you can ask the cashier (if she doesn’t volunteer it) for a scratch off which will always be 15% off.
At Bed Bath & Beyond, they even will take as many 20% off coupons as you’ve got. It is not limited to one item if you have multiple coupons.
Nom [46];
Only until graduation, right?
[54] grim – That’s the regular sized one? I have half a mind to order the big one, are they badly delayed? I have been off contract (month-to-month) with Sprint for years now and may jump to Verizon if I buy a new iPhone because I’ve been amazed at the speed of my Verizon iPad and the LTE coverage. I would be right to expect the same from the phone, right?
Clot…at MTR did you order the coconut club?
Chi…in case you aren’t watching your pick. You should be.
Lib [56];
Give the customer what they want, right? If a sheep walks into a store and sees a $15 shirt, they think its too cheap and don’t buy. If they see the same shirt priced at $30 but “On Sale” “This Weekend Only” for 33% off, plus a coupon in their pocket for another “another 25% off the already reduced sale price” — that’s like 58% off, less than half price, right? Ummm, no… thank you public education system — they think they got a steal.
The newish JCP CEO tried to get the company (and its customers) off the drug habit of constant coupons, and nearly took the already weakened company down with him (got fired for his troubles, too?).
[44] grim,
Just had to come back to give you this one. . .
http://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/MjAxMS1mZjc2Yzk4ODJiZGJhZWM0
Grim you better send a mini-carrot cake to the workers at the plant in China if you want your iphone on-time.
http://nypost.com/2014/09/10/factory-workers-go-on-strike-warn-bosses-no-cake-no-iphone-6/
… aannnndd.. cue Marie Antoinette!
Heck…Bring them over here to work in your distillery. You could pay them two mooncakes and double their salary to $2.50!
Do you think these iPhone shortages are manufactured by Apple to maintain buzz and exclusivity?
I wouldn’t put it past them.
re: C02
I am not be worried about CO2 from burning fossil fuel. I would be more worried about what we are going to replace fossil fuel with once it runs out.
Another 40-60 years or so is when the proven oil reserves run out, then it is onto Fischer-Tropsch synthesis for diesel from coal, and MTG for Methanol To Gasoline synthesis. Perhaps another 200 years of that? What then fusion or fission reactors? Back to Horse and Donkey?
re # 66- Put up a velvet rope and people will pay double.
Guy at the AT&T store said walk in pre-orders were heavy, constant, all day, asked him what he thought, he said it was the biggest launch he’d ever been through, and he’d been working there for 4 years. However, at one point he told someone to just come in on launch day, as they were reserving inventory for the line-up customers, this was about 7:30 and I think they wanted to just start closing up for the night. He told me my chances would be better on the 19th, but I’d probably need to wait in line.
He also told me that the price reductions on the 5S ($99) and 5C ($0.01) had been driving heavy parent/teen traffic all week.
More importantly is the Middle East and the near future. The Muslim world does not seem to grasp the concept of tolerance. It took catholics and protestant 300 yrs of fighting in Europe to tolerate each other. The world does not have 300 yrs for the muslims to get their act together.
Whether is India/Pakistan or Israel and anybody else. You know a big all out nuke event is a bigger reality than not. Israel has their King Solomon policy, which means if they are going to dissapear from the map, they are taking out the Arab neighborhood. If that neighborhood goes there goes the Oil world as we presently know it.
At this point is not so much about the natural world, but the human world.
Juice Box says:
September 15, 2014 at 11:46 am
re: C02
I am not be worried about CO2 from burning fossil fuel. I would be more worried about what we are going to replace fossil fuel with once it runs out.
Another 40-60 years or so is when the proven oil reserves run out, then it is onto Fischer-Tropsch synthesis for diesel from coal, and MTG for Methanol To Gasoline synthesis. Perhaps another 200 years of that? What then fusion or fission reactors? Back to Horse and Donkey?
Crossing Our Desk:
– Let’s get this straight up front: Soylent is not people. They even say so on their website. Soylent also is not a nutritional supplement. Soylent is an actual food product and the company that makes it, a California startup, is now accepting bitcoin.
