[joec]

It’s too bad the tax credits are non-refundable. For people who are not as high income, the benefits are not worth as much as for higher income folks…

For people with say some assets to do solar, but limited income, that’d help balance the tax break which currently primarily benefits the wealthy.

(as does EV vehicles in general as pooa people rent apartments and can’t plug in cars).

[joec]

[quote=sdsurfer]I’d say I’m proud that my family and I own a house rather than rent, but what type of house and how large it is a bunch of bs. The aspect that when we had a 2nd kid everyone around us just sort of assumed that we’d either sell it and buy a larger one or remodel to accommodate another 7 lb 20 inch long person really blew me away.

I think I’d add that Car Proud is BS too in my opinion. I noticed a few people salivating over an Aston Martin in the parking lot the other day and felt sorry for them. In my opinion, everyone should get a valet job at a nice restaurant/hotel like I did when they are younger to get the chance to drive a few fancy cars and realize for themselves that they start, move and turn pretty much the same. Some might look good or go fast, but they all do the same thing as far as getting one from point a to point b a bit quicker than walking or running.[/quote]

Agree on the house thing, but would comment that this thought is true for pretty much EVERYTHING you aren’t interested in as people would find most EVERYTHING you are interested in a waste of money also.

Jewelry, perfume, clothes, looks, house, some travel locations, etc…after a certain point, I can care less too…(married with children mentality/thinking…)

As for the car, I used to think like you too and used to drive a plain Toyota commuter…(People used to joke to me that what I drove showed that I was cheap…no car changes in 10+ years), but when you have really taken various faster/nicer cars on a real race track and have done slalom (auto-x) driving or multiple track events, taking cars fast to their limits on an auto-x can be as exciting as s*x or whatever you find insanely awesome and is totally fun (other car enthusiast can chime in here). Different tires, more worn tire treads, even small things can totally make a difference in racing, not to mention racing in the rain and sliding all over :).

I supposed ignorance is bliss here as can probably be said for most things we “aren’t” interested in.

At the end, if you can afford the car, no need to worry what people think since you can afford the car, the home, the kids, the trips, whatever…or just prioritize with what you like.

I’m pretty happy just driving my beater currently.

[joec]

There is a lot of hate with HOA’s, but if you aren’t really into doing stuff to your house, sometimes the HOA is the best thing. No cars lifted up on jacks in the street, no cars parked on the front lawn, god awful ugly color houses, etc etc etc…

In southern CA, in most places, I doubt mixed races will get much of a second look here. Of course, parents may say or have thoughts about it, but I doubt random people in the area here care much since it’s everywhere.

Being Asian, I notice for some reason tons of Asian guys/white wives…Not sure why there though.

[joec]

[quote=no_such_reality]
But really, I’m like the other already pointing out, really laughing at your reaction when the big government dictation you always pander for gets directed your way.[/quote]

Gotta agree here. I forget what work/job you do FiH, but in the end, I think everyone is just looking out for their own wallet/skin/life…

Immigration probably isn’t a negative in your life/whatever you do and would probably be a positive for rentals (more demand) so your views probably tilt towards that direction. It’s not really about the issues of what is better/worst for the overall environment/society, but ultimately, what makes it better for us and our family financially.

Just the type of world we live in I think…

[joec]

Both these articles I think really just deal with the root cause of the problem (similar to politics and adults) which is kids today are terrified as to what kind of job they will get if they don’t ace everything.

Bottom line is, as I’ve mentioned, there is an oversupply of labor and good/decent jobs are much harder to find. Yes, unemployment is lower now than 7-8 years ago, but a lot of the jobs people working in now aren’t as well paying or as good. There are so many articles detailing that. A no benefit part-time gig with Uber is not an old 90s job with full benefits.

I know of kids in high school who are at that breaking point and having mental and health issues because the classes are getting too hard and they aren’t able to deal with it.

