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Below Deck: Filipinos make up nearly a third of all cruise ship workers

story.californiasunday.com

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Re: Below Deck: Filipinos make up nearly a third of all cruise ship workers

#131

Post by hnbroseph »

aianus wrote: post #105
katzgrau wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd probably make the argument that it's an overemphasis on the principles of supply and demand (capitalism) that make one potentially worthless. If there are enough geographers with graduate degrees applying for the gig even at minimum wage pay, you pay them minimum wage. In the US (and let's be real, most of the world), capitalism trumps altruism (paying someone more than their market value because you're nice). We…

You see exploitation, I see a market signal to high schoolers and undergraduates telling them we have enough graduate-level geographers, encouraging them to pursue something else and eventually making us all more prosperous in the future.

sort of like how bandit activity is a signal that a road should be avoided

Re: Below Deck: Filipinos make up nearly a third of all cruise ship workers

#132

Post by socrates1998 »

Filipinos are often amazing workers. They seem to be generally happy (which I generally believe they are). Are fairly diligent. They speak English and communicate well. And work hard.

The biggest issue I have seen is that they can be naive. I have had to talk a few of my Filipino friends out of some scams.

Re: Below Deck: Filipinos make up nearly a third of all cruise ship workers

#133

Post by abiox »

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #119
Baeocystin wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It absolutely is. If the best you can do with someone with an advanced degree is make them drive a car, you're wasting a valuable mind on a menial task.

How pretentious of you to decide what's best for someone else. Your job shaming just reinforces the notion that everyone must get a higher education degree or GTFO. Maybe people doing the job enjoy it or are doing it part time or find that the resume benefits outweigh the pay? Either way there's nothing inherently wrong with a job that requires you to drive around all day. Work is work regardless of if you look down…

> Your job shaming just reinforces the notion that everyone must get a higher education degree or GTFO.

i think they were simply remarking that someone had an advanced degree and it wasn't being put to use.

this point is really about the system/world/situation and not so much about individuals.

> there's nothing inherently wrong with a job that requires you to drive around all day

seems like a red herring.

Re: Below Deck: Filipinos make up nearly a third of all cruise ship workers

#134

Post by pizza »

aianus wrote: post #105
katzgrau wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd probably make the argument that it's an overemphasis on the principles of supply and demand (capitalism) that make one potentially worthless. If there are enough geographers with graduate degrees applying for the gig even at minimum wage pay, you pay them minimum wage. In the US (and let's be real, most of the world), capitalism trumps altruism (paying someone more than their market value because you're nice). We…

You see exploitation, I see a market signal to high schoolers and undergraduates telling them we have enough graduate-level geographers, encouraging them to pursue something else and eventually making us all more prosperous in the future.

Is it a reliable signal?

Re: Below Deck: Filipinos make up nearly a third of all cruise ship workers

#135

Post by senior_james »

tyingq wrote: post #79
senior_james wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep hearing that you will 'go bankrupt' with every minor health issue in the US. Do you actually live in the US? Have you used US healthcare? I pay for my own health insurance (because I own my own company) and while not cheap, it's affordable. I think I pay around $250 US/month. I get regular checkups included (most prescriptions cost me $10 or less) and I had a colonoscopy last year and it cost me less that $50.…

Aside from the deductible, most insurance plans in the US cover only a percentage of costs. 80 or 90 percent is common. For a single, simple, surgery it's bearable. Something like cancer, with ct scans, chemo, radiation, surgery with a 1 week hospital stay, etc...can bankrupt you.

"Something like cancer, with ct scans, chemo, radiation, surgery with a 1 week hospital stay, etc...can bankrupt you."

Again, I will have to disagree. Do you have any actual experience with this or are you going to just give me more talking points....

My wife's sister went through stage 2 breast cancer over the past 2 years and she had her own insurance plan as well. After 4 major surgeries and 1 year of chemo, her total expenses are $10K.

You can negotiate with hospitals and they almost always have payment plans with 0 interest for a few years. She negotiate it down to $5K, which is pretty reasonable, considering the amount of time she spent in the hospital.

My Aunt lives in Canada and she had thyroid cancer a couple of years ago. Because it wasn't considered 'life threatening', she had to go before a health board to determine when she should actually receive surgery.

They determined that she could have surgery in 2 years. This was unacceptable, so she went over the border to the US and got it done in a month.

I would much rather have the option of actually getting the surgery done in a timely fashion than having to go before a board (IE: the 'death panels' that everyone talks about) to determine my fate.