Soylent started off as an experiment in healthy eating by founder Rob Rhinehart. He wrote on his blog about this powdered drink he’d created, that combined all the essential ingredients of food. The post went viral, and he found himself flooded with people interested in his drink. So he did what any entrepreneurial minded Millennial would do: He started a crowdfunding drive.
He named his concoction “Soylent,” a self-consciously ironic reference to the 1973 sci-fi movie “Soylent Green,” a dystopian tale of a world gone wrong in which the beleaguered population is fed a product called Soylent Green – which, Charlton Heston discovers, is made of ground-up human beings.
This real-world Soylent “is not made of humans,” Anastassia Laskey, the company’s vice president of marketing, said with a laugh. “There’s no soy in it, either.” It’s not a nutritional supplement, either, she said. It’s been approved by the FDA as a food (if you’re interested to know what’s in it, everything is on the company’s website).
Soylent is a classic example of a collaborative-economy enterprise, and from the beginning, its customers have been asking for a way to buy it using bitcoins. The company took its product onto the online marketplace Shopify in May, and was immediately looking for a way to integrate bitcoin into its payments options. That became feasible with Shopify’s new agreement with CoinBase for processing bitcoin transactions.
Selling a product that’s named after a fictional product that’s made out of people has been a challenge for Ms. Laskey, but the name has some benefits, she said. “It’s a conversation-starter.” (Paul Vigna)
Exactly, we know someone who had their previous car repo’d, and were nearly homeless because their landlord threatened to sell the house, and yet they own 5 Iphones.
Ben says:
September 15, 2014 at 10:43 am
@BreakingNews: Pre-orders for Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus top 4 million in first 24 hours – @BloombergTV
Maybe that’s why 38% can’t afford their most basic needs.
Jersey City’s anti-litter coordinator caught on tape in expletive-laced rant
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=930598453635462&set=vb.100000559490787&type=2&theater
“anti-litter coordinator”
’nuff said.
Lib [66];
Perhaps. I see it as labor using heightened public awareness surrounding the launch as a pressure point (i.e., using Apple’s media blitz against them). I can’t imagine Apple doesn’t have at least one million of these things already off the boat.
Kohls retail pricing strategy is widely known, and has been widely documented. You are an idiot to buy anything from Kohls without a coupon. No, really, you are an idiot, you are overpaying. Kohls coupons don’t represent a discount, they represent standard retail pricing. The only time you get a discount is if you combine multiple offers.
———
Have to agree with this one. Kohl’s and you can also do the same to Macy’s, Justice, Gymboree. The only time you really pay the price is if you are in a rush (e.g. quick trip, emergency, etc.). Otherwise, even at specialty retailers, as long as you know their patterns and timing, you can get much of your stuff using their coupons. For example, Gap’s sales weren’t up to snuff last August, you can bet you can see those 40% off coupons. Is Gap collapsing? Nope.
You can look at the world as overly pessimistic, or naively optimistic. Reality is most of the time somewhere in between. But hey, if catering to the doomsday view gets zerohedge page views (and he will be right every once in a while, but its not the basis for an investment strategy or worldview) then take whatever he writes with more than a grain of salt. Yes, there are obvious inaccuracies in government data, but it’s within the ballpark on a lot of things.
[75]A few years ago I bought myself an ipod shuffle (the current one) and my youngest daughter an ipod touch, both new from apple (I usually buy refurb on bigger ticket apple products). Anyway, both products offered free engraving so I had them both engraved but I was wondering how that worked. I figured they have them on hand in the US, and they just engrave them and ship, but I wondered about the shrink wrap. I was wrong, I was able to trace the shipping right from China. They engrave them right there in the factory and then ship directly to the customer, which blew me away. All in about 5 days.
Property taxes…..Taxing the tax exempt….
Newton seeks payments from tax-exempt property owners
Posted: Sep 10, 2014 11:55 PM EDT
Updated: Sep 14, 2014 1:00 AM EDT
By BRUCE A. SCRUTON
bscruton@njherald.com
NEWTON — The Town Council has unanimously approved a plan to ask 29 tax-exempt organizations to pay anywhere from less than $1,000 to more than $1 million for the municipal services they now get for free.
