Posted on 02/07/2011 10:33:25 AM PST by Nachum
Sounds like me at the present time.
I had an interview last week in another city. Out of 80 people, I was one of 6 selected for a face to face. I have a couple of strikes against me. One is not having a 4 year sheepskin and being an out of towner. Other than those, I have the other qualifications. The two guys kept remarking on how much real hands on experience I have. Oh well....
Sounds like the guiding principle of an eletronics recycling company based in St. Louis.
The son’s life sounds like mine when I was at a major university here in SC. I had a major league wacko control freak who drove to a nervous breakdown. I don’t miss the ton of terror.
I worked at electronics recycling facility that had a lot of those long days due to the terminally stupid AA hires the facility manager insisted. A lot of them couldn’t read or write very well and organizational skills were barely there on a good day.
The “management” preferred to burn out temps as fast as they could hire them. They might last a day or up to a few months.
I got similar responses in the early 90s when I was in my 20s about no wife and kids. I didn’t get marrried until my very early 30s. No kids and no plans on having any.
Again, if you have useful skills you can command better working conditions. It’s really that simple.
It’s funny how many FReepers don’t believe in the free market when it comes to employment.
“At that point, the pizza eaters can no longer afforded pizza.”
When I was young a large pizza was truly large, thick and the gooey cheese hung off each slice. “Pizza” today is small, thin and tastes more like cardboard. I wonder if they are bringing the dough frozen from China?
You’re right that pizza is getting unaffordable — REAL pizza, the kind I remember, would cost $30 to $40 now.
I can see you're stuck in the good old days when skilled engineers and others with skills were not jobless. You're stuck hard...
It's funny how many freepers don't believe this country is in a steady steep decline.
Go ahead Dave, you can have the last word...I'm sure it'll make ya feel better.
Agreed, but the flip side is they don't buy much either.
“If I were to shut off my electricity and county water I would probably get a visit from some officious type who would try to tell me that I can’t live that way.”
Actually, that’s one way my uncle has of throwing out deadbeat renters. This is in Ohio. If the electric and water gets shut off, the county will declare the house uninhabitable and have the Sheriff throw them out. I don’t know the details, but apparently some houses he rents where the utilities are included. When they stop paying he stops paying and “whap” they’re forcibly evicted. Otherwise it takes a long, long time to evict some of the renters who know how to work “the system.”
My guess is, since the county has to give you a certificate of occupancy, that it can be revoked and they could make you move out of your house even if the taxes are paid. I wonder what the Founders would have thought of this? Come to think, can this be unconstitutional?
My aunt made pizzas as you describe back in the 70s and were the best anywhere!
Do you have some sort of solution in mind? Or are you just complaining about change?
Sounds like an opportunity for an entrepreneur in your area to offer real pizzas. Assuming there is a market for it. Flour, water, sauce and cheese are not really that expensive. The cheese is the costliest. It doesn’t take anywhere near $40 to make a decent pizza.
“Sounds like an opportunity for an entrepreneur in your area...”
Exactly! And that’s the point I would like to make in this thread.
I agree with those who have been arguing that the solution to this mess is individual entrepreneurship. I am not saying that most people can go it alone. And most business startups do fail. But those that make it will be hiring, and that is the key to future prosperity.
I don’t believe in making a salary as a pastor (that’s a long story), and through a really strange God-encounter I turned to entrepreneurship to make my living and fund my ministry.
I have started, and lost, several businesses in the past. I’m now starting yet another, and have others planned after this one gets going. The state of the economy means nothing to me. I am used to failure, and I do not fear it.
Three years ago I lost a business and ended up living out of my car. I’m now crawling out of the proverbial ditch to try again. I will never quit. The key is that you NEVER give up. You never stop trying. Ever. And I wouldn’t trade the lessons of the past failures for anything.
In past eras there were two groups of people: slaves and free men. Most of the free men were tradesmen, or what we would call “entrepreneurs” today. Jesus was a carpenter... an entrepreneur! You learned a trade from your father and you worked for yourself. The less able ended up working in the fields or as hired hands by the tradesmen. And the slaves did the dirty work.
Today we have two classes of people: slaves and free men. Nothing has changed! A few decades ago you could work for a guy and be treated fairly — those days are now gone. If you work for someone else you are very likely to be taken advantage of, bossed around, manipulated and ill-treated. Employees are becoming slaves again! This thread has made that abundantly clear.
To work for yourself is the only way to KNOW that you will be free.
The solution is to get this attitude into society, where starting a business of your own is the goal. Education must be focused toward that purpose. Most won’t make it, but those who do can hire those who don’t.
“Come to think, can this be unconstitutional?”
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Of course that would be unconstitutional and it makes NO DIFFERENCE what a judge says, it is still unconstitutional. Most of what the federal government does is unconstitutional, the fact that judges have said otherwise changes nothing in reality. A bad decision is simply a bad decision, like calling a dog’s tail a leg it has no effect on reality, only on people’s actions.