Parents just want to get them help to fix the problem or find a Band-Aid from the teachers by giving them a pass, but at the end of the day, if you give one kid a pass, how is that fair to everyone else or the kid? It leads to more kids like this expecting that Band-Aid or pass because so and so got a “B”. A while back, so many people flunked engr classes that getting a B was probably top 25% for sure…

In my day (over 20 years ago), getting a few bad grads didn’t mean you couldn’t get work, but as college is now like a high school degree, you’re simply competing with all those other grads as well as probably an equal amount of foreign grads too. Not to mention the cost has gone up by 10x I think from when I went and you also need grad school. Lose the whole resort type of campus I feel…

On the money side, what I feel needs to be done isn’t a stock market crash to bring asset equality to everyone, but some safety net issues and people deciding if it’s ok again to pay more for stuff compared to outsourcing everything to get the lowest priced goods.

Every industry nowadays is a race to the bottom and outside of a few areas, nearly all businesses are being strained I think.

It’s not a surprise that if you can make a widget in the US for $20, but in Mexico, it will cost $1.50, companies will do it and people who used to make $20 are going to be screwed. In a global economy, this is a race to the bottom and once you are left behind (this is happening in China now), people will start killing themselves if they get too desperate and depressed.

Some things that should probably be done is eliminate the number 1 reason for bankruptcy, healthcare cost. Go single payer, decrease benefits for all (like low success operations), limit procedures if they won’t make a life last much longer, etc…I don’t know if that will fly in America, but keep all the basic needs and just cut out leading tech or very expensive stuff.

For the very rich, they can “pay” to get it done. Poor people will just die, but again, in these cases, the chance to survive is extremely low anyways. It’s sorta like rich people cut in line anyways for organ donors too.

A lot of healthcare places will probably be hurt, but I think the whole middle man that Blue Cross/Blue Shield is, is a scam anyways and those should just dissolve. Work directly with hospitals (very hard), but see how every other country does it and still have lower mortality rates than the US. Give more pay for prevention vs procedures and don’t rush to do stuff that we do now. Prevent frivolous lawsuits so Doctors won’t feel like they have to order 20 tests, etc…

Eliminate taxes completely under a certain income limit…I think Trump supports this, but his plan has more benefits for the rich actually so you need to also keep taxing social security, and the financial tax in the UK has been working pretty well I’ve read. Change long term stock gains to be much higher so you don’t have people like Buffett paying less than the simple middle class guy.

As someone who has made good money and very bad money, poor people don’t save because they really don’t have enough to save…It’s just not a mindset or problem when you are paycheck to paycheck.

Try to discourage young girls from having kids. Kids are a life changer and having kids young is very very bad. Encourage birth control (pill/patch whatever (since kids will always have sex…) No chance for kids will give these kids a higher chance for a better future.

Probably nothing is possible in our government and division and special interests, and we’ll just grind it worst and worst till it pops.

[joec]

In CA, I think United Healthcare has the smallest share of customers out of all the exchange insurance companies…

If they left, maybe they lose 1% of customers? It could also be a cost cutting move since they aren’t really playing in the state anyways…

That said, I think Blue Shield made the most in 2014 from a latimes article I read…so some companies were able to make money, of course, Blue Shield and Blue Cross/Anthem are bad IMO.

[joec]

[quote=flu]

I’m curious. Who uses more welfare benefits, like free hospital care…. Illegal aliens or people who live in the south who are U.S. citizens? I have my hunches, but anyone have a convenient fact table? Sorry, unless one’s paying his/her fair share of taxes and not milking some public benefit, he/she really shouldn’t be complaining.

I think in this country, we just have a competition from people who feel like they shouldn’t pay for something…And when there are other people of different kindsd encroaching on their free ride, they complain.

I believe in absolutes. If you want to talk about removing welfare for everybody, ok that makes more sense than targeting select groups on who to help.

As someone eloquently put it, I’m sure we’re paying for someone’s welfare in Mississippi[/quote]

There is no doubt there are more us citizens getting welfare than illegals. The difference is when should we, as a country start giving free college, free medical care, free everything to illegals over someone who is legitimately here. Maybe I just see the people here as the uncle dave that everyone knows is a loser, but at least he’s our uncle dave and we’re sorta stuck with him. The illegals are a new thing and promoting instant citizenship, free school, medical care, etc…costs money which we all are paying for.

I suppose I disagree with you because, say if you were a veteran or someone who grew up here, working, paying ss, medicare, etc…are a citizen…I think it’s probably a social need for everyone to get basic healthcare. Like I have said, until we start deciding to just let people die in the streets, healthcare is a pretty basic need. No one is going to get rich from getting basic medical care.