The 5-0 vote Wednesday night was to authorize Town Manager Thomas Russo to send out 25 letters and personally deliver the other four letters, all of which outline the organization’s tax assessment and the municipal share of that bill.
The letter asks for the organization, which includes churches, county-owned property and not-for-profit organizations, including Newton Medical Center, to pay that amount, but also says, “If you are unable to make this level of financial commitment, then we respectfully request you consider an annual payment of 25 percent of the equivalent of the municipal taxes.”
The four largest “taxpayers” would be the hospital; Sussex County Community College; Sussex County’s properties, which include the courthouse/sheriff’s complex, the administration center and other county-owned properties in town; and the Newton Housing Authority, which owns Liberty Towers and whose members are appointed by the town.
The fight to get something from the tax-exempt properties is not new.
Russo said it was one of the goals he set for himself when he was hired by the town several years ago, and Mayor Kevin Elvidge, who has been on the council for 16 years, said he remembers it being talked about when was in his first term.
Councilwoman Kristen Becker said she also remembers it being part of the conversation when she joined the council in 2008.
Wayne Levante, who was sworn in for his first term in July, said, “When I looked at the numbers it was staggering. This report is well put together and the letter is excellent.”
Deputy Mayor Daniel Flynn was hesitant about sending letters to some of the recipients, “especially the hospital and the county,” he said.
“I question whether we will get any traction. I’m mostly in support but don’t see where it’s going to get us.”
He said he was concerned about trying to get a payment from the hospital ($1,076,876 municipal share), and the town has working relationships with the college ($249,086) and county ($562,239). The housing authority’s payment would be $65,088 based on the 2015 tax rate.
The 29 letters are identical but do contain the assessed value of the property, the tax that would otherwise be paid and the alternate amount if they agree to a 25 percent payment in lieu of taxes.
Russo said any organization could ask for a different payment rate, and any agreement would be put in writing.
While voicing his concerns, it was Flynn who made the motion, seconded by Levante, to have Russo send out the letters today and Friday, and to personally visit the hospital, college, county and housing authority.
Councilwoman Sandra Diglio said she sees it as only right that the town attempt to collect something in lieu of taxes and noted that Newton “is paying Sparta 60-something thousand every year for our reservoir.”
State law allows municipalities to collect taxes on other non-county municipalities that own utilities or property in the collecting town.
Churches have long been exempt from local taxes, and as not-for-profit organizations became prevalent, they also came under the umbrella of tax-exempt facilities. Counties and the state and federal governments are also exempt.
Newton does have a former state armory on South Park Drive, but there is no federally owned land in the town.
The county contains five state parks and the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area — owned by the National Park Service — which don’t pay taxes to the county.
Becker said there has been talk in the past of going through the state Legislature to get tax relief for the county seats in the state.
One idea is for the county property to be taxed. Another idea, she said, was for taxpayers in a county seat to be exempt from paying county property tax.
A normal property tax bill contains school district, county and local municipal taxes, as well as other levies, such as open space or library taxes.
“I don’t think it’s unfair to go this route,” Becker said. “Another option would be to charge every time we go there. PILOTs (Payments In Lieu Of Taxes) are more than fair.”
Russo said he had talked to some of the not-for-profits “and they said they understand.”
Elvidge said, “My expectations I’ll keep private, but I have my feelings what the outcome will be.”
The letter notes that more than 30 percent of the property in Newton is tax exempt and “while the town greatly appreciates organization such as yours locating in the town, there is an untenable long-term financial burden placed on other property owners in town, even though most residents and business owners may never utilize the services of those tax exempt entities.”
Among the services, according to the letter, are roads and infrastructure as well as public safety such as police, fire and emergency medical services.
In addition to the four hand-delivered letters, the mailed letters will go to: Birth Haven Inc., Newton Christian Reformed Church, Newton Covenant Reformed Church, DASI, First Baptist Church, First United Presbyterian Church, Christ Episcopal Church, Jewish Center of Sussex County, and St. Joseph’s Catholic Church.
