Anyone who came here before 1882? You do know that also applies to central and South America too?

A wealth gap IS fair as long as it is NOT excessive. In the US in the 50s and 60s the gap was small. Then about 1975 employees started to get the short end of the economic stick. Today the US has the highest wealth gap in the world not counting 3rd world nations. That is NOT FAIR or sustainable into the future. The US will either narrow that gap or fall into a dictatorship. I am sure that no one wants that life for their grandkids! The US does not have FAIR capitalism today - it has corporate fascism for a system.

I personally know people that work in nursing homes. They themselves are afraid that as they get old they may end up there. They would prefer the quality of a Japanese nursing home to a US one. At night ours are very understaffed. The people doing the hands-on, daily work there are lacking in conscientiousness. I doubt that on a world list for quality of nursing homes that the US would place in the top 25. When you look at world lists, the US was at the top around 1950, but now is around 30th in most qualities. It was downhill for the US starting around1975. Sorry to burst bubbles of jingoism.

Yup. When we moved here almost 2 years ago I knew I'd need to still work part time. Up north, I wouldn't EVER work for minimum wage, I haven't worked for minimum wage since the 1980's. And - I've been working entry level customer service jobs for almost all of the years between then and now.

I was never a high-wage earner, always near the bottom. But no one dictated my pay. I negotiated it, or I found a different job that would.

Down here, you are dictated your pay. If they're paying minimum wage, it doesn't matter how much experience you have. You get minimum wage, or you get nothing until something better comes along.

Part-timers are affected most, because part-timers get no health insurance coverage, no life insurance coverage, no paid days off, no paid sick time in Florida.

In MOST other states in the country, you get paid sick time. So that you don't show up to work coughing and sneezing simply because you can't afford to take a day off to recover.

I worked for one place when I first got here, and it was a pretty unhealthy environment. Their employee turnover was pretty much weekly, with the exception of a few core folks who'd been there for years and were used to the somewhat hostile attitude of the owner. We didn't get breaks, even if it was a 7-hour shift. We had to close the store alone at night. But they paid $11/hour to start, so I took it. I lasted several months, and then Publix called me for an interview. I'd applied when I first moved, so this was out of the blue, for me.

Publix started me at $13/hour stocking shelves and doing freight intake. It was too hard for me physically so I took an intentional demotion to the front end, where I was doing mostly bagging and sanitizing shopping carts. THAT was at $10.75/hour. Plus mandatory breaks, gift-card bonuses (ranging from $50 to $100, every quarter), and I picked up their dental plan for just $20/month for myself and my spouse. Not bad in a state that has an $8.65/hour minimum wage.

I would have quit the first job anyway, but I would -not- have traded it in for anyone who only paid me minimum wage. I'd rather be unemployed with NO income (including no unemployment check), than employed for people who don't demonstrate respect and appreciation for their employees. Sadly, this state (Florida) favors the employer, providing absolutely NO protections for the employee. Florida has no fair labor board, and no state labor laws other than those that pertain to minors.

Employees CAN be treated horribly in this state, and they have no recourse. If they complain, they're out of a job and can be blacklisted, because the state has given employers the green light to do so.

You better believe I'd rather take unemployment checks and PEUC ad-ons for 51 weeks if it was available when I quit that first job when I moved here. I'm glad it wasn't though, because I actually LIKED working for Publix and am grateful that they called me for the interview when they did. They saved me from the frustration of wanting to still work, but not willing to give up my dignity for the paycheck.

Bahhh, not everyone lives in TV. I’ll agree there are some bad apples out there but methinks your brush is too wide.

Read BETWEEN the lines of my post and you will have your answer.

Employers need to pay a living wage to CITIZENS. The employers AVOID paying a living wage by hiring non-citizens. It is a race DOWN the economic ladder. US employers have KILLED unions and brought in non-citizen SCABS. It is history repeating itself. The rich want to stay rich. They do so by holding others back. People in TV Land long for the 50s, 60s, and 70s and wonder WHY? The quality of life was higher when the population was around 250 million. That was BEFORE the big immigration onslaught of the 90s and early 2000s. I could keep up my explanation - if only more were interested.

You state that “Part-timers are affected most, because part-timers get no health insurance coverage, no life insurance coverage, no paid days off, no paid sick time in Florida.”

