Politics

Golden handcuffs, they call it.

Big_Easy said:

Respect is like trust, it must be earned. I give back what is given to me. The majority of the right-wingers on here immediately insulted and shit talked me rather than engage in a debate. I’m not going to automatically respect you because your birthday is before mine.

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It's because we don't particularly respect you or your unqualified opinions. You've built nothing. Your future relies on redistributing the production of others into your coffers. You're a central planner and bureaucrat by thinking and you're on a forum of self-made men that have built companies, organizations, delivered results, and employed others that contribute to the net-positive column of our overall GDP.

By your posts to date, it seems like all your wages have come through the sweat of others redistributed into whatever fields you occupy and precipitated down on you through State and Federal funding. That's the persona you portray on this forum whether its factual or not. I suspect it is because if you ever built something you'd grant higher value to creators and producers than you express.

So yeah, you're on the teat of most of the members of this forum and we think of you like a lamprey, remora, or leech. It's all the more embarrassing to your own dignity that you then argue with others under the delusion that you're a peer when you're not. It's not an age thing, its a taker versus producer thing.

rookhawk said:

I know it discourages work, because I know the amount of effort required to make $250k versus $500k. The languishing 37 hour work weeks, the 6 weeks of vacation you use whenever you wish, the 20% bonus that is auto-delivered for having a pulse, the 401k auto-match to your max income, etc. Then you go to the second camp, that $250k guy's manager. 80-100 hour work weeks. Forfeit your vacation every year and lose most of it, or get fired for stepping away from the company for 2 days. Every day you sign documents that have to be materially correct to avoid prosecution, yet your bonus is predicated on giving the firm the rosiest outlook possible to lenders, partners, and shareholders.

The first $250k is much easier than the second $250k, the third $250k is nearly impossible, and those that make a full $1m are 99% of the time owners.

So any highly skilled professional currently making say the ~$500k is already performing twice the work of the $250k subordinate while carrying a tremendous risk-premium. You know what happens when the effort, taxation, and risk of the higher paid position becomes too great? The w2 guy making $500k just quits corporate, becomes an LLC, makes $250k a year working half-ass the time comparatively, and via deductions and clever tax planning pays almost no taxes.

That's what the disincentives breed, but you'd never know this because you've never personally experienced what it takes to produce enough value to be compensated at those kinds of numbers.

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Red Leg said:

So true. My first three years in the corporate world I was forced to sell stocks (a major portion of our compensation) at short term gains rates to pay my annual taxes and quarterlies, before finally building enough cash equity. In the twelve years I was with the company, my annual cash bonus - never went to anything but taxes.

Add to that, a job running a significant P&L effort was every bit as much a 24/7 expectation as had been the military - simply less unpredictable travel. Though the predictable travel was bad enough. And you are so correct, work those hours and do a billion in sales with your own business, and you are an extremely wealthy individual. Do that in a major corporation and your are an IRS honey hole. As I noted above, I retired three years before I had to do so once we had established a secure second retirement.

One other very valid point that you make. The half life of an appointed VP in major corporations is about five years before a reorganization, customer shake up, or new supervising officer ends the appointment. A director, on the other hand, has a comparatively secure position.

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At some point one must take into account the most valuable commodity, the one we can neither buy or sell......time. Perhaps the guy that is "only" making $250K already figured that out?

For what it is worth, I am a millennial and have never felt disrespected because of my age here on the forum.

Of course I led the M&A transactions for 2 small businesses that I help build, and I hunt a lot so that probably helps.

PHOENIX PHIL said:

At some point one must take into account the most valuable commodity, the one we can neither buy or sell......time. Perhaps the guy that is "only" making $250K already figured that out?

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@PHOENIX PHIL I used to believe time is the most valuable thing in life, I don't anymore. The most valuable thing in life is progeny. Legacy that your genetics live on and that your ideals live on.

