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[jason10mm]

Fair enough.

But along those big corporate subsidies often comes with a carrot. Gov will give $500M subsidy to a car company if they build their plant in their city so it supports 1,000s of good paying jobs. Thats a lot of money.

What's more important? Helping a couple thousand people get a job? Or use that $500M on other things?

A bunch of blue collar auto workers and the local union #563B wants the subsidy and jobs. 99% of the rest of the city says screw that, use it for something else.

Which one is more important?

Paying to get a company in town that creates lots of jobs can A. gets lots of folks off gov assistance, B. tends to drive support industries, restaurants, C. raises property values with increased tax revenue. Win win win all around

Now it can certainly just drive a big cost that never gets 'paid back' because the jobs all go to an influx of out of towners that just raise property values that kick the locals out, so a city should make sure they can properly exploit an industry first. Of course what happens is the council members get their kick-backs so they approve the discount, fuck the locals.

 

[Woggleman]

While the peasants were fighting each other over every type of identity based division the real elites were building a system that will screw over the masses.

 

[diffusionx]

Yet again it's not AI, they even say it in the article, it's pandemic over hiring. Every big company has been correcting this year but for some reason people blame it all on AI.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Yet again it's not AI, they even say it in the article, it's pandemic over hiring. Every big company has been correcting this year but for some reason people blame it all on AI.

Yup. That was a very techie kind of thing. Many industries rocketed up during covid demand like consumer goods and brick and mortar retailers as people were stuck at home with money and decided to buy shit at stores or online.

Problem is when things normalized, the tech companies got hit harder with layoffs as they went ape shit hiring like sales were going to hit parabolic growth curves forever. No industry thought this way except tech.

 

[Rentahamster]

Fair enough.

But along those big corporate subsidies often comes with a carrot. Gov will give $500M subsidy to a car company if they build their plant in their city so it supports 1,000s of good paying jobs. Thats a lot of money.

What's more important? Helping a couple thousand people get a job? Or use that $500M on other things?

A bunch of blue collar auto workers and the local union #563B wants the subsidy and jobs. 99% of the rest of the city says screw that, use it for something else.

Which one is more important?

In a vacuum, both ideas are important in theory, but in reality, I'm more concerned with the one with a better ROI.

While the car factory subsidy might sound good on paper, as a free market capitalist, I need to question why the inherent profit-generating properties of a prospective location aren't more important than a short term subsidy, and what are the potential pitfalls of such an arrangement are if it's truly being built in a sub-optimal location purely on the basis of a subsidy. That doesn't sound efficient. Furthermore, I can't help but be suspicious of the politicians in place who approved the deal and who will never have to deal with the consequences of this deal's potential failure because their term will be up long before the factory is finished construction. In addition, what if the local population aren't educated enough or skilled enough to fill these jobs? They'd be filled from non-local sources anyway.

2016:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/indiana-gives-7-million-in-tax-breaks-to-keep-carrier-jobs-1480608461

2018:

Carrier Employees, Soon to Be Laid Off, Feel Betrayed by Donald Trump

“It’s not just that I’m a paycheck away from homeless now. I will never find a job like this one again,” one worker said.

www.newyorker.com

Investing in the people to me seems like a more reliable long term strategy. That $500M budgetary hole that's not funding education and health care will solve a lot of short term problems that will then result in long term benefits, whereas the factory subsidy is short term deficits for what is not a guaranteed long term benefit.

 

[Scary_Larry]

The lack of humanity shown in these treads is absolutely gross. Those of us that are overseas are getting a good look at how corrupt and full of lies your current government and businesses are.

 

[diffusionx]

Yup. That was a very techie kind of thing. Many industries rocketed up during covid demand like consumer goods and brick and mortar retailers as people were stuck at home with money and decided to buy shit at stores or online.

Problem is when things normalized, the tech companies got hit harder with layoffs as they went ape shit hiring like sales were going to hit parabolic growth curves forever. No industry thought this way except tech.

The entire industry went ape shit in 2020. Free money and massive consumer spending from gibs and major initiatives to implement DEI hiring. I was reading articles about PMs being hired at $250k+ with no projects to manage.

