CPI is an average. Here in the Boston area it’s no where near that. But that might be too complicated for you.
@Ed Frugal
My advice remains the same . . . get a public service job with your local city. Whether it’s operating construction equipment or a supervisor job. Stable pay, excellent benefits, pension. We don’t have a 401k, but something that is essentially the same thing . . . might be 457k.
You said you have some health issues . . . once you’re in, they can’t discriminate against you based on that. If your health issues are definitely affecting performance of your duties, accomodations may have to be made, or you may be retrained and transferred to a different department, where your issues do not affect performance of your duties. I’ve seen a few guys get retrained and transferred. Sure beats being kicked out to the curb
Once you have a public service job, you pretty much have to get caught on camera by the local news channel stealing, or have to punch your bosses teeth out, with witnesses . . . to get fired. And even then, the union will probably try to save your job.
The real danger is that the pencil pushers will try to privatize the operations. This has happened a few times, and in a few cases is has backfired spectactularly. A contractor said we can run operations for x amount of dollars. Sold. Everybody’s fired. Now the contractor shows up, brings his guys and says “We can’t do it for the price quoted. We need x amount of dollars to do the job.” 
Yeah around here we have the containers and the guy just drives by and operates the arm to pick it up and dump it. Takes about 10 seconds and never gets his feet wet. He’s getting pretty good at it too and sometimes doesn’t even knock it over when he sets it down.
Whoever’s got the route on my street is either getting the cold shoulder from his wife, maybe sleeping in the garage/couch, or he’s got SERIOUS anger issues
Almost all the blue recycling containers on my street are crushed and mangled beyond recognition. I had to call to get the container replaced.
I suspect when the arm grabs the container, this guy purposefully destroys them. Pretty easy, when the hydraulics are doing the destroying for you :naughty:
Why do I suspect it’s anger issues . . . because the green yard waste container and black trash containers are pristine. And it’s not the same guy emptying those
I’ll bet you lunch whatever other streets this guy does, all the blue containers are completely devastated
Maybe his BIL sells containers.
I still think the guy’s wife has him sleeping on the couch, and destroying trash cans is the only “safe” way to vent his anger, without getting into serious trouble
What baffles me . . . some of the neighbor’s containers are so mangled, that they’re literally sliced in half, and they can’t use them, or they have such huge gaping holes, that when you try to put something in them, it just falls out of the holes
But they don’t request a new container. We did, and it arrived relatively quickly. No paperwork. Just one easy phone call.
You know, I think most of you folks here “get it”, even though we may disagree on some of the details. I find that the older I get, the more pessimistic and cynical I become. I wish it weren’t so, and I hope I am wrong about a lot of things I think are going to happen.
That’s a deep and thought provoking post @db4690 ,( the one 5 posts back). You do bring up the dark side of Unions. I asked a Union official once why do they fight so hard for guys we all know deserve to be fired? The answer was something along the lines of, they pay their dues, they’re entitled to representation and could sue the union if they don’t fight for them. . . hardly a satisfying answer. I don’t claim to have all the solutions. As a ‘footsoldier’ in the working world, the general rule is you make better pay and benefits in a Union job, if you can even find one anymore.
Yeah, my attitude / outlook changes almost hourly as new information / rumors come in. Last night I heard about the possibility of driving a potato chip / bread / pastry type truck, the kind that delivers bread, donuts and such to grocery and convenience stores in the early am hours. Don’t even need a CDL for those jobs apparently.
Man it can be hard to write a clear and concise post without going off on a tangent.
I’m not sure what kind of public service jobs I would even qualify for. The county I live in, though heavily registered Democrat, tends to elect Republicans to office. Its nice because it tends to keep a lid on taxes, but a lot of services gets done by subcontractors. Usually when I look at the county website, there’s some sort of hiring freeze, except for police, fire, EMT’s and IT specialists.
A guy I know used to have a county job. Him and another guy scooped up roadkill off the highways and took it to an incinerator. YUCK! (He told me that oftentimes in the rural areas, they’d just shovel 'em off the road and down the embankment into the foliage.) On the other hand, I guess you never have to worry about the roadkill accusing you of sexual assault. 
The school bus driver thing I’m looking at states there are all sorts of promotional opportunities to other positions. I’m not sure what the career track would be for a school bus driver, like, how many dispatchers would you need? Those who move into better positions, I would think, would hold onto them like grim death, but perhaps I suffer from a lack of imagination. Its the old, you can’t see what’s over the next hill until you make the effort to climb up to the top of the first one analogy.
