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What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

residentcontrarian.com

291–300 of 458 posts

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#291
post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Then the magistrate asks me point-blank if I was guilty. I take the fifth. That's not the fifth. Pleading not guilty isn't considered a statement or an admission of anything. Nor can it be held against you in any way. We don't double down by charging every guilty party with "perjury" because they lost. That was done away with centuries ago.

I was being a little bit glib there. The judge did not literally ask me if I was guilty and I did not literally take the fifth. What she did was ask whether the thing the cop claimed to have seen, which he could not possibly have seen, nonetheless actually happened, and I said I could not remember because it had happened more than a year ago. It was a very weird situation from a moral point of view because on the one…

You said you had photographic evidence...were you not allowed to introduce it? Why does it matter if you can't remember if you have video proof?

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#292
post #69
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The troubling part is the prime tactic is to get people to plea. One of the methods employed is to massively overcharge where the defendant is looking at say 20 years if they lose at trial vs 5 years if they plea. Most people plea, even if they are innocent. Many prosecutors overcharge even when they have a weak case. It's not justice, it's the system protecting its existence.

It's estimated 2-10% of the incarcerated population is innocent or wrongly convicted.

Yes and I believe that is death row inmates who's conviction gets a lot of scrutiny. Imagine how many inmates who plead to get a lighter sentence who were facing 20 years for something they didn't do. As far as the government is concerned, a guilty plea is a win, regardless of actual action. They get to show that they deserve their jobs.

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is why i think teen summer jobs squander potential. young adults should be learning skills instead of doing shitty jobs, although someone has to do that work.

I could not possibly disagree harder. I started working in 8th grade and worked through high school and college. As my friends partied in college I remembered those shitty jobs and why I was in college, it was 100% a motivator for me to work very hard. My son is treated like a prince but he’s going to scoop ice cream and sell pizza slices or he isn’t getting an iota of help from me. You don’t understand the world unl…

This is exactly why I posted in the first place.

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>how modern work for a lot of jobs has become de facto indentured servitude...The average worker can't afford anything without taking on debt. For people from other countries wondering about the veracity of these claims, let's take an example: The typical shitty job everyone on here complains about is working at an amazon warehouse. This is a job people with no skills take on. They pay 15 USD an hour. In other curren…

So what, even if Amazon pays slightly above a minimum living wage, the working conditions are extremely bad (e.g. no adequate toilets, extremely long walking times towards the break room, drivers being forced to piss in bottles, employees being pitted against each other by a relentless algorithm without respect for differences in age, body strength or whatever). Given that the social security system in the US (and to…

>> extremely long walking times towards the break room

This is a thing??

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work at a FANG, total comp in 300k-400k range, and my rent is less than $2500. Can you tell me why someone making $15/hr needs to rent a place that costs $2500/mo?

This is a good point. My mortgage and escrow on a decent house in a nice suburb and good school zone on the outskirts of a large city is $2300. Spending $2,500 on rent is insane.

"Spending $2,500 on rent is insane"

That's not normal, but it is simply what it costs to live in NYC or SF or London. I know tons of people who pay north of $2,500/month for decent (not fancy) apartments in central neighborhoods of those cities. And $3-$4k/month is very common for a single person.

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#296
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Summer jobs do teach skills. Customer service, working in a team, working independently... you take those things for granted, but a fourteen year old is not usually born with these things.

Those jobs also aren't effective teachers of skills. Some exceptionally engaged employees will pick them up. Most of the rest will pick up the attitude that it doesn't matter if you get fired from one jobby job because you can get hired to do the same thing across the street and then take your original job back once you're fired from the other place and your current manager has left for better opportunities. A strong…

That’s an interesting perspective I hadn’t considered. How would you envision nudging “the rest” to pick up skills over their summer, assuming they weren’t working?

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#297
post #19
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Pediatric oncology. That job must be nightmarish for anyone who isn’t a full-blown sociopath. I’m not a particularly empathetic person and I couldn’t start that job let alone stay in it for years. Edit: > One of the attractions of pediatrics is, surprisingly enough… This is the opposite of surprising. I imagine one of the appeals of pediatrics is significantly fewer of your patients die. That’s why pediatric oncolo…

There was a young woman in my high school and University class, she was a bit strange. Extremely bright beyond her years, sociable, and got along well with both the teachers and most of the students. There was always something a bit off with her though. From early high-school, as soon as “career” talk got more serious, she had only one job that she claimed she wanted to do, “Pediactric Oncology”. Some of the teachers…

This is an ableist viewpoint. For example, if she had a close childhood friend, cousin, family member, or she herself had experience with cancer, that would both cause trauma-based behaviors (such as being "a bit off") as well as explain her hyperfocus into going into pediatric oncology from a young age.

It sounds like you didn't know her very well and still judge her as dangerous.

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#298
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cynically untrue. Amazon is not even close to bottom of the barrel. And it's clear you haven't paid market rent in a major city since you bought that starter home back in the 90s - 42k is a joke when your rent is close to $2500 and you get no benefits.

So rent a room and/or don’t live in the best part of the city. That’s what I did near Boston a few years ago. My rent was well under $1000. Do people think they’re entitled to private apartments in the most expensive cities in the world?

> Do people think they’re entitled to private apartments in the most expensive cities in the world?

If the cities weren't designed to inflate home values to enrich people who got in early, then yeah pretty much everybody could afford an apartment.

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good point. My mortgage and escrow on a decent house in a nice suburb and good school zone on the outskirts of a large city is $2300. Spending $2,500 on rent is insane.

"Spending $2,500 on rent is insane" That's not normal, but it is simply what it costs to live in NYC or SF or London. I know tons of people who pay north of $2,500/month for decent (not fancy) apartments in central neighborhoods of those cities. And $3-$4k/month is very common for a single person.

Yes, and I would bet that those people you know paying $2500/mo are not earning $15/hr.

And no, it is not simply what it costs to live in NYC, unless you think you absolutely must live in Manhattan below 96th st. This is like saying the cost of a car is $65,000, because the only car I accept is a BMW X5. Ok, if that is your standard, then yes a car will cost you $65k. But there are cars available for much cheaper, that will fulfill all the important roles that one looks for in a car.

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#300
post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can’t afford to live in the city where you work then it’s pretty much the definition of “not a living wage.” Like are we really at the point where we’re totally fine with people commuting an hour one way every workday to a shitty minimum wage job instead of just building affordable modest housing reserved for people working in the city.

It's not the wage that needs to change it would be the prices of housing in the city. This can't change because it's not determined by some governing body. It's called gentrification. It's currently happening to me. I could not afford to buy my house now and I just bought it a few years ago. Of course there still needs to be staff in the area working retail etc. but I haven't seen anyone over 25 in a store near me fo…

> This can't change because it's not determined by some governing body.

It actually is. Rents are expensive because zoning laws severely limit density and require lots of car parking.

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