Well the party is done and everyone is hung over. There's a decent chance most of those people never contributed anything to the company and just collected a fat salary for years and now they have to go. It doesn't have anything to do with AI. It sucks ass and I wish it weren't so but it was always inevitable with a situation and economy as mismanaged as 2020-2022 was.

 

[nush]

Yet again it's not AI, they even say it in the article, it's pandemic over hiring. Every big company has been correcting this year but for some reason people blame it all on AI.

The pandemic was how many years ago?

 

[StreetsofBeige]

The entire industry went ape shit in 2020. Free money and massive consumer spending from gibs and major initiatives to implement DEI hiring. I was reading articles about PMs being hired at $250k+ with no projects to manage.

Well the party is done and everyone is hung over. There's a decent chance most of those people never contributed anything to the company and just collected a fat salary for years and now they have to go. It doesn't have anything to do with AI. It sucks ass and I wish it weren't so but it was always inevitable with a situation and economy as mismanaged as 2020-2022 was.

And a reason for tech over hiring is because the nature of the job is desk job and wfh. So the companies can hire with no COVID germ fears.

A reason why there were product shortages for physical goods wasn't just due to big demand. Supply was gimped too because as safety rules and gov mandates swept across cities it slowed up production, spaced everyone out, and due to the jobs being in person hardly anyone was hiring more manufacturing workers due to capacity issues (spacing out) and more people hired means more germs. So hiring freezes. But tech could keep hiring.

 

[Durien]

I'm curious, if we were to get rid of SNAP entirely, do you think the poverty rate would stay the same, go up, or go down?

I would imagine, if we were to eliminate SNAP crime would take a huge bump up. Let's take 1/3 the number of people on SNAP. Do you think there are that many jobs available? Because you now have an overglut of people applying for jobs, this drives wages down (supply and demand).

It would be interesting to see what would happen if the government paid for training (they will pay up to a point). What if the government paid for blue collar training and opened businesses. The business would operate to recoup the losses interned through the training program. Once this is done, you offload the businesses to these people with surveys going out to customers to see how the program is working out.

It can even go so far as to state, in order to be on snap, we are entering you into a training course. Select what employment you are interested in. Put the Labor Department in charge of it.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Always sad to see that many ppl getting fired

 

[Toons]

The folks that take 5 years to issue a permit to repair a road because they wanna make sure some red- speckled salamander won't be impacted....yeah those folks can go hit the unemployment line for all I care.

Why does literally every solution you propose involve a person or an animal dying or suffering lol?

Those things dont take long because of salamanders. Those things take long because of regulations and laws, and logistics. Something that doesn't simply go away just because it is inconvenient. Much like people on food stamps wont.

 

[jshackles]

Always sad to see that many ppl getting fired

Job cuts this big are usually from catastrophic economic downturns and are super rare. I believe the single largest corporate layoff was in 1993 when IBM cut 60,000 jobs. Or when Sears went under and took 50k jobs with it. Or during the "Great Recession" when companies like GM and Citi were slashing their workforce like mad.

 

[Jinxed]

The lack of humanity shown in these treads is absolutely gross. Those of us that are overseas are getting a good look at how corrupt and full of lies your current government and businesses are.

I think that those that are overseas need to start worrying about their own governments and how they deal with immigrants before our shit lol

It's never a good time to lose a job but this time of the year is even worst...

 

[DavidGzz]

I agree to make it just healthy food, so we are not contributing to Obesity. But there is no way 40 million people can't get a job and need gov support to eat. And maybe stop giving welfare to people in the country illegally.

Maybe you have another source, but I just googled and it said that illegal immigrants do not qualify for food stamps. So where are you seeing this? They work for their money. Where I live it's the poor white people who are on them and are also begging near Walmart.

 

[ForAcademicPurposes]

When you work for a giant son of a bitch organization regardless of where you are in the world, I can only ask, what did you expect?

 

[Rentahamster]

I would imagine, if we were to eliminate SNAP crime would take a huge bump up.

Probably. Desperation and hunger leads to desperate measures for some people.

Let's take 1/3 the number of people on SNAP. Do you think there are that many jobs available? Because you now have an overglut of people applying for jobs, this drives wages down (supply and demand).