Also, Newton Cemetery Co., Katie’s House Inc., First United Methodist Church, SCARC, Unitarian Fellowship, Elaine’s Farm, Newton Library Association, Redeemer Lutheran Church of Newton, Phoenix Properties-NJ Inc., The Samaritan Inn and First Presbyterian Church – Branchville.
Also, Mt. Calvary Baptist Church, Christ Community Church, Loyal Order of Moose, Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice Charitable Foundation and The Nature Conservancy.
Russo said there are 80 municipalities in the state where 20 percent or more of the property is tax exempt and Newton “is about in the middle of those.”
He noted some of the municipalities include West New York and Hoboken and in some cases, the amount of tax exempt property ranges up to 80 percent.
“I see the amount rising here and I don’t wish to be in those municipalities’ shoes,” he told the council.
#26 You help those trying to better themselves one at a time. If you come across a student who is struggling to eat, you feed him dinner then take him grocery shopping. For the girl who was such a gem with your mom in the assisted living place, you write a recommendation for her for nursing school and give her a few thousand for tuition. When the formerly hungry student graduates and after a few years, starts his own business, you throw a little start up money his way, no strings. You’ll know if it’s the right thing to do or not because you’ll know the character of the individual.
Latest Menendez rumor…
http://gotnews.com/menendez-married-mistress-photos/
BTW…if anyone is interested in my autoerotic adventures (now that I’ve got your attention), I got $400 for my Civic and did something I didn’t think I would ever do. I bought the top trim level of a car. I went with a dark gunmetal gray (almost light black) Mazda 6 Grand Touring with black interior. We’ll see how well all of the extra doodads hold up. This car has so much technology in it (well compared to my 95 civic with manual windows, locks, steering, etc.) that I have to take the time to read the manual. Heck, I couldn’t figure out why my car beeped sometimes when I put the directionals on. I knew there was a light in the side view mirrors that would warn me if a car was in the lane I planned to change into, but I didn’t know there would be an audible alarm if a car was there when I put the blinkers on. I used Truecar again and ended up getting a whopping $100 off of the Truecar price. Ended up a little over $3,000 off sticker, which isn’t that bad considering I did not pay for a single extra option. The price could not have been too bad as the finance guy pushed real hard to sell me on warranties. Their starting prices for the warranties are absolutely ludicrous. I wonder how many people fall for them? I offered the guy $100 a year for the warranty so he could make $10/year off me. He didn’t bite. I think they wanted over $1,000 per year for it. They did have 0% financing, so of course I’ll pay for it over 63 months. When I called Geico to get the insurance, the customer service tried to automatically add dumb options such as roadside assistance, rental car coverage, etc. to the quote. I asked her if they were free, but of course they were not. I told her if she pulled that again, I would cancel my insurance. Man is insurance getting cheaper as I get older. The switch from the Civic to the Mazda 6, including adding comp/collision only added about $300 to the policy. And the Civic was like $200 to insure to begin with. I’m guessing I left about $400 on the table, but I just didn’t have the energy to fight for this one. Not considering that most of the money I am using to pay for this car was a gift from AC. Been really lucky this year. Tax title and delivery I got her in my driveway for $30K. That’s after they removed the etching which they tried to charge $249 for. Criminals.
Lib [81];
You should savor the moment. May it be another 2 decades until you have to buy another car!
I really doubt this one will go that long.
I savor the moment, every time I turn the key.
I doubt any modern car is going to last 20 years, just too much to break these days.
Every day that goes by my BMW has more and more gremlins.
Radio set presets are mysteriously forgotten, or tune to stations other than indicated on the display. Solar flares?
Gauges getting “stuck” or pinning at the top end.
Center or rear diff clunks all the time now.
Used the fob to unlock the doors the other day, the sunroof opened.
Heat doesn’t work when the car is idle.
AC has a slow leak, seems I need to charge every year now (although I tend to run the AC all year long).
Almost 150k, I had really wanted to be able to make it to 238k, just so I could joke around and say I drove to the moon in the car. Not sure it’ll make it to 238k.
