Featured Sandy Munro and China proof

who knew...................

At Toyota we had some BA (college degrees) and believe it or not at least one Business MBA working on the line because of the rate of pay for the line workers and the benefits.

I have an Engineering Degree but worked at Toyota for 10 years as a Maintenance Man or in Toyota language a Skilled Team Member and eventually transitioned into a Supervisory Role and finally into the Engineering Department toward the end of my career. One of my goals besides being a productive member of society and contributing to the company's success was to take the role that paid me the most money doing what I liked to do.
At Toyota some of the Support Departments were run by people with MBA's and they were to a person good people who were doing a great job for the company and in turn supporting the community and contributing to its success.
There is a fairly young person at Church who helps teach people about the faith that has an MBA and is a wonderful family man who works for IBM contributing to society and the community.

People control their destinies not companies, corporations or governments.
We have a native Mexican who immigrated to our country legally and now heads his own construction company and has a roofing subsidiary company. He struggles still some with English but has gotten a degree thru college going at nights. I meant him when his guys put a roof on our house - he subcontracts some of his crews to insurance companies.
Our youngest went to school with a guy who struggled academically. A good athlete and good guy just not much on books. He started his own Landscaping Company and is doing good business hand over foot - in the winter he has a snow removal service..... and at nights he went to vocational school and became a certified welder but chose to stick with Landscaping because of the money he was making.
Talk to them about being victims and not having any opportunities .....they could give you an ear full.

You know many people are now rejecting the negative attitudes of our generation and seeking comfort in traditional values and faith. A great sign for our country. Our Church had to have a special service Easter just to contain all the new people entering the church- mostly young families.
Many individuals are fleeing liberal states to have a more traditional life and for their children to pursue their hopes and dreams.

....mr google - what makes a person negative:

 

It so happens I live not far from a university with a pretty good theatre department.

The people leaving here with their MFAs might end up among the ones you can spend "so much money" to see, a few more years down the road.

But right now you can see them up close and live for under twenty bucks—less than that if you're a student or senior. And they are mighty good at what they do.

Back when I lived in Detroit, I was similarly blessed to have another top-notch university theatre department right down the street, and my season tickets back then came to (checks old stubs) six dollars a show.

There are various ways to entertain, and this particular way is about showing how 50 or 100 people (counting the ones you aren't seeing) can all work tightly together to squeeze out what's packed into the sparse pages of a script and make it happen in front of you.

A lot of the written stories that process starts from are pretty darned good and worth reading in their own right. And if you happen to know any young person who is skeptical about reading, and is being hard to convince that there is anything packed into written pages that's worth the effort to squeeze out, taking that young person to some good theatre is one of the best ways I know to prove that there is.

Of course, movies are also about making what's on the pages happen in front of you, but they can do that so completely that there's not much left for you to do but watch. The other extreme is reading, where all of the imagining is left up to you, which is fine if you're a confident reader already, but is asking a lot if you are someone still doubtful that the effort is worth it. A play is a sweet spot, where the designers and cast have done a lot of the realization for you, but your imagination is still on tap to fill in the rest.

Hey, unless you've got a miracle worker for an agent, they ain't gonna sing themselves.

 

While I agree that people should sincerely work hard at contributing to society and making a better life for themselves and their families, I do not agree that people have control of their destinies. "Where there's a will there's a way" is one of the biggest lies in history. Sure, there are one-off success stories of that little kid from Africa who worked his way into becoming an American citizen with a 6-figure wage. But not every hard worker makes it to the top. And I believe it is of vital importance that we set realistic expectations and not let the American Dream become so important that one is willing to sacrifice things that are more important in order to obtain it.

This is like people who claim that the USA is full of hard-working people and countries like Mexico are full of lazy, ignorant moochers as their explanation as to why the USA has been better off economically. The reality is that "one man ruleth over another to his own hurt" and "that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all." It is unrealistic to think that any person born anywhere on Planet Earth can learn and work their way out of poverty simply with personal effort. Sure, we must work hard and will live a better life if we do. But that life doesn't necessarily include a car and a nice house in a suburb.

There is only one place where we have guaranteed success for our hard work: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." This is why it's much better to have a realistic view of wealth. "Having food and raiment let us be therewith content."

Everything is a sacrifice. If you have the means to buy a house, buy a new car, have a nice retirement, etc. without sacrificing the most important things, then by all means feel free to do so. But on the other hand, lots of people who work hard at making the American Dream a reality have done so at the expense of their families. And when things go south, the man of the family then blames the wife for not accepting the sacrifice. But is not written, "Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence," and "The husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife."? Yet so many couples are quick to "defraud... one the other" and allow "that Satan tempt you... for your incontinency" by consenting for a time that is purely economical, not spiritual. And all for what? When Christ was confronted by family members disputing over money, his counsel was, "Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth."

