Your Most Disturbing Realizations

[tonyb]

Ms. Maine, I wouldn’t be the first to suggest that postponing roof replacement is usually false economy.

The late Sam Israel owned a LOT of commercial real estate in Seattle, older, rundown buildings, mostly, many of which are now “landmarked.” He charged relatively low rents, so the tenants wouldn’t grouse much. But he always kept the roofs in good shape. He made a point of that. It’s been known to rain in Seattle.

He was quite the eccentric. Lifelong bachelor. Lived modestly, to age 95. You might wanna look him up.

 

[tonyb]

Raised Chicago Irish South Side; dad killed car accident; mother incapacitated stroke;
combat veteran Bronze Star valor, Purple Heart recipient; college Vietnam GI Bill;
law school night study Juris Doctorate; commodity/futures trade specialist; speculator
professional thoroughbred graded stakes handicapper

Worked through college, law school. Started KFC franchise 14yrs old
Ischemic stroke November 2021; retired

please reconsider advice given and good luck

All that and a self-taught horn blower, too.

 

[Harp]

The most disturbing realization comes when you realize that the roof you've sacrificed much to keep over your head is now riddled with holes. Not figurative holes, but actual literal holes you try to fill with that Flex-Paste gunk because you just can't afford to go further in debt.

A stitch in time saves nine Lizzie. In Illinois a home owner is allowed three shingle
roof layers, but Maine may differ; however, seems you might have a few boards
rain warped and need replacement. I've done roofing. Shingles, tar paper
with Chinese pig iron nails, a tear-off, lumber will prove a wise investment.

 

[tonyb]

My lovely missus and I once bought a house with three layers of asphalt shingle roofing. A windstorm sent much of that top layer hither and yon. The lesson is that a third layer calls for longer nails.

We shortly thereafter had a complete tear-off and all new roofing. Took the crew less than a day.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm looking into a second mortgage, at $60 a month, which will be painful given my current $10,000+/$400-a-month bondage to the medical-industrial complex, but it's not impossible. Estimate for the roof came in at $7400 for a 950-square-foot house, which I think is barbarous, but I am, as the saying goes, over the barrel.

My grandparents had to abandon their bedroom when the ceiling caved in due to roof leaks, and that ceiling never got fixed during the rest of their lifetimes. I have nightmares about following in their example, except in those dreams, the ceiling falls in while I'm in the bed.

 

[tonyb]

I was greatly relieved to be rid of a property ahead of its needing a new roof. It was a duplex with a 3,000-square-foot footprint, with a complicated roof with several valleys. I’m guessing the roof itself was at least 5,000 square feet. I shudder to think what that would’ve cost.

 

[Harp]

Estimate for the roof came in at $7400 for a 950-square-foot house, which I think is barbarous, but I am, as the saying goes, over the barrel.

This estimate should include basic water damage board lumber warp repair,
replacement by bonded crew. $7400 is more than sufficient to kick this in.

P.S. Roof crew should be licensed, bonded, and insured. Without insurance, any roofer accident
can be legally charged against homeowner and his/her home insurance cover.

 

[Harp]

Lizzie, Post script to a post script

Fly by night storm chasers, assorted roofer renegades are also dangerous
because non bonded uninsured hammers typically have creditor issues;
'sweat labor' put into a house is equity liability for the owner since some
states allow legal creditor pursuit of said sweat labor. Creditor lien on real property
is a cold hard fact.

 

[Bushman]

REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE

Raised Chicago Irish South Side; dad killed car accident; mother incapacitated stroke;
combat veteran Bronze Star valor, Purple Heart recipient; college Vietnam GI Bill;
law school night study Juris Doctorate; commodity/futures trade specialist; speculator
professional thoroughbred graded stakes handicapper

Worked through college, law school. Started KFC franchise 14yrs old
Ischemic stroke November 2021; retired

That have been fine some 40 years ago, but today the average community college semester costs more than what a kid makes working at KFC all summer. And corporate is looking for somebody with 10 years managerial experience with a Bachelors in business management to even apply to be a franchisee. The sad fact is I make maybe a few dollars more an hour in a full time IT position than the pay I see advertised to be a franchisee.

Well, this certainly explains a lot about the state of the current work force.

Companies get out what they put in. If they put in the bare minimum, they should expect the bare minimum in return.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've worked with young people - millennials (who are no longer so young) and zoomers - for almost twenty years now, and I've only come across the stereotypical "slacker kid who didn't want to work" once -- and she was the private-schooled daughter of a privileged family who thought service work was beneath her. I don't know where she is now, but she didn't last with me very long.

