Caribou Gear Tarp

Thoughts on this bailout and “stimulus”?

@rjthehunter , eventually life will hit you in the face and you will then understand that putting everyone in the same boat is extremely foolish.
Noting how I said
I see those who are now in trouble and feel for them. I don't want anyone to lose their job whether they're making 20k a year or 200k a year. I think this is all being blown out of proportion and everything will likely return to normal in a couple months.
I don't believe I'm putting everyone in the same boat...
 
I've worked since high school, lots of minimum wage jobs, had a stint for a couple months where I was working three jobs at the same time, more or less 8am - 1am every day of the week. That sucked... but for me it was a couple months, for some that's their life. Had a parent suddenly die from cancer, lost a job because the company folded (turned our the CEO was super shady). These experiences + others gave me some perspective that I need to be more humble about what I have built myself, and what is a product of luck/being born into the right family.

"I think this is all being blown out of proportion"

Complex... if your a 32 year old healthy guy like me... meh not a biggy, if you're a person with underlying heath issues it's a huge deal.

Along with paying it back, and putting the stimulus you get back into local business the other huge thing you can do is stay out of the hospital.

From all of us with spouses in the medical field, please keep yourself healthy.

(Medschools have already cancelled graduation (end of may), typically 4th year medical students are done with classes in ~ April then match to residency, then start residency aka first job as a freshly minted MD at the end of June, there are rumors swirling that after match tomorrow programs might tell residents they are starting immediately. These are purely rumors, but apparently European programs have been doing it.)

My take away from ^ is that our system is really short handed right now.


Add to that: Mos temployers aren't paying overtime. They're working their staff up to 35 hours a week and not scheduling more in an effort to avoid paying full-time benefits. So if you have to work 80 hours a week to afford living where you do, then you're like looking at three jobs to just get those hours. Most jobs that you'd pick up in the after 5 pm slot won't pay higher than $14. The traditional safety net of overtime, paid benefits, pensions, etc have been eliminated in favor of a rigid ideology of less regulation. This has helped create a massive imbalance in wealth distribution, and led us to a space where working three jobs isn't the exception anymore, yet not quite the rule.

Our system has been altered from where it was in the 1950's - 1970's to favor management over employees. I can see why millenials & younger generatons would think socialism is a better path. They've never known capitalism at it's finest and most egalitarian.
 
Noting how I said

I don't believe I'm putting everyone in the same boat...

You are saying people working for minimum wage are their own problem and why can't they work for 80 hours a week? How about an uneducated single mom with no family or true support system? Thousands of those cases out there and that's just one of many examples I could throw out. Any clue on what daycare rates are in 2020 and what it would cost to hire a sitter for each and every evening while she is cranking out those additional 40 hours? Didn't think so and that's just ONE expense. You havent experienced life yet but eventually you will.
 
I've worked since high school, lots of minimum wage jobs, had a stint for a couple months where I was working three jobs at the same time, more or less 8am - 1am every day of the week. That sucked... but for me it was a couple months, for some that's their life. Had a parent suddenly die from cancer, lost a job because the company folded (turned our the CEO was super shady). These experiences + others gave me some perspective that I need to be more humble about what I have built myself, and what is a product of luck/being born into the right family.

"I think this is all being blown out of proportion"

Complex... if your a 32 year old healthy guy like me... meh not a biggy, if you're a person with underlying heath issues it's a huge deal.

Along with paying it back, and putting the stimulus you get back into local business the other huge thing you can do is stay out of the hospital.

From all of us with spouses in the medical field, please keep yourself healthy.

(Medschools have already cancelled graduation (end of may), typically 4th year medical students are done with classes in ~ April then match to residency, then start residency aka first job as a freshly minted MD at the end of June, there are rumors swirling that after match tomorrow programs might tell residents they are starting immediately. These are purely rumors, but apparently European programs have been doing it.)

My take away from ^ is that our system is really short handed right now.

The death rate is skewed. Most people don't know they have it.

My sister is a nurse in a hospital. My girlfriend is a police officer. They are working and exposed to all of these people. My grandpa is on Oxygen 24/7 due to a lung disease that can't be cured.

I'm doing what I can to stop the spread. But with all these tests coming out now, it's going to blow it up even more. The death rate is minimal and all the hyperbole is driving the economy to the ground. People are starting to act like it's the apocalypse.

I wouldn't be able to spend the money on small businesses if I got it because they're all closed...
 
@rjthehunter , eventually life will hit you in the face and you will then understand that putting everyone in the same boat is extremely foolish.

Very true, and it goes both ways, listening to all this talk about poor college kids, I know 2 that jumped all over low airfare and are somewhere in Hawaii right now hunting and 4 more that loaded up a trailer and are in SD following snow geese all the way to Canada for the next month. They don’t seem too concerned, to the ones with kids and the ones struggling to pay bills I have sympathy and hopefully the money helps.
 
Why not donate it into your local economy?
Well we probably wont get it and if we did we have some local programs going into place where it would help for sure that we can give it to.

My comment was what I think of it in a nutshell. If it goes to where people are hit hardest great, but I'm skeptical.
 
These threads are beyond interesting to say the least, sure is interesting to see the thoughts and situations of others across the board on here and see some reactions as well. I can say that I agree with some on the people living beyond their means this is gonna be when the metal hits the meat for them others who able to save and have established a rainy day fund they should be sitting pretty well. I would say myself I am somewhere in the middle between the too. I don't have a monthly payment that consists of various toys and a mortgage that I live to pay for but I don't have 75k tucked away either for a JIC fund.