I’ll tell you right now, if all those premium benefits were available in this country for part-time, why work full-time? Are people aware of the number of full time employees working in smaller businesses who lost insurance coverages because of Obama Care and forced to buy poorer coverage out of their own pocket?

Your “between the lines” is your political bias and that is not allowed on this forum. I’ll pass.

Yep.. Just like you know chefs that would go to competing restaurants to put a rubber glove in a salad. :ohdear:

Let me add another dimension to the argument. I believe in diversity. It is a numbers thing. Get a goldfish bowl and put 5 goldfish in. All are happy and well-fed. Put in 5 more. Then 5 more. Eventually, they will be fighting and dying because their QUALITY of LIFE has gone DOWN. Same for humans and the limiting resources of even a resource-rich country like the US. I believe that after about 250,000 people in the US, the quality of life started dropping. That is my theory. Immigrants are NOT bad people. Any kind, even blue-eyed Europeans are just non-citizens that are decreasing the quality of life. I would be happy if everyone were mixed. It is a population thing with me. Look at ALL PROBLEMS such as global warming - all problems are population problems in their most basic form. I don't expect agreement with my theory.

That was a joke, not to be taken literally.

The vast majority of businesses in the US are small businesses

Yes, about 75%, I believe. And the sky is blue. But neither one has anything to do with my post that was referred to??????

I find it amusing, sad and pathetic that those leaning in a certain direction believe that Florida is led so horrifically.

I know first hand of part timers in Maine (a state strongly leaning in the opposite direction from Florida) who work on a ferry boat. We're talking adults here. They receive minimum wage and they have but one benefit. They get to ride on the damn thing they work on for one time for every 40 hours of work. Woo whoo baby.

And guess what? The company is short staffed due to the stimulus benefits and they are cutting back on shifts. There goes certain services to customers. Fewer ferries available. That's a bummer when you're trying to make an important appointment.

Maine is fast becoming another Minnesota. You decide for yourself if that's for better or for worse.

You can always head east to 95 North. There's a number of states up there where folks are bailing out now and heading elsewhere.

I challenge you to pull up a map as to what states are losing population. No surprises.

I'm done.

Well you missed a great meal! Why are you in rush? Aren’t you retired ? There is short help all over. We are lucky to have all these great restaurants here at The Villages but sometimes you just got to be patient.

You can't even apply for Unemployment in Florida right now. Not even for legitimate reasons without the PEUC benefit. Their site is down. This has been a problem for a few years now, since they implemented their new "improved" system. Huge scandal 2 years ago, the accusation is that it was on purpose to keep people from applying at all.

There are thousands of legitimately unemployed people in Florida, who SHOULD be collecting unemployment, who can't even apply for it. And others who have applied for it, but their applications are "lost" in the system. They can't re-apply because the system sees that there's an application already in for them. But the application can't be processed. It can't be approved or rejected. It's just stuck in limbo. HUNDREDS of Floridians are affected in that particular way.

There are also those who have been rejected in error - people whose companies were closed down and therefore they were laid off, had earned enough income in the previous year to qualify to collect, but their application was rejected anyway. HUNDREDS of people in that situation.

There are also people who were approved, who should not have been approved. HUNDREDS of people who are collecting, who applied honestly, but their applications should have been rejected.

There are also people who were approved, yet haven't ever received any unemployment checks at all even though they qualify for them. HUNDREDS of people in that situation.

Don't any of you people watch anything other than fox news and breitbart? This is a pretty serious problem in Florida and it's been going on for years, and the pandemic situation has exacerbated it.

Any of you people? Ouch. Hopefully, some day we could all be so enlightened.

Like CNN who lied about DeSantis giving vaccine preferences to Publix due to political donations?

Get off the MSM misinformation and misleading messages. You know there's some 20ish tidepods filtering your comments on the internet, right?

Note to millennials, you took out a loan. Pay it back. Student loan dept solved. Oh, your degree in some obscure major might have impressed some folks back when but there's no market for that now. Pay it back.

I don't like any news media who has a biased agenda.

Florida IS a bit backward. It is a right-to-work state - aka right to be screwed as an employee.

Maine has a CV outbreak right now. Young people have been leaving Maine for the last 10 years. I believe that they wanted higher pay and more social life.

And guess where they're NOT moving to:

Florida.

I was wrong about CNN and lying about DeSantis and Publix. It was in fact "60 Minutes" on CBS.