What I do run into, a lot, these days is kids who would *like* to work, but who are discouraged or outright forbidden from doing so by parents who prefer they spend their time focusing on advance-placement classes and extracurricular activities that will better their chances of admission to Better Colleges. These are the kids who are going to be spending their lives bitterly disappointed about what they were led to believe was in store for them "if only they worked for it," but who instead will end up six figures in debt and selling their souls in a desperate hope of one day paying it off. There's a pretty good chance they're going to end up hating their jobs -- and their parents as well -- when they'd be better off hating the institutionalized system that's really to blame. Sixty years ago, social critic John Keats wrote a book denouncing the fetishization of degrees as a "passport to success", and pretty much everything he predicted in that book, "The Sheepskin Psychosis," has come to pass.

 

[Woodtroll]

I've worked with young people - millennials (who are no longer so young) and zoomers - for almost twenty years now, and I've only come across the stereotypical "slacker kid who didn't want to work" once -- and she was the private-schooled daughter of a privileged family who thought service work was beneath her. I don't know where she is now, but she didn't last with me very long.

What I do run into, a lot, these days is kids who would *like* to work, but who are discouraged or outright forbidden from doing so by parents who prefer they spend their time focusing on advance-placement classes and extracurricular activities that will better their chances of admission to Better Colleges. These are the kids who are going to be spending their lives bitterly disappointed about what they were led to believe was in store for them "if only they worked for it," but who instead will end up six figures in debt and selling their souls in a desperate hope of one day paying it off. There's a pretty good chance they're going to end up hating their jobs -- and their parents as well -- when they'd be better off hating the institutionalized system that's really to blame. Sixty years ago, social critic John Keats wrote a book denouncing the fetishization of degrees as a "passport to success", and pretty much everything he predicted in that book, "The Sheepskin Psychosis," has come to pass.

Yes, thank goodness there are still young people that are willing to do the job they accepted and that they are getting paid to do, instead of demanding a $15 minimum wage for, apparently, hiding in the janitor's closet for the whole shift.

And by and large, a career-specific college education is a waste of money if it is not very carefully chosen. Its value then becomes only the general education that it provides, but then again that requires an interest on the part of the student to get anything out of it.

 

[Harp]

That have been fine some 40 years ago, but today the average community college semester costs more than what a kid makes working at KFC all summer. And corporate is looking for somebody with 10 years managerial experience with a Bachelors in business management to even apply to be a franchisee. The sad fact is I make maybe a few dollars more an hour in a full time IT position than the pay I see advertised to be a franchisee.

TIME IS IMMATERIAL TO PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE
Time is immaterial to pursuing excellence. I met college expenses by the GI Bill, tutoring, outside
employment, writing term papers for the rich kids I met inside the University of Illinois-Chicago
typing room, and finished off the last two years baccalaureate study on an awarded academic
scholarship. I had a 3.70 grade average and graduated with honors.

When I started in the futures business as an overnight trade clerk for Lind-Waldock I was also
enrolled fulltime at John Marshall Law School, and when interviewed mentioned that I had read the industry bible: Teweles' The Commodity Futures Game; something of a rare accomplishment.
I was the only one who had read that excellent book. When I hit the floor I soon learned I was ready.
The commodity industry from the Chicago Board of Trade floor pits to top suite didn't require
a college degree, only brains-traders eat what they kill. Continued reading. It was a self taught
biz-still is. Hustle, gotta hustle.

Same with stocks. Stock prices reflect both macro and micro economic trends as do
commodities; petroleum derivatives, currencies, grains, meats. Technical analysis of basic
fundamentals set against the larger global picture set stage for professional speculation.

Again, personal initiative and demanding innate standards reward wealth.

 

[tonyb]

And, judging by the looks of it, not a single credit hour of English composition.

 

[Harp]

Companies get out what they put in. If they put in the bare minimum, they should expect the bare minimum in return.

POST SCRIPT

Just a follow up from last nite son.

A man has to follow his own star, but you will get further in life by also adhering to the pursuit of excellence. As my prior posts show, I've had to contend with difficulties and not to deny or diminish
current economic trend, opportunity awaits a man who knows his direction.

All the best.

 

[ChiTownScion]

I've worked with young people - millennials (who are no longer so young) and zoomers - for almost twenty years now, and I've only come across the stereotypical "slacker kid who didn't want to work" once -- and she was the private-schooled daughter of a privileged family who thought service work was beneath her. I don't know where she is now, but she didn't last with me very long.

