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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

#111

Post by kafkaesq »

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…

Newsflash: Life sucks anywhere when you're poor and uneducated.

And abundant evidence indicates that (most) corporations will do everything within their power to take advantage of this fact, unless very strongly regulated.

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

#112

Post by paulddraper »

ianhawes wrote: post #104
paulddraper wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically, Disney Cruises is owned by...Carnival.

This is FAKE NEWS! Disney Cruise Line is not owned by Carnival, but rather by Walt Disney Parks & Resorts.

Geez...I wasn't aware I was even writing a news article at all.

And to be fair, Carnival did buy Disney cruises, though things have changed in the years since.

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

#113

Post by hackermailman »

pimlottc wrote: post #50
traveling wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to dox myself, but you can probably guess which western European country doesn't. Healthcare isn't US level expensive there where you'll go bankrupt with any minor issue but still prohibitively expensive if you don't make much and break your arm for example, so it's somewhat essential. A colleague of mine got diagnosed with a serious heart condition, was away for a month or so without sick pay, got fired…

> I don't want to dox myself, but you can probably guess which western European country doesn't. Maybe this is supposed to be an easy question, but as an American, I have no idea which western European country doesn't have socialized medicine, and Wikipedia is not helping me out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_univers...

In Canada, specifically BC if you fail to pay monthly medical premiums you have no health insurance either they sell your account to collections and you have to pay cash for any doctor visit. Since private health is not available you're screwed and have to either leave the province to get health insurance again or continue paying cash.

There's always loopholes in socialized medicine usually only affecting the poor.

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

#114

Post by brianwawok »

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.

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.

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

#115

Post by elastic_church »

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.

I see cheap labor on mechanical turk woohoo upvotes are in my future for 1 cent!

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

#116

Post by brianwawok »

Daddy_cat wrote: post #99
traveling wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He made 2k a month with tips. I was not protected by any labor laws as I was a contractor and not an employee (their way to get around benefits and employee related regulations). I'm also living in a first world country where costs of living are fairly expensive and where I don't have free housing (and food I presume), so I was living hand to mouth without health insurance.

The employee worked over 75 hours a week, but routinely had his timesheets rewritten to show 40. When he complained, he had some of his works taken away. When he was seriously injured in his job, his injury was laughed off as a lie and he was sent back to work anyway. I think it's fair to say that this person has a unique set of extremely challenging circumstances different than what you described. I'm not sure what…

Except for the timesheet thinng, the rest is common in manual labor jobs in the US. An orange picker goes to his boss with a sore back? Fired.

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

#117

Post by TheSageMage »

kafkaesq wrote: post #111
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…

Newsflash: Life sucks anywhere when you're poor and uneducated. And abundant evidence indicates that (most) corporations will do everything within their power to take advantage of this fact, unless very strongly regulated.

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.

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

#118

Post by tyingq »

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.

The ACA did fix some of that, but there are situations that can still be challenging. The max out of pocket can be higher than yours..close to $8k/person, and it's annual, so if you get sick late in the year, the clock starts over. It's also not uncommon to have to go out of network for certain types of treatment, which opens up more doors.

Also, many people aren't able to work when they are sick.

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

#119

Post by matt_wulfeck »

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.

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 nose at it as "menial".

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

#120

Post by diminoten »

readhn wrote: post #13

This is why I am never ever going on a cruise ship (or any resort in Mexico, Dominican etc). Knowing that the guy serving you is basically a slave working for pennies while you are supposed to enjoy your vacation and relax- I couldn't, no thank you. What surprises me to this day is how little it costs to buy American congress. 1,000,000$ lobbying costs? That's less than a lot of houses in SF or NYC. Shouldn't it cost…

I love cruises, I think you're missing out on some wonderful vacation memories!

I bet you very much could relax, considering there's almost no way you have problem typing on your computer made by "slave" labor, while wearing your "slave" labor generated clothing, eating your "slave" labor trafficked food, etc.

Some very poor people live their lives because you bought the stuff in the room you're in now, there are no two ways around that.

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