I have six nieces. Two of them live in Illinois. One of them lives in Pennsylvania. One of them is deceased. Two of them lived inside of Lansing city limits.
One of the Lansing nieces recently moved from Lansing to the middle of Eaton County and now lives 5.1 miles (by road) from Casa ERJ and only two miles from Southern Belle.
My new neighbor, my niece, expressed a desire for some dry wood for bonfires.
Southern Belle gave me permission to give away wood that was being generated with the clearing of her pastures.
SO...today I cut up some dead elm and dead ash that had been on SB's property and transported it to my niece's property. I also dropped off a new-in-box George Foreman grill and three steaks.
While dropping off the wood, I noticed that she has three mature apple trees. One of those trees is under the power wires on the high-voltage side of the transformer and is badly in need of a hair-cut. I think that one is a job for the power company.
Repatriation flights
There are no good statistics on which countries self-deporting immigrants are returning to. Anecdotally, Mexico seems to be the high-runner, perhaps because you can drive to Mexico.
There are better statistics for ICE deportations.
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Can't find good help
I was talking with SB's neighbor who is brush-hogging the pastures and he told me that he couldn't find good help. He has offered as much as $50/hour for a day-labor gig and not always been able to find workers.
Since we are bringing back jobs from overseas, and since we are deporting illegal immigrants who do much of the difficult work, then it begs the question "What is required to motivate the slackers into working?" They are pretty danged comfortable sitting in Mom's basement playing Call of Duty.
Some of that will be self-correcting. Eventually, Jennifer will want to move to Sugar Sands, Florida or Santa Fe, New Mexico and she will not be taking her 37 year-old pot-bellied pig with her. He/She/Them/They will have to fend for theythemselves in the wild. Nor will theythem be able to borrow Jennifer's "whip" (i.e. motor vehicle). Working 15 hours a week at the coffee shop with the other theater kids just isn't going to be enough to pay the rent.
Other parts of the puzzle will be harder to hammer into place
As Patrick the Terrierman once observed, "A hungry dog is easy to train because he has an I.Q. of 150." Hunger is a great motivator.
70 grains of black powder
It is NOT a 150 yard load but can be expected to perform well out to 125 yards. The velocities are within the design parameters for the bullet's terminal ballistics. The trajectory is sufficiently flat with a 100 yard second-zero to be useful. Recoil will be very modest.
This is not a bad combination for introducing a new hunter to deer hunting. Knowing that you only have ONE SHOT and that you have to make it count really helps the newbie focus on high-percentage, humane-kill shots.
Hunger is an incredible motivator. The problem is that it DOES NOT train for delayed gratification. $50 an hour is an incredible pay rate. Unfortunately, unpenalized crime pays better. The penalties for crime only apply after the fact IF the perpetrator gets caught. And it's been my experience with the criminal class that they ALL think they're SMART enough to get away with the crime. And a lot of them will undoubtedly decide that it's better to not leave any witnesses to testify...
ReplyDeleteERJ, we are still a relatively rich and generous society and there are means to support one's self that do not require working, or at least working that hard. In that sense, we still have a long way to fall to get to the point where people will be fighting to take jobs such as you describe.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I do think in the next 5-10 years there will be a great "unburdening" as adult children find themselves at the end of their current living conditions.