541–550 of 606 posts
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> who can't follow a test that elaborate and complicated. There's also the possibility that giving up an addiction is not an intellectual activity (if you think about it a little!)
Maybe ... But the process of getting addicted certainly involves making some choices poorly.
I had a long talk with a guy getting his general contractor's license yesterday. He told me that down in San Diego they are continually short on construction workers, so much that one of his friends said that there is 10 years worth of construction that needs to be done and no one to do it. Wages at ~$45/hr, and probably rising, some projects paying perdiems for commutes from Orange County. Strange.
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I hate the drug testing bs. How is that relevant? If the worker is present, is sober, and not hungover what business is it of the employers what the employee does on their own time? The drugs that are readily detectable are mostly the ones that don’t matter too, while the ones that are more concerning (to me anyway) are either not tested for or are not detectable fairly fast. And alcohol is ok to abuse. Why? It would…
Because they are a liability if they come to work high, or they have illegal drugs on them at work.
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I hate the drug testing bs. How is that relevant? If the worker is present, is sober, and not hungover what business is it of the employers what the employee does on their own time? The drugs that are readily detectable are mostly the ones that don’t matter too, while the ones that are more concerning (to me anyway) are either not tested for or are not detectable fairly fast. And alcohol is ok to abuse. Why? It would…
If you were familiar the severity of the opioid crisis in many working class areas you wouldn't be surprised by the testing or the results.
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I always find it a bit strange when people talk about shortages of non-price-controlled goods and services. When you say that the industry is "short on construction workers", there's an implicit "who will work for what we used to pay them." It seems to me like it's someone who hires in that industry trying to entice more talent to come help lower the price again, rather than an accurate description of the state of th…
If it takes 3 years to become good at construction work, there can definitely be a 3+ year shortage in qualified construction workers.
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I always find it a bit strange when people talk about shortages of non-price-controlled goods and services. When you say that the industry is "short on construction workers", there's an implicit "who will work for what we used to pay them." It seems to me like it's someone who hires in that industry trying to entice more talent to come help lower the price again, rather than an accurate description of the state of th…
You can't just create 100,000 new construction workers in San Diego because you raise wages from $45 to $60 per hour. Labor availability + skill + time + market awareness = it takes a helluva lot longer than months or 2-3 years to meaningfully boost a skill trade. Labor availabity means: how many people - heavily influenced by the unemployment rate - are interested in putting in the time to go retrain themselves to d…
That means you're not paying enough.
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In my very limited personal experience, it's not that hard to get a worker to come do a job on my house. It is EXTREMELY hard to get someone who actually does quality work and is reliable. You could argue that I'd get better and more reliable people if I paid them more, but the fact is, I pay them what they ask for. I have very low confidence that just offering to pay double would make a bad worker into a good one.
Consumer services aren't really the point being made upthread, it's employers looking for supervised labor who can tolerate some spread in skills. But you can do this too: call up the elite contractors who you can't schedule because they're "too busy" and give them a big number upfront. "I need my carpets replaced, I figure this will be $30k, does that sound right?". They'll be there. But you have to do the work to k…
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Great! There’s an opportunity for same day rental delivery here too
And in the end you'll have spent more than you would have with a regular plumber, you'll have a bunch of tools you won't need for another 10 years, and the job will look terrible. Source: had to retile a bit of a floor, too small to interest a real tiler. Guess how it looks now?
Also, most light everyday home maintenance work like laying tile, building a fence, framing a wall, installing plumbing, etc. is not rocket science. You don't have to be Bob Vila or go to trade school for years to learn how to do it.
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If it takes 3 years to become good at construction work, there can definitely be a 3+ year shortage in qualified construction workers.
That's not a shortage. That's just a time lag. It would be a shortage if nobody trains to become a construction worker because of price controls like minimum wage or maximum wage in an alternate universe.
What if nobody trains to become a construction worker (for whatever reason) and then over the next 5-10 years demand goes down because people get used to making do with the buildings that already exist? Is it also not a shortage then?