Pop Quiz, Hotshot
This is my pre-lookup guess:
Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Capitol Police, US Marshals
Now to check and see if I’m right!
Heinemann's Closes for Good
The sick leave ordinance certainly was not the main cause for their closing, but it sounded like the frosting on the cake for them.
Either way - it certainly didn’t make it easier for them to stay in business.
Heinemann's Closes for Good
But there are only three reasons that restaurants fail
After reading that - I will add one more
Incompetent manglement or ownership.
There are not enough quality restaurants in Milwaukee for a restaurant that has good food & good service in a decent location with ownership that has a clue to go out of business.
Heinemann's Closes for Good
We tried our best to continue operating, but increasing competition in an overbuilt restaurant industry and the economic recession adversely affected our business.
Sorry don’t buy it.
I don’t know these restaurants. Never been there. But there are only three reasons that restaurants fail
Bad Service
Bad Food
Horrid Location
Restaurants with 2 of the 3 will/can survive.
Blaming the sick pay law this early in the game is ridiculous. Especially when 2/3 of your operations are not effected.
Good economies will keep bad restaurants open. Bad economies will effect the worst restaurants first.
After 20+ years on the south side, I am still looking for a good family friendly restaurant that serves good potato pancakes.
And yes - I think that I have been watching too much of Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares.
Man Goes Ass Over Tea Kettle
Laughing so hard I’m crying. What kind of idiot could possibly get himself in this situation and I bet those who “rescued” him had a hard time not laughing.
Pop Quiz, Hotshot
Well, I looked it up on Wikipedia, but I was very surprised.
Some States Seek to Cap Property Taxes
if the burger flipper and the teacher have the same worth to society, shouldn’t we treat them the same
I didn’t say they do have the same worth. I merely stated that I know for a FACT that the burger flipper THINKS the job he does “makes the place run”.
What people think and what really is are often 2 different things.
As far as “treat”, I’m not sure what you mean by that. by “treat” the same if you mean pay the same… no… its not for me or you to decide who gets payed what. its for the market to decide.
If by “treat the same” you mean treat each with the same respect, sure. I can’t stand people who think they are better or more important than other people. I hate when I take girls to restaurants and they are condescending to the wait staff. I can’t stand people who are condescending to the people bagging your groceries, or the clerk waiting on you at a retail store.
Would the ideal be to bring everybody up to the standard of good pay good benefits, or down to the standard of sketchy pay with little to no benefits? To that question, I don’t presume to have an answer.
We don’t have to decide. We have this little thing called a free market that has to this point (in the absence of angels to glide over us and decide who deserves what) been the best regulator of who deserves what. What things are worth more and what things are worth less. People are free to purchase, free to choose, and the details work themselves out as they ought to based upon these market forces.
Some States Seek to Cap Property Taxes
Would the ideal be to bring everybody up to the standard of good pay good benefits, or down to the standard of sketchy pay with little to no benefits?
The ideal should be to pay people what the job is worth. For example, I work in a field that is highly specialized. There are probably less than 5,000 people in the nation who know how to do it and only a few hundred that are really good at it. As such, those folks make a very good salary. On the flip side, a burger flipper is a low-skill job that you can train almost anybody to do. There isn’t a need to pay them as much because they are easily replaceable. If the labor market tightens up and you can’t find anybody to flip burgers at the wage you are paying, then it’s time to increase wages.
As to teachers specifically, most districts have no problem at all filling teaching spots except for a few specific fields (math, physics, etc.) Districts like MPS struggle a bit because many of the schools are dangerous (and the stupid residency rules). But teaching offers a lot of benefits that attract people beyond the compensation. They get a lot of time off. They are on the same schedule as their kids. It’s very rewarding to shape young minds. Etc.
What I’m getting to is that most districts pay too much for teachers. As evidence of this, I’d point you to all of the private schools in those districts that have great teachers and pay them a lot less. If we allowed the labor market to function properly, you, Mike, might very well make a lot more money if you deserve it, and that would be fantastic. But your salary would be offset by being able to pay the crappy teachers or the teachers in fields in which there is an ample supply of labor much less.
This is why I think that whenever I hear a teacher oppose merit pay, I assume that they suck at their job. If you are good at what you do, then you should have no problem reaping the rewards of your excellence.
