QuotePeople just don't want to admit it and would prefer to think your level of wealth is reflective of your moral character.

They easily justify their excess.  It begins with imagining that, and being told that, things are fair.  There were excesses in the past doncha-know, but we are civilized now.


Who wants to look at the man in the mirror.  That is a challenge few choose to take.  Delusions are comfortable.  We are all special flowers.

Quote from: RE on Mar 15, 2025, 06:39 PMYou must have forgot to take your Alzheimer's meds.

QuoteThat would be my mother, not me.

Quote from: REEvery time you talk about my fictional silver spoon you regale us with your poverty filled childhood.

So let me get this right...you paid for passage or airline flights, and then hotels/hostels and food while traipsing to Europe, Brazil, Australia, from your paper route and doing everything you could with odd jobs where all the money was going to helping your mother make it in the Big Shitty? 

That is beyond frugality it seems like, more like childhood saint.

Quote from: K-Dog on Mar 15, 2025, 07:52 PMAnd my silver spoon means I can pay for my coffee and croissant on the way to work in only twenty minutes after I get there.  But that does not stop him from bringing up the expensive carz he alleges I have.

I don't recall claiming they were expensive, but I did imply along the way that to folks of our advancing years, the Mercedes you say you buy for household members were once status symbols, meant to imply wealth and success to those who need to advertise their...socio-economic status.

What's funny is nowadays German taxicabs aren't the hot cool thing, Lexus bumped them out of that catgory some time ago, and it's just us old farts who remember the Benz as status symbols days.

Your mentioning of your cars, and a pic! I sure didn't make it up.

Quote from: K-DogI still have the car and it is actually reliable.  Cruising around Washington State in it is fine.  There are thousands of Mercedes here.  Montana is a different story.  If something goes wrong with it in the middle of nowhere you are screwed.  At the time there was only one Mercedes dealership in Montana and it turned out to be the end of a strip mall with one car on display and something about as big as a Jiffy Lube to work on customer cars.  It would have taken weeks to get it fixed in Montana before I could get it home.

This one is a 2008 mine is a 2007.  Mrs. Dog has a 2008.  They are both black.

Sorry the pic didn't carry over. But it was a Benz. But I never claimed old cars were expensive, even old Benz, and it makes sense considering the luck you've had trying to cross country with them.

I recommend 'MURIKAN!!! Plus it has a tow hitch, and doesn't break down between either the Atlantic or Pacific. Yet anyway.

Quote from: RE on Mar 16, 2025, 02:12 AMMy general rule is that whatever the median income is, you need to make about double that to join the Investor Class.
RE

Does that rule apply even in the modern 401k world? I mean, I know it doesn't apply universally but we aren't allowed to talk about...you know....IRL experience or family....but what the ODDS your rule applies within the context of modern 401k rules? 95/5? 50/50?

Quote from: TDoS on Mar 18, 2025, 07:50 PMwhat the ODDS your rule applies within the context of modern 401k rules? 95/5? 50/50?

I have no idea what the odds are of having a 401K if your salary is $30/hr.  However, these are passive investment strategies which generally yield around 6-7% in a "balanced" portfolio.  How much you can actually accumulate over your working years depends very much on the vicissitudes of life, when emergencies come up people dip into the 401K.  If you're fortunate, you'll finish with a couple $1000/mo supplement to your SS check and have a more comfortable than average retirement.  It's not a substitute for SS, it's a supplement.

RE

QuoteMy general rule is that whatever the median income is, you need to make about double that to join the Investor Class.
RE

DOGE staffers are making bank as they wage war on the federal government, often from the same agencies they're cutting.

Jeremy Lewin, a DOGE staffer assigned to the General Services Administration who helped lead attacks on the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the National Institutes of Health, is pulling in $167,000 per year.  Kyle Schutt, a software engineer at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, is making a salary of $195,200, the maximum annual salary that a "General Schedule" federal employee can make, including bonuses. And Nate Cavanaugh, 28, whose work for DOGE comprises interviewing GSA employees, makes over $120,500 per year. That's close to what the average GSA employee, who typically has been with the agency for 13 years, earns per year at $128,565.

X = ($167,000 + $195,200 + $120,500 + $128,565.) / 4
X = $152,816

The median annual salary for U.S. workers in 2023 was approximately $48,060.

Y = $152.816 / $48.060
Y = 3.17

These DOGE staffers are making 3.17 times the U.S. median salary.  Musk is helping America invest!