Unemployment is pretty low now, so there aren't that many jobs available at the moment. I'm not sure how big of an effect this would be, however, since many SNAP users already do have a job, and many of them also can't get a job due to disability.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if the government paid for training (they will pay up to a point). What if the government paid for blue collar training and opened businesses. The business would operate to recoup the losses interned through the training program. Once this is done, you offload the businesses to these people with surveys going out to customers to see how the program is working out.

It can even go so far as to state, in order to be on snap, we are entering you into a training course. Select what employment you are interested in. Put the Labor Department in charge of it.

You are already required to be undergoing training or looking for a job if you're using SNAP.

https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap-et

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Maybe you have another source, but I just googled and it said that illegal immigrants do not qualify for food stamps. So where are you seeing this? They work for their money. Where I live it's the poor white people who are on them and are also begging near Walmart.

Just did a google search and AI came up with this. Not sure how accurate it is. So maybe the food chart takes into account state level food programs.


Who may be eligible
In contrast, certain lawfully present immigrants may be eligible for SNAP benefits, but eligibility rules vary depending on their specific immigration status, age, and how long they have been in the country. Some of the "qualified non-citizens" include:

• Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs)
• Refugees and asylees
• Victims of human trafficking
• Cuban and Haitian entrants

Benefits for mixed-status families
A family with both citizen and non-citizen members, known as a "mixed-status" household, may still be able to receive food stamps. In these cases, only the eligible members of the family receive the benefits, and the income and resources of the ineligible family members are counted to determine the household's total benefit amount.

State-level programs
Some states have explored or implemented their own food assistance programs to fill this gap. These programs use state, rather than federal, funding to provide food benefits to individuals who do not qualify for federal SNAP due to their immigration status. For example, Oregon is considering a "Food for All Oregonians" program for specific age groups. Eligibility for these state programs varies depending on local laws.

 

[Facism]

Got friends who warehouse for amazon in the UK and they've dumped all their British and European staff for Hindus on work visas. Absolute nightmare to manage.

 

[Saber]

Hopefully the people from the Rings of Power are among them.

 

[Dev1lXYZ]

I've been going on interviews for MONTHS trying to find a job and have had zero successes. My credit cards are maxed out and seeing things like this just scare me even more. Great, more competition in a jobs market that is already abysmal in my area. We have an Amazon center here in town and they haven't been hiring in months. That was their bonus for coming to Tallahassee in the first place! The city paid out to incentivize they even come here. Whatever the reason is, I think it simply boils down to no one has the money to spend frivolously nearly as much as they used to.

Another barometer that I have touched upon is UPS and Fed Ex. Normally, they hire seasonal drivers for the holidays and the advertised jobs posted just three days ago have since been removed and not fulfilled. That means they were yanked in the past 24-48 hours since the search engine crawlers went over them from the initial postings. No need for drivers when people aren't able to buy shit.

I think the potential of shit happening may be right around the corner and with things like SNAP benefits being delayed or possibly outright cancelled is only making a desperate situation worse. The country is broke, the workers are broke, and the corporations are in survival mode trying to keep their stocks from falling like a rock.

 

[Davey Cakes]

Nah, just the useless paper pushers and OF girls.

Learn to plumb!

If people don't have jobs then they can't afford to pay plumbers. If everyone's a plumber, then wages for plumbers will drop.

Just because a job is "safe from AI" doesn't mean it won't also be impacted negatively.

People need to go into the construction business, particular for data centers. That's where we're headed. Building the houses for AI, funded by tech oligarch billionaires.

 

[TDiddyLive]

I don't want folks cut off from food.

What I DO want is for that food to be nothing but fresh veggies/fruit, rice, beans, specific cuts of meat, whole milk, certain types of bread/flour.

No alcohol, no soda, no candy, no high fructose corn syrup crap, no sugar bomb cereal.

Just wholesome basic food staples that keep you healthy and fed.

There are lots of other things I would make contingent with access to food stamps, but I think the above is the most reasonable and hard to argue against (in good faith).

You do know we had that, right? It used to be you could only select certain foods for use on food stamps, like no prepared food like fast food, frozen dinners, or ready to eat hot chickens at the market. Even categories of food were selective, like if you wanted cereal Cheerios was fine but Frosted Flakes wasn't.