"One guy can do an entire route with no helpers. Those days with the guy holding onto the back of the truck, running out to grab and empty the cans…they’re long gone, AFAIK "
Yes and no…
In my area, the garbage collection is done by a variety of private companies and, while most of them have the type of equipment that you describe, it isn’t universal. Some still use a driver and helper, and the company that I use is so…basic…that the driver has to hop out at each stop and do the unloading of the trash cans into the truck himself.
I think you would be better off working for Wally world then getting a CDL ,a CDL around here just means more bureaucrats and headfaches and you still have to get out on the ground and work (if you can straighten up after the the pounding the 30 yr old truck has given you ,slow ,stinky ,rough riding, so dang noisy you cant hear the radio (if it even has one-that hasnt been stolen) the ACs generally dont work and on site the cabs on these things get well over 100 degrees.Dont think as a newly hired you are going to get a newer model truck,that doesnt happen,the best trucks(most of what the COs consider new have 200K on the clock) go to the brownies and yes men ,maybe you should reconsider.I am thinking seriously of ditching my CDL in the next couple of years ,not to mention you usually have to pay for license and physical and have to (in most cases pass drug screenings) .Its not peaches and cream ,you would be better off working on site and driving an up to date heavy hauler(you dont have to contend with traffic)(ah the joys of driving a non ac Mack in heavy traffic through 35 stoplights in the summer,no power marginal brakes and always expecting the bluelights) if you get a CDL choose wisely .You might be better off as a rental car return driver.
Our town doesn’t offer garbage collection. You either take it to the dump yourself, or you hire one of the private companies. They give you special bins that can be picked up by the truck…the driver rarely has to get out of the truck.
I have to agree that the minimum wage should be raised, some say to $15 per hour. The overall effect of this will not be economic disaster. It will drive more automation, such as we see at Macdonald’s now. But the overall effect will stimulate the economy.
I prefer a regional approach with a $10 minimum and a $15 maximum in those high cost states.
On a separate website they showed the 20 poorest cities in the US, 3 of f them were in Michigan; Detroit, Muskegon and Flint, with average family incomes around $20,000. Average house prices were also very low, just over $40,000.
Being poor in a high cost area, however, is very stressful, and a higher minimum wage would be desirable. A guaranteed annual income with supplementary social assistance could work as well.
Many will not agree with this approach, but a well paying Mcjob is better than welfare and all the problems it breeds.
To keep this car related, a better minimum wage will hopefully see more native born gas station attendants and landscaping crews.
In France, Macdonald employees are unionized, are paid good wages, and have full benefits. A Big Mac there is also around $6.50, but that’s not wages alone; meat is very expensive there and multiple business taxes add as well. The “French Fries”, however, are cheap and taste great!
Well, the original purpose of the minimum wage was so that people were not unduly taken advantage of. It was never meant to be a minimum living wage. Many places start teenagers over the minimum just to be able to recruit the workers needed. Its just silly and just politics trying to use the minimum wage to reduce the income gap. I’ve seen it many times that when a lower base rate gets raised, everyone along the line needs a raise accordingly. Someone making $30 with a $10 minimum will not be happy staying at $30 with a $15 minimum. They’ll need $45 and why shouldn’t they? Its called wage compression. Of course none of these jokers will talk about it and convince everyone they are for the little people. Yeah right.
Where were we? Back to cars and Nissan.
You make a very good point
I find it somewhat disturbing when relatively low-skills job wages are “encroaching” on jobs which require significant skills and investments in training and tools
Doesn’t make the guy with the skilled job feel very good about himself
For the record, I’m not necessarily against a higher minimum wage
I just think there needs to be a comfortable gap between low-skilled McJobs and those skilled jobs I mentioned
I guess I agree with you
The idea is that you start at a low-skill and low-wage job, and move up. Many porters at the dealerships go to evening school and eventually become mechanics. Others decide they want to be service advisors. In either case, it’s a step up and more money. I believe the head of our fleet was a janitor in the distant past. He is a good example of what is possible, if you have drive and willpower
Gosh, @kmccune , you don’t paint a pretty picture, but I DO appreciate your honest assessment / viewpoint.