What I do run into, a lot, these days is kids who would *like* to work, but who are discouraged or outright forbidden from doing so by parents who prefer they spend their time focusing on advance-placement classes and extracurricular activities that will better their chances of admission to Better Colleges. These are the kids who are going to be spending their lives bitterly disappointed about what they were led to believe was in store for them "if only they worked for it," but who instead will end up six figures in debt and selling their souls in a desperate hope of one day paying it off. There's a pretty good chance they're going to end up hating their jobs -- and their parents as well -- when they'd be better off hating the institutionalized system that's really to blame. Sixty years ago, social critic John Keats wrote a book denouncing the fetishization of degrees as a "passport to success", and pretty much everything he predicted in that book, "The Sheepskin Psychosis," has come to pass.

I grew up with pretty much the opposite situation: a blue collar father who did everything he could to discourage me from pursuing a higher education, even though I footed my own bills for it. Even in the last year of law school he was pressuring me to take an exam to get on the fire department. My mom would claim that she wanted me to have a higher education but she really had no clue as to how the dynamics for it actually play out.

It isn't easy being the first one in the family pursuing a higher education as the mindset of generations and family peers create a current to swim against. Parents need to recognize that a kid with a realistic game plan for their own life deserve encouragement. Or perhaps, some parents simply don't know how to offer that encouragement. Thankfully, I got that from several employers along the way: people willing to give a young and eager kid his chance to learn by earning. (I'll guess right here that the "theatre kids" in a certain Midcoast Maine town get to experience that as well. And it'll reap a sense of confidence and self worth that no trust fund can ever purchase.)

Oh... and as for the self- anointed "school of hard knocks/ university of life" crowd? That claim often is the go- to alibi for a life of lowered expectations. Plenty of "hard knocks" can be dished out while one is earning degrees and establishing a career. In spite of it all I deem myself fortunate, even blessed, in so many ways. A lot of people will claim to be self-educated: I have encountered very few who really are. (Miss Lizzie, I've already told you that you're among that rare group, so I'll spare the soft soap here.) A university education is not for everyone and it was never intended to be for everyone. However, aside from a journeyman's card in a trade union, I'm hard pressed to think of a better route to upward mobility for most people. Essentially it's hedging bets and playing the odds: there are no universal panaceas in life. Education is an instrument: how it is employed will determine how wise that individual is.

 

[Turnip]

My most recent realization:

*Having worked out of collective bargaining coverage for the last twenty years I can take pride in the words: I didn’t need sex, i got screwed by my boss every day.*

 

[Harp]

My most recent realization:

*Having worked out of collective bargaining coverage for the last twenty years I can take pride in the words: I didn’t need sex, i got screwed by my boss every day.*

Ein Apfel pro Tag halt den Doctor fern...oder so heist es.

 

[Fifty150]

In our modern "American" way of life, the path to success is suppose to be higher learning. A college degree. Even if that degree is non-applicable to whatever job hires you. You find people with a degree in history, opening new accounts at the credit union.

As jobs were leaving The United States, a former POTUS said something along the lines of "forget it, those jobs are gone". The expectation was that hundreds of thousands of factory workers, assembly machine operators, forklift drivers, warehouse loaders, truck drivers, receiving clerks, etc - would pull themselves up by the bootstraps, get more education, and elevate themselves into jobs with college degrees.

A lot of our day-to-day jobs were "demonetized". The surface value of a lot of jobs were decreased. There were jobs where people actually made a living. Now, you can't make a living doing that type of work. My brother in law's parents, both worked as bakers. His dad told me that way back when he was young, the wage was about $$$XXX - something along the lines of double the minimum wage. Today, it's a minimum wage job.

The most disturbing realization is that with the focus on a college degree, today's youth have less access to vocational training. Practically none. Schools have eliminated shop programs. Auto shop, welding, wood shop, metal shop - no more. American born kids, I guess, are all suppose to turn out like the geniuses who dropped out of college and created tech firms. Or emulate loud personalities who day-trade stocks on television. Immigrants who come to this country trade skills, will bake our bread, tailor our clothes, maintain our cars, fix our roofs, and make $150 an hour changing our HVAC filter screens. There will be an entire generation of American kids who will be left out, as the reality is, not every person is destined for law school and med school. What's going to happen to the kids who just don't do well in school?

 

[LizzieMaine]

The next smug neckbeard who says "Learn to code!" as though it's an all-purpose solution to everything is going to get a boot in the head from me. Wait'll the robots "learn to code," and see how you like standing in line down at the food pantry.

 

[Harp]

The next smug neckbeard who says "Learn to code!" as though it's an all-purpose solution to everything is going to get a boot in the head from me.

I recently watched Manchester By The Sea, a lovely film set in coastal New England.
The protagonist assumes guardianship of his sixteen-year old nephew who adamantly
states he "is not going to college." His nephew intends to become a fisherman like his dad.
College is not for every kid and there is nothing wrong with a blue collar trade skill or similar option.