PSA to those in California

[JZStudios]

5 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

Recycling is expensive in general - your state (or ideally, a national strategy) should look at introducing local recycling facilities that process recycling and sell the material for use in the domestic market.

 

Does your state do bottle deposits?

Countries need to look at recycling strategies better, and look into national programs that can actually reintroduce the materials into the economy.

The issue is that China isn't buying it, and apparently the other sources that do buy it, don't buy enough to the point where it's costing multiple cities millions of dollaroos. They could break down the materials and get them all cleaned and prepped or whatever, but no one is buying them. I don't know anyone in the domestic market who's looking to buy a few hundred tons of recycled materials.

 

I'm not sure what bottle deposits are. Sprouts has some glass milk bottles that you're supposed to return for a few cents back, so I'd guess that, but on average, no I don't think so.

 

I'm against literally throwing more money in the trash. I'm not paying more money just so they can take the stuff to the dump. Even when we did have a recycling bin, sure, we sorted stuff, but we mostly just used it to make more space in the trash bin. I don't know how they'd re-introduce it into the economy, and I don't trust my dipshit city officials to be capable of wiping their own ass, much less making a recycling plan that works.

 

And in the case of Cali, plastic straws have been banned, plastic bags taxed, environmental restrictions up the wazoo, barbecues at the very least heavily regulated...

meanwhile the plague is making a reappearance in skid row with trash and feces lining the streets. I'm just saying, there's got to be priorities somewhere.

5 hours ago, Voluspa said:

Depending on the line of work you're in, finding a job up here is easy. Don't mind manual labor? Jobs are easy to come by. Yes the cost of living tends to be higher up here, but companies tend to pay better because of it. Our minimum wage up here is the national($7.77), but even my first summer up here doing seasonal work I started at $10.

Sweet Jesus, I wish the minimum wage here would plummet so maybe people could actually get jobs. Can't imagine what it's like in $15 Cali. People seem to think they deserve more than they're worth and ruin it for literally everybody instead of letting local economics take natural course. The job market here was rough at $7 and in the last few years they bumped it to $12 and now everyone is broke.

[IkeaGnome]

@JZStudios I can see how that would happen in Cali. I don't think that's the case up here with our minimum wage. The wages up here are more determined on the cost of groceries. More specifically, the shipping of groceries. What people fail to see with raising minimum wage though is that they get paid more, but everything costs more. It effects the broader picture, and not just in your state. When Cali got the minimum wage hike, our groceries went up. Their minimum wage rise had effects 3500 miles(5000km) away. 

Minimum wage can only plummet so far before it becomes unlivable again. Let's say across the board, minimum wage went down to $5. Would that lower oil prices? More than likely not. That's more of a global price than a national or regional. Even up here in Alaska, premium gas has been around $4.50/gal since the tanker issues in the Gulf started. If oil prices can't come down, the cost to transport goods would stay relatively the same. It would only be able to come down based on wage savings, not fuel savings which is the bigger expense in shipping. Food could be even less affordable after an across the board minimum wage decrease. 

I don't think wages are the whole problem. I personally think that oil prices are a bigger issue. No matter how much you try to buy local goods, petroleum still has it's hand in everything. 

Not an economist, just some of what I've seen between living in Washington and Alaska.

[dalekphalm]

The thing about minimum wages is that not everyone earns minimum wage. So yes, when the wage goes up, so do goods. But because the cost increase is spread about to everyone, including those that earn more, the cost increase is smaller than the minimum wage increase - it's still a net positive for those on minimum wage.

 

And typically any job losses, etc, are short term at best (Unless it's a massive drastic increase, which could cause a shock to the system).

[JZStudios]

26 minutes ago, Voluspa said:

@JZStudios I can see how that would happen in Cali. I don't think that's the case up here with our minimum wage. The wages up here are more determined on the cost of groceries. More specifically, the shipping of groceries. What people fail to see with raising minimum wage though is that they get paid more, but everything costs more. It effects the broader picture, and not just in your state. When Cali got the minimum wage hike, our groceries went up. Their minimum wage rise had effects 3500 miles(5000km) away.

