The economy -- are we replacing or repairing?

[Stormin Mormon]

I talked to an appliance repair lady who thinks the economy is picking up.

I think she said that when it's really dead, people do wtihout. If the laundry is broken, they take wet clothes to the laundro- mat to dry, or wash them and take em home wet.

Moderate economy, people repair stuff. (home repair).

Good economy, people buy new.

I'm not sure where we are, now, but I'm really struggling. Me, I think the economy is still bad. Not many people repairing. I talked to a contractor (retired), yesterday. He says the economy is so bad, that builders have gone into remodelling, to keep the cash flow.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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[dennisgauge]

There will always be people that do well in a down economy, and people that struggle in a good economy. It's the overall picture that counts, not just that of one person.

[HeyBub]

The ancient wisdom was that in a downturn, the two entities that did well, no, make that very well, were shoe repair and religious bookstores.

[The Daring Dufas]

The contents of pawn shops are another good economic indicator. ^_^

TDD

[Existential Angst]

There will always be people that do well in a down economy, and people that struggle in a good economy. It's the overall picture that counts, not just that of one person. ======================================================

Well, to make Stormin's small picture even smaller, I think he struggles tying his shoes in the morning. Not that he doesn't finally do a good job, just that it takes him quite a while....

[Existential Angst]

YET, college enrollment sets new records every year. WTF????

Don't know how the stats are compiled tho -- if they include ivy, public/private, on-line, and these dinky for-profit ripoffs that proliferate/advertise all over.

If the stats are "legit", I find this surprising. They say unemployed people "go back to school", but I wonder if that's really true or part of the current stats. visavis "retraining". I'd like the stats on high-schoolers going to legit 4 year schools, and sep stats for junior colleges. And trade schools.

Personally, I think 4 year colleges are highly over-rated, except as the "entre" they provide for having that piece of paper -- whose value varies tremendously with the school, ivy obviously being the better entre.

But still, something of a benchmark, for, well, something.....

[Mr. Austerity]

google student loan, you can borrow your way through higher education and then borrow more for graduate degrees. But it's expected to be paid back..... with interest.

[bob haller]

new jobs pay far less........

source evening news

[HeyBub]

Well, some dinky for-profit (i.e., not a government school) don't reall advertise. I'm thinking of Harvard, William & Mary, etc.

The University of Houston ranks number two in the state in the number of warm bodies enrolled. It ranks about ninth in the number of classroom hours of instruction inasmuch as over half its student body attends class at night.

Would you "entre" someone who has a degree in Black or Women's Studies, History of Pellopenesia, Non-Traditional Religions, Gay Literature Studies, Elementary Education, and similar? I wouldn't even hire someone whose name was Chlamydia.

[Molly Brown]

I was in Europe recently when the family I was staying with called the TV repairman to repair the TV. The guy took one look at the TV then proceeded to open it up. He then took out a bag full of parts that he had cut out from circuit boards of old electronic appliances. He found a capacitor and proceeded to replace a capacitor on one of the circuit board of the TV. He closed up the TV and turned it back on. The TV worked great. I asked him how he knew that it was that particular capacitor that was bad without having to test even a single one. He said that that model of TV was designed with that specific capacitor that was too weak that tended to burn out. I asked him how he managed to get a hold of the electronic schematic to know that it in the first place. He said he got it from the manufacturer which is a major European TV maker. He only charged what came to less than twenty American dollars for the whole thing. Here in the US they would want to replace the entire circuit board which would have to be special ordered that=92s assuming the manufacturer had it and was willing to sell it and as for the electronic schematic, the manufacturer would refuse to provide it. With the labor and material cost together you would be better off buying a new TV. The moral of the story is: We=92re getting screwed here in the US.

[HeyBub]

Giggle.

Does anyone think that if unemployment fell to below 6% and private sector jobs increased to 400,000 per month and new car sales increased by over 30% compared to last year, that Barak Obama could get reelected?

I doubt he'll carry Illinois. Well, maybe Illinois but certainly not California.

[Stormin Mormon]

Bub, were those the stats from the last year of GWB?

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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Giggle.

Does anyone think that if unemployment fell to below 6% and private sector jobs increased to 400,000 per month and new car sales increased by over 30% compared to last year, that Barak Obama could get reelected?

I doubt he'll carry Illinois. Well, maybe Illinois but certainly not California.

[gfretwell]

I don't think that was a case of being designed to fail. It was simply not being designed not to fail. Some engineer was micro engineering everything to be exactly as strong as it had to be and he guessed wrong on this particular part. If you save a nickel on a part and you make a million units that is $50,000 directly to your bottom line and there are a lot of nickel parts in a TV. I was in the computer fixing biz for 30 years and we usually ended up replacing the same part on the same machine type over and over until someone came out with an engineering change and put in a better part that cost about a nickel more. At a certain point we were at Radio shack buying the part and doing our own ECs if we got tired of waiting. If it was rated at 50v, put in a 100v or 300v part. That usually made the problem go away.

[The Daring Dufas]

Do you trust Affirmative Action college degrees? I've tried to carry on an intelligent conversation with some recent college graduates and it's quite evident that they only understand about every other word I say and I'm not trying to use a very advanced vocabulary with them. o_O

TDD

[The Daring Dufas]

Nonsense, I recently repaired two large ViewSonic computer monitors for a commercial customer by replacing the common defective electrolytic capacitors in the power supplies of them both with higher voltage parts. The bill was certainly higher than $20.00 but much less than replacing the monitors with new ones which would break the same way after a short period of time. ^_^

TDD

[Mr. Austerity]

It's a real trap for to many,

[Kurt Ullman]

These are hardly for=profit, at least at the taxing level.

[Stormin Mormon]

I had similar experience. Fixed a GE side by side refrigerator. Probably cost $1500 new. Only thing wrong with it, a .250 push on terminal was cheap quality, and not making proper contact.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

.

I don't think that was a case of being designed to fail. It was simply not being designed not to fail. Some engineer was micro engineering everything to be exactly as strong as it had to be and he guessed wrong on this particular part. If you save a nickel on a part and you make a million units that is $50,000 directly to your bottom line and there are a lot of nickel parts in a TV. I was in the computer fixing biz for 30 years and we usually ended up replacing the same part on the same machine type over and over until someone came out with an engineering change and put in a better part that cost about a nickel more. At a certain point we were at Radio shack buying the part and doing our own ECs if we got tired of waiting. If it was rated at 50v, put in a 100v or 300v part. That usually made the problem go away.

[Stormin Mormon]

I've seen some lack of eduction in my life, but I didn't know it made it as far as four year degreed persons. That's spooky, to think that the lack of education extends to colleges, also.

Perhaps they have future careers as Occupy Wall Street crowd, and union protest marches?

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

.

Do you trust Affirmative Action college degrees? I've tried to carry on an intelligent conversation with some recent college graduates and it's quite evident that they only understand about every other word I say and I'm not trying to use a very advanced vocabulary with them. o_O

TDD

[Stormin Mormon]

I hope you have several small children in your life. Who you can teach your repair skills. Because, the USA certainly needs people who can do useful work, and repair things. Sadly, I may be the end of the line, as I have no kids. And the ones near me are not interested in repairing things. Hmm. Wait, there is the 18 year old Tyler, who lives down the road. He's in trade school, learning how to repair cars. Might be hope.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

.

I recently repaired two large ViewSonic computer monitors for a commercial customer by replacing the common defective electrolytic capacitors in the power supplies of them both with higher voltage parts. The bill was certainly higher than $20.00 but much less than replacing the monitors with new ones which would break the same way after a short period of time. ^_^

TDD