Priced out of America

[Crnr2Crnr]

Why more and more Americans are deciding that the only way to get ahead is to leave 

https://www.businessinsider.com/americans-moving-abroad-cost-of-living-too-expensive-debt-retirement-2024-4

interesting read... 

[polaris7541]

believe me if i could afford to leave i would ...cant even muster up the cash to get out of this dam country ,, dam illegals just stroll right in , and what burns my a zz im paying , as well as all of you for them to be here,,its not safe any where anymore ,, and no matter what party you follow , this gubberment is a joke .. carry on 

[racer254]

But I thought abortions was the big issue during this election?  Why aren't they moving to places where abortions are legal?  LOL. the weak minded always fall for the BS narratives.

Edited April 20 by racer254

[Mainecat]

Florida is full up.

[racer254]

7 minutes ago, Mainecat said:

Florida is full up.

Explains how fed up people are with the liberal bullshit.

[Deephaven]

16 minutes ago, racer254 said:

Explains how fed up people are with the liberal bullshit.

And you can blame trump for that.  Had he at least been a half decent president he would still be.  He was the only R that Biden could beat.  And your dumbass has been supporting him again.  Reap what you sow.

[Mainecat]

20 minutes ago, racer254 said:

Explains how fed up people are with the liberal bullshit.

No just lazy right wing fucktards. Stop your whining and get another job.

 

[racer254]

7 minutes ago, Mainecat said:

No just lazy right wing fucktards. Stop your whining and get another job.

 

Another liberal boomer telling others to get jobs.  What was your job experience?  Nevermind, most know you only had a job because your BIL felt sorry for you.

[ActionfigureJoe]

The last two years of my career was working with a millennial unit manager. Although she needed some help with details of the business, I’ve never had a more pleasant experience with management. The boomer and GenX generations worked themselves into the ground. Looking back it was quite pathetic. Europe figured out the workplace after WWII. America sucks. People are expected to work themselves into the grave. 

[Skidooski]

Booming economy but can’t afford things. When one job used to get people by, now they need two and they’re lazy for bitching about it 

[Mainecat]

2 hours ago, racer254 said:

Another liberal boomer telling others to get jobs.  What was your job experience?  Nevermind, most know you only had a job because your BIL felt sorry for you.

Most are clueless. 

[Mainecat]

 

2 hours ago, racer254 said:

Another liberal boomer telling others to get jobs.  What was your job experience?  Nevermind, most know you only had a job because your BIL felt sorry for you.

My job experience? I attended a vocational school and studied printing for 4 years. After graduating I took a year off and worked for a small printer then enrolled in college. I earned a BS degree and while attending school I worked 2 part time jobs to pay for my tuition…..no help from family as my dad passed suddenly at 48 years old when I was 13 and mom didn’t work because I had 5 younger brothers and sisters and moms stayed home in 1969. We lived on welfare food and help from our extended family. Mom had to go to work and learn to drive while we all took on the home things. 
After college I took another job as an assistant pressroom super at a local printer eventually assuming the supers position for 5 years. I left that job to accept a in -plant print manager position for a large manufacturer. I managed 15 employees for 20 years. During this time my brother and sil purchased a 75 employee web printing company. They had perused me for 5 years to come to work as the VP but i got along very well with my brother and I didn’t want to jeopardize our relationship being an employee. As my current job had hit its course and after much prying and my brother wanting his company to be ISO Certified I accepted his offer. 2 years later we, including myself purchased the 5 acre property and 60,000 sq ft facility. I spent 18 years working for my family business and it worked out incredibly well. We sold the business 6 years ago and the real estate 4 years ago. I retired 6 years ago.

Nothing was handed to me asshole.

What’s your story?

Edited April 20 by Mainecat

[Voodoo]

20 minutes ago, Mainecat said:

 

My job experience? I attended a vocational school and studied printing for 4 years. After graduating I took a year off and worked for a small printer then enrolled in college. I earned a BS degree and while attending school I worked 2 part time jobs to pay for my tuition…..no help from family as my dad passed suddenly at 48 years old when I was 13 and mom didn’t work because I had 5 younger brothers and sisters and moms stayed home in 1969. We lived on welfare food and help from our extended family. Mom had to go to work and learn to drive while we all took on the home things. 
After college I took another job as an assistant pressroom super at a local printer eventually assuming the supers position for 5 years. I left that job to accept a in -plant print manager position for a large manufacturer. I managed 15 employees for 20 years. During this time my brother and sil purchased a 75 employee web printing company. They had perused me for 5 years to come to work as the VP but i got along very well with my brother and I didn’t want to jeopardize our relationship being an employee. As my current job had hit its course and after much prying and my brother wanting his company to be ISO Certified I accepted his offer. 2 years later we, including myself purchased the 5 acre property and 60,000 sq ft facility. I spent 18 years working for my family business and it worked out incredibly well. We sold the business 6 years ago and the real estate 4 years ago. I retired 6 years ago.