To raise ideas or humans to maturity requires capital. In most States for a young person starting out now, $250k may not even cut it under various tax regimes and redistribution. What people do not realize via inflation and taxation is that Government is robbing them of their progeny. Progeny can be humans they couldn't afford to have, or ideas they couldn't afford to model to fruition.

I work 80-100 hour weeks so I can pass down six things:

-Three humans to displace the two that created them that are prone to producing net-benefit to society on every dimension.
-Continuance of the modern American conservation model
-Continuance of the Protestant Work Ethic
-Continuance of the Judeo-Christian Western Enlightenment

My time may be important to me and fleeting, but my capital allows me to procreate. My epitaph is not going to read "here lies a stump of a tree genetically and a failure to deliver sustainable values". My shelf life pales in comparison.

RLD said:

I suspect "representation" was pretty shitty in Mexico and Canada at that time as well. ;-)

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Well sure but the point is people in DC can move much easier.

rookhawk said:

@PHOENIX PHIL I used to believe time is the most valuable thing in life, I don't anymore. The most valuable thing in life is progeny. Legacy that your genetics live on and that your ideals live on.

To raise ideas or humans to maturity requires capital. In most States for a young person starting out now, $250k may not even cut it under various tax regimes and redistribution. What people do not realize via inflation and taxation is that Government is robbing them of their progeny. Progeny can be humans they couldn't afford to have, or ideas they couldn't afford to model to fruition.

I work 80-100 hour weeks so I can pass down six things:

-Three humans to displace the two that created them that are prone to producing net-benefit to society on every dimension.
-Continuance of the modern American conservation model
-Continuance of the Protestant Work Ethic
-Continuance of the Judeo-Christian Western Enlightenment

My time may be important to me and fleeting, but my capital allows me to procreate. My epitaph is not going to read "here lies a stump of a tree genetically and a failure to deliver sustainable values". My shelf life pales in comparison.

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To each their own, we all have decisions to make. I chased the career goals and spent much time at work earlier in life. Not a chance of me doing that anymore, I have a different perspective now. I'll live with that decision as I'm sure you'll live with yours.

275r7x57 said:

As my brother stated last week.

“A 9-5 Job Is Modern Day Slavery”

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A 9-5 job is 40 hours out of 168 a week. What a joke. Try owning a demanding business or managing one. I used to work 16-18 hours a day and six to seven days a week for eight months out of twelve. The other four months, I “only” worked 55 hours a week. As the saying goes @Big_Easy “Nobody cares. Work harder.”

rigbymauser said:

Americas love with socialism.

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Good explanation from a smart girl or as the MAGA enthusiasts on this forum would say "She's a commie" (That's because what she says is true.)

rookhawk said:

I used to believe time is the most valuable thing in life, I don't anymore. The most valuable thing in life is progeny. Legacy that your genetics live on and that your ideals live on.

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rookhawk said:

I work 80-100 hour weeks so I can pass down six things:

-Three humans to displace the two that created them that are prone to producing net-benefit to society on every dimension.

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I took a different approach. I funded the education of my kids, Yale/Harvard Law for daughter and Rice for my son. Each also got $250K towards a down payment of a home once they got married as well.

Today neither of them need any inheritance though they will do pretty well in that realm, my daughter through her M&A work as a law partner and my son as a pioneer in AI work.

My father told me a very long time ago that family wealth can disappear as the government can take it away at any point. He emphasized the type of education that allows one to thrive in any country in the World.

Also, if one has good employees, one can run a business and still take time off. Yes, I could get greedy and make even more money while working at half pay. It does not justify the lost time. Not when I was 33 (first retirement) and not now at 70 where I take a month off every quarter or so. I work because of new technologies that my company gets to implement and that I enjoy. Most weeks though it is 20-25 hours a week unless it is a plant startup. Between rowing, personal trainer, shooting practice, paddleboarding, dog training, local travel etc. my plate is too full to work 80-100 hours a week like I used to in my 20s. Heck, before I replaced my right hip I used to play tennis 20+ hours a week as well.

luger6 said:

Good explanation from a smart girl or as the MAGA enthusiasts on this forum would say "She's a commie" (That's because what she says is true.)