With the transition to EBT cards they killed most of the restrictions, like now being able to use it for fast food. And technically you can't buy alcohol with EBT, but shady mom and pop grocery stores that don't use inventoried bar codes just ring it up at the dollar amount and it gets labeled as grocery as far as the government can see.

One party felt those restrictions were shaming poor people so this is the end result.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

One party felt those restrictions were shaming poor people so this is the end result.

And shaming people should be done. If an idiot cant figure it out, then someone needs to come in and point them in the right direction. Thats how life works, especially if one side is the giving side. If they are going to spend time and money helping, they want to see results. If it's not helping or the person in need doesnt give a shit, then what's the point?

It's no different than doing lousy in school, at work, or home life. If you do something stupid, people notice and call you out. Then you got to change and get on the right track. If a student is failing class and needs after school tutoring to pass, the point is they work together to improve on that subject matter and improve grades. The kid doesn't just do what he feels like like goofing around doing gym stuff if he needs help in math class.

 

[Ozzie666]

Makes me wonder, the more AI comes into play. The more these trillion dollar companies lay off people. Who is going to buy your stuff and how are people going to make money in general? how are companies going to grow? you can only lay off so many people.

 

[Forth]

Makes me wonder, the more AI comes into play. The more these trillion dollar companies lay off people. Who is going to buy your stuff and how are people going to make money in general? how are companies going to grow? you can only lay off so many people.

I know of families who don't work and an Amazon delivery driver is at their door every day with a Just Eat driver there every night.

 

[Trickster]

Makes me wonder, the more AI comes into play. The more these trillion dollar companies lay off people. Who is going to buy your stuff and how are people going to make money in general? how are companies going to grow? you can only lay off so many people.

A lot of this is really just due to the massive overhiring that happened during covid. For context - it took Amazon 20+ years to hire 800k, and then in 2020 they hired another 500k. And then another 300k in 2021.

That's a massive increase in employees in a very short timespan, which outpaced the growth of the actual financials of the company.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

A lot of this is really just due to the massive overhiring that happened during covid. For context - it took Amazon 20+ years to hire 800k, and then in 2020 they hired another 500k. And then another 300k in 2021.

That's a massive increase in employees in a very short timespan, which outpaced the growth of the actual financials of the company.

The bigger a company gets, the more shitty employees you get too because there is no way that many people getting hired are appropriately screened through hardcore interviews. There's also only so many really good workers out there. A company can only hire so many of them. A lot of tech companies, gov, or labour heavy companies like retailers need to hire a lot of people fast to ramp up and hope they can get good at the job as they go. It's like hiring to just get a body on the job and hope it all works out. Companies that are small can take their time cherry picking the best candidate they got sometimes taking months of screening, interviewing or even starting over just to fill one spot.

So any company who ramps up fast with shit loads of new hires will always also fire shit loads of deadweight after things settle down and they go over the numbers and production. But a key benefit for coasters is being among these giant masses is it's easier to fly under the radar hoping nobody notices. I dont see how any company with so many people in offices, warehouses or stores with 1,000s or 10,000s or in Walmart or Amazon hav 1,000,000+ employees can be efficiently tracked.

But an office of only 50 people sure can right down the lowest level college grad who just got hired.

 

[JeTmAn81]

A lot of this is really just due to the massive overhiring that happened during covid. For context - it took Amazon 20+ years to hire 800k, and then in 2020 they hired another 500k. And then another 300k in 2021.

That's a massive increase in employees in a very short timespan, which outpaced the growth of the actual financials of the company.

Lol these numbers. The majority of those hires were in the warehouse. These are cuts to Amazon corporate, where the total employee count isn't much above 300k.

 

[jason10mm]

Except I'm not even in the States, just noticing people from Europe/UK shitting on the States when they have absolutely no business too. They should worry about themselves first.

Thanks for the laugh as well

Everyone shits on the states until they need a few nuclear powered aircraft carriers to solve a problem.....

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Except I'm not even in the States, just noticing people from Europe/UK shitting on the States when they have absolutely no business too. They should worry about themselves first.

Thanks for the laugh as well

Everyone shits on the states until they need a few nuclear powered aircraft carriers to solve a problem.....