Suppose a person simply turned off everything in his house that uses electricity, would they tell him he cannot live there then even though he pays the monthly minimum bill to keep the power on? I doubt they would ever try that, even though the effect would be the same as having the power turned off. The county where I live has the audacity to say that a person may have a private well but he cannot have more than one house connected to it, if you have a guest house or if you have a second house on your property where your adult child lives you are supposed to have a separate water source for it. Where in the constitution is this kind of crap authorized?
Where do all these characters come from who simply cannot stand the idea that someone somewhere might be doing what he wants to do rather than what they think he should do?
Great Post ! I would like to know of your strange encounter it sounds as if it really chnaged your life.
Great post Pastor. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks! It was a very real, very strange thing that God did, and it totally changed everything.
I can’t get into too many details, but my attitude toward business was all wrong. I heard the call to ministry while in high school and went to college to study for “the Ministry.” Somehow I picked up this attitude that I had “the calling” and other people didn’t and were studying for “secular” work.
I got into my head that I was above them. I now see that was so wrong, but I was young and had some growing to do. It was arrogance and I didn’t see it.
One evening I was listening to a TV program about Bibles being given to a crowd of people who had been deprived of them by Communists. My heart went out to them. I had nothing to give, so I prayed to be able to help.
I got up and went to get a snack, and while washing my hands I had an idea for an invention. I had never had an idea how to make money before. I turned my head, and another idea. And another. And another! Everything in that kitchen I saw immediately came with an idea to improve it. I started toward the other room and other ideas came. I *RAN* down the hall with ideas flooding my head.
I wrote down invention after invention, page after page as furiously as I could write, ideas streaming so fast I could not keep up with them. After about two hours I finally told the Lord “Stop! stop! stop!” My hand was losing feeling.
I wondered what in the world was that about. I had forgotten the prayer I had prayed (duh!). I went to tell my parents what happened, and just as I walked in the room a news story came on the TV. The newscaster said “Do you have an idea for an invention? The...” and it went on to talk about some story about inventing. I went HUH???
I went back in the other room and sat down, totally bewildered. Something had just happened, I didn’t know what. I said, “Lord, what just happened?” And then there was this presence, or a feeling — I can’t describe it — like being covered in something, starting at the tip of my head and coming down all over me. I heard the Lord speak in my head clearer than I ever had, or have since to this day. He told me something that He would do in my life, for the cause of His message.
I cannot repeat what He said, it’s too personal. But it shook me to the core. All I could say is “Yes, Lord.” It was a God encounter. I have never felt Him like that, never heard Him so clear.
That was 20 years ago now. It has been 20 years of struggle, but it’s all been leading up to now.
I had to be broken. I was blind! There is so much arrogance in ministry, and pastors cannot see it. There are the “called” and the “laypeople” and a dividing line between them. Second-class citizens of the Kingdom, whose main function is to pay the bills.
I now see business as a calling. And church was never meant to be a profession! There is a calling of holding up others and training them to take over for you. It does not raise you above them! And the best thing you can do as an example to those you lead is to do what Paul did and make tents, or whatever skill you have.
Sorry, didn’t mean to go on so long. I am VERY passionate about this. The “lay” people must be freed to be who they are called and gifted to be, not bill-paying pew-sitters.
I will be starting a Christian PDF magazine in the next few months (yet another business) that will be covering this and other church renewal topics.
If anyone reading this prays, I could use your prayers right now. Thank you, and bless you!
That is a beautiful testimony FRiend ! Thank you very much for sharing. I will pray for your journey.
Business is a calling, very much so. Mr RB and I run a small business, and employees don’t realize it, but they come first in any business. They must be paid, even if the owners recieve nothing. Too often they are like children in their expectations and understanding, and must be gently shown the truth of things. All this while taking enormous risks, and being villified by the government and society leaders.
It’s way harder than it looks , and after 14 years, I can say that you cannot do it without God at your side. He has taken us on a journey of faith, and taught us things that could never have been learned any other way.
Prayers to you in your new venture and thank you again for sharing your testimony.
Many of the situations covered in this thread are, or used to be, opportunities for entrepreneurs, who would, by entering the market with superior goods, force the big boys to stop cutting corners on quality.
Why isn't this happening now as it used to in the past? Because the system is now rigged to shut the little guys out. Just try starting an independent pizza business, for ex., and feel the "love" when you run head-on into the wall of federal regulations covering every part of the business.
The big boys aren't bothered by these, because 1) they have corporate departments whose job is to keep them in compliance, and 2) they are in an incestuous relationship with the enforcing agencies through the exchange of employees, as well as payoffs, etc.
Just imagine a country like America used to be, a place where you could see an opportunity and just jump in and seize it without federal meddling. (Why exactly should private citizens have anything to do with the federal government anyway?) Compare that to the thing that calls itself "America" today, and you'll see why the prices rise while the quality tanks.
Restore liberty NOW!!
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