That said, there are plenty of reports of veterans having a hard time finding work, homeless, no healthcare, etc…willing to rob banks to get locked up so he can afford meds, etc…

As the pie and services aren’t infinite, supporting people who shouldn’t have a general right to get these services puts a strain on all our resources so you have to make a judgement call as to what type of services you offer.

Your view and attitude just seems like someone who is a bit tone deaf like a lot of silicon valley types I see on TV or a lot of types seem to comment on now.

Yes, you’ve worked very hard and deserve all your work and financial success, but me having worked hard in the past as well and also having worked in “regular” jobs (not tech) making far far less money, it’s really different when you are working in other industries or careers.

Again, it’s not your fault and I’m not saying I’m all knowing, but your comments just comes off to me as someone who feels people born poor or down on their luck and can’t ahead is just their problem and they are no better than people here illegally.

It’s just I think I honestly used to think exactly like you, but having experienced what I have now (again, through my own choices so I don’t blame anyone), I have a bit more sympathy and understanding for why the Trump supporters and people think that they do.

Again, I don’t support Trump at all, but even with something as simple as unemployment, I never felt this was even needed until I got laid off myself…and was glad it was there.

[joec]

[quote=bearishgurl]joec, for the record, PLENTY of Asian families reside in SD South County (and to a lesser extent, East County). Tens of thousands (perhaps close to 100K). I’ve heard MANY comments on this board on how Piggs don’t want their own kids going to school with hundreds of kids crossing the border every day. Nor would they be happy about having their kids in classes filled with ESL students (elem school). I believe these are the primary reasons for Piggs not wanting to purchase a home in South County, even though many of the listings around here are large SFRs with often much larger lots than their “target areas” and listed for $200-$600K LESS and a good portion of South County’s public schools are rated very highly. Although, distance to high-tech jobs is listed as another reason for discounting South County as a viable place to live, it isn’t that far to those job centers from many points in East County.[/quote]

Maybe that’s true, but having lived in those areas of SD before buying, all I remember is what I saw.

EVERY SINGLE TIME (seriously) when I ate at Denny’s, it was pretty much 100% Mexican/Hispanic. If there were Asians living, out in east and south county there, they certainly never go to Denny’s or any other restaurants I ever visited.

Again, not statistical data, but good enough for me if everyone I see walking around is of a particular race.

[joec]

[quote=flyer]What is going on politically doesn’t really surprise me, when you realize 75% of the financial wealth in this country is held by the top 10 percent of households, with the bottom 25% divided among the remaining 90 percent.

It has been stated that we would have to go back to the Gilded Age to see this level of wealth inequality:

“The unequal distribution of wealth remained high during this period. From 1860 to 1900, the wealthiest 2% of American households owned more than a third of the nation’s wealth, while the top 10% owned roughly three fourths of it. The bottom 40% had no wealth at all. In terms of property, the wealthiest 1% owned 51%, while the bottom 44% claimed 1.1%.”

And it’s claiming more lives each year–even in the top 10 percent–should financial anchors be lost for whatever reasons.

I’m well aware that the core of these inequalities runs deep, as has been discussed, and it makes sense to try to resolve these issues, but, since this gap only seems to be increasing, imo, the sad part of the political hype being sold on both sides, is that, contrary to the promises being made, there is no quick fix, and very few people will see any meaningful changes in the outcome of their lives over the next decades–regardless of who is elected.[/quote]

Yep, again, I think we, everyone will have to ask what risks we are willing to take to go down the same route we are heading down now (concentrated wealth, oligarchy type environment where 1% controls our politics now)…and the risks of what may happen if things don’t change.

At the end of the day, when the situation is bad enough, I think when you have just too many unhappy people, it’s not going to end well.

Of course, they are stating unemployment is almost 4% now and the economy is recovering.

I give it 50 years or less before the shit hits the fan.

It did take WW2 to get the US out of it’s last depression.

