Are you ready? I think this is gonna be a rough couple years.

[rice paddy daddy]

I took a run into the town on the Georgia side of the line. The population of the whole county is about 9,000.
The Dollar General was closed down, this is the sign on the door.
Bring manufacturing back to America? Who’s going to do the work?

 

[Snowman]

Cleaner than most I see Opened...!!!

 

[Acdoctor]

America First...!!!

I run a small heating and air company, I’m constantly getting call from other state supply companies. They all get pissy but I tell them if I can buy it in my home town I do , if not in my county or state. I keep it local if at all possible, I will pay more for products made in the USA, I look at it this way if you can afford a 2+ million dollar lake house to live in three to six months out of the year then you can buy quality parts and equipment.
I’m pretty much that way with all things I buy. USA first.

 

[Amish Heart]

View attachment 172891
I took a run into the town on the Georgia side of the line. The population of the whole county is about 9,000.
The Dollar General was closed down, this is the sign on the door.
Bring manufacturing back to America? Who’s going to do the work?

Ugh I hate signs with words spelled incorrectly.
I saw this alot during covid at the Dollar Tree and Dollar General

 

[Mountain trapper]

I run a small heating and air company, I’m constantly getting call from other state supply companies. They all get pissy but I tell them if I can buy it in my home town I do , if not in my county or state. I keep it local if at all possible, I will pay more for products made in the USA, I look at it this way if you can afford a 2+ million dollar lake house to live in three to six months out of the year then you can buy quality parts and equipment.
I’m pretty much that way with all things I buy. USA first.

Before I retired I was in charge of over 10,000 pieces of equipment. I made a policy of buying only American made parts, unless I approved it first.

 

[Magus]

i hired one guy who went to lunch on his first day and never came back. LOL

I fired one out the door because he was pretending he couldn't understand English and using it as an excuse to freeload.

 

[Amish Heart]

I had that happen a few times when we had the school. Would hire an assistant teacher, and they'd disappear after the first day. One disappeared on her first day during her break. It would always make us laugh after the initial shock.

 

[RJ2019]

Ugh I hate signs with words spelled incorrectly.
I saw this alot during covid at the Dollar Tree and Dollar General

That's as much education as they can afford for the wages they're paying.

 

[Hardcalibres]

Today has been another lesson in unpredictability.

It has been suggested that the US send troops to Gaza to sort out that mess.

Even Netanyahu was struggling to know what to say about the idea.

I challenge people to even make this stuff up.

Of all the places in the world, Gaza takes a special kind of crazy for someone to voluntarily take that on.

 

[sonya123]

All the Americans that want jobs already have them.
There are plenty of Central Americans that want jobs, but Trump is busy rounding them up.

what the US SHOULD do IF ( doubt it) they need the additional labor from Central Americans is what Germany did after WW2 , hire 'guest workers' at a lower wage, no benefits , and no permanent rights, and limit the amount of time they work here and send them back home. If you want to come, you apply, have your background checked to make sure you are not a criminal and then you can come. What's wrong with that?

 

[SLADE]

a special kind of crazy

That's what we have at the moment.

 

[SLADE]

what the US SHOULD do IF ( doubt it) they need the additional labor from Central Americans is what Germany did after WW2 , hire 'guest workers' at a lower wage, no benefits , and no permanent rights, and limit the amount of time they work here and send them back home. If you want to come, you apply, have your background checked to make sure you are not a criminal and then you can come. What's wrong with that?

Borders on Slavery.

 

[Magus]

I had that happen a few times when we had the school. Would hire an assistant teacher, and they'd disappear after the first day. One disappeared on her first day during her break. It would always make us laugh after the initial shock.

I'm up for it if I can bring my bullwhip and cattle prod.

 

[Amish Heart]

I'm up for it if I can bring my bullwhip and cattle prod.

Ha Ha Nope.

 

[Magus]

Today has been another lesson in unpredictability.

It has been suggested that the US send troops to Gaza to sort out that mess.

Even Netanyahu was struggling to know what to say about the idea.

I challenge people to even make this stuff up.

Of all the places in the world, Gaza takes a special kind of crazy for someone to voluntarily take that on.