Very shoddy journalism.

No, that's reserved for the folks bailing out of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Michigan, Massachusetts, Maryland to name a few.

Gee, do these states have anything in common?

[QUOTE=OrangeBlossomBaby;1931853]And guess where they're NOT moving to:

Florida.[/QUOTE



/////

Somebody's moving to Florida. When we started to plan our move to The Villages a 26' U-Haul truck was being quoted at $2,800 from WA - FL. One month later the same truck was $6,990. I called U-haul to verify that pricing. The customer service rep told me to look at the same truck on the same dates but instead search from FL - WA. Price was $1,100. He said all of their equipment is stacking up in TX and FL. So someone is obviously moving there. Must be all us old farts.. :1rotfl:

Throughout my whole life, I always saw eating out at restaurants as a waste of BOTH time and money. As a child, I hated it when my parents took me to a restaurant. As a youngster, I even disliked the boring time spent at my own family's dinner table. I would have rather grabbed a sandwich and eaten it while watching TV or outside on the front porch or playing baseball. As an adult, I never saw any beauty or redeeming value in the "so-called" dining out experience. It leaves me cold. I could handle the fast-food experience even though the food lacks nutrition. I never, NEVER wait in a vehicle line for a take-out order - that whole experience, I consider de-humanizing. I can sit inside a coffee shop and drink coffee and talk to friends, but I would prefer to be sitting on a blanket by a lake or at a beach. I can enjoy a bar atmosphere with music, dancing, and alcoholic beverages, even for long hours. That is exciting to me. Spending an hour or more just eating out is boring to me, no action, no excitement, just boring! If there were ZERO restaurants in TV Land I would not be the least put-off! I gladly give up my time and seat at the table to someone else.

That was a good public service thing to point out the problems that Florida has with unemployment checks. Florida could be characterized as sort of a "slow-learner" among states. I wonder how the achievement test scores for Florida high school seniors would compare up against say Connecticut, New York, California, or even Nebraska? Just asking!

Most have no choice, they can’t cook 👨*🍳. Some won’t cook.

Curious
 

Just wondering. How many people on here are bitching about people collecting unemployment, received a stimulus check?
Can you say “double standard “?

You can put almost anything (short of an old sock) into a crockpot or pressure cooker and " WA-LA in several hours you have a masterpiece of culinary perfection - equal to or better than most restaurants when you factor in the wasted hours of your precious lifetime.

Retired person I know with great ssi and pension is enjoying being laid off from a pt job and now collecting unemployment even tho doesn't need it they say. Grrrrrr

Can you say “poor analogy”? We didn’t get a stimulus check every week or two weeks nor did we receive a stimulus check in addition to an unemployment check. So your bitching remark doesn’t add up.

If you read through the entire thread. It would add up. Perhaps you did and just can’t add?
Btw, I haven’t received any stimulus checks. And never had the need for unemployment payments.

After 12 pages of words of wisdom and many days later, the lobby is still closed, the cars idle in line for the overrated butterburger, and still no definitive answer on Culver-nomics in The Villages!

That sounds like a serious case of BS.

Well, we gotta wait until the money runs out and possibly 2022/2024 before we go back to an environment where people work and get paid, rather than procreate and get paid...

If you file 2020 taxes, and are under the threshold, you are getting the stimulus check whether you want it or not. There is no way to 'OPT-OUT'....

Well that cold, nasty weather certainly explains why folks are bailing out of California for Texas.

Whatever gets you through the night...

It is however, due greatly to taxes, cost of living, poorly run states going bankrupt, crime, opportunity, it goes on.

I agree, But I have to add that I still work. I enjoy going to Culver's, with my laptop, placing my order and waiting even an hour for my food. I continue to work, etc. Something I cannot do comfortably in the parking lot in my vehicle.

So, I have to find other places to go to.

Yesterday, while going through South Carolina ( I do every other week in TV) I TRIED to do a walk-in for breakfast. I got off at 3 different exits and everywhere were horrible long lines for drive throughs. Nobody had any dining rooms open, everyone had HELP WANTED banners in the windows (thanks,,,uh,, you know, we gotta print money because of 'the thing''.. uh uh ).

The only place with sit downs were Cracker Barrel and Waffle House, both of which has 20 or more standing outside waiting.

Is it no wonder that only places where TIPPING is allowed has waiters and waitresses?