Barbaraok

So offer the jobs at the wage you would pay after two years and list the qualifications necessary. That would give you employees who could do the work, are more efficient, and would help the US economy. But you would probably have to pay more than what you pay in the Philippines, right?

What would the 1.25 hr wage be today adjusted for inflation? In 1963, $1.25 was the minimum wage, assume that was the year we are talking about, it should be $10.71 now. Even the $15/hr wage would give a gross of $600/week, or $2400/month. Current cost of living in US for a family of 4 is right about $4500/month. And that is abysmal type of living - just getting by.

Last time the minimum wage was raised was in 2009. Has ANYTHING else stayed the same since 2009? Your initial hypothesis is wrong. It is NOT just kids getting minimum wage. The rest of the post is you trying to explain why you are willing to give people living in another area of the world a wage that allows for them to support themselves given the cost of living in that country, but not willing to offer a living wage for someone in this country. BTW, what trade are you teaching that requires 2 years of instruction? Is it a trade that community colleges should have in their curriculum?

Yes it is possible. We did it with Smallpox and were almost there with Polio before antivaxxers and internal political strife in Africa caused a halt to a lot of vaccinations. I expect, given the current political climate and anti-vaxxers, that we will again see polio cases in sufficient numbers in this country.

Kirk, Chemists and Chem Engineers do occasionally misspell words - and it has only gotten worse since auto-correct on the iPad came into play filling in what it thinks I mean to say. Yes, the word should have been shudder.

We always leave the tip in cash at restaurants, even if we use a card for the meal. As most people I have heard comment, we are tipping larger amounts since the pandemic hit. Trying to circulate that stimulus check we got. 😉

So only 'girls' work as wait staff? Careful Kirk, you're using old stereotypes about wait staff. Last 3 restaurants we were in had male wait staff members that served us.

I shutter to think about quality when you see something like that!

Just a reminder, the vaccine effectiveness doesn't mean you can't catch the virus, just that if you do, you will likely have less severe disease. About 10,000 people out of the 170M vaccinated with at least one shot so far have had breakthrough infections. For example, all of the crew of cruise ships are vaccinated, but a ship getting ready to sail had 8 crew members test positive - 6 were asymptomatic and 2 had mild illness. The ship and crew is now quarantined for 2+ weeks and the scheduled sailing has been pushed back.

Did I say some particular person was defaming anyone? I said if one didn't like the way Apple does business, don't buy an Apple product. That is just a general statement of fact.

Last summer, stuck in the Phoenix area when it is over 115, I went out of our park model one afternoon and smell 'gas' (which is actually the odorant added to propane) and was trying to figure out where it was coming from - turns out it was the propane attached to the grill - the heat had gotten so hot that the gas inside had expanded enough to exit through the relief valve.

There are help wanted signs in every state as things open back up. Excess deaths due to Covid will account for some of the shortages, and a lot of women have dropped out of the workforce because they are still trying to find child care they can afford. Huge numbers of child care firms went out of business when everything closed down. Then there are not insignificant number of people who didn't die, but have developed long-hauler syndrome and may be out of the workforce for a long period of time, if not permanently disabled by the virus.

More and more people have hybrids for toads, at 50+ mpg, our toad makes a great vehicle for sight-seeing, shopping, going to concerts, museums, etc.

How big are your holding tanks going to be and where will you put them? Where will your fresh water tank be, and how big? Will they be enclosed so they can be kept warm? Where will your water heater go and what size? Bathtubs take huge amounts of water, which is why most RVs now go with just shower. Propane tank for furnace and cooking? Lots of infrastructure needs to be in place before flooring is considered. Also, electrical systems need to be planned for, especially if you want roof solar integrated into the rig. Then controllers, inverter/charger and house battery bank.

Which is why most people don't buy and live in RVs in cities with limited parks and high rental rates for the parks. If a park charges $1600 a month and people pay it, then that is the market telling them they are charging the correct amount. You don't agree, don't rent there. Seems to me you are outlining why an apartment might be a better choice for you.

You started a thread complaining about RV parks and, instead, your upset that there isn't one in the exact place that charges what you feel is appropriate so that you can satisfy a personal need. After 16 yrs on the road, I have yet to find the perfect park that satisfies all my needs and wants at the perfect price in the perfect place.

I thought you couldn't do so because of a court order?

A unique problem that has nothing to do with RV parks or other items about which you have been ranting about in this thread.

What type of expensive items does everyone keep in their bays that are worth having to pay $2500+ to replace the bay door - not to mention painting, pain of finding someone to fix it, being without rig while painting done, etc. Hoses, cords, patio furniture, grill, extra fluids? All of that can be replaced for fair less than the cost of a damaged bay door.

Of course you have a choice. Now whether a job in others parts of the country would pay as much clearly is high on your list of must haves from the way you talk about this job. Also, your characterization of others parts of the country is really telling - how long is the nose that looks down on New Mexico. What are you going to do 5 nights a week to heat any vehicle parked on the street in the winter when the temperature is in the teens and the batteries go out trying to keep the furnace running?

So why is your career choice used to denounce a whole industry. You choose a career and location in an area not conducive to RV living. Didn't you consider this before launching yourself? This reminds me of all the times I have heard owners of 45' pushers brag about always going 70-75 down the highways and, at the same time, complain about the cost of fuel and the poor mpg they are getting.

We gave up on state parks shortly after we started full timing when we noticed that most states charged extra PER DAY for cars pulled by motorhomes, but not for trucks pulling a trailer UNLESS you purchased an annual pass. Since we weren't in the states long enough to make an annual pass make sense, we just stayed with membership parks when possible, COE in the midwest, etc.

I had an huge supply of extra 751 keys because they were also the lock on fire extinguisher cabinets throughs the university where I worked - and no, we didn't keep the extinguishers locked in their cabinet, that was just the way they came from manufacturer. Hence my huge supply of those keys.

That ‘ secret’ has been out for decades. We don’t lock bays during the six months we travel in the summer. Plus, one look in them, no one is going to want to spend time hauling everything out with everyone in the park watching, for rolls of duck tape, Teflon tape, extra water hose, old chairs, old grill, etc.

Could it be that some people decided that they really don't want to work for starvation wages. Or that they were able to finish course work leading to a better job in some other line of work. A lot of people are dealing with long-haulers syndrome which can be quite debilitating. And for a lot of women, there is no reliable child-care available until schools start back up in the fall - plus they may have lost their child care (grandmother) to Covid during the past year.