Well, first of all, we level it to the ground, we'll do that when we send Buff and Puff over to send those nice young Moslems to their virgins. build a bunch of McMansions for the goats to live in and hand out God bless America shirts and MAGA hats and put them all to work in the casinos and Walmarts.

 

[old tex]

Two phrases that I see constantly thrown around in this country that I hate are: Living Wage & Slavery. We have programs to help people with physical & mental impairments. We also have programs to help people that are temporarily out of work. Those that don't fall into those categories should be able to find jobs & be paid IN LINE WITH THEIR SKILLS. Low skills means low pay & a required side hustle of some type to earn extra money. It does not mean that you should get paid more. I did side hustles for YEARS because of low pay & a family to feed. As far as slavery, DUH? It's illegal here & if you're not being paid enough for your talents, go somewhere else.

My last comment because I think it applies to a heck of a lot of people in this country. You deserve what you can afford & you deserve the consequences if you spend more than you can afford. Buy a $40,000 car & have a $500 cell phone & make $30,000 a year, you deserve what's going to happen.

I know, I know sometimes bad things happen to good responsible people. But by far those I've seen in trouble are in trouble because they screwed up. Society now makes it so easy for people to blame others, circumstances or the government for their problems. And they do all the time & because of that they never learn that they are at fault.

 

[Tootsie]

what the US SHOULD do IF ( doubt it) they need the additional labor from Central Americans is what Germany did after WW2 , hire 'guest workers' at a lower wage, no benefits , and no permanent rights, and limit the amount of time they work here and send them back home. If you want to come, you apply, have your background checked to make sure you are not a criminal and then you can come. What's wrong with that?

That worked for many years for summer help. The same people and sometimes families would come for the summer season. Great for college students to come, make some money, and see a different culture.

 

[Cisco85]

I don't know, I'm a bit concerned about taking over Gaza. However I'm thoroughly happy about Doge. The left is freaking out, shouting BS, and askeered because we're turning off the spigot. I remember many many years ago hearing a piece about gov waste such as paying for a study on the various flows of ketchup...ridiculous. Yet the funneling of money continues.
After seeing the protests with illegals going on I expect to see it not ending well but deportation has to continue. I used to live in ATL and there was a massive number of illegals living there.
Now we supposedly have the Camp Hill virus, kind of expected something to come along hoping to disrupt DJT. And to me the piece seemed to say that it arrived here via the illegals.
I'm expecting things to possibly be a bit bumpy while the bad guys try to stop anything and everything from happening or coming out. For me, I'll take the rough ride to end the BS.

 

[Snowman]

Ugh I hate signs with words spelled incorrectly.
I saw this alot during covid at the Dollar Tree and Dollar General

That's as much education as they can afford for the wages they're paying.

 

[sonya123]

Borders on Slavery.

nobody is forcing them to come here and do it, just like now , nobody is forcing anyone to come here
and for the decendents of the actual slaves in the US, if they keep complaining and wanting free crap because of something none of us had anything to do with, they can offer them a free ticket back to where their ancestors came from too!

 

[sonya123]

Ugh I hate signs with words spelled incorrectly.
I saw this alot during covid at the Dollar Tree and Dollar General

sorry, you must really hate my posts....I honestly don't care about spelling unless it's some business letter or something, and then I do a spell check LOL

 

[Spikedriver]

View attachment 172918

You've gotta be kidding. An assistant manager at a Dollar General pays the same, or barely more, than a fry cook at McDonald's? No wonder DG stores are always a train wreck. Better pay attracts better people, within reason. In 'N' Out employees are almost always smiling and hustling at work, while McDonald's employees do the bare minimum and look like they have a turd crossways, all day long. The difference is that In 'N' Out pays their people 3 to 4 dollars an hour more. They get the ones that McDonalds couldn't keep. I understand DG not paying cashiers much, but the asst manager is responsible for money and operations of the store. That kind of cheap stupidity almost makes me want to boycott DG...

 

[SLADE]

nobody is forcing them to come here and do it, just like now , nobody is forcing anyone to come here
and for the decendents of the actual slaves in the US, if they keep complaining and wanting free crap because of something none of us had anything to do with, they can offer them a free ticket back to where their ancestors came from too!

It's worse than I thought.

 

[Sourdough]

I doubt very many pay close attention to the building ugliness in pushback this week.


But you will.