I'm not saying there aren't cheaper ways to get entertainment. It's just that the notion of paying so much money for something of so little value just strikes me as strange. Many people in food and building maintenance get paid so little in comparison. Yet if we suddenly had to choose between food, clean toilets or football, would we choose football over the other two?

 

That's your rational mind thinking.... Kudo to that.....
Me and most of my buddies has abandoned that spectral long ago and simply go to the nearest sports bar to watch the game; if we find it interesting. Family priorities and commitments over-rode the road trip and extreme ticket prices. We could probably still afford it; but it was the time and aggravation - fighting the crowds in and out. If someone has never been to I live game, I do recommend it - at least once - but once you've done it, you'll see how much easier and cheaper a sports bar is.....

YMMV

 

I dun᠎no, can I resonate a little with the "so much money" part while not resonating with the "so little value" part?

You mention football, and in the way of full disclosure I'll say team sports haven't been as much my thing as for a lot of other people, but when I watch a really good team (in any sport) I do see something valuable happening, the demonstration that it's possible for a group of people to work very tightly and precisely together in pursuing a challenging objective. Watching them is a way of seeing how far the possibilities in that can be taken—all while having a good time.

My own 'sports' of choice have more been choral singing and theatre (the latter more as a spectator, at least since I've been out of high school and college), where you see the same things being demonstrated—again while being entertained.

The objective being pursued there is to bring off of a page as much as you can of what's on it—a page of notes or of words, respectively. Unpacking as much as you can of what's on a page is a skill you might just call 'reading', which would make these 'sports' in the end about showing how far the possibilities in that can be taken.

We got a lot of people these days who aren't as convinced as they could be of the possibilities that wait for them in reading. Some are not getting the hang of reading at all, and a lot more "can read" but with huge differences in how much they pick up from what is on a page.

That's not a small factor in things today being the way they are.

So if 'entertainment' can be a powerful way of seeing the possibilities there—all while having a good time—no, I don't see that as "of so little value".

Now, to your "so much money" point, yes, I'd be happier seeing a lot more people spending tens and twenties seeing good productions in their local college or community theatre program (or even, gasp, getting involved!) for every person spending hundreds seeing lavish productions with big names.

If taking a young person to a show, I'd rather it be a college production than a lavish professional one. Not to say "here, marvel at what these million-dollar unapproachable celebrities can do", but rather "here are some people maybe several years older than you right now; how do you think they did? Anything you feel like asking them in the hallway?".

 

I would think in general that the larger the (paying) audience, the more lucrative the profession.

 

I've thought about going to an actual game some time in my life to see what all the hubbub is about, but I'm not sure I ever will. I'm not sure what I'd do at a sports bar. I don't drink, and don't have any friends who go to bars of any sort either. I used to watch the Super Bowl once a year, but that was about it. I might watch the Soccer World Cup too if invited.

I know I won't be watching any sports from here on out at my house. Ironically, today is the very day they've taken down the OTA TV repeater service in the valley. From now on it's all internet, cable or satellite. And my internet is of course increasing (what a coincidence). I'm going to change it out for Starlink $10/month slow internet. It's probably not enough to watch anything streaming, but I don't really care. Cheap DVD's at Walmart also work and are way more economical for those every-once-in-a-while occasions.

It's a challenging objective, but the outcome doesn't feed the hungry, cloth the naked, house the homeless nor cure cancer. It doesn't create moral values, make lasting relationships, nor bring unity. It's entertainment, something that stirs a few good emotions and/or brings you together with your friends for a moment, and then just like that, the program/event/book/comic strip ends, and it's all over. And everyone goes back to the same mundane life they had before they turned on the TV.

And just like materialism, you can place too much value on entertainment too. Lots of people nowadays prefer to listen to music, watch videos and play on social media than to spend actual time bonding with friends and family.

Sounds like the same conundrum that happens to many big corporations. You get too big and you're expected eternal growth. Then you end up like Disney, Microsoft, Volkswagen, Walmart and others and just keep trying to forcefeed us trash because, well, we now no longer have any other choice and they have to figure out how to make more money from us.

 

it's actually just a continuation of the 'trash' they've been producing all along.

if you're not on Fakebook, you really have to look in the mirror

people like trash! trash sells! the road to perdition is smooth, wide and easy!

 

Your reply is to the part of my post that was about football, but if you also mean the part that was about theatre, where the "challenging objective" is to bring literature to life, then maybe you don't think literature has done any of those things?

