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

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51–60 of 209 posts

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

#51

Carnival is basically the bottom of the barrel in the cruise ship industry, cheap crap for the masses and they maintain this cheapness by poor working conditions, slapdash ship design (count how many ships caught fire in the past few years, almost all Carnival) and low quality amenities. Like no frills airlines, there is of course a market for cheap, but you get what you pay for. Even on much better lines it isn't an…

What are the cruise lines you have liked most?

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

#52

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...

I believe Belarus is the only European one without it, Google wasn't giving me a good list of "nos", but I found a map indicating as much..

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

#53

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…

It's not something that's writ in stone though - we could hangs that, and change starts with education, articles like this.

Call me overly cynical, but the future is looking even worse with ever increasing automation. There will most likely be a small elite of technocrats and wealthy while everybody else is living in shacks competing for whatever jobs are left.

Most single millenial guys that aren't in tech or another high paying career are already living in shared housing indefinetely if they're in a big city.

An excess of people having no purpose in society will result in such conditions unless there is a revolution and a technologically disadvantaged north korea where everybody has stuff to do suddenly doesn't look that bad anymore.

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

#54
post #14

The sad thing is that while he was able to earn $1,500 per month, he apparently didn't invest into anything. No financial planning as if he can do this job forever. Sure he must have known stories what's going on and could prepare for this possibility. I don't understand why he didn't.

"Financial planning", in the western sense of the phrase (saving currency, investing in stocks, mutual funds, life insurance, 401(k), and various other pieces of paper that require trust and courts to be worth anything) isn't actually a rational thing to do in emerging Asia (or, to the extent that it is now, that's very recent).

We're talking about a country that was governed by a prolific kleptocrat (Ferdinand Marcos) for 20 years, and where the currency halved in value against the USD over the course of a few years during the asian financial crisis. Beyond that, there's generally a weak rule of law, and poor regulation of the financial sector.

In this environment, a more traditional Asian approach of spending money on housing, land, gifts to relatives to build up some social credit with them for times of need, makes a lot more sense.

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

#55

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...

Ok I'm going to give you the country, it's Ireland.

Some medical card for the destitute exists but if you're working you don't qualify.

The whole medical system is a nightmare, but it's a very small country as well.

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

#56

Carnival is basically the bottom of the barrel in the cruise ship industry, cheap crap for the masses and they maintain this cheapness by poor working conditions, slapdash ship design (count how many ships caught fire in the past few years, almost all Carnival) and low quality amenities. Like no frills airlines, there is of course a market for cheap, but you get what you pay for. Even on much better lines it isn't an…

What are the cruise lines you have liked most?

Disney cruise was awesome, on one of the big new ships. I would recommend.

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

#57
I worked for Carnival as a pianist for a couple years after college to save money and it was an excellent physical reminder of how many people are in this world.

I saw those ships turn over ~3,000 people every 5 - 7 days and according to Carnival that would be the first and only cruise for 75% of those guests! That's across a fleet of 25 ships! Needless to say it cured my number numbness for conceptualizing the size of the 'masses.'

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

#58
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Terrible by what country's standards?

Almost every country.

GDP per capita in the Philippines is ~$220/mo.

For someone working on a cruise ship to make 2x to 8x that and have a substantial portion of their living expenses covered is not at all "terrible" by their home country's standards, IMO.

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

#59

Carnival is basically the bottom of the barrel in the cruise ship industry, cheap crap for the masses and they maintain this cheapness by poor working conditions, slapdash ship design (count how many ships caught fire in the past few years, almost all Carnival) and low quality amenities. Like no frills airlines, there is of course a market for cheap, but you get what you pay for. Even on much better lines it isn't an…

What are the cruise lines you have liked most?

Royal Caribbean used to be good, but upper management's drive to go down market has dragged them down to Carnival's quality.

Disclaimer: have friends working on RCCL ships.

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