Well, as you said, even though minimum is $7, the standard of living in your location is higher, so companies need to pay higher to compensate, otherwise no one would work there. It's kind of a self balancing thing. I used to work at Olive Garden and was very amused and not shocked at all when I heard they were the first major corporation to cut every single employee from full time to part time because of wage increases and Obamacare.

 

20 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

The thing about minimum wages is that not everyone earns minimum wage. So yes, when the wage goes up, so do goods. But because the cost increase is spread about to everyone, including those that earn more, the cost increase is smaller than the minimum wage increase - it's still a net positive for those on minimum wage.

 

And typically any job losses, etc, are short term at best (Unless it's a massive drastic increase, which could cause a shock to the system).

Well then how does going from $7.25 to $12/hour in 4 years strike you? Especially when it was once again, already rough and hard to find a decent job at $7.25. And where I live is actually pretty cheap.

[Scheer]

20 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

(in the off chance that mobile carriers actually deem us worthy to provide backup power for their transponders this time

Who is your carrier that goes down?

 

I'm pretty sure all the major carriers get fined if they go down even during a power outage as it is most peoples only access to emergency services. Several times now we've had to go out and get generators running here in the Midwest when they have issues in bad ice storms, and usually the carriers require it back up within 2-4 hours. While I can't remember for sure, I'm still fairly sure we've had guys in California have to go and manually flip the ATC when it didn't switch over the backup generator during a power outage.

[Zodiark1593]

4 minutes ago, Scheer said:

Who is your carrier that goes down?

 

I'm pretty sure all the major carriers get fined if they go down even during a power outage as it is most peoples only access to emergency services. Several times now we've had to go out and get generators running here in the Midwest when they have issues in bad ice storms, and usually the carriers require it back up within 2-4 hours. While I can't remember for sure, I'm still fairly sure we've had guys in California have to go and manually flip the ATC when it didn't switch over the backup generator during a power outage.

T-Mobile.

 

During the last couple outages, the towers had enough backup power to last for 4 hours before dropping service entirely for the rest of the outage. I'd imagine that towers that carry Band 12 probably get priority due to range, though my phone doesn't do Band 12 or VoLTE, so I can't say for certain.

[Donut417]

27 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

The thing about minimum wages is that not everyone earns minimum wage.

Those a generally Tipped employees and I think with the wage and tip the employer has to make sure they at least get to min wage standards. At least thats how it is in the US. 

 

39 minutes ago, Voluspa said:

What people fail to see with raising minimum wage though is that they get paid more, but everything costs more.

What that implies is if I made less, everything would cost less? I think not. That kinda like trickle down economics. It doesnt work. Personally minimum wage should be based on the cost of living of each state. Here in Michigan ours is like $9.45 an hour. However lots of place pay $10 to $15 all day long. Because thats what the market demands. You also have to understand that miniumum wage is barely enough to live on, and some even cant live on it. Also consder the cost of living goes up and the wages stay the same. Doesnt matter if your paid more or not, costs always are increasing. 

 

4 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

last for 4 hours befor

That sucks. A year or two ago we had a 4 day outage in Febuary. COLD AS FUCK BTW. The TMobile tower was up the whole time. So at least I had internet. No heat, no lights..... But I have service. Who ever invented the gas valve on our hot water heater that doesnt require electricy to ignite it. They deserve the nobel peace prize. Had me some hot shower. Though froze to death when the shower was over. 

[TheVillageIdiot]

https://www.sfgate.com/california-wildfires/article/PG-E-power-outage-800-000-customers-length-number-14501984.php

[Zodiark1593]

2 hours ago, Donut417 said:

 

 

That sucks. A year or two ago we had a 4 day outage in Febuary. COLD AS FUCK BTW. The TMobile tower was up the whole time. So at least I had internet. No heat, no lights..... But I have service. Who ever invented the gas valve on our hot water heater that doesnt require electricy to ignite it. They deserve the nobel peace prize. Had me some hot shower. Though froze to death when the shower was over. 

