How typical are you of Texas residents? What is the minimum wage per hour in Texas? How many weeks paid leave mandated by law? What does it cost to attend University in Texas? What percentage of his/her wage would a minimum-wage (or average-wage) worker in Texas have to pay for health insurance?
Perce
... or with special skills. The official total number of "settlers" (those intending to stay rather than coming as visitors or students) for the 2008-09 financial year was 158,021.
Perce
I'll use the self-serve scanners when they give me a discount off the total for doing their work for them.
The only way I would use the self-checkout is if I got a discount on my items. They want me to do the job normally done by a paid store person, give me a percentage of your savings.
We've been at the grocery store in the evening with a full cart of stuff and they had no cashiers working any of the registers. We asked a maneger if they could get a cashier in there for us. If they said no, we would have left the whole cart there and went somewhere else.
I'm all for giving people the "option", but too many times it seems as if the self-checkout is your only option.
Tony!
Texas is a large and diverse state, I'd be solidly "middle class", there are a lot of people here making a lot more than I am, and a lot of people making a lot less than I am.
Dunno, I think Federal $7.75 or something like that, however a minimum wage is a pretty meaningless thing, really just a vote buying tool for politicians. What happens is that a politician promises to raise the minimum wage and thus buys votes from the lower income folks without the education to understand what that really means.
There is a natural balance in the economy of buying power to hours worked at various skill levels of employment. When the minimum wage is raised, the relatively few people who actually make minimum wage get the impression that they are doing better since they see bigger numbers in their pay. What really happens is that a raise in the minimum wage raises the cost of those few workers and thus raises the cost of the products and services that they produce, this raises the costs to those who purchase those products or services and the effect continues to trickle up causing an inflationary ripple which in six months or so has rebalanced the economy so those few people making minimum wage have the exact same purchasing power they started with, even if the numbers are larger. Many of those people who vote for said politician thinking it will help them actually make more than minimum wage and so they don't even see a brief benefit.
None beyond state and federal holidays I believe.
I haven't looked. Certainly the community colleges are quite cheap for residents and a bit more for non-residents. Then you go up to the fancier colleges and of course costs increase.
That is all over the spectrum, since health insurance plans are all over the spectrum. There are state sponsored insurance plans that cover children of low income families for little costs. The commercial health insurance costs vary with group affiliations where large companies have more bargaining power, and also with what the plans cover, some are very basic, some are very complete.
Despite all the political propaganda and hype in the media, the fact remains that some 86% of the U.S. population has some type of health insurance coverage. The remaining 14% includes a large portion of mostly healthy younger people who choose to not have health insurance, so in reality, they're trying to "reform" a health care system that works for
95%+ of the population. That 5% of the population that is truly uninsured can still get care from many sources from clinics to hospital emergency rooms.All the comparisons to other countries health care systems neglect to factor in the much larger population in the U.S. and it's much wider geographic distribution. A country that is a fraction of the size of the U.S. in both population and area can provide "universal" health care with a relatively small number of government run hospitals, something that simply isn't possible in the U.S.
That last bit is a big problem in the U.S., the leftists do everything they can to ensure that legal residency is not checked in providing those "free" services, thus causing the bulk of the problems in our social services, particularly health care since those illegal immigrants, regardless of where they are from tend to breed at a much higher rate than legal U.S. residents / citizens.
I've never seen a store with just self checkout open, indeed I've seen stores that close the self checkout and have just one normal register open during off hours.
As for savings, at stores that have properly working self checkouts that are responsive and not prone to getting confused, I prefer then over normal staffed registers since I am able to checkout in half the time, with my purchases properly packed and without annoying chit-chat.
On 11/29/2010 7:56 AM Red Green spake thus:
Meaning I'd like to get a job there.
Today I met a guy in my Home Despot with a new job: he goes around and picks up all the stuff that doesn't belong where it is and puts it where it's supposed to go. Keeps him busy all day.
With all the mixed-up shit there, it's an essential function. So far as I can tell, *every* single bin of fasteners (nuts, bolts, etc.) is a "party mix" of different sizes and sometimes even different parts. You've got to check each and every piece to make sure it's what you want.
I had to buy some joist hangers: the entire Simpson display area looks like a bunch of monkeys came through and just threw everything every which way. Took me 10 minutes to find my 5 lousy 2x6 hangers.
There is no requirement for employers to pay you for any holiday, that is a benefit, not a right.
Not typical at all. No one I know makes $45 as an employee working from home. Even when I worked for HP, some workers were permitted to do "some" work at home, but still had to show up most of the time.
At $45/hr he makes about $93,000 a year (in the top 20 percentile), which is easily double what the average male worker earns:
-$10.00/hr. (which is not a livable wage).
If this guy only pays 1.25% of his salary towards health insurance, he is very well off. I typically pay 10-15% for "very good" insurance (and that's with the employer's subsidy).
The minimum wage is set by the Federal Government @ $7.25 per hour, with no consideration of cost of living adjustments. For example, using the calculator here:
None, period.