Heinemann's Closes for Good
I imagine if you rank the 3 reasons given for closing (competition, recession, and sick leave ordinance), the sick leave ordinance would be way at the bottom of the list. Think of the bright side - now there will be 115 employees available on a fill-in basis for those restaurants that will need temporary help when their staff calls in because they need time off to take their kids to the doctor’s office for their flu shots or whatever else was the rationale for mandating sick leave (I think Obama’s position was so that employes could take their elderly parents to the doctor when necessary).
In West Bend, in the past year we have seen the closing of Ponderosa, Dick’s Pizza, and some new restaurant (it was only open a few months) on south Main street. Before that, the Charcoal Grille closed & Jackson lost Sario’s Pizza. In most of the situations, overbuilding was given as the reason, especially with the franchise operations coming in like Texas Roadhouse, Buffalo Wings, Noodles, Panera, etc. There was a relatively new restaurant (Great 50 States) that sold their building to Buffalo Wings, because the alternative was that BW would build next door anyway, so the owner of Great 50 States was better off recouping the investment in his building by selling it, instead of it sitting empty like Ponderosa & Dick’s Pizza. All of this was before the economy went downhill.
Some States Seek to Cap Property Taxes
Re: 41
You are so full of it!!! Did you boither to read any of the other comments? Other states have roads, plowing, ploice, fire, libraries, etc. with 1/2 to 1/3 the rate of taxation! What is it about that fact you cannot comprehend?!
Some States Seek to Cap Property Taxes
xxpilot-
I meant both kinds of education, the formal kind and the life lessons kind. I’ve been well-educated both ways.
I completely know what you mean regarding marketable skills and the difference between “on paper” skills, and those valued by the marketplace.
And the arrogance charge was accurate enough. I will say this, though. 1) I almost didn’t send it because it was a little arrogant. 2) Arrogance in the public sector is cockiness and a can do attitude in the private sector. Sadly there’s a gender element to it as well. Arrogance, cockiness, can-do attitude, whatever it is called, is a male attribute that roughly translates to bitchiness in women. Those different conceptions (double standards) are wrong. I wouldn’t quibble with a word of your response to my arrogance.
Capper might ask, if the burger flipper and the teacher have the same worth to society, shouldn’t we treat them the same. Which way should all those folks be treated? Would the ideal be to bring everybody up to the standard of good pay good benefits, or down to the standard of sketchy pay with little to no benefits? To that question, I don’t presume to have an answer.
Old Obama Documents Hitting the Net
oh that’s funny ... really Owen, stop ...
Pop Quiz, Hotshot
Come on Pants, it’s the rubber gloves you really love.
Pop Quiz, Hotshot
Oh yea, I love it when the girls at the strip club dress up in those naughty little Public Health Service Commissioned Corps uniforms. Hubba-hubba!
Heinemann's Closes for Good
How about keeping a running total of the business’s killed by the sick day law?
Now that is what I call a sense of humor.
Heinemann's Closes for Good
Owen
How about keeping a running total of the business’s killed by the sick day law?
Heinemann's Closes for Good
Even Kudlow and Luskin have capitulated.
Pop Quiz, Hotshot
I had 5 also, but the last two?
I had to go look and I seriously never in a million years would have guessed them…
Who Knew?
Pop Quiz, Hotshot
i was thinking
cintas
g and k
aramark
as uniform services
Heinemann's Closes for Good
So it’s no longer fashionable in certain circles to call this an imaginary recession perpetuated by a bunch of whiners?
Greedy Socialists
What a bizarre column. First, the government has grown more in the last 8 years than it has in a very long time. If you equate socialism with big government, then it’s absurd to suggest that our country is less socialist than it will ever be, and that’s completely ignoring the handouts given to “free market” players like banks and auto companies that we saw last year, and hopefully will not be repeated in the future.
More importantly though, your suggestion that conservatives who vote for lower taxes for themselves to save themselves money are acting against their interest, while liberals who vote for higher taxes for themselves to help less fortunate people are self-interested is absolutely insane. You need to be careful, that kind of crazy spinning can make a fella dizzy, and those sidewalks are slippery this time of year.
Heinemann's Closes for Good
There will be more.
A lot more.
I have heard that as many as 73K retail outlets are expected to close in 2009.
And this is how absurd the bailout/stimulus bs has gotten.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/28542109
Pop Quiz, Hotshot
Interesting rationale:
“Coast and Geodetic Survey officers (NOAA) were commissioned so that under the laws of war, they could not be executed as spies if they were serving as surveyors on a battlefield.”
Pop Quiz, Hotshot
but #7 is somewhat well known…
Definitely well known… I pass their bouy’s on Lake Michigan all the time. Definitely DIDN’T know it was a uniformed service.