Nothing was handed to me asshole.

What’s your story?

You appear to have a classic pull yourself up reality.

My dad worked like a dog through the 70’s and 80’s while mom stayed home to raise 3 kids. All the heartaches of up and down economies. My parents still have a mortgage. Any pension dad should have had evaporated when the company he worked for went bankrupt. I too learned that hard work was where it was at. First job at 13 on local farms, dish washer, maintenance and bar tender at a motel/restaurant 15 miles away.

When dad lost his job as an engineer at the place that also lost his pension money, he was fortunate to have made a good friend who came from Germany. 

This friend came from Germany in the 70’s and started a company manufacturing control systems, much of it in the nuclear industry. Dad’s knowledge of the electric heating industry and engineering for same did well, and his friend branched his business to deliver to the clients dad had in in with. It came about the work load was too much, so the entire electric heating production needed to be outsourced. It was offered to me. My wife and I had just bought our first house but we took the gamble. 
There was a high demand for quality air handlers, many of such went to remote locations. They had to work, well, without maintenance, ultra reliably. That’s our hallmark. Everything was designed and built in house. Most of what we built is still running, reliably, decades later. Quality parts, professional build. Today much of what we did is now low bidder, get past the warranty stuff. Few but the long involved can see the benefit of quality vs price. We’ve got generator testing, load banks at Canada’s major banks, government server locations, that run decades with minimal repairs. The competition made units for half the cost, but would need major refits or replacement at 5 years. It’s a tougher sell in todays throw away society.
We all were working 7 days a week, seemingly for years. It was just me, my wife and my dad. There was no one else to blame, get money from, if things went south.

We did a quote for a 2 MW load bank, TD tower at Younge and Dundas, Toronto.

16 week build time. They fucked the dog until the end of February, the following year.

They kept coming back with revisions, changes, which we did..always telling them it’s 16 weeks after approval. 
They finally came forward with a purchase order. Mid March.

This has gone on 2 years. Yep, we are on it. 4 weeks later the emails start to fly. This unit needs to be lifted to the roof of the TD tower on May 24.  6 weeks after start.

I come back to them, not possible. This thing will eventually be the size of a 10x20 sea can and 10 tons. Needs ESA approval and testing.

They come back to me, it has to lift on that date, whatever you need to make it happen we will be good with. Shutting down Younge and Dundas for a crane lift is costly…like 250k.

I spend a couple days with the production teams and come up with a plan.

We can spend all of our time building the frame, getting the load bank, motors and blowers in place. It can then lift and we finish it on the roof. Be an extra 60k on my end.

They apparently appreciate and approve.

The day comes, it lifts. It’s a Sunday.

Monday comes and I get an email. A list of deficiencies and threats.

Tuesday I slide down to the job site. Downtown Toronto. I can’t even get my truck into the underground parking, let alone the trailer I need for parts and tools….oh, and it’s a union site. Can’t start before 7 and must be gone by 2:30. Thankfully the guys I had doing the work were union. No fault on the union guys in my circle of people, they were excellent. 
 

I bet my house on this job. We got it done, or I’d be living in a van by the river 

 

 

 

 

 

[Crnr2Crnr]

anyone actually read the article?  

[ActionfigureJoe]

20 minutes ago, Crnr2Crnr said:

anyone actually read the article?  

yes....this caught my eye. Americans work too fucking hard for shit in the end.

 

"Retirement wasn't even on our radar when we were still in the US," Stonestreet told me. "We just assumed we'd work till we dropped. But life is short. Tomorrow's not guaranteed."

[Bontz]

34 minutes ago, Crnr2Crnr said:

anyone actually read the article?  

Nope

 

[Blackstar]

This is nothing new. It’s been going on as long as I’ve been around.

 

 

[Blackstar]

42 minutes ago, Crnr2Crnr said:

anyone actually read the article?  

I read 4-5 paragraphs. 

[Mainecat]

1 hour ago, Voodoo said:

You appear to have a classic pull yourself up reality.