I can see the faint chance of hell coming, soon.

 

[montanabill]

Borders on Slavery.

In 1970 when I was stationed in germany they had turkish workers in country and even on the army base... They supplied drugs to the base.....lots of drugs.

 

[montanabill]

You've gotta be kidding. An assistant manager at a Dollar General pays the same, or barely more, than a fry cook at McDonald's? No wonder DG stores are always a train wreck. Better pay attracts better people, within reason. In 'N' Out employees are almost always smiling and hustling at work, while McDonald's employees do the bare minimum and look like they have a turd crossways, all day long. The difference is that In 'N' Out pays their people 3 to 4 dollars an hour more. They get the ones that McDonalds couldn't keep. I understand DG not paying cashiers much, but the asst manager is responsible for money and operations of the store. That kind of cheap stupidity almost makes me want to boycott DG...

Our local DG has had to close occasionally due to lack of workers....they pay less than anybody almost and here they want a background check that takes a month.... The assistant managers end up being harassed desperate people....someone I know bought stock in them in 2019 and made a bunch of money...

 

[SLADE]

In 1970 when I was stationed in germany they had turkish workers in country and even on the army base... They supplied drugs to the base.....lots of drugs.

Were you buying?

 

[Spikedriver]

Our local DG has had to close occasionally due to lack of workers....they pay less than anybody almost and here they want a background check that takes a month.... The assistant managers end up being harassed desperate people....someone I know bought stock in them in 2019 and made a bunch of money...

GF bought their stock a little while back. It went on a skid immediately after and lost half its value. She dumped it a month or so ago. She said it's the worst loss she ever took on a stock...

 

[joel]

I bought a set of Pittsburgh Tools at Harbor Freight and the label on the back says "Made in China"...!!!

All those tools are made in China for the last twenty years.
As well as many chainsaw & other tools, all Cell phone, also.

 

[Hooch]

rambling ahead....you been warned

Past few weeks i been watching a building project..actually a remodel project.Theres a church not been in use for a very long time,not sure if it sold long ago or recently as its just sat for years.Its an odd shaped place sitting on about an acre with a small building on its side...its all cinder block...its now being turned into small little apartments type living places...each has a little porch and single door entry...so far i can count 7 entries counting the little building but i think thers a few more on back side i can see to count.They are small...very small.....i cant wait to see it finished and cost to rent these and who rents them...we have a housing crisis all over this country.

we might see rise in prices to build if tariffs block or raise lumber from canada and other places...we got plenty of lumber...but it take a bit to fire things back up...local mills been shutting down in various areas. @Hooch can talk about that some...plus what i posted in past about it.we can have industrial forests and natural protected forest too...and not destroy the very planet we live on.

From what I have seen..
Lumber futures projected to be in the 5 to 600 per thousand board feet..that is about average ish..but operation costs are not. The coast of everything, supply disruptions, finding people who are willing to stick it out n work are big hurtles anymore. Then like you mentioned about the housing crisis..lack of affordable housing makes finding willing workers more difficult. Mills aren't exactly located in areas with a abundance of places to rent and remote locations are more expensive to live in generally. If mills can't produce due to high operation costs, lack of workers or ability to fix machines via getting replacement parts in a reasonable time and not costing exorabnt amounts $$ to do so..first it's penny pinching..like now at this mill..we are on a fairly strict no unauthorized OT. , layoffs happened for a few..next steps might be one shift..who knows.
The other component is getting lumber. Private land regulations for lumber isn't as strict about what trees can be cut mostly..however out here the lumber we get is strictly regulated by the forest service.
While there is arguments to ponder about who n how forests are managed..there can be a balance found in having productive forest to harvest lumber , be utilized for grazing and harvesting of other products while not completely destroying the ecology in the process. Humans and forest creatures can benefit from responsible, thoughtful stewardship and more sensitive ecological areas can be maintained for preservation.
I've been on both sides of this fence of being a steward towards maintaining more sensitive areas for preservation, to Sawyer projects to cut down run away invasive species in other areas, firefighting alittle and massive tree planting n restoration projects onto recent harvested logging lands to now mill work...
It can work..it's not always perfect but as we evolve tech and better understanding of forest health..we can enjoy decades of beautiful healthy forests, streams n rivers . In my opinion..