100% true.

Every country has enough problems, but the US is always expected to be numero uno in helping other countries. Though to be fair, they often do it to themselves getting out there telling the world every skirmish around the world they always got their shit loads of soldiers, jets and patriot missile warships ready to go and take down evil once and for all.

Even just this week in stock markets everyone is watching what the US does first. They reduced 25 pts. Then Canada did the same thing in the afternoon follow the leader. You'll never get the world going first and waiting for the US to do their rate changes last.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

And shaming people should be done. If an idiot cant figure it out, then someone needs to come in and point them in the right direction. Thats how life works, especially if one side is the giving side. If they are going to spend time and money helping, they want to see results. If it's not helping or the person in need doesnt give a shit, then what's the point?

It's no different than doing lousy in school, at work, or home life. If you do something stupid, people notice and call you out. Then you got to change and get on the right track. If a student is failing class and needs after school tutoring to pass, the point is they work together to improve on that subject matter and improve grades. The kid doesn't just do what he feels like like goofing around doing gym stuff if he needs help in math class.

I don't understand where your vitriol towards the poor comes from.

 

[Yoshichan]

and the stock soars

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I don't understand where your vitriol towards the poor comes from.

Not true at all.

If someone or a family is poor, but good people not causing trouble or being lazy leaching off people, what's there to bring up?

It's trouble makers and lazy asses that keep society down trying to grease through life off the gov and hardworking people's taxes. Why should that be tolerated?

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Not true at all.

If someone or a family is poor, but good people not causing trouble or being lazy leaching off people, what's there to bring up?

It's trouble makers and lazy asses that keep society down trying to grease through life off the gov and hardworking people's taxes. Why should that be tolerated?

Except you're talking about blanket shaming aren't you. Fuck all to do with distuingishing between trouble makers and good people

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Except you're talking about blanket shaming aren't you. Fuck all to do with distuingishing between trouble makers and good people

Maybe you should read the posts between Tdiddy and myself where the shaming had to do with food perks which seemed to change from healthy food choices to seemingly anything goes, since trying to restrict food perks to only healthy food is some kind of shaming.

And in that example, I'd agree. If someone is getting free money or stamps for food, why would it make sense for them to use it and buy pop and chocolate bars or any other junk?

To guide them in the right path of choosing good food, the right choice is to limit the free perks to healthier options. And if that means shaming, too bad.

And if someone is still getting free stuff or money off people's backs and still not respecting the process, then too bad. Some shaming could do them some good to improve and get back on track.

Think of it like a lazy kid at home. They want mom and dad to keep paying for stuff. At some point, most parents will say get a PT job and buy your own clothes or video games. If the kid doesnt, its not like mom and dad will kick them out of the house. But if you need to get some kids to man up, sometimes the parents have to yell at them to smarten up. Parents will always give their kid some money to buy stuff, but if they take that money and do something stupid and not agreed upon, thats when fireworks happen. And if the parents have to go the extra mile to make him/her an example, then it can happen publicly at the mall.

Lesson learned. If someone cant figure it out, then learn from others. If the person still messes up, purposely tries to keep taking advantage, and has no respect for other people's time and money, then guess what? It's example time.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Maybe you should read the posts between Tdiddy and myself where the shaming had to do with food perks which seemed to change from healthy food choices to seemingly anything goes, since trying to restrict food perks to only healthy food is some kind of shaming.

I did. And because it is shaming. It's not cheaper or more efficient to limit them, nor is it a solution or means to fixing the health and obesisty crisis. It's a punishment based on their position becuase you treat it as a luxury. An ultimately stupid conservative idea.

And in that example, I'd agree. If someone is getting free money or stamps for food, why would it make sense for them to use it and buy pop and chocolate bars or any other junk?

For their own mental well being. Let them live jesus christ.

To guide them in the right path of choosing good food, the right choice is to limit the free perks to healthier options. And if that means shaming, too bad.

Does this nanny state mentality only apply to those on stamps or nah? Since you care so much about betterment. Because it's not the absolute poors driving those obesisty statistics.

And if someone is still getting free stuff or money off people's backs and still not respecting the process, then too bad. Some shaming could do them some good to improve and get back on track.