Motor and trans still feel strong, I’m sure the center or rear diff is nearly shot, but I’m sure I can wait a couple more years and find them dirt cheap in the junk yards. I did just put new tires on it, and it’s due for brakes, so maybe I just shell out the cash and push through the next 88k, I can do that in 3 years.
Amazing thing about the Civic was the lack of rust. 19 years of being parked outside and the only sign of rust was just over each rear wheel well.
Lib so Lightning is gone, shame looks like I now have the oldest ride 15 years, 264000 miles. Skiing in upstate winters though are starting to turn her into swiss cheese. My 2.5 year old told me it needs rusteez
with Kohls, even if they only mail you a 15% off coupon, you can just tell them you had a 30% and forgot it and they give you the 30%.
[6] grim – same here, FT school and FT work. Drove school busses morning and afternoon working classes in afternoons and evenings. Late at night I drove limos for the same bus company. Living on campus in Teaneck and working in Paterson my company let me have my limo as a company car so they could call me late at night and send me to the airports if there was a last minute job.
My big money maker was tutoring HS and college kids in Physics. I charged $10/hour if you came to me and $12/hour if I had to come to you. That was huge money in ’82-’83 so much that I was banking all my paychecks and living off my tutoring cash. I hated that trip to the bursar’s window as I would hand over more money than I had ever saved before in one lump sum. I also graduated with no loans.
It’s a real shame that kids no longer know the work ethic of hustling through college independently and being rewarded for their hard work by tripling your income on graduation with no loans to pay back.
Why do you assume that kids don’t do this. I did this as late as 7 years ago. This market didn’t disappear. Hell I still do it now. Only thing is, my rate has now quadrupled.
anon (7)-
I will now address you directly for the last time, you piece of shit. The “self-aggrandizing” person to whom you refer is the guy who hosts this blog- at enormous personal expense- and has offered priceless information and research here over the years FOR FREE. He has saved countless people hundreds of thousands of dollars (and documented it), so you have managed to hit yet a new low in your scum-sucking efforts to drag this board into the intellectual sewer from which you will never emerge.
“self-aggrandizing myths do not impress me”
198k on the Nissan Grim. Replaced the platinum spark plugs for the first time two weeks ago. Got my money’s with out of them.
stu (59)-
Coconut Club at MTR may be the single greatest dish ever conceived.
toxic (73)-
I recognize her. She was one of my better customers.
Glad bitch didn’t come into my place talking that shit. One of my peeps would’ve bolo punched her.
toxic (80)-
Hey, at least this beats Dominican children.
What is MTR?
Hosting and domain registration alone for this blog, since inception, are near $7,000 at this point. C’est la vie.
doubt that all that cash they have in the bank is manufactured
Libturd in the City says:
September 15, 2014 at 11:41 am
Do you think these iPhone shortages are manufactured by Apple to maintain buzz and exclusivity?
I wouldn’t put it past them.
If you value my time only at minimum wage, the time invested here is worth nearly $25,000, which brings the costs to $32,000. Add misc licensing fees and whatnot, and that’s easily up to $35,000.
Donations offset some of the non-time costs.
Say, Anon, have you ever hit the donate button? Realize that your freedom of speech here isn’t actually free.
no, i haven’t hit the donate button.
but assuming that my hourly gross income is $150, i labor on this site an unpaid minimum $75 a day or $525 on 7-day week
it’s a bit rich to demand more of me
grim says:
September 15, 2014 at 6:58 pm
If you value my time only at minimum wage, the time invested here is worth nearly $25,000, which brings the costs to $32,000. Add misc licensing fees and whatnot, and that’s easily up to $35,000.
Donations offset some of the non-time costs.
Say, Anon, have you ever hit the donate button? Realize that your freedom of speech here isn’t actually free.
Thought this was an interesting quote. “When it comes to money, everyone is of the same religion.” Voltaire
I apply this to our one party, I mean two party system.
Spoke to someone else in an AT&T store who confirmed their expected inventory. I think apple is screwing over all the preorders by not fulfilling, instead waiting to fulfill in-store demand first, then releasing inventory afterwards. Why not, the preorders are captive for the most part. Why risk selling out on day 1?