Pop Quiz, Hotshot
I have at times worked with all of the correct list.
Pop Quiz, Hotshot
One wrong! I could understand not hearing about #6, but #7 is somewhat well known…
Man Goes Ass Over Tea Kettle
You know… I’ve used the phrases before “I’m freezing my ass off”
and I’ve even used the phrase “I’m freezing my balls off”
But I’ve never said “I’m freezing my ass and balls off”
Pop Quiz, Hotshot
Wow, just checked the answer. Those last two are going to be impossible to get.
Never even heard of them, and I’m out here!
Some States Seek to Cap Property Taxes
So your answer is to bring them down, not work to lift everybody else up?
Jay - it isn’t about lowering/bringing them down. It is about what their efforts/skills would be worth in an open and free market.
We have had the discussion before - but why do good teachers need a union?? Unions only protect the weak & bad teachers.
Sorry - trash collection is an unskilled job - why do they have compensation packages that they do? Why do they need a union? Why does any public employee need a union?
Pop Quiz, Hotshot
USMC
USAF
US Army
US Coast Guard
US Navy
Merchant Marines
Customs Service
Pop Quiz, Hotshot
FYI I was off by 3 so keep trying people.
Pelosi Locks Minority Out of the Process
I saw a bumper sticker that showed up in the last year of GW’s term that said, “Dissent is the highest form of Patriotism”. Now, with Skeletor Pelosi changing the rules, and with the Democrats in power, It’s likely that dissent will be considered treason.
Some States Seek to Cap Property Taxes
I am better educated, have more marketable skills and do a more valuable service than most members of the population.
Lets deconstruct this for a bit then…
I am better educated
By this I assume that the only “education” you count is degrees from universities? Thats a touch short sighted my friend (but not a-typical from someone in academia to have such a plebian definition of “educaiton”.
Really? You know, my wish for you my friend is that you step into the business world. (and by business world I mean any profession outside of government/academia). I think you’ll find that what you think are marketable skills on paper and what are marketable skills on the free market REALLY are 2 very different things.have more marketable skills
I’ll tell you what, the biggest misconception I see now from applicants we recruit out of college is that they think a degree is an ‘entitlement’. I’m only 34, so this “a degree is automatically wealth/success misconception must have really festered in the “me” generation, cause gen-x’ers like myself, I didn’t see it.
Of course I suppose after years and years of shoe-horning everyone and anyone into college with all the financial aid one could think of and the constant brainwashing that “education is the key” without looking at what “education” really is. Its not suprising that we have way to many degrees and not enough intelligent individuals with truly capable skills.
and do a more valuable service than most members of the population.
Ok, now you’ve moved to just plain arrogant. Who are you to say your service is ‘more valuable’ than other peoples’. What a egotistical and ignorant comment. You know… my first ‘real’ job was at McDonalds, and I SPECIFICALLY recall the lifers who flipped burgers commenting on how “this place couldn’t run without them”. EVERYONE seems to think their job is the one that makes the world go round.
I mean I’ll be honest, I see the output of the education system we have and say that by and large you REALLY ought to measure your ‘value’ by results, not by your ‘paper diplomas’ or other artificial measures of acheivement.
So lets see… We’ve got arrogant teachers who think their job is ‘more valuable’ than anyone elses… We’ve got police, fire, and other “first responders” who think their jobs are more valuable than anyone elses…
I’m sure the nurses and doctors will be jumping in here for “MVP” designations soon eough…
Anyone who isn’t a burden on other people has a valuable position. Anyone who gets up in the morning drops one leg at a time in their pants, zips up and goes off to support themselves is just as valuable as the next. In the grand scheme of things. you have NO value to the world. Everyone is replaceable. Your only value is to yourself. In that regard, you are a peer to those around you. No better, no worse. To suggest your job is more valuabel than the rest of the population is perhaps one of the most arrogant things I’ve heard on this board before.
have more marketable skills and do a more valuable service than most members of the population.
Pop Quiz, Hotshot
If your talking military I’ll go along with Mr. Galt. However there is also the Capital Police, and Homeland Security Police along with Border Patrol if your talking non-military. Good question.
Pop Quiz, Hotshot
Marines
Navy
Air Force
Army
Coast Guard
National Guard
US Postal Service
Ok the USPS is wrong, but I can’t remember that last one.