My dad worked like a dog through the 70’s and 80’s while mom stayed home to raise 3 kids. All the heartaches of up and down economies. My parents still have a mortgage. Any pension dad should have had evaporated when the company he worked for went bankrupt. I too learned that hard work was where it was at. First job at 13 on local farms, dish washer, maintenance and bar tender at a motel/restaurant 15 miles away.

When dad lost his job as an engineer at the place that also lost his pension money, he was fortunate to have made a good friend who came from Germany. 

This friend came from Germany in the 70’s and started a company manufacturing control systems, much of it in the nuclear industry. Dad’s knowledge of the electric heating industry and engineering for same did well, and his friend branched his business to deliver to the clients dad had in in with. It came about the work load was too much, so the entire electric heating production needed to be outsourced. It was offered to me. My wife and I had just bought our first house but we took the gamble. 
There was a high demand for quality air handlers, many of such went to remote locations. They had to work, well, without maintenance, ultra reliably. That’s our hallmark. Everything was designed and built in house. Most of what we built is still running, reliably, decades later. Quality parts, professional build. Today much of what we did is now low bidder, get past the warranty stuff. Few but the long involved can see the benefit of quality vs price. We’ve got generator testing, load banks at Canada’s major banks, government server locations, that run decades with minimal repairs. The competition made units for half the cost, but would need major refits or replacement at 5 years. It’s a tougher sell in todays throw away society.
We all were working 7 days a week, seemingly for years. It was just me, my wife and my dad. There was no one else to blame, get money from, if things went south.

We did a quote for a 2 MW load bank, TD tower at Younge and Dundas, Toronto.

16 week build time. They fucked the dog until the end of February, the following year.

They kept coming back with revisions, changes, which we did..always telling them it’s 16 weeks after approval. 
They finally came forward with a purchase order. Mid March.

This has gone on 2 years. Yep, we are on it. 4 weeks later the emails start to fly. This unit needs to be lifted to the roof of the TD tower on May 24.  6 weeks after start.

I come back to them, not possible. This thing will eventually be the size of a 10x20 sea can and 10 tons. Needs ESA approval and testing.

They come back to me, it has to lift on that date, whatever you need to make it happen we will be good with. Shutting down Younge and Dundas for a crane lift is costly…like 250k.

I spend a couple days with the production teams and come up with a plan.

We can spend all of our time building the frame, getting the load bank, motors and blowers in place. It can then lift and we finish it on the roof. Be an extra 60k on my end.

They apparently appreciate and approve.

The day comes, it lifts. It’s a Sunday.

Monday comes and I get an email. A list of deficiencies and threats.

Tuesday I slide down to the job site. Downtown Toronto. I can’t even get my truck into the underground parking, let alone the trailer I need for parts and tools….oh, and it’s a union site. Can’t start before 7 and must be gone by 2:30. Thankfully the guys I had doing the work were union. No fault on the union guys in my circle of people, they were excellent. 
 

I bet my house on this job. We got it done, or I’d be living in a van by the river 

 

 

 

 

 

Great story and congratulations on taking the risk. Many here don’t realize 80% of businesses in the US are family owned and run.

We to did low bid state and fed work to supplicate our capacity. Also were regarded for our security document work all of which I worked many extra hours to obtain.

Edited April 20 by Mainecat

[Skidooski]

Preach it Mr. There’s too many small businesses 

[Mainecat]

1 minute ago, Skidooski said:

Preach it Mr. There’s too many small businesses 

Never said that. I said there were too many restaurants goober.

Post up your story Mr. Follower.

Edited April 20 by Mainecat

[steve from amherst]

Some folks are being left out of this economy. Yes it is booming for many. For others it is just dropping them down further.

I was working in Concord mass the other day ( ya know the whole lexington concord , start of the revolution thing)

Customer I was talking to just moved in last yr. Medicore home. in historic district , could be nice but hasnt been remodeled in 50 yrs. 

They paid 1.6 million for it.

It is quite obvious that any firefighter or teacher that works in that town can not afford to live there.

[Jimmy Snacks]

13 minutes ago, Mainecat said:

Never said that. I said there were too many restaurants goober.

Post up your story Mr. Follower.

Fuck you and your story.

Edited April 20 by Jimmy Snacks

[Mainecat]

3 minutes ago, Jimmy Snacks said:

Fuck you and your story.

It sucks to be you Mr. Happiness.

[Skidooski]

21 minutes ago, Mainecat said:

Never said that. I said there were too many restaurants goober.

Post up your story Mr. Follower.

Too many family restaurants was one of them. “Fuck em” you said!