Why these dudes still suck air I do not understand.

Quote from: Goldernen Oxernen on Mar 18, 2025, 08:00 PMDidn't you have a Volt or Bolt?

A Nissan Leaf currently. And prior to that a gas/electric Ford. Sold that one last year after 180k miles.

I love my Lincoln. Had it about 3 years now, salvage title bought out of a police auction not running, leaking radiator, needed brakes, oil and radiator fluid in the spark plug holes, blown out rear air suspension, police tape everywhere including holding the doors closed (prior owner was carjacked and it sat in impound for a year waiting for the trial). Wife demanded I give it back the day I brought it home.

1000 mile day destruction testing early required a new intake manifold leading to an air leak into the intake system leaning out the mixture  (old one was plastic, and destruction testing did its job) and blew out the front left bank cat while 700 miles from home. Drove it home...it ain't a digital car that shuts you down when your tire pressures are low. So total cost of repairs to get it into current globe trotting condition was about $2500, $1500 for the new cats and $1000 for the intake manifold. Wife demanded I not fix it, and give the money to support local homeless shelters instead.

Stone axe reliable, more than I remember now 1000 mile days at 80 mph at 24 mpg, secondary road driving at 50-60 is 28 mpg, uses a qt of oil every 1500-2000 miles, 45k miles on it in 3 years, North American capable with nothing more than an oil change, and ready to tow 2 wheelers to the mountains at an instants notice.  Designed and built back in the day when MURIKA! meant something. Good ol' fashion analog car for an old fart analog guy.  Wife hates it anyway and demanded I sell it, for fear it would make neighbors think poorly of us, for bringing down property values having such a POS parked outside.

Oh....and the Level 2 charger gets installed in the garage on Friday for the Leaf. Wife has decided she is tired of trickle charging it, wants it full of electrons, wants it now. We both love the EV, and with the new charger install we get electricity for it at $0.03/ kwH between 9PM and 6AM.  $0.72/full tank of electrons, 70 useable miles of range.  4/100's of a PENNY per mile of driving.  Try that in a dinosaur juice powered ICE machine.

The wife has given up. She has decided to tell the neighbors I collect classic cars in the hopes they are fooled, and just apologizes for the POS's in our driveway.

Quote from: K-Dog on Mar 19, 2025, 04:38 AMThe median annual salary for U.S. workers in 2023 was approximately $48,060.

$61,984 according to Bureau of Labor Statistics, Jan 22, 2025 release here.

Still, do we have any correction factor for the median education or experience level in the US compared to the median DOGE folks?

How much more does the market value a PhD in data analytics with 2 years experience versus a carpenter with 20?

I don't have a clue on that economically perceived "value" difference. 

Median weekly income for wage earners in 2024 was between $1100-1300 for 2024 according to that report, depending if you were male or female.  So annually, it's more like $53K.

RE

QuoteHow much more does the market value a PhD in data analytics with 2 years experience versus a carpenter with 20?

Who gives two fucks what a PhD in data analytics with 2 years experience is worth?  That has nothing to do with anything here.  Nobody on the DOGE team has those qualifications, so what is your point?

You imply the DOGE team is earning it's money by claiming their bank robbery has socially necessary value?  What other point could you have.

If you are justifying DOGE, kindly put yourself in the cooler so RE and I do not have to.  Give yourself three days for being a pointless contrarian.

This is not a situation where socially necessary labor has any relevance at all.


* Median net compensation in 2023 was $43,222.81 K Average net compensation was $63,932.64 K.  Source

For someone who claims expertise in stochastics you should have known better.   I assume you did.

Quote from: Goldernen Oxernen on Mar 19, 2025, 04:23 PM

Quote from: K-Dog on Mar 19, 2025, 03:01 PMYou imply the DOGE team is earning it's money by claiming their bank robbery has socially necessary value?

After Nixon's Watergate and Clinton's Monicagate, I might call Trump's scandal Elongate.

This is in a different class than cum on the carpet or breaking into a building.  This is treason.  Watergate did not cause social collapse, and Monicagate did not make millions unemployed, and then trigger a recession as the cherry topped whipped cream of a pie slice of shit.

Spinning what is going on now by comparing to with what Nixon or Clinton did makes it seem like what is going on now is of no great consequence.  This is something a propagandist might do deliberately, or an average guy might do until it is pointed out to them, and they see the error of their ways.

