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Job offer

So that was quick. The job that I applied for two days ago? They called me while I was at work on Thursday morning and had a telephone interview. Nothing like interviewing for a job while you are at work.

Two hours later, they called and offered me the job. The offer was laughable. The woman said “We are making this offer in consideration of your four college degrees, as well as your 22 years of experience.” Then she told me what they were willing to pay: $16 per hour.

I told her that this was FAR too low. An entry level job running a cash register at a convenience store in this area pays more than that. I know, because my high school students were getting jobs at that rate of pay. I don’t know what kind of medical employee you think you are getting for that, but it won’t be me. I would sooner not work at all.

So, the search for a job continues.

By Divemedic, ago

If Amazon can do it…

Amazon announced that they will increase their minimum wage to $15 an hour. The people pushing for such a wage are already using them as an example, saying if Amazon can do it, anyone can. Let me explain why that assumption is wrong, and how increased wages actually HELP Amazon.

First, the vast majority of the products sold by Amazon are produced by slaves, or people so close to being slaves that there is no real difference. Yep, most of the stuff sold by Amazon is made in China. Second, most of the things sold by Amazon that are NOT made in China are actually being sold by other companies and Amazon is the agent, not the seller. I know, I used to sell lots of stuff on there. Third, many Amazon warehouses are subcontracted out. A company owned by my brother provides services to some of those locations. Fourth, Amazon has more robots working in its facilities than it does employees. Lastly, Amazon doesn’t employ many workers for the amount of goods sold, compared to most retail sellers.

All of this adds up to $15 an hour hurting Amazon’s competitors more than it helps the workers at Amazon. In fact, Amazon’s purchase of robotics manufacturer Kiva Systems for $775 million is a bargain. When you divide that amount by the 200,000 robots they have, the cost works out to less than $4 thousand per robot.

Amazon sends about 7 billion packages a year with annual revenue of around $100 billion a year.

This warehouse near Orlando covers 59 football fields, has 800 human and several thousands of robotic workers. Every bit of it is controlled and optimized for efficiency by computers.

This is the future of the American worker. Just like Henry Ford’s invention of the assembly line made manufacturing more efficient, robotics will do the same for most other industries. Fifteen dollars an hour won’t matter when three quarters of the workforce has been replaced by machines.

Labor is pricing itself out of the market. Companies like WalMart can’t compete with Amazon unless they pay less than $15. This causes employees to say things like:

“They don’t care about the associates [entry-level employees such as cashiers] at all. They just want more money for themselves,”

Of course, Amazon has half as many employees. Their physical locations are in rural areas with lower costs. They have less employee theft. All of this means that, in order to compete and keep prices low, costs (including wages) must also be kept low.

If, as an employee, a person wants to make more money, you have to produce more value than any potential employee who could replace you. Why should you expect a raise just because you have been working for an employer for 20 years, if you are still the same employee they hired 20 years ago? What skills have you picked up in the past two decades? Have you gone to school? Learned new skills? Made yourself more valuable? If not, they why would your employer want to pay you more, when they could hire someone with the same skills and education for less?

Or replace you with a robot?

By Divemedic, ago

Be a man

How many times have we been told that you should just “be a man” and take your beating? A black man, employed by a Tampa Dunkin, punched a customer once in the head, killing him.

Punches are not harmless. I don’t allow people to attack me. Period. The fact is, more people are killed every year by fists and feet than are killed by so-called ‘assault weapons’.

In his defense, the employee is claiming that the customer used a racial slur. Even if the man did so, that isn’t an excuse for violence. It especially not a crime punishable by death.

By Divemedic, ago

Danger Zones page

I am adding a new page to the links at the top of this blog. It is my intent to track the violent acts that are being perpetrated by the BLM/Antifa folks. If any of you have any stories or news about insurgent violence, let me know in the comments there. Thanks.

Here are my proposals for rating the various zones. In order from least to most danger:

Zone 1: Increased vigilance and awareness
These cities are ones where violent leftist extremists are known to have caused political violence in the past.

Zone 2: Risk of Violent protests with local official cooperation

Zone 2 cites have seen recent violence, with local authorities either refusing to intervene or even actively assisting those committing violent acts.

Zone 3: Deadly force used by insurgents in at least one incident

Zone three cities are areas where violent protests and riots have taken place and the rioters have employed deadly force with little to no attempt at mitigating response from local authorities.

Zone 4: Disputed Territory

Zone 4 zones are those where deadly force has been used to kill and/or seriously injure anyone who the insurgents feel are not sufficiently sympathetic or supportive of their goals. Government authority has either effectively or openly sided with the insurgents and is providing them with active support.

Zone 5: Occupied Zones
Areas in zone 5 are areas where the government has ceded or lost all control and/or has openly declared that they cannot and will not provide basic government services like police, fire, and EMS. These areas are completely out of legitimate governmental control and can best be described as being behind enemy lines.

Let’s begin by assuming that every blue county contains significant numbers of violent communists and work from there.

By Divemedic, ago

What would we do?

On 9/11, Islamic terrorists killed more than 3,000 American citizens. The country responded by passing draconian laws, capturing and imprisoning thousands of people, and mobilizing our military for a war that to date has lasted for nearly 20 years.

As of March 15, 2020, a total of 61 people in the US had died of COVID. The entire country was locked in their homes for weeks as a result, and some are still in a state of house arrest.

Now picture that Canada and Mexico both declare that the US has no right to exist, and they begin lobbing rockets over the border on a weekly basis. Then Venezuela announces that they are developing nuclear weapons, with the stated intent of using a nuclear weapon on New York City as soon as they can build one.

How do you think the USA would respond to that?

Now why do you attack Israel for their actions?

By Divemedic, ago

Numbers

In 2018 (the latest year where complete stats are available), there were 14,123 homicides in the United States. More than 52.4% of the victims were black. Just over 43.1% of the victims were white.

The murder weapons broke down like this: 46.2% of the homicides were carried out by handguns, and just over 2.1% were carried out by rifles.

The killers broke down like this: 48.3% of homicides were committed by blacks, 45.8% by whites, 5.9% were either unknown, mixed race, or other.

What about gender? When whites were the killer, men were the killer two thirds of the time. When blacks were the killer, men were responsible 76% of the time.

In cases where the victim was black, 88.8% of the time, the killer was also black. In cases where the victim was white, 80.7% of the time, the killer was also white.

There are 246 million whites in the United States. With 5,574 homicides where a white person was the victim of another white person, the murder rate among whites is 2.26 per 100,000. There are 40.6 million blacks in the United States. With 7,407, the murder rate where only blacks was involved is 14.72 per 100,000.

Conclusions: interracial killings are the exception. Blacks commit the majority of homicides in this country. They are also the victim in the majority of homicides. The homicide rate among blacks in the United States is close to the median for Africa, although half what the murder rate is for South Africa.

The homicide rate for white Americans is roughly double the murder rate for Europe, but on par with Canada.

This means that BLM is protesting the wrong killings. For every black killed by police, several hundred die at the hands of other blacks.

It isn’t handguns. Blacks kill more people than do handguns. It isn’t “assault weapons”- more people die each year from knives wielded by black men than are killed by these so-called “weapons of war.”

The numbers don’t lie. There is a cultural problem in this country, and it has to do with black males. Let’s start the “Reasoned discourse” there.

By Divemedic, ago