[joec]

[quote=outtamojo]I work in a hospital- 25 years now. When someone comes to me as a patient, they have no history- they are just a human being in need of help. Fvck those hospital workers if they are treating patients differently or lowering standards of care based on personal politics. They need to get another freaking job like border patrol or something as they are unfit for their present job.
Question: name someone who said it was ok to take advantage of the laws of the land? What’s the difference between Trumps bankruptcies and someone taking advantage of citizenship laws?
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2016/03/on-face-nation-today-john-dickerson.html?m=1%5B/quote%5D

I was actually saying the illegal patients were being the jerks/rude and the hospital workers were merely complaining about these illegals, not that they were actually giving crap healthcare to them.

I pretty much ALWAYS disagree with BG, but again, I have heard this point from hospital workers/nurses so for what it’s worth, I think it is a problem that needs to be addressed.

The whole born here, be an instant citizen should be changed IMO. I hear people from China do it too. I don’t think it benefits America to have this anymore…especially in this day and age.

Also, these illegal people don’t pay their medical care so it’s just you and me paying for illegals to have their babies here. Maybe you have extra dough to pay more healthcare and maybe this is why part of our healthcare is so expensive, but I don’t need or want to encourage this type of behavior.

Provide basic care, send them back after…

All IMO of course, and I am NOT a Trump supporter…

Also, it maybe hypocritical to complain about illegals coming and them giving you a job if you work in those hospitals, but the illegals taking advantage of this is not paying your bills or salary. I think a lot of hospitals under this type of work is actually looking to usually shut down or close since no one is actually paying them (just the government) which is probably a lot less that what it costs, since you have an extremely high risk high cost procedure (pre-natal and child birth).

[joec]

People just like to live/work/play/marry/hang out with/associate with people similar to them or are like them…

This is true for companies, the executive suite (white male/WASP people…), engineering teams (I’ve heard at QCOM, you have plenty of “racial” groups against other racial groups…etc).

Piggs here don’t want to live in south county or east county because they don’t see, perhaps other people like them and don’t act/behave the same…

Like I can care less about the SD Chargers…I used to rent and some people were chargers fans making noise drinking beer every Sunday…Nice enough people, but not really people I care to hang with or associate with or really have a conversation with neither.

That said, I don’t criticize people who DO want to live in South or East County, but most Asians that are similar to my general background won’t want to live there neither.

Maybe people aren’t against illegal immigrants trying to live productive crime free lives and pay taxes, but what if you suddenly accept millions in refugees all the time? The cost for that would be staggering in terms of healthcare, etc…You already have every shop in SF charging tax for healthcare.

As for jobs, if you are a student or someone working for minimum wage, having MORE competition for your job can’t be a good thing.

I can understand some people simply being against any immigrants since there are always unintended consequences when any decision is made for anything.

No matter how productive the immigrants are.

I don’t buy that only immigrants can do certain jobs neither…or companies can’t find US workers to do it.

[joec]

Maybe some people are supporting Trump purely for his tougher sounding immigration stance. Some folks I spoke to know co-workers say that they are supporting Trump because they work in hospitals and am sick of all the free healthcare and lack of gratitude from illegals.

At the end of the day, I’m guessing a lot of these people just don’t care as much about all the other downsides of a Trump presidency, but want to shut down the thing that affects them the most.

[joec]

[quote=flu][quote=TeCKis300]Any recommendations on resources to do credit checks?[/quote]

This one is easy… Experian Connect.

http://www.experian.com/connect/

Basically, you sign up for a free account. From your Experian account, you send an email requesting the tenant prospect to register and sign up and to “share” his/their credit file with you. They pay $20 or so, and then they can share the credit file with you through Experian. Experian sends you an email, you log in and view their credit file. They don’t see your SSN, and you don’t see their SSN. I use this for all my tenants. I don’t accept “hand copies” of credit files they email or fax me (because they can be doctored).

As far as employment verification, I just get them to send me the phone number for to their HR department, and have them sign a consent for employment verification screening. Then I contact the HR dept for employment verification WITH income verification. If it costs money, I tell them to pay for it.

I don’t do normally do background checks if the employees work at reputable company. I assume the reputable company already did a background check prior to hiring them.