Pretty much everything here is electric (stove, oven, water, heat), though our BBQ has a gas range, so I'm not entirely SoL for cooking and coffee brewing (french press ftw). And my 14k mAh battery bank will run both my Atom tablet (and people thought Atoms were worthless, who's laughing now!) and blu ray drive, so that covers entertainment even without cell service.

 

Still, I think Linus should put together some more of those generator bikes and stick them on the merch store. Modern TV's don't require much power, so it should be easily doable for a fit person.

 

[Salv8 (sam)]

On 10/8/2019 at 12:06 PM, Zodiark1593 said:

-snip-

it's worse in Australia, during the dead of summer it's very common for brown outs (unintentional drop in power for long periods of time due to the amount of people using power) to occur, it's quite common for computers to stick themselves on powersaver mode due to not receiving enough voltage from the wall, PSU's help by adding the nessery voltage that missing but it's not a good idea as it's a waste and many PSU manufactures recommend turning this off unless you need that power for a render or something.

[BuckGup]

On 10/7/2019 at 9:27 PM, Zodiark1593 said:

I'm not a big fan of warm weather. I tend to prefer cool to cold, like "it actually snows" cold. I've given some strong consideration to Alaska (I've some friends out there), though I'm fully aware certain stuff (perishable food, namely) is more expensive, and finding work is likely to be a challenge.

Alaska is it's own beast. Summer is great in Alaska. Winter is hell and it's a massive mental battle too. Living in constant darkness leads to depression. Alaska has the highest suicide rate out of any state because of this. Gas is ludicrously expensive and so are groceries. But you get that oil money every year and everyone is friendly as they are just trying to survive like the rest of them

[williamcll]

You did think a technologically advanced state like california would have better power grids but no.

[PlayStation 2]

2 minutes ago, CircleTech said:

or basically any other "red" state. The midwest and deep south has some of the lowest cost of living in the US, yet nobody seems to want to live there for some reason I can't understand.

The humidity alone would kill it for some. That and it can be very boring, depending on where you live in the Deep South.

[atxcyclist]

4 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

The humidity alone would kill it for some. That and it can be very boring, depending on where you live in the Deep South.

Huntsville seemed like it was on an uptick the last time I was there, I have family that live in the Jones Valley area, and some in Madison. Lots of new breweries and eateries on Clinton Ave from what I remember.

[PlayStation 2]

Just now, atxcyclist said:

Huntsville seemed like it was on an uptick the last time I was there, I have family that live in the Jones Valley area, and some in Madison. Lots of new breweries and eateries on Clinton Ave from what I remember.

It's blowing up. The house I live in is already worth ~$25k more than it was when it was purchased.

[Zodiark1593]

15 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

The humidity alone would kill it for some. That and it can be very boring, depending on where you live in the Deep South.

I'm not a big humidity fan. When I got off the airplane during my Hawaii vacation, it felt like I walked straight into a wall...

[PlayStation 2]

3 minutes ago, CircleTech said:

Life is a series of trade-offs. You want a low cost of living? Get ready to deal with hellish weather half the year. You want great weather? Get ready to pay through the nose to live there. You want to live in a city-center for the access to entertainment and activities? Get ready to pay more because well, you live in a city.

 

As a person born in the Midwest, I prefer living in the suburbs. Urbanized areas are too expensive, and the rural area I am currently residing in for school is too damn boring. Think of locations like west Chicago, Carmel Indiana, Portage Wisconsin, Westerville Ohio, Franklin Tennessee, I could go on. What is unique about all these places? They are close to a city, but not inside the city. This means you are rewarded with a low-medium cost of living, with under an hour drive to a city-center if you so desire to visit or work there. I grew up in Canton, MI. I will probably live in Suburbs my entire life. I enjoy cities, but don't like living in them since they are too loud and crowded. Living in Rural areas has the opposite affect: Nothing to do here. Living in the suburbs gives one a healthy mix of both. I don't really know where else to get that.