As a father and husband of a young family that works for a small business that relies on sales in the recreation and farm and ranch industries I can say that we are tightening up the ship. We will continue to work and do what we can and remain calm and positive during this whole thing. It's all very unfortunate to say the least with what's happening out there. As far as the stimulus deal it will go in the rainy day fund and be used if needed, I'm hopeful it doesn't get to that at all but 6 months from now who knows. I'm not taking it as a gift to "piss away" at all! If not needed it will go into our local economy to support our small shops and restaurants at some point.

Working for this small family business has been interesting the owners are doing everything that they can to come up with ways to keep their employees on during these difficult times. I commend them for that, we all should look at this that life sometimes seems too automatic and easily could be derailed in a matter of a split second. Once we get through this my first order of business in my personal finances will be to become better prepared for these types of things because you just never know. While I am not scraping together every last bean, I am not bursting at the seams either.......

I can tell you one thing I am damn happy I didn't invest in Colorado, Idaho and Wyoming draws this year........ my wife would've killed me before any virus or anything else!
 
Well we probably wont get it and if we did we have some local programs going into place where it would help for sure that we can give it to.

My comment was what I think of it in a nutshell. If it goes to where people are hit hardest great, but I'm skeptical.
Maybe, but returning it to prove a point doesn’t help the guy running the local grocery store or sand which shop.
 
You are saying people working for minimum wage are their own problem and why can't they work for 80 hours a week? How about an uneducated single mom with no family or true support system? Thousands of those cases out there and that's just one of many examples I could throw out. Any clue on what daycare rates are in 2020 and what it would cost to hire a sitter for each and every evening while she is cranking out those additional 40 hours? Didn't think so and that's just ONE expense. You havent experienced life yet but eventually you will.
I know daycare rates. I know what it takes. Minimum wage jobs pay minimum wage because of MINIMUM skill. Learn a skill and capitalize upon it. I know bartenders that make huge money. There's literally a million jobs that a single mother could do to provide for her kids. Case and point. One of the ladies that works in my office is a single mother. She works 40 hours a week. Isn't living above her means. Doesn't drive a fancy car. But she makes ends meet. She can do it. Why can't anyone else? She learned how to do accounting and now helps our main controller. Fairly simple to learn. Doesn't require crazy hours. Where there's a will there's a way.
 
Off topic, but we'll add your family to our prayers. Please give them our thanks as well. We all appreciate their sacrifice right now.

Also, I bet get togethers at your place are wickedly morbid & hilarious. :)
Thanks Ben! They are hilarious and disturbing all in one! Dinner conversations fluctuate from poop to dead people and everything in between!
 

The death rate is skewed. Most people don't know they have it.

My sister is a nurse in a hospital. My girlfriend is a police officer. They are working and exposed to all of these people. My grandpa is on Oxygen 24/7 due to a lung disease that can't be cured.

I'm doing what I can to stop the spread. But with all these tests coming out now, it's going to blow it up even more. The death rate is minimal and all the hyperbole is driving the economy to the ground. People are starting to act like it's the apocalypse.

I wouldn't be able to spend the money on small businesses if I got it because they're all closed...

It is true that many with COVID-19 are asymptomatic, but that doesn’t (and shouldn’t) minimize our responsibility to take precautions for those who are vulnerable. Some people are acting irrationally, but most are being responsible. Bud, you need some perspective, whether you get that through life experiences or from some of the wise members on this thread that have seen much more than you.

For myself, I appreciate what @JLS @wllm1313 @VikingsGuy @Big Fin and others have said on this thread. It is much more complicated and nuanced than we want to admit because we want a quick, easy solution. Sound familiar in our society? There isn’t one in this case and it will take a tremendous amount of compassion, judgment, and work to get us back on track.

I don’t have all the solutions, but I recognize there are so many variables. For example, I graduated from grad school in the middle of the recession (2012). It was a terrible time and at graduation I estimated that 50% of my classmates had jobs and the other 50% did not, and that was from a top tier school. We had projections on exit counseling from a financial “expert” that were totally wrong (i.e. the dollar doesn’t go as far as it used to). There are so many things outside our control, which demands that we try to sort out all the fluff and see things for what they really are.
 
Yes, 14 would be difficult to survive on. But working 80hr weeks would be closer to 73k a year with overtime. But what I'm getting at is that people working for minimum wage are stuck there for no ones fault but their own. Why isn't working 80 hrs a week a solution? Lots of our work is seasonal. The guys who put in 80 to 90 hours a week work 6-7 days a week for 4 months during the season then take winters off or work 1 to 2 days a week.

The point of all of this is to show that people can make more than minimum wage. If you're being paid poorly, it's likely due to a job that doesn't require any skill. Learn a new job that pays well and take off.
Yes, thanks, I didn't account that OT is probably at 1.5x. It still isn't a living wage. A 16hr day is $280 pre tax. 7 days every week for 4 months (16wks) is less than $32k. You could probably live on that, but it would be paycheck to paycheck. Unfortunately too many people do. We might agree that a lot of this is no ones fault but the one making the choice earlier in life (when decision making typically sucks). Not learning a skill or going to college has consequences. But if you are a politician, these people vote and don't want to hear it is their fault. We learned that during the last crisis. People who took out mortgages they couldn't afford deflected blame to the bank that loaned them the money. It is just human nature.
 
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