I’d agree about the minimum wage. I’d say $10 - $12, phased in over a few years. In the old days the Repubs and Dems would have reached this compromise, but nowadays everybody’s so stubborn, and the leftwingers are demanding $15 or else. Yeah, it won’t be the end of the world, but it will be inflationary. Invest accordingly.
Yeah, I get the argument about entry level minimum wage jobs aren’t meant to support a family on, but, all the factories are moving to Mexico or China, many labor jobs are being automated, where are people supposed to work anymore? Gotta work somewhere! The schools don’t do a good job of educating people, and everybody can’t go get a PhD or a masters in IT tech. Mc Donald’s, Wal-Mart, Uber. . . those are the companies that are hiring. . . for now, at least. Where’s everybody going to work when all this gets automated? Sorry, just thinking out loud.
Except for the fact I’m uncomfortable around children, the school bus driver thing is looking better and better. All the school busses around here look ultra-modern. Its not what I’d call ‘good’ money, but its enough for a guy like me to tread water on financially, and of course the ever-important health insurance. Basically you work a split shift, 3 to 3.5 hours in the am followed by about 4 hours off, then 3 to 3.5 hours in the afternoon. There’s no heavy lifting involved and you’re not sitting behind the wheel for hours and hours and hours. I could use that 4 hours to go to the swim center and work on that ‘core strength’ training my back doctor says is so important.
I’ve worked in such a negative and mentally corrosive work environment for so long, you know, its like you spend enough time in a dysfunctional environment you come to think the whole world is that way. Perhaps a complete change of venue is what’s called for.
I’m thinking I could try the school bus driver thing for the coming school year, at least. That would give me time to recharge and rejuvenate both mentally and physically. Who knows what it could lead to? After a year, I should be in far better health, both physically and mentally. I’d have one year of CDL driving experience under my belt. Perhaps, as @db4690 suggests, it could lead to other opportunities within the county gov’t I am not currently aware of. If driver turnover is as high as I am led to believe, perhaps I could flex seniority to work my way out to the most rural parts of the county (and I am contemplating moving to a more rural area anyway.)
Perhaps I will find I like working with kids. Sometimes I fancy myself a motivational speaker. I could work up a speech and volunteer to go in the schools on career day, encouraging the children to take their education seriously and not make the hard-headed mistakes I made as a youth.
" Perhaps… it could lead to other opportunities within the county gov’t I am not currently aware of."
Just to be on the safe side, I strongly suggest that you check fully into this type of employment before jumping-in. Things may well be different in your neck of the woods, but in my area, at least 80% of the school bus driver positions are filled through private contractors, and the employees receive a paltry wage and no fringe benefits–other than abuse from recalcitrant students.
Around here–IMHO–the “cake” jobs are those of the Rangers in the county parks.
These guys and gals do VERY little real work, get a very decent wage and benefits, and aside from the occasional cruise through the totally placid park in their county-provided Explorer, they spend most of their time sitting in their little office in each county park.
I hate to do it again and get off track but there are professional rating systems to evaluate the difficulty of various jobs, training required, experience, consequences of errors and so on. I personally don’t think a lot of the Walmart type workers should be at the bottom rung. Maybe helpers or greeters but experienced clerks, stockers, dock workers, etc. to me should be paid more. One good aspect of unions is that they work with the company to assign each job a level of pay due to these considerations. So I’m all for increases for a lot of jobs that have been artificially held down-sometimes due to artificial supply. Roofers? Hotel staff? Should be paid higher if there weren’t so many lined up to do these jobs for nothing.
In high school it was 50 cents an hour to weed and water flowers, then 85 cents washing dishes and flipping burgers, then $1.65 as general summer factory help in the truck plant. Was I worth more? Naw but every job was a learning experience and another step. Just about everyone in the restaurant was a high school kid and no one expecting to support themselves. So I guess we agree, I just hate to see kids pushed out of the market.
Hey, I just got done putting a trailer hitch on the Acura. I hadn’t done it myself in 30 years but it was simple with the use of a jack and everything lined up perfect. I decided to order one and do it myself because I didn’t like the answers I got from the place I normally have used for hitches and I’m happy I did. Not a Mitsi but still a car.
My big issue is wally world or whoever is paying wages where the employees qualify for food stamps, so it is my tax dollars supporting the workers for wally world while driving local businesses who pay living wages out of the picture.
A couple of you noted the thread had gotten off track. Could you please bring this back to cars and driving? Thank you.