Sounds about right. I know of a current strike where workers are asking nearly 25%.

This hike in living expenses needs wages to catch up since no one seems willing to roll back to normal on “supply chain” hikes during COVID.

Providence Health was officially dinged for this. The nonprofit aspect is such a joke.

The nonprofit requirement allows for feeding profits back into the institution. This can come in the form of investing in employees. Instead of investing in workers who directly impact patients by issuing bonuses, the CEOs get bonuses.

Instead of forgiving bills for the poorest patients, they offer payment plans instead.

It doesn’t matter how well you manage and save your money. In your geriatric years, those hospital CEOs will take it all.

I like it. Art and activism.

Points out awful business practice by Bezos in both the lack of bathroom breaks for employees and the lack of quality control in content.

No person was harmed. Product pulled to ensure as much once the piece was complete.

Well done.

Last time I was at a zoo was Milwaukee. The penguin house was the most foul smelling thing I’d ever inhaled, outside of human gangrene.

I feel bad for that kid. Whatever he’s being paid, it’s not enough.

That is atypical.

Now if you become one with a chair for most of the day, expect it in your 40s. And expect an active 80+ year old to physically kick your ass by the time you hit 60.

But 30s? That’s an outlier.

I assumed this was a nursing sub until I looked closer. Hospital management only does horrid shit like this for staff.

These “rewards” are awful. My condolences.

If you’re lucky though, maybe you’ll get a small rock with a “You Rock!” printout next time.

Indirectly, this is also a vote for OBGYN access. Doctors aren’t required to evenly distribute themselves across the states, they choose.

If they know they can’t follow through on the best care for their patients, whatever that looks like, that doesn’t incentivize an OBGYN to choose Cleveland over other places.

This is a leadership problem. The problem really does need to be solved at the top.

The reality is most working class cannot just stop, unless handed a practical alternative because stopping would mean not going to work, not earning income, and being rendered homeless. Likely living in their car first which would put oil consumption right back in play.

Whatever alternative you’re thinking of that the working class might be able to achieve as an individual probably has a buy-in cost. Given the even greater number of folks living paycheck to paycheck in the last two years, that buy-in isn’t a plausible ask.

Sucks. But here we are. Find a cost free (to the working class individual) solution that doesn’t interrupt the 5-6 day/wk work schedule or require any extra costs or moving and you’ll solve it. Until then, working class folks are going to do what they must to keep the lights on and the water running, and that’s usually going to be commuting to work in a gas consuming vehicle. As such, the solution needs to come from the top, not the bottom.

Earnest question. Is there enough lithium on the planet to turn around every vehicle in the United States to electric? Assume infrastructure for charging. Even then, do we even have the lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel, and graphite or whatever else electric vehicle batteries need for it?

So if you’re a congressman they recover your vehicle.

I’ll never argue in favor of glitter, but if we’re discussing micro plastics there’s this:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-43023-x

All the synthetic shit cloth you wear and/or sleep on has impact.

Likely to make more impact on this microplastic by buying cotton or bamboo than trying to ban glitter.

Had a relative in a car accident. They climbed out the vehicle, walked to the ambulance, and took their suggestion to get looked over at the ED.

Nothing needed but an X-ray then a CT to make sure the spine was fine. Doc saw them for all of 10min. Most of the time was spent doing nothing, alone, waiting for a ride in a mostly empty rural ED.

Bill comes. $15k.

I did charges in the 2000s as part of my ED tech duties. Back then the stroke/heart attack go to ICU or get prepped for life flight charge, the most acute of 5 tiers of service was ~$2.5k. The lowest, say getting a ring cut off, was less than $200.

I know costs have risen in the last 20 yrs but how the fuck do you go from what is at a very generous at most a tier 3 for ~$1k to $15k. AND that CT scan, 90% of what happened there, was billed separate.

AFTER Medicare, the ED bill is $1.8k. Imaging is $800, and the ambulance ride, that didn’t even put in an IV, is $1.9k.

So an elderly person on a fixed social security income is getting billed almost $5k for a ride, a glorified wait for my ride room, and a CT.

One non displaced broken rib btw, that’s it.

$15k. Is ring removal in ED now $15k a pop? I just don’t know. Or is a remote, empty ED soaking anyone who goes because they don’t have lines out the door and around the block like city EDs do?

Either way, that’s several months of social security to pay for it while not buying groceries or driving.

All true. But what’s also true is paying a mortgage with rental income. It’s why some folks found themselves out anyway as the house was sold. When a landlord is backed into a corner financially, this is their answer.

What is also an answer is rentals sitting vacant out of squatting fear. I found this often while travel nursing. Landlords who would rent to me for 3+ months, but only because I’m temporary and can show them I already have a home. When folks stop honoring the contract to pay for the shit they’re borrowing, less inventory is going to be a very real outcome.

Consider. Your monthly income is 4 rentals at $1500 each, minus expenses. Property tax. Income tax. Maintenance. Possibly a water/sewage bill. One stops paying. Then 2. Enter legal expenses. Your current mortgage where you’re living is still due. Managing it and providing your own childcare is your full time job.

There’s this whole ethos that there are no people involved on the landlord side and there can be no financial struggle from anyone with a landlord title.

That and there’s a very simple fact of it’s not your shit. You’re borrowing someone else’s things under contract.

I agree it’s not ideal, but systemic housing change comes from several steps above a landlord. She’s just someone with extra shit she can lend out for a fee. Punishing her in the meantime like she owes you something, after making property available for use so someone can have a home, not cool. She doesn’t owe you rent or a home.