My local community college charges $66 for in-district residents, $136 for out of district Texas residents, and $228 for all others. This is per credit hour. Community college only gets you to a Associate's degree. To attend a real university the costs are much higher. Many people choose to do the community college thing first to save money.
It all boils down to if your employer offers it for one, and the quality of the insurance varies greatly (some only pay 70% of bills with a big $5000 deductible, while other plans pay 100% of bills with no deductible).
There is no way to answer your question without a huge research project being done!
snipped-for-privacy@sdf.lNoOnSePsAtMar.org (Larry W) wrote in news:id18jm$v2m$1 @speranza.aioe.org:
Everybody is "offended" these days about some stupid shit. Country is turning into a bunch of pussys.
[OK how many Oooooofended votes for "bunch of pussys?]David Nebenzahl wrote in news:4cf48428$0$2409$ snipped-for-privacy@news.adtechcomputers.com:
Was just curious. A J-O-B is a J-O-B until something better comes up as long as you can tolerate it. Saw a guy in a Wal-Mart once with a 10 yr service nametag. Almost broke teeth gritting them.
Along with returns, I suspect that's how they learn where stuff is.
Learned that the hard way as well.
Not atypical either. There are a *lot* of telecommuters and there are a
*lot* of people who make much more than I do, both in Texas and around the U.S.I certainly don't feel like the top 20% by a long shot. I don't live in any sort of fancy house, don't drive a yuppmobile (ok, I do have a $60k truck, but I actually use it as a truck), etc. and being single I should theoretically be doing better than someone with the same income and more mouths to feed.
The bulk of workers have "real" jobs.
I suppose it depends on your definition of "livable wage", since most of the noted positions are filled by teenagers and students who live with parents and thus do not have housing overhead and many other expenses.
Health insurance costs for a single person are less than those for a larger family unit. I also work for a large company so they have good negotiating clout with insurers.
Why would any sane person move to LA?
I'm sure there are, but as the commercial says: "results not typical".
What, do you spend all your dough partying? :)
I'd be curious to know what percentage of workers do receive a good benefit package these days.
That may have been true at one time. Next time you go to Exxon or whatever take note of the clerks age. I see more and more older folks (not retirees) working those jobs.
You are truly blessed.
So they can smoke pot legally?
Most countries with universal health insurance have for-profit health care providers, not just government hospitals. One big difference is the health *insurance* companies are non-profit, and price controls on providers are exercised. No 20% skimming by insurance companies, and no $100 aspirins. Doesn't keep the docs and hospital owners from getting wealthy. Some countries allow private insurance companies to make a profit selling supplementals.
The biggest difference is the political systems. In the U.S. the pols are bought off by those with the bucks. All information about this is readily available on the internet. Anybody can find out how the various systems work, what they cost in terms of GDP, and the quality of service.
I don't buy your saying population and geographic size means anything. If that were true we would have trouble finding gas and food too. Rural areas always have less access to services, and always will. What's more relevant is the obesity rate, which is what makes the U.S. different from other countries regarding health care. The U.S. is king of fat asses.
Your 86% figure might reflect pre-2010 employment figures. Real unemployment is said to be 15% or more now. I doubt that many unemployed have health insurance. Probably go to the ER or apply for Medicaid. Besides that, having insurance doesn't mean one is happy with it.
When I was making +$100k the $5k I was paying for health insurance was no big deal. Didn't even notice it. Now that I'm retired my wife the cook provides the insurance. Still costs us $5K yearly, but the insurance doesn't pay as much, and she pulls down a massive $17k yearly. That's 29.5% of her gross. I think of it as a 29.5% tax due to a screwed up health care system. Her workmates use the emergency room and public aid. They just can't afford that tax, which is even more for them because they make less than my wife.. We can afford it. We hardly use med services, but I look at it as the "keep my house" tax in case there's a major med event. The recent health care bill will subsidize her premiums over 9.5% of income staring in 2014, if it survives.
You can look at those subsidies in 2 ways at least. Socialism for citizens needing health care. Socialism for health insurance companies and health care providers. Probably both. Though the Dems may have had noble motives, too many were owned by med industry lobbyists. Not having a "public option" pissed everybody off.
There's a reason old folks don't want to give up their Medicare. They like their socialism. So does the health care industry. Plenty of docs using gov money to buy their Mercedes. All it takes to turn a "capitalist" into a "socialist" is to give him a cut of tax money.
--Vic
The $100 aspirins are largely related to the idiocy that needs to happen in order get a real amount of money from Mcare in addition to the insurance companies. Also, the actual amount paid by MCare to run the place is within a couple of percentage points of the evil insurance companies (which also pay much more than the government programs). The low figure often cited is what Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services pays for their administrative expenses such as some research, schmoozing with Congress and the oversight of the Financial Intermediaries. The FIs are the people (EDS, BC/BS, etc) who do the heavy lifting of paying claims, etc. When you figure back in the money that is sent to the FIs to do the actual work, the expenses aren't all that different.