If you need a property manager, I can recommend one in South County. He probably does north county too… PM me.[/quote]

Thanks for sharing this…doubt I will need this anytime soon, but looks like a good way…

I suppose you don’t rent to people who work at very small companies (which can be faked like fake referrals)…

[joec]

[quote=njtosd][quote=joec]

As an immigrant myself, I constantly find many Americans who were born here MUCH MUCH lazier in general since they didn’t have a hard life growing up.

You see it all the time with privileged wealthier kids expecting fancier things just because they “deserve it”…or, I went to work so I need this bag…I really need the newest iphone (I only get free phones)…
[/quote]

Maybe immigrants work harder – but the US has, on average, a higher GDP per capita than all but about 8 or 10 countries in the world. We rank even higher if you exclude the oil producing countries. How are we making so much more stuff than these other people if we’re so lazy? I think you are falling victim to the attitude being spoofed here: http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/arakawa-group/n10192
Overall, I think it’s a perception bias.[/quote]

Have you been in other countries? Some countries have massive amounts of poverty and pay for most other countries is lower so GDP is lower overall due to lower output and consumption.

I don’t think measuring GDP is not a good measure of how hard someone is willing to work.

A better measure is how badly someone needs the job (great depression anyone?) and are willing to put up with crap to do it.

Some American’s maybe willing to do anything to make a buck, but even in college and me included, a life of comfort and privilege compared to people who left war torn areas and know they have a great opportunity now or work sucks in their native country will work much harder than someone who simply is ignorant of those situations.

[joec]

[quote=flu][quote=scaredyclassic]Hilarious. The level of hypocrisy is just, well, very high.[/quote]

The sad part is that even with this obvious level of hypocrisy, and despite all the data and real world example that Trump does exactly the opposite of what he says others should do, and what he attacks others about….. His low information/unintelligent followers just completely ignore these facts and continue to make excuses for him.

I wouldn’t be surprised if some of his followers say this story was fabricated by a “liberal media like CNN/money”…Gee, is the way that Trump followers cope with a real fact about Trump to contradicts what he’s preaching? With self-explanations “well, it’s obviously a lie put on by liberal/progressives?” Are people really that dumb that when something so obvious is right in front of them, they’ll still deny deny deny, and think obviously the reporter must be liberal and have an axe to grind?

Never mind, apparently they are. Nothing surprises me anymore about the level of stupidity exhibited by some people in the U.S..
And apparently, there’s a lot of them, which I find in itself pretty scary.[/quote]

Trump is just like other politicians and business people and simply hires non-americans because they are probably less of a hassle with no rights, limited English and “can’t” fight back.

This is like your examples of the H1-B workers when those programs are abused. Can underpay, they can’t leave, can take advantage since no one will bother helping them.

You have a lot of movies or what not showing some American saying, “You can’t do that to me, I’m American!!!”

Well, hiring these people with limited English, limited rights, no knowledge of our laws is just GOOD business sense for less hassles overall for any business.

Unfortunately, I think as a country and a society, in a global democratic economy, we have to decide where is the line we draw vs get profits above all else before the shit hits the fan (I’m thinking in 50 years)…

It makes all the business sense to outsource when you can to save cost and businesses HAVE to outsource actually because everyone else is competing. Look at the textile/clothing industry. American Apparel made all their clothes here and is collapsed.

Places like Zara, HnM outsource to countries like Bangladesh with actual dangerous conditions to work so if you have to compete with that, good luck before you collapse too…

Taxi’s competing with Uber, good luck driving a cab when Uber can cut your price at anytime, but don’t cut their portion of the revenue. After the cabbies all die, Uber can raise prices now.

In this day and age, workers will just get tossed aside with whatever is cheaper. Not now, but eventually, it will result in a backlash when people are desperate enough to not care anymore.

As an immigrant myself, I constantly find many Americans who were born here MUCH MUCH lazier in general since they didn’t have a hard life growing up.

You see it all the time with privileged wealthier kids expecting fancier things just because they “deserve it”…or, I went to work so I need this bag…I really need the newest iphone (I only get free phones)…

Overall, I think it’s just an excess supply of labor everywhere globally (even Japan which I heard was giving out $8/whole month raises at Toyota)…

Hiring people is a pain, hiring American’s, more of a pain, no wonder Trump doesn’t hire Americans when he doesn’t need to.

[Author]

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