Life is a series of trade-offs, but I'd rather not live somewhere in which 89 degrees feels like fucking death because I live 5 miles from the Tennessee River.

Not to mention, Huntsville and Madison are getting more expensive anyways. 

[FezBoy]

Well, I should lose power in ~2 hours.  If I don't post again I probably died from forum withdrawals.

[Zodiark1593]

I forgpt how bright candlelight is once the eyes are adjusted. Also, the photographer in me sees potential for unique photo opportunities in Placerville under just moonlight.

[Donut417]

9 hours ago, CircleTech said:

or basically any other "red" state. The midwest and deep south has some of the lowest cost of living in the US, yet nobody seems to want to live there for some reason I can't understand.

There are historical reason for many. Some current events that might have put off many more. Let’s just say the culture in the “bible belt” is a bit different than the north. Which is why I’d never live in any of those states. 

[dalekphalm]

14 hours ago, JZStudios said:

Well, as you said, even though minimum is $7, the standard of living in your location is higher, so companies need to pay higher to compensate, otherwise no one would work there. It's kind of a self balancing thing. I used to work at Olive Garden and was very amused and not shocked at all when I heard they were the first major corporation to cut every single employee from full time to part time because of wage increases and Obamacare.

 

Well then how does going from $7.25 to $12/hour in 4 years strike you? Especially when it was once again, already rough and hard to find a decent job at $7.25. And where I live is actually pretty cheap.

$7.25 to $12 in a 4 year span is not that bad at all - especially since I'm going to assume that now that it's at $12/hr, it'll be a much more stable minimum wage (ideally, rising in-check with inflation each year - eg: inflation goes up 1.2% in 2020? Minimum wage goes up 1.2% to match).

 

In Ontario, we went from $11.40/hr to $14/hr in one year. The right leaning folks of the province predicted doom and gloom - mom & pop shops closing everywhere, big corporations laying off massive amounts of people, and prices rising massively - and none of it happened. There was a small price increase at most shops (particularly those that employed primarily minimum wage workers) - but the price increase was quite small - less than the percentage increase of minimum wage.

 

The critics of the wage increase argued that the prices of everything would increase the same amount as the minimum wage increase, and therefore those on minimum wage would be effectively just as poor. But that argument ignores the fact that people who earn more than minimum wage are also buying all the same stuff as a minimum wage worker is - therefore spreading out the cost increase to a larger body - therefore making it so that those on minimum wage are indeed better off in the long run.

14 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Those a generally Tipped employees and I think with the wage and tip the employer has to make sure they at least get to min wage standards. At least thats how it is in the US. 

You misunderstand me - I actually meant the reverse. Not everyone earns minimum wage - as in, lots of people earn more than minimum wage.

 

Which is precisely why when the minimum wage is increased, we don't see massive price increases afterwards.

14 hours ago, Donut417 said:

What that implies is if I made less, everything would cost less? I think not. That kinda like trickle down economics. It doesnt work. Personally minimum wage should be based on the cost of living of each state. Here in Michigan ours is like $9.45 an hour. However lots of place pay $10 to $15 all day long. Because thats what the market demands. You also have to understand that miniumum wage is barely enough to live on, and some even cant live on it. Also consder the cost of living goes up and the wages stay the same. Doesnt matter if your paid more or not, costs always are increasing. 

Indeed - we've known for 30+ years that trickle down economics doesn't work - at least, not to the degree that proponents say it will. Largely, trickle down simply enrichest the rich even further, with little of that money flowing down to workers, etc.

[Zodiark1593]

Cell service died on me at home. Sending this from work where I have power and service. 

[JZStudios]

5 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

$7.25 to $12 in a 4 year span is not that bad at all - especially since I'm going to assume that now that it's at $12/hr, it'll be a much more stable minimum wage (ideally, rising in-check with inflation each year - eg: inflation goes up 1.2% in 2020? Minimum wage goes up 1.2% to match).

 

In Ontario, we went from $11.40/hr to $14/hr in one year. The right leaning folks of the province predicted doom and gloom - mom & pop shops closing everywhere, big corporations laying off massive amounts of people, and prices rising massively - and none of it happened. There was a small price increase at most shops (particularly those that employed primarily minimum wage workers) - but the price increase was quite small - less than the percentage increase of minimum wage.