Or I mentioned choral singing, saying the challenge there was bringing notes on a page to life, but usually those have words next to them, so literature again. Spend much time at all with choral music and you'll run into a lot that comes straight from the same body of literature you were quoting from in #23. No role in forming moral values? I think you may oversimplify.

 

We are fortunate to have a Community Choir and a Community Performance Theater - there are a couple of very talented and trained members in them but by and large it is just members of the community who put on the shows - recently the choir had a night of songs to commemorate Memorial Day and the last performance of the Community Theater was one of a child's fairy tale - our youngest can still remember when they appeared as one of the dancing Indians in Peter Pan during Tiger Liley introduction scene.
Usually, the choir concerts are free but the last time we went to the Community Theater it cost $10 for adults $5 for kids.

 

There are sports teams and there are medical teams. There are books of fiction and there are study books of fact.

I'm not saying that entertainment in all it's forms, books, music, sports, theater, etc. don't bring some value to our lives. But I still feel they are overvalued in our society.

Such as:

"I gat me men singers and women singers... Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun."

It's not that music has zero value. When I listen to music I like to find a quiet space, sit down, listen to it, hear every instrument and/or voice, admire the effort that was put into it, feel it's message, and enjoy it. I also enjoy playing the guitar and piano and singing. But I'm not spending a monthly subscription on Pandora and spending several hours a day listening to music. If others do, then good for them.

 

The community theatre here also puts on very good productions most of the time. Occasional misses. I remember a Tartuffe where the director thought he knew more than Molière about being funny. My advice: if you ever catch yourself thinking that, consult a trusted friend....

Yeah, my leaning, whatever your sport of choice, is more toward doing than consuming. If I'm not on the team doing it myself, I'd still rather be up close with the locals who are doing it than in nosebleed seats for celebrity pros who don't know me.

So you play and sing. You mentioned some things you'd written yourself, but is all your time spent on your own material, or do you devote some to interpreting work that others have written?

 

Our cleaning lady has a college degree and was a school teacher, met her husband who was a teacher too and realized she needed more $ to run a family than our town was paying. So she quit teaching to clean houses.

A county near me is considering giving all school maintenance workers, bus drivers and the like a 3% raise this year. They haven't had a raise in 5 years.

But how do you come up with the money when all your costs are going up and the entitled rich are screaming about their property taxes are too high and floating the notion that there should be no property tax.

 

Another member with a cleaning lady. You guys have a rough life.

 

I married my cleaning lady.....but that's OK.
She married her lawn guy.

I do not mind it a bit that I'm in the lower half (if not the lower third) of the income distribution here in PC.
If my intellectual and moral 'betters' here in PC earn more money then I presume that they EARNED it, and even my feeble schooling informs me that an economic system is NOT like a pizza with a finite number of slices to be divided at the party.

 

I left my other job so I could clean with my cleaning lady.

It doesn't bother me, or at least it shouldn't. But man! Are there people these days that will judge you for what you make and how you make it.

My life works for me and my family, that's all that matters. Sometimes I rant about prices. But in the end, with a place to live and food on my table, I'm getting a pretty fair share for my work in a world where life usually isn't fair.

 

Let them judge!

You MAKE money.

You ARE happy....(or not.)

 

NO property taxes, that's just about as stupid as de-fund the police and get rid of ICE. How is local government going to fund schools, health care, police, fire fighter???? I suppose; since they're rich enough - they can simply pay for private services; which would likely cost much more and cut a much larger check to insurance companies, because of the lack of those services.

This is a great sound bite; until you start to really think about it - but then again; most people's attention span is only a few milliseconds.

 

What was that again?

 

I'm happy when I'm not comparing myself to others.

My dad worked 5-days a week with 8-hour days, was a high school drop out, making nearly minimum wage, for a long time squandered money on drugs and alcohol, and still was able to support a stay-at-home wife with 4 kids, including purchasing a house twice in the areas he wanted and having both a working car and truck.

I, on the other hand, finished high school and have studied for and obtained several certificates for better job positions, have at times worked two jobs up to 7 days a week, I never did drugs and don't like alcohol, have a working wife, didn't have any kids except taking care of a couple of nephews for a few months, have never gotten into any debt except for a modest car payment twice and one major emergency that are both long since paid off. Yet now, over thirty years later from when I started working full time, my probability of owning a home around here is still zero. And I will likely retire and die renting.

But do I have everything I really need to live and be happy? Yes, I do.

Yeah, people don't get it. They're so focused on if the government is taking more than its fair share they don't think about the benefits we get from paying taxes.

Personally, I just "pay Caesar's things to Caesar" and "render therefore to all their dues: tribute [or tax] to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom [is due]."