Do you really see destroying government agencies without authority, and placing millions of people on the unemployment line to be the same as a blow job in a sacred room.

Seriously?

Watergate and Monicagate caused nothing like this.


Mental illness is at work, no argument there!

Quote from: K-Dog on Mar 19, 2025, 03:01 PM

QuoteHow much more does the market value a PhD in data analytics with 2 years experience versus a carpenter with 20?

Who gives two fucks what a PhD in data analytics with 2 years experience is worth? 

It is a thought experiment. In a world where someone can uphold the value of a working man, isn't it resonable to ask who MIGHT be such a creature? Level of education and lack of experience with lack of advanced education and decades of experience? 

I'm not sure I know the answer myself, but the MARKET certainly gives two fucks, even if you don't. It is just a curiouity to me, the entire "working man ethos" and whether or not it can apply to both of these folks?

Quote from: K-DogThat has nothing to do with anything here.  Nobody on the DOGE team has those qualifications, so what is your point?

Generally speaking, the DOGE goons looked to be technical oriented types, versus the standard run of the mill "working man".....unless of course a working man CAN be a PhD in data analytics with minor experience versus a more traditionally defined "working man", in the sense of Aaron Tippin's song.

Quote from: K-DogYou imply the DOGE team is earning it's money by claiming their bank robbery has socially necessary value?  What other point could you have.

I didn't use the word "DOGE". The topic simply generated a thought experiment as to what IS working man? I picked a specific NON-DOGE example, setting it up as just a high education level with minor experience, versus someone more a high school education but decades of tradecraft experience.

No DOGE involvement anywhere.

Quote from: K-DogFor someone who claims expertise in stochastics you should have known better.

I provided my reference to the median wages and I'll stick with it. Not sure the ability to link to current wage informtion on current median wages has anything to do with stochastic modeling though.

Quote from: RE on Mar 19, 2025, 09:10 AMMedian weekly income for wage earners in 2024 was between $1100-1300 for 2024 according to that report, depending if you were male or female.  So annually, it's more like $53K.

RE

My link, dated January 22-2025, in the first sentence, said $1192 a week. X 52 equalled $61,984. Did a miss a different more nuanced number deeper in the reference that had a lower number?

Quote from: TDoS on Mar 19, 2025, 05:33 PM

Quote from: RE on Mar 19, 2025, 09:10 AMMedian weekly income for wage earners in 2024 was between $1100-1300 for 2024 according to that report, depending if you were male or female.  So annually, it's more like $53K.

RE

My link, dated January 22-2025, in the first sentence, said $1192 a week. X 52 equalled $61,984. Did a miss a different more nuanced number deeper in the reference that had a lower number?

You can stick with it after you admit you switched in data for 2024 and the subject is 2023 data.  My 2023 data is still there.  2023 data. 

Quote from: Goldernen Oxernen on Mar 19, 2025, 05:00 PM

Quote from: TDoS on Mar 19, 2025, 07:25 AMThe wife has given up. She has decided to tell the neighbors I collect classic cars in the hopes they are fooled, and just apologizes for the POS's in our driveway.

Nice project, nothing quite like a luxobarge and my 77 Chrysler will see the road again. Mitsubishi 4x4 pickup is now a high mile hero on 460k km and when it gets to half million I will put it aside but keep it registered.

I had an old boss, owner of the company, he drove one of those regular cab 2X4 Mitsubushi pickups until the body dissolved and he couldn't find little parts like alternators and stuff. Indestuctible. My mom bought a Dodge Colt (a renamed Mitsubushi) back in the 70's somewhere. She did the same thing with it, when done it sat in the backyard and rusted. After 5 years in the yard she sold it to a guy who wanted the motor and tranny, dropped it into a handbuilt oversized go-cart chassis and drove it for another decade like an off road dune buggy thing. Indestructible.

Quote from: Goldernen OxernenI said way back when I bought it the next new car i get will be Electric. Cant justify an EV conversion on a 69 Datsun coupe I have as primary transport, because of crash safety for family and no real cargo space.  BYD Seal with 580km range for about 45k look good

The wife is demanding a new electric once the anti-EV maga movement causes auto manufacturers to want to offload them for a song while they can. Friday the new Level 2 charger goes in, dedicated circuit of 220V and 50AMP wiring, probably can't get 12 kWh rates but current car can't take plus 6 anyway. Who cares, $0.03/kwh....let ICE owners allow liquid fuels to steal all their lunch money....