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Sorry, but if I have to choose a socio/economic assessment by a valley girl or Ben Shapiro, there is no contest. I would go a lot farther than her with regard to her description of of European economies. They are, on the whole strongly capitalist but with deeper socio economic safety nets the creation of which was made possible in a meaningful part by an American defense umbrella and protective economic policies for major industries such as automotive and aircraft - policies which the US did little to challenge in the effort to support European industrial rebirth following WWII.

Sadly, because so many young people in this country and their menopausal mothers are woefully ignorant with regard to economics, they really think they believe in things like central planning (Texas's new governor is already planning utility price controls in what is an inexpensive highly competitive free market power environment); the government owning the means of production (you can find calls for the nationalization of SPACEX and Starlink all over the social media accounts of our brave new congress); and broad limitations of speech which they do not like.

But, I agree. She is no commie, just not particularly well informed and either blissfully ignorant of her fellow travelers' actual agendas or she is deliberately sophistical.

@Tanks, my grandpa said the same thing, with the following exception.

“My father told me a very long time ago that family wealth can disappear as the government can take it away at any point.” And my grandpa said: “But they cannot take away your education (what’s in your head).”

Sadly, I witnessed how we lost everything my family worked for. Four great properties/farms, gone in the blink of an eye. No compensation, nothing, they were in a “strategically location”. Nothing they could do agains the government.

This is why I hate (yes, strong word) commies and socialist scum bags. I have no respect or use for them.

Scott CWO said:

A 9-5 job is 40 hours out of 168 a week. What a joke. Try owning a demanding business or managing one. I used to work 16-18 hours a day and six to seven days a week for eight months out of twelve. The other four months, I “only” worked 55 hours a week. As the saying goes @Big_Easy “Nobody cares. Work harder.”

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I own multiple companies and ranch, which is a 24/7 job. I know what work is.

I am very fortunate to be in a position that I can set my own hours and pick and choose which jobs I want. Even working for myself I run 80-100 hours a week.

I stand by my brother’s statement. A 9-5 is modern day slavery. Most people that work 9-5 are enslaved by themselves, house payments, car payments, credit card payments, uncontrollable spending, taxes and much more. The list is never ending. Most will never work themselves out of the financial hole, let alone work their way up the ladder to better themselves or their families. Yes a small, very small portion of their problems can be attributed to government, society, education and environment, but 99 percent of their problems are their problems. At the end of the day most people have enslaved themselves and a 9-5 is just part of it.

Time and money are freedom.

Jim Jordan in as house minority speaker.
Unfortunately, Thune retains Senate minority leadership

Hegseth impeachment resolution fails in the house

F-U Massie.

Brent in Az said:

View attachment 806871

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Ontario Hunter should realize I have at least 10x the memory of an elephant. He criticized Trump, the US and those here who highlighted the story and the decision to remove the B1s from that UK base. He claimed it was all purely grandstanding anti-Iran propaganda propagated by Trump. He jumped to the brainless TDS auto-pilot conclusion those involved were just innocent kids joy riding around in the white vans. Of course all that has changed as at least three in that group have now been charged in an Iranian terror plot. I assume US and other intelligence have also intercepted comms or has inside sources indicating other Iranian connected plots in UK planning hits on the air base used by the tankers, so they were also moved. I wouldn’t doubt “Doc” has a similar TDS based theory about this latest precaution at Mildenhall.

rookhawk said:

The languishing 37 hour work weeks, the 6 weeks of vacation you use whenever you wish, the 20% bonus that is auto-delivered for having a pulse, the 401k auto-match to your max income, etc.

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And then a Unicorn descended from the heavens ridden by a leprechaun whilst shooting rainbows out of its a$$. The idea that someone making $250K a year only works 37 hrs/week with a 20% non-performance based auto-bonus AND takes 6 weeks of vacation/yr is so ridiculous, my colleague in the office next to me came over while I was reading and laughing to this at work. She asked me what was so funny, and I relayed to her your first example. She smiled and asked what reality you were from...I replied, he's a far-right Trump voter from planet MAGA. Good laughs were had by all.

