Don’t know about all that, but folks being in close quarters, acting with the same goal as a team, helps to mitigate Lincoln’s saying that a “house divided cannot stand” problem. In other words, not everyone has to agree on everything, but can still get along ok, without all the hyperbolic rhetoric we tend to see these days. Being in the military for 6 months wouldn’t have to involve active combat duty.
It was a little disconcerting though to see the kids guarding a museum or something with their M16 and two large clips taped together. They were not blanks either and meant business. Everyone was courteous.
I think the end of the draft worked well for the military but not for the country. There are basic life long skills taught and the ability to learn other people’s cultures. Plus I think they become more patriotic.
1 Like
Yup!
My mother worked with a teacher like that, back in the '60s. The Board’s Business Administrator had to periodically remind her to cash her checks because she was screwing-up the bookkeeping. In this case, she inherited a load a money from her parents, so the teaching job wasn’t her major means of support.
Sadly, in recent years that has been proven to be untrue for a small percentage of active duty, reserve/guard, and veterans.
2 Likes
I was single until later in my career, fortunately only had to live in the barracks a short time before getting housing allowance to live off base. Housing allowance was much lower if single.
As far as check cashing, when returning from SEA in 1971, had a travel pay check issued by the AF for ~$800. Had a three day layover at Tachikawa, Tachi limited check cashing to $500. I did have enough cash on hand to go bar hopping with my Tachi buddies.
Arriving at Travis, they did not have a limit on checks.
First reenlistment bonus, expected a check, but no! Got a huge stack of $20 bills. To keep it car related, after all this is CarTalk, took the stack to the bank to payoff my car loan, then deposit the remainder in a savings account.
I was in reserves so never an active duty station but in basic and even summer camps, we always got paid in cash. The w/o had to pack pistols and I was always afraid they would shoot themselves in the foot. In basic anyway everyone would head over to the pix right away to get a money order to send home.
I got paid from work too while at camps but my boss used to hate that fact, so I never took a full week vacation for five years. I managed to always have at least a month vacation time built up for over 30 years.
I too have to sadly agree with Bing. But this is a CarTalk and it should be about cars. What I will say is if you are interested in why some of my peers, old veterans who have been to war and looked the devil in the eye, even willing offering their life in the defense of freedom and the safety of their fellow warriors (Air Force, Army, Marine, Navy, and Coast Guard), would lose “true faith and allegiance,” Google “Promises Broken to the Military” or “Lost Veteran Benefits”…
Well it is close to the 4th of July and we should not just think about picnics. To defend the constitution from all enemies foreign or domestic.
2 Likes
This nonsense is called “shrinkflation”. Basically they leave the price the same and shrink the size of the container. I have seen this a lot with food. There is no mare “half gallon” of ice cream. It is 48 ounces instead of 64. 12 packs of soda or flavored water (La Croix, etc.) are now 8 packs but the price is the same or only slightly reduced.
I don’t see this as big thing with gas. It has always been by the gallon and people don’t like change. I agree it would be sold by liters or quarts if something like this were to be done. Liters are quarts are not the same of course but they are so similar in size that one could use them interchangeably for a quick approximation. 1 liter equals 1.05669 quarts so less than a 6% difference. I would assume they would go to quarts if they do this because the US doesn’t seem in a hurry to go metric and a quart is around 5.7% smaller than a liter so could be sold at a 5.7% less price. Since we are talking “shrinkflation”, the smaller the actual volume, the better for this purpose.
This started many, many years ago. One example is how Hershey repeatedly downsized the chocolate bars to keep the price at a nickel. But alas eventually they had to bite the bullet and raise the price.
And the packaging wouldn’t change, so the small bar would be sitting on a too-large piece of cardboard.
Just look at the unit price, per pound, per ounce etc.
But stores do as much as possible to obscure the unit price, ie one brand will be labeled in cents per ounce, the other brand in dollars per pound.
Paper products, fogettaboutoit , should be unit priced per square foot—but no!
PS- fogettaboutit is used intentionally.
I am sure they will survive.
Remember this forum is about cars and car repair. For one-sided political opinions, plenty of other forums on net for that.
8 Likes
Oof, I see the fireworks displays are starting on the forum before we reach the legal holiday.
Out of context I don’t see a problem with the comment, but in the context of the forum and how things have gone particularly over the last couple of years, once names start getting named — from both parties— people get fighting and then I have to shut down or delete comments.
Seems like hairsplitting, but when we go from talking about policy prescriptions into the politics of it, I just know it when I see it. Because someone is going to start next with “and lemme tell you another thing about [Biden/Trump/whoever]…” and then we will be fighting over covid again.
2 Likes
Back to the original question. A gallon is a unit of measure, like an ounce of ketchup. You buy gas by the gallon, not by the tankful or a can of gas where you would get shorted a half a gallon. Sure we could go to liter if the metric folks have their way, but the volume you are buying is the same. So not the same at all of buying pre packaged items.
Speaking of pre packaged little cans of gas, my favorite small engine person is warning about problems with this gas for chain saws etc. not clear why whether old or the formula, but suggests not using it.
1 Like
It seems enough people flagged it so it is hidden . You yourself said this is Car Talk and Will posted something not related to cars . So why is it still there?
2 Likes
This was tried by a station near me in the 70’s and it never took off.
2 Likes
How many times have we had discussions about fuel production here? Tons. And in many instances it’s been a process of starting with a discussion of gas pumped into cars, and the comments keep coming, and it comes back to getting raw materials out of the ground, and then as we saw, somebody eventually talks about an actual politician who made some decision about where drilling or whatever happens.
I’ve gone along with the broad definition of “car related” that the group has wanted for years. Perhaps I should have deleted the whole thread because it was a scenario involving a paint can, then. I would rather not treat people like children as soon as we get past the gas pump, but I guess this is where things are going.
1 Like
All the while our climate concerned govt is demanding more MPG’s .
1 Like