You aren't seriously equating the costs of hospitals and physicians with that gas stations McDonalds?
There are some others. For instance, the biggest contributor to infant mortality is the age of the mother. US leads the league in teen pregnancies, this is a societal as opposed to purely medical concern. Same thing with life expectancy where the loss of a teen to a driveby or drug OD impacts that stat much more than keeping a 70 y/o alive for a few extra years.
MCaid is health insurance.
No matter the source. In my time as a RN at an inner city hospital those with government programs were any more happy with MCaid as the others were with BC/BS.
See what happens now that the government can no longer afford to pay as much. They are seeing many of the same things others have. You are already seeing many docs refusing to take new MCare patients and some are thinking seriously about getting out of it all together. Private insurance largely subsidized MCare for years and now they are pushing back. Has all sorts of interesting things going forward.
Yet studies have shown for at least the last 10 years that MCare pays around 80 cents for every dollar the Evil Insurance COmpanies pay for the same thing. MCaid runs around 64 cents.
Never mentioned cost. When you argue population and geographic size is a problem for universal health care, the same applies for private insurance. Far as I know, in the U.S. anybody can find insurance no matter where they live. Access to service is the issue. No surprise. Whether fast food, gas, or med providers I have many more at hand and more choice than those in rural areas. But this summer I had to go to downtown Chicago's Magnificent Mile to find an oral surgeon in my expensive Aetna HMO plan. Required an hour and a half car/train/bus journey because I won't drive downtown. There's oral surgeons all around me within 10-15 minutes. Good chance many of them take Medicare.
Yep, a whole slew of factors. But Medicare costs are nearly all old folks. Lots of them are fat, with attendant maladies like diabetes, heart disease, joint replacements, etc. There's no sense arguing about the percentage of Medicare cost at "end of life." It's published and you can find it on the internet.
Call it what you want. I call the 29.5% of gross salary my wife pays "health insurance" sometimes. But I prefer "health tax." Don't know what payment Medicaid requires, and don't want to. I have read that Walmart and Kroger employees are common Medicaid customers.
Who would be happy being a patient at an inner city hospital? Those who have it in my family are tickled to death with Medicare. But they buy full supplements, which cost some coin. And they don't go to inner city hospitals. Like to brag about how a knee or hip replacement "didn't cost them a penny." hehe. Guess that half of their SS check going to supplemental premiums doesn't count.
You can't squeeze blood from a stone. That's what the health care industry will learn. They will always need customers. The good med capitalists will take the gov socialist money and stay in business. Their alternative is a wholesale importation of Indian and Chinese docs and administrators to fill the gap and lower costs even more. That's my guess at a solution. Competition. Survival of the fittest.
--Vic
Okay, that I understand. Interestingly enough, or not, the same things apply in Canada where the rural areas are underserved, especially in the specialities.
And, to my mind, largely bogus in real life. Most of the money isn't really the last year, but last few hours or days. The acute stage of dying is what gets costly. And even for many oldsters, you don't know if this is the big one until it is over.
Call it what you will. But it is still premium. Do you make the distinction with a tax on your car or house for insurance?
Many who are there. Some of the best medicine in the world is practiced in inner city hospitals. The county generals are mostly teaching hospitals for the local medical school. My inner city hospital was all faculty in the attending, many quite literally world renowned. It was just the other clientel that turned people off.
So even under the government plans there is a heavy tax.
The main problems with the health care system are related the government pretending during WWII that paying health insurance costs was not part of the wage freeze. This divorced the payment people (employers) from the users (you and me). Then over the years it was made worse as more and more of the out-of-pocket expenses were picked up by someone else. I don't think it is coincidence that as the o-o-p expenses paid by the patient dropped from 50% in the 60s to less than 20% now that healthcare inflation went up and amount of GPD going to healthcare also skyrocketed. That s what happens when you hide 80% of the costs. Plus since it was a benefit you don't want to leave any money on the table at the end of the year. Plus we haven't had health insurance (if insurance is defined as taking a big risk that is rare and spreading around many people) since the demise of the old Major Medical plans. Unlike some places that ration by things like queues (Canada) or just not making something available (in parts of the EU), we don't really ration things at all so the excess demand goes to increasing prices until the system collapses.
The greatest problem we have with health care is the lunatic left who claim that health care is a right. The simple fact is that *nothing* that requires the labor of another person is or can ever be a right. You do not have a right to force a doctor to treat you without compensation. You do not have a right to force a pharmaceutical company to develop medicines for you without compensation. You do not have a right to force surgical supply companies to produce surgical tools for your surgery without compensation. You do not have a right to force a gas company to produce the oxygen and nitrous oxide you require without compensation. The only *right* you have is to pay those provides a fair price for their services and products.
=3D=3D
Nope my folks were old homesteaders who came up here to get "almost free" land. Worked there ass off...there's nothing free about homesteading but the land was settled and the country developed. Went I first started school, I knew more about American heroes and heroines than Canadian ones. I could read before I went to school and read my mother's old school books that she brought up from Minnesota. =3D=3D
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