Respecting what process? Again, you're talking about blanket bans. Who are you talking about here? What rules are they breaking?

Think of it like a lazy kid at home. They want mom and dad to keep paying for stuff. At some point, most parents will say get a PT job and buy your own clothes or video games. If the kid doesnt, its not like mom and dad will kick them out of the house. But if you need to get some kids to man up, sometimes the parents have to yell at them to smarten up. Parents will always give their kid some money to buy stuff, but if they take that money and do something stupid and not agreed upon, thats when fireworks happen. And if the parents have to go the extra mile to make him/her an example, then it can happen publicly at the mall.

Lesson learned. If someone cant figure it out, then learn from others. If the person still messes up, purposely tries to keep taking advantage, and has no respect for other people's time and money, then guess what? It's example time.

Lol fuck off wiht these stupid lazy child anologies. Get out of your bubble my man. Not all those 40 odd million rely on stamps because they're lazy as fuck. Fuck me the elitism

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I did. And because it is shaming. It's not cheaper or more efficient to limit them, nor is it a solution or means to fixing the health and obesisty crisis. It's a punishment based on their position becuase you treat it as a luxury. An ultimately stupid conservative idea.



For their own mental well being. Let them live jesus christ.



Does this nanny state mentality only apply to those on stamps or nah? Since you care so much about betterment. Because it's not the absolute poors driving those obesisty statistics.



Respecting what process? Again, you're talking about blanket bans. Who are you talking about here? What rules are they breaking?


Lol fuck off wiht these stupid lazy child anologies. Get out of your bubble my man. Not all those 40 odd million rely on stamps because they're lazy as fuck. Fuck me the elitism

Too bad. Thats how life works.

I said it one of these posts in this thread or another that when it comes to social assistance people in need due to health reasons or being handicap are different situations. But a shit ton of people are able bodied and able minded to do better. If they dont, then they get whatever the gov hands them to get by. Which is in reality just other taxpayers money who work and pay a lot more tax into the pool.

If a lot of people want to do better, have some initiative and have some respect what other people are trying to do with handouts and food guidelines.

In other words, have some respect for other people's time, money and advice. They are trying to help out. Dont treat it as an entitled free for all.

A good first step to helping health is limiting food perks to healthier choices. They probably feel like crap and companies dont want to hire slobby looking people too. Thats why you usually dont see poor people being ultra fit. Improving health will lead to better outcomes. For people who have more money who cares what they eat. They can afford to buy whatever they want and have better health plans if something does go wrong. It's their money, not someone elses.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Too bad. Thats how life works.

The irony of this comment when the way that life works is that goverment assistance is unavoidable if you want to keep your privilaged life. Our society isn't structured where even all able bodied people are able to grind and succeed. They have to fail and we're always going to have a percentage that have to stay there.

Let those people live a dignified life and stop overvaluing your own worth in the system to dicate their terms. It's much better for everyone to keep them happy and not miserable.

 

[TDiddyLive]

I did. And because it is shaming. It's not cheaper or more efficient to limit them, nor is it a solution or means to fixing the health and obesisty crisis. It's a punishment based on their position becuase you treat it as a luxury. An ultimately stupid conservative idea.

It is a luxury. Having someone prepare food for you, even if it's just fast food, is a luxury. Eating tasty food and snacks that don't provide nutritional value is a luxury. If you have the money for those luxuries, have at it. But taxpayers should not be stuck with the bill. If you can't provide on your own then the taxpayers should only be purchasing you food that will keep you from going hungry and have the nutrients to help keep you healthy. Self made meals are a lot cheaper than food prepared by other people. Healthy foods are generally less expensive than junk. People want the labor done for them and the unhealthy foods. Taxpayers shouldn't pay for a want but understand paying for a need.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

It is a luxury. Having someone prepare food for you, even if it's just fast food, is a luxury. Eating tasty food and snacks that don't provide nutritional value is a luxury. If you have the money for those luxuries, have at it. But taxpayers should not be stuck with the bill. If you can't provide on your own then the taxpayers should only be purchasing you food that will keep you from going hungry and have the nutrients to help keep you healthy. Self made meals are a lot cheaper than food prepared by other people. Healthy foods are generally less expensive than junk. People want the labor done for them and the unhealthy foods. Taxpayers shouldn't pay for a want but understand paying for a need.