 

The critics of the wage increase argued that the prices of everything would increase the same amount as the minimum wage increase, and therefore those on minimum wage would be effectively just as poor. But that argument ignores the fact that people who earn more than minimum wage are also buying all the same stuff as a minimum wage worker is - therefore spreading out the cost increase to a larger body - therefore making it so that those on minimum wage are indeed better off in the long run.

No, that's an insane increase, and there's not a single place here that hires for anything more than 20 hours a week at minimum wage, and getting your first job is pure hell. Okay, sure, not everything increased by $4, but a burrito from a cheap Mexican place used to be like $4.50 and now it's near $8. The price of a single beer has increased a dollar. Luckily our gas prices are fairly low.

And anyone that was making more than minimum wage that I know didn't get any pay raise. The economy here is awful and raising minumum wage to $12 is stupid. Keep in mind that when Cali went to $15, McD's just went "Okay. We'll just have robots do everything now."

 

And I will not listen to the brilliance of Canadian economy when Washington has skyrocketing gas prices because all the Canadians cross the border to fill up. Maybe it wasn't so bad in Ontario with your monopoly money, but it's awful here.

And you guys bag milk. Like... who does that?

[dalekphalm]

30 minutes ago, JZStudios said:

No, that's an insane increase, and there's not a single place here that hires for anything more than 20 hours a week at minimum wage, and getting your first job is pure hell. Okay, sure, not everything increased by $4, but a burrito from a cheap Mexican place used to be like $4.50 and now it's near $8. The price of a single beer has increased a dollar. Luckily our gas prices are fairly low.

I'm gonna go ahead and say that other factors must have influenced those massive price increases. $4 over 4 years should not cause a burrito to go from $4.50 to $8.

 

As stated, we had a wage increase of $2.60 in one year, and that didn't cause even remotely close price increases as what you describe.

30 minutes ago, JZStudios said:

And anyone that was making more than minimum wage that I know didn't get any pay raise. The economy here is awful and raising minumum wage to $12 is stupid. Keep in mind that when Cali went to $15, McD's just went "Okay. We'll just have robots do everything now."

I think you just pointed out the problem:

"The economy here is awful". The minimum wage increase didn't cause that - though it might have more explicitly exposed the problems your economy were already facing.

30 minutes ago, JZStudios said:

And I will not listen to the brilliance of Canadian economy when Washington has skyrocketing gas prices because all the Canadians cross the border to fill up. Maybe it wasn't so bad in Ontario with your monopoly money, but it's awful here.

Gas has always been more expensive in Canada - even decades ago. And if you're in Washington, then you have to deal with South mainland BC gas prices, which are the highest in the country.

30 minutes ago, JZStudios said:

And you guys bag milk. Like... who does that?

Bagged milk is awesome. It uses less plastic than a jug (and technically the bags are recyclable). And it weighs significantly less than a jug, which means you save on weight for shipping (less cost, and less usage of fuel). Furthermore, lots of countries use bagged milk - including the UK, lots of countries in Europe, Israel, etc.

 

[Anomnomnomaly]

On 10/8/2019 at 6:07 AM, WindirBear said:

California is the breast! I hate the high taxes, and excessive environmental laws here. 10¢ for plastic bag that uses MORE plastic!? 5¢ crv for bottles and cans!? That diminishes the incentive to recycle. It honestly made me h8 the environment and throw all my bottles in the trash. I know I'm Petty but it's so damn hard to live here.

The idea behind those laws is that it encourages people to bring their own reusable bags when doing their shopping. Since being introduced in the UK a few years ago... single use plastic shopping bags have seen a 90% reduction as people switched to reusable ones.  I have 5 of them, as well as several cool bags for fridge/frozen items.

 

Complaining about having to pay for shopping bags, is announcing you don't understand the whole point of the charge to begin with.    Buy a few reusable ones and take them with you.