“it’s a bit rich to demand more of me”
ROFLMMFAO! DING, DING, DING, We have a winner folks. Irony on so many levels, it’s mind boggling. I am truly impressed.
Grim (95)-
Memphis Tap Room. Great beer & great food. Everything on the menu sounds weird and awful, but it’s all terrific.
Grim, I think anon is begging to be banned.
He is only here to troll. Today’s posts have hit a new level of pointless and disgusting.
Plume (102)-
He’s prolly a 350 lb, pork rind-swilling welfare queen.
Lib – Good luck with the Mazda6! I own the previous generation 6, and have been waiting patiently for the much delayed turbo Diesel Mazda6. It’s a nice platform offering everything a Camry can do for your family without the stigma of being a Camry driver and has much better handling. I guess you like the CX-9 enough so far that you went back for a second helping of Mazda?
Dammit!
http://www.carscoops.com/2014/09/mazda-6-diesel-reportedly-still-year.html
njExpat. That’s exactly it. I am a big fan of Japanese cars for their durability when compared to American cars. German cars are both unreliable and way too expensive to repair, though extremely fun to drive. Was not impressed with reliability of Nissan since our Xterra drastically deteriorated at 90K. Honda and Toyota have become overpriced, though the Fit is probably the best car made today. Would have bought one, but I needed something that could fit two hockey bags in the trunk. The fact she gets 40 MPH was the clincher. The standard features on the 6 Grand Touring are incredible as well. A lot of things that I love, and few things that I don’t.
Would have loved the Mazda 6 Wagon, which would most definitely become the hipstermobile, but Mazda isn’t selling it here.
Who is Mazda sourcing a diesel from? I’d be wary if this is their first foray into it. Most on the reliable diesels come from companies with decades of experience making, selling, and servicing them.
Lib,
Was this your choice or Gators? I thought she got next dibs when the Civic bit the dust?
Didn’t get a chance to commet on the civics demise. I had a Prelude that did the same dance. I replaced the head gasket for $400 to find number 1 cylinder with no compression. It was a rebore and rebuild or new engine. It was a tough call as it is a joy to drive.
Interesting article. I applaud her for the ingenuity, but suspect there is more to the back story.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-07-10/off-the-grid-in-florida-robin-speronis-fights-municipal-code
Mine. Gator got the CX-9 when we replaced the Xterra. Sorry to hear about your Prelude. Saw a very old Del Sol drive by me today. Man are those early 90 Civics reliable.
#90 Clot
That’s rich from you, the most negative person on this board. Nothing like the new unsuspecting reader clicking on the link against your post. Eight years of constant negativity.
Your posts, can always be summed up as
1) Burn the MFer down
2) They’ll be rioting in the streets by June.
3) What’s on Zero Hedge today.
The only original thing you have given this board in your time here is, garnering the attention of the three letter agency’s.
#113 Lib,
The Prelude was hard to let go, but it came down to numbers. I drove the 6 at a Mazda Speed event in the old Shea Stadium car park and liked it, so you should have fun for a lot of years.
Offered without comment.
http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/a-school-district-bought-an-18-ton-mrap-because-the-wor-1634810604/+matthardigree
from the article:
“But there also comes a point where you gotta do what you gotta do to protect the integrity of the system.”
Yup, the govt is more important than the individuals.
And to your implication there’s more to the backstory; would it matter?
Fabius Maximus says:
September 15, 2014 at 11:07 pm
Interesting article. I applaud her for the ingenuity, but suspect there is more to the back story.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-07-10/off-the-grid-in-florida-robin-speronis-fights-municipal-code
[116] Fabian
Bizarre if they actually bought it. Pentagon is giving them away so why buy it?
Personally, I think departments in tornado alley should get them for SAR work.
[112] Fabian
In some areas, electric utilities are fighting folks going off grid with solar by complaining to local officials that unconnected houses aren’t habitable. The officials then condemn the properties even though they have power.
That’s just one example. In Florida, you can have four or five different governance sources that you can run afoul of should you do the unusual.
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