So you're okay with paying more into the system to improve the logistical and administrive costs assossiated with meeting peoples needs? Because it will cost more.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

It is a luxury. Having someone prepare food for you, even if it's just fast food, is a luxury. Eating tasty food and snacks that don't provide nutritional value is a luxury. If you have the money for those luxuries, have at it. But taxpayers should not be stuck with the bill. If you can't provide on your own then the taxpayers should only be purchasing you food that will keep you from going hungry and have the nutrients to help keep you healthy. Self made meals are a lot cheaper than food prepared by other people. Healthy foods are generally less expensive than junk. People want the labor done for them and the unhealthy foods. Taxpayers shouldn't pay for a want but understand paying for a need.

Exactly.

Some people have more effort to do the right thing, some dont. And even when the gov, a teacher at school or boss at work gives some good advice, some will do it, some wont.

As for your post about food costs and home cooking vs fast food, no doubt thats true. Again, it comes down to if someone wants to eat healthier and save a few bucks slogging it cooking or just buy as much junk at the grocery store down the street.

I can afford to eat out every day for all meals if I wanted to. I wouldnt even need a fridge. But I dont. I eat out for lunch almost every day because I dont want to brown bag it. But for dinner I cook myself probably 90% of the time when I could just grab some drive through on the way home. But I know for sake of saving money and eating better than a greasy bag of burger and fries or an overpriced pizza, it takes some time to get home, cook or making a rack of chicken in the oven for 50 minutes. A couple months ago (I love stuff like macaroni salad), I even just said fuck it and I'll make my own. Read a recipe online, got the ingredients and my first batch was huge, tasted good (the second batch was better as I didnt put enough vinegar or pickle juice the first time), and cheap. Heck, you cant even eat it right away because after it's done you got to chill it overnight. But thats ok, I'll make it and test it tomorrow.

Problem is some poor people lack work ethic. That's why so many they are in the hole they are.

You can tell. How? Just drive by a poorer area and I guarantee you they mow their lawns and shovel the snow less often and it looks rattier even though youd surely get more people at home with no job. If anyone has time to do some errands around the house, it's unemployed people at home. But in a typical middle class or better area, things will be done much better despite the parents still working 9-5.

 

[Haint]

Honestly surprised the cuts took this long and aren't in the 100's of thousands, all of these mega cap companies have so many fake jobs that do literally nothing but have meetings about sending emails, and make meaningless reports and power points about nothing.

 

[Singular7]

I agree with this.

For all the US people claiming to be broke or homeless, it's rare you see people starving to death. If anything, it sure seems a lot of broke people are actually fat asses like they are eating too much. The problem for a lot of broke people seems to be either housing cost issues or drug problems or they cant find a good stable job for reasons xyz.

With the newest phone and 80" OLEDs too

 

[calico]

Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of Fudge Rounds.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Honestly surprised the cuts took this long and aren't in the 100's of thousands, all of these mega cap companies have so many fake jobs that do literally nothing but have meetings about sending emails, and make meaningless reports and power points about nothing.

A lot of tech companies go on hiring sprees because they got a lot of money. And they think due to growth and scaling they need to over hire. Most companies and industries arent like this.

I dont know how true this is, but I remember reading info that some of these giant tech companies also play the bravado game. They purposely over hire so they can show Wall St and other tech companies they got more workers. So if they got more workers, it means their CEO can brag their company is bigger and better. That discussion I've seen might be total BS. But you'd never see that kind of rumour for non-tech companies to begin with.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Amazon just killed earnings after hours. Stock up over 10%.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-just-explained-why-laid-224506130.html

Amazon just explained why it laid off 14,000 workers. It's not what you expected
Clare Duffy, CNN
Thu, October 30, 2025 at 6:45 PM EDT 1 min read

Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy's explanation for why the company is cutting 14,000 employees? Not money. Not even AI, but "culture."

The layoff announcement this week was "not really financially driven, and it's not even really AI driven, not right now. It's culture," Jassy said in response to an analyst question on the company's earnings call