375 Ruger Fan said:

We were paid very good and had great benefits. We were comfortable and had it much better than others. Why would anyone leave a great job like this? Forty years later, I am comfortable in retirement and have no regrets, but colleagues who left the company and went out on their own did an order of magnitude better.

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Seems like a logical fallacy to me.

375 Ruger Fan said:

The oil business is one of the ultimate risk reward professions.

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What's the ratio of success to failures by your colleagues? As you stated above, "the ultimate risk reward profession." You remember the successful ones, but forget (or never heard) about the 10X as many people that failed. I wonder what those 10x would say now? I'm sure most, if not all would think that the route you took was the better one in the long run.

Today was the first day for legislators to file bills for our next legislative session in Texas. Dems filed 23 gun control bills including a "red flag" bill that is worse than most if that is even possible. Please note - Cornyn pushed and led for a federal bill that incentivizes states to adopt "red flag" laws, which is exactly why I and a lot of others voted against him. That is a litmus test and a huge betrayal by Cornyn. So, don't start about Cornyn would have won, no he wouldn't have as shown by the blow out in the primary by Paxton who was hardly a strongly candidate. Even if he did, he is part of the problem. The fight is on to preserve our rights in Texas.

Other bills are typical Dem agendas for "assault weapons," but going further and going after semi-autos, magazines that hold more than ten rounds, and one even requires reporting to the ATF for purchasers who buy more than four magazines. Way to go to the NPR ninnies.

Prohibition failed horribly for alcohol.

Prohibition has failed catastrophically for drugs creating the largest prison population in the world, while drug deaths kill more citizens every year than the Vietnam War.

And somehow Prohibition will work for guns?

How many more prisons are we supposed to build? How many million gun owners are we going to lock up for not having committed a crime? Gun control is not about safety, it is about disarming the peasants so they are adequately controlled and obedient servants posing no risk to the ruling class. Marxism in progress.

rookhawk said:

It's because we don't particularly respect you or your unqualified opinions. You've built nothing. Your future relies on redistributing the production of others into your coffers. You're a central planner and bureaucrat by thinking and you're on a forum of self-made men that have built companies, organizations, delivered results, and employed others that contribute to the net-positive column of our overall GDP.

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Oh my! Calm down there sassy Sally, lest ye rupture an aneurysm and the rest of our Comrades on here blame me for your ill health. Your emotions are causing your judgement and ultimately your insults to become pedestrian. Telling a Transportation Engineer that he's a central planner and hasn't built anything is just lazy. I expected more out of a former CXO.

rookhawk said:

By your posts to date, it seems like all your wages have come through the sweat of others redistributed into whatever fields you occupy and precipitated down on you through State and Federal funding.

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Then your mind must be slipping because we had a lengthly dialogue several months ago about how I used to work for private companies and they were full of greedy, incompetent, hyper-capitalist a$$holes.

rookhawk said:

So yeah, you're on the teat of most of the members of this forum and we think of you like a lamprey, remora, or leech.

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I'd be willing to bet that most, if not all of those on here at one time or another has been sucking on the government teat. How many of those businesses you reference that you were a part of are/were significantly based on government contracts? The entirety of the "defense" industry comes to mind, ask your buddy @Red Leg about that. I wonder how many members are getting a gov check right now? Remind me again, how many miles of interstate highway did Walmart build? How many airports did your company construct with their own money? This is what I'm referring to when I say far-right hypocrites. How many times did you fly out of an airport, sail on a ship, or drive on a public roadway? If you're seriously interested in standing on your principles, don't drive on any of the DOT's roadways, walk your a$$ to work; through the fields, marshes, and forests. Let's see how productive you are then.

rookhawk said:

you then argue with others under the delusion that you're a peer when you're not.

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You're right, we're not peers, I can do basic math problems, and most of you have demonstrated that you can't.