Some States Seek to Cap Property Taxes
Mike, here’s what you can do to get that big fat raise you talked about. Quit your job as a teacher, take your valuable skill set with you, and compete in the free market for a higher paying job with better benefits...btw, you will no longer have the entire summer off.
Good luck with that!
Pop Quiz, Hotshot
USAF, Army, Marines, Navy, Coast Guard, Air National Guard, National Guard. I thought the Merchant Marines might be possible but I am sticking with my first shot.
Some States Seek to Cap Property Taxes
You obviously have no idea how much the elected officials in milwaukee city/county make.... I couldn’t read anything else that you wrote after that…
The larger cities officials are the exception to local officials income from serving the public. When you get away from the cities you have people who are basically volunteering ther time, collecting meeting pay and some mileage.
It would seem that if officials are paid that much in the bigger cities that more people would like to run for those positions. Have you ever run for any of those high paid lucrative positions? I think you should so you can see what it is like on the other side.
If they are not doing their job then they should be recalled or voted out but it seems that the effort for many is not worth it. That is why you have the representation you do. you can change it.
Man Goes Ass Over Tea Kettle
"Authorities Intervene at Global Warming Protest”
Sorry, but after following the link & seeing the 5th picture, I couldn’t help but think of global warming, or California Proposition 8.
Some States Seek to Cap Property Taxes
One more word about the wage thing esp. regarding teachers (full disclosure--I am a public high school teacher). Be careful what you ask for in this regard. I know my benefit package is generous, and like folkblum, wonder why we can’t find a system that allows for more, not fewer, people to get these kinds of benefits.
The whole better job description than the public, my boss, issue? I am better educated, have more marketable skills and do a more valuable service than most members of the population. I earn my pay. Bring on merit pay, but again, be careful what you ask for. I am not alone in standing to gain mightily from a merit pay system. You wanna pay me more? Cuz I’ll earn it.
Man Goes Ass Over Tea Kettle
"It’s All Downhill From Here”
“Men’s Uphill Freestyle Event”
“World’s Smallest Ski Pole”
-jjg
DailyScoff.com
Man Goes Ass Over Tea Kettle
Reminds me of a commercial that used to be on the radio about 10 years ago that ended with the tag: “YOU need Crack Cream©!”.
That said, regarding this guy’s dilemma, I’m also reminded of a line by Dave Barry (which I paraphrase): “You hear stories about Spontaneous Human Combustion, where people burst into flames for no apparent reason, but you never get a break like that when you need it”. In this age of You Tube and the internet, this will follow this poor schlub for the rest of his life. If I was in his place, a cardboard box under an overpass would start to sound pretty good…
Some States Seek to Cap Property Taxes
Why should public employees have better salaries, better sick days, better pensions(we have none), better vacations, better medical benefits and they can’t get fired than we, their employers do?
So your answer is to bring them down, not work to lift everybody else up? Nice, Dohnal.
You may then want to ask yourself why public employees and their unions tend to be liberal and Democratic and believe in better salaries, sick days, health care, etc. for all Americans, and why conservatives and Republicans are the ones who want to take those away from people.
Doyle and Four Other Governors Can't Manage Own States
Again you’ve made my point. You state that you have seen reistance to change in the UW system but you are willing to just sit by and accept it. I may be naive as you state but at least I am willing to do something. Unlike you who just accept the bullshit and say well thats just the way it is.
The problem here in Wisconsin is that we have way to many Krises in the state. Willing to just bend over and take it instead of trying to change what is a flawed and broken system. Wisconsin is in financial ruin, but the state can spend $1M on a website. We have a K-12 system that does not educate, a UW system that is a mess and Tech School system that is unaccountable to anyone but thats ok because that is the way its been for 25 years, right Kris.
Some States Seek to Cap Property Taxes
I close with this simple point: Why should public employees have better salaries, better sick days, better pensions(we have none), better vacations, better medical benefits and they can’t get fired than we, their employers do?
Check school expenditures, over 70% is in those items>
I rest my case.
Some States Seek to Cap Property Taxes
Gregory - from #44 -
Nobody is complaining about getting their trash picked up… they are complaining about the fact that we are forced to pay premium wages for a job that if it were not a union protected job and paid ‘market’ wage - it could be done as well for half…
Moveforward - from #40
These people generally make little or nothing ... and it is no wonder that very few people want to do it when they have raging assholes in their face at every turn.
You obviously have no idea how much the elected officials in milwaukee city/county make.... I couldn’t read anything else that you wrote after that…
Ol' Army
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