quiddities and agonies of the ruling class - a rolling new york times thread

we can't all be peter at the end of office space

Peter's collecting SSDI now thanks to two failed lumbar fusion surgeries.

i know someone who's thinking about throwing her job overboard in favor of taking over a small flower shop. she has never gardened in her life nor run a small business. she is 40. and obviously, insane.

could be worse, could be cupcakes

lol otm

yeah idk there is a huge variation in "manual labor" which scales from intensely focused detail work to loading boxes to heavy constriction. but dan selzer otm, there are definitely rewards to *making stuff* that are very different from managing your inbox and moving information around or whatever. i made candles my first year out of college and the manufacturing process was pretty great -- i could get stoned and play with wax all day and look at the amount of inventory i'd produced at the end of each day as proof of my productivity. it's easy to romanticize labor, but it's still work and the you cannot take it for granted!

the hilarious thing about the nyt article was all the lawyers and marketing execs who quit their jobs apparently without giving one iota of thought to the amount of work that it takes to start and run your own business

this is something to which i can testify from first-hand experience.

also, i've never been big on manual labor ... either as a way to make a living or in the handyman-around-the-house sense. so i guess i'm not the ideal reader for these sorts of articles.

and c'mon "ski patroller" sounds like "baywatch life guard" on the list of manual labor jobs

― dayo, Monday, August 15, 2011 9:22 AM (37 minutes ago) Bookmark

not really

most of the day is spent doing chores (fixing rope lines, shoveling, carrying shit from point a to point b...the pros/old-timers go out on dawn patrol (like, wake up at 3am) and get to throw bombs for avalanche control)

then when you actually do your job you have to load an entire other person into a toboggan and then ski down with the thing behind you. it's really hard work!

throwing her job overboard in favor of taking over a small flower shop

i have an acquaintance who has done this (although she did have some experience). she has been quite successful in getting business and publicity, but -- it appears to be a *tremendous* amount of work, i'm not sure how much money she actually makes from it, and constantly dealing with weddings and the stresses thereof seems kind of hellish

then when you actually do your job you have to load an entire other person into a toboggan and then ski down with the thing behind you. it's really hard work!

― remembrance of schwings past (gbx), Monday, August 15, 2011 11:05 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah but you work at a ski lodge

as someone who spent a spell as a "professional" part-time wedding DJ as well as a letterpress printer, I have to say that a) there is money in weddings and b) there is worlds of pain

my dad entered his 60s and works at a low level manual labor job. it's been tough watching his body break down on him in the past few years, and knowing that he still has at least 5 more to go before he can retire and collect his benefits. especially because all of his hobbies (woodworking, gardening, renovations) all depend on him having a relatively healthy and functioning body. he talks longingly with me about looking forward to the days when he can spend all his time in the garden and I hope he'll make it through to that day in a functioning way.

yeah but you work at a ski lodge

I wonder if there are any other jobs consisting of manual labor where the training is going on ski holidays as a child?

lesson from all this: work in general sucks!

dayo - that's exactly what I'm talking about. I hope your dad can retire and enjoy his garden in good health!

thanks Jenny! I'm pullin' for him.

as someone who spent a spell as a "professional" part-time wedding DJ as well as a letterpress printer, I have to say that a) there is money in weddings and b) there is worlds of pain

― dan selzer, Monday, August 15, 2011 5:11 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark

this is so OTM

When my parents decided they wanted to open a coffee shop as a pleasant retirement business, I had a fit because they barely drank coffee, didn't go to coffee shops and had no clue what it entailed to run a business. They also didn't think it would be necessary to hire a manager for the store. Then they realized they would have to be at the store at all times to open, do orders, receive deliveries, schedule workers, do payroll, deal with health inspectors, etc. etc. They actually seemed shocked that the high schoolers they hired gave away free stuff to friends. They got super lucky when the previous owners of the shop for some reason decided not to close on the sale and they only lost a little money.

this made me lol because i'm pretty sure i've been to coffee shops that started this way

a) there is money in weddings and b) there is worlds of pain

yeah you gotta be hardcore as a vendor. every customer thinks they're special because they're only doing this the one time while the vendor is dealing with the same crazy shit every week

yeah you gotta be hardcore as a vendor. every customer thinks they're special because they're only doing this the one time while the vendor is dealing with the same crazy shit every week

this is true for a lot of service industries when you deal with the general public (as opposed to other businesses). it's definitely true if you're running a law firm or a doctor's office.

This is actually from May, but I didn't see it at the time and it's sort of fascinating:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/nyregion/brooklyn-neighbors-share-landlord-but-not-amenities.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

And as is often the case in both real estate and human nature, one condo owner said she too felt envy — for the people who lived on the affordable side. The woman, a 32-year-old mother-to-be who did not want to have her name published, said she and her husband poured their life savings into their one-bedroom condo at Northside Piers. (She also said that if everyone used the gym and pool, “it’s going to be a mess.”)

The rentals, by comparison, were a sweet deal, she said.

“Sometimes we feel they are luckier,” she said. “We are not that rich.”

id totally take the below market rent over the gym pool etc

one bedroom with a kid on the way? no wonder this lady's having second thoughts

Oh good

http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2011/08/rich_people_feel_comfortable_b.html

Is Mark Zandi seriously suggesting that the recession happened because rich people stopped spending money? Jesus. Time to revive the oligarchy thread.

omg this earthquake is gonna create such great material for this thread

PTSD alert

http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/seven-ways-to-protect-your-tech-from-irene/

Hurricane approaching? Don't forget to fire up a month’s worth of data for your 3G iPad!

Follow #hurricane and #irene on Twitter.

@NYC lol #own3d

beware the flying glass shards from those luxury condos.

Have just been reading those Peter Watts books in which ecological disasters/explosions send shockwaves into urban areas and shatter all the sheet glass from skyscrapers, which falls into the canyons of the streets and shears the pedestrians apart into little pieces, and broken glass and parts of people fill up the streets to the 2nd or 3rd story.

Glad I don't live in Midtown or the financial dist wot.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/realestate/new-mortgage-limit-may-set-buyers-back.htm

eh not ruling class

article's not particularly obnoxious either

It's probably not ruling class for NYC, but $625k isn't chump change regardless?

pretty sure there are people on ilx w/ mortgages around that size

not chump change but still a subject that's relevant to a decent % of people reading the nyt, far more people than private planes to summer camps etc.

I'm just kind of shocked that a web site designer and an interior designer are taking out a 700k loan

yeah iatee otm, before the crash, $625k was a middle class house in the SF Bay Area.

Yeah, not ruling class. My eyes always get wide when I think of real estate prices like that but it's not really a thing.

It's probably not ruling class for NYC, but $625k isn't chump change regardless?

that's why you get a loan for it. for the ruling class that would be chump change, and they would just pay cash.

I'm just kind of shocked that a web site designer and an interior designer are taking out a 700k loan

why? idgi

those are not exactly the kinds of jobs that scream out "job stability" to me?

I'm incapable of comprehending how anyone can afford a mortgage that must be $2500-3500/month, tbh.

Some people are paying that much in rent anyway!

I know. It's insane.

those are not exactly the kinds of jobs that scream out "job stability" to me?

hmm ok. my experience is otherwise, but whatevs.

their job stability, as with a large % of people in nyc, is directly related to the ruling class

The apartment that my ex picked in Manhattan where I lived for a year was $2300. It slowly bankrupted us, as it happens, but we could have afforded it IF we had also made some lifestyle changes (which he refused to make).

where was it?

yeah the "buy a house first" logic probably really only holds in NYC and SF