The US healthcare system does need work, but many people use hyperbole and have never experienced it first-hand.

Re: Below Deck: Filipinos make up nearly a third of all cruise ship workers

#136

Post by edblarney »

traveling wrote: post #19

Newsflash: Life sucks anywhere when you're poor and uneducated. I worked as an independent Google contractor before for less than $11 an hour with very stringent rules, ever increasing performance requirements, no holidays, no sick pay, no nothing. If you're poor and uneducated you're disposable dirt anywhere these days, even though people would like you to think otherwise and it's obviously even worse in 3rd world c…

What Google was doing to you is immoral, and should be illegal.

Yes, 'it stinks' to have low wages because one might not have much of an education - but there's absolutely no reason on earth not to have 'basic worker protections'.

I generally don't like Unions, especially those that are entrenched - but we wouldn't need them if people were not so greedy.

Google does this a lot, and I find it despicable that they take the 'moral high ground' on so many issues, but then treat people as commodities.

Google is massively rich, there's no reason they can't offer 'decent pay' with 'regular paid holidays' and 'sick days' and to ensure that their contractors are doing the same.

High tech has this weird duplicity: they want to 'save the world' and 'end disease' - when they fail to realize that the world would be a pretty good place to begin with if all of the actors - people and companies - just behaved conscientiously - and that they have a role to play in this.

Steve Jobs for example - with one single sentence, in one single email, could have ensured basic worker protections for every worker in his entire supply chain.

And I'm not talking about 'gold plated retirement packages' and 'can't get fired no matter what' - I just mean '2 weeks vacay, basic healthcare, 40 hours a week max' and 'actual bathroom breaks'.

We talk about intellectual things like UBI, heyzeus, we could make big inroads with just some basic things.

Re: Below Deck: Filipinos make up nearly a third of all cruise ship workers

#137

Post by senior_james »

brianwawok wrote: post #114
tyingq wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aside from the deductible, most insurance plans in the US cover only a percentage of costs. 80 or 90 percent is common. For a single, simple, surgery it's bearable. Something like cancer, with ct scans, chemo, radiation, surgery with a 1 week hospital stay, etc...can bankrupt you.

90 percent up to out of pocket max. My out of pocket max has always been between 1k and 5k per year. So if I need 1 million dollar cancer treatment, I don't pay 100k. I pay 5k. So no I cannot go bankrupt with health insurance in the US.

I see you have actual experience with the system. Most people commenting here seem to be parroting talking points from politicians.

When I actually post my real experiences, I get down voted to -2.

....and we wonder why there are so many broken systems in the US.

Re: Below Deck: Filipinos make up nearly a third of all cruise ship workers

#138

Post by abiox »

Baeocystin wrote: post #92
differentView wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It absolutely is not ridiculous on Google's part. You're making some other point.

It absolutely is. If the best you can do with someone with an advanced degree is make them drive a car, you're wasting a valuable mind on a menial task.

> It absolutely is

while i agree with your sentiment about not at all utilizing the potential of an advanced education, i'm not sure how google is "at fault" here...

assuming this resume requirement is real: is it google's fault there is a sufficient supply of master's holders willing to drive for minimum wage, such that they're content having the requirement?

Re: Below Deck: Filipinos make up nearly a third of all cruise ship workers

#139

Post by edblarney »

ConroyBumpus wrote: post #66

Not unique to the cruise industry. Filipino crews make up a lot of the maritime industry's labor force. Container ships, tankers, offshore drilling, you name it. Some of the best food I've eaten offshore was on vessels with Filipino catering crews. The cruise ship guys, comparatively, have it good. There are innumerable stories of entire freighter crews being marooned in third world ports by shipowners who didn't wan…

They are the primary supply for domestic workers in Canada, specifically for things like nannies.

Re: Below Deck: Filipinos make up nearly a third of all cruise ship workers

#140

Post by [deleted] »

kafkaesq wrote: post #122
TheSageMage wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not trying to start a capitalism war, but would an Earned Income Tax Credit be a more viable alternative to higher minimum wages? I've not done the leg work, but the IRS has a lot more info to help determine who's making how much that could help make the EITC even out unequal pay.

I'm not really on top of the various policy debates, actually. What's important is not to be distracted by this idea that "life sucks, and you can't really do anything about it -- so just keep your head down and look after yourself." Being as this is not only exactly how the powers-that-be want you to see things; it's entirely integral to their strategy of keeping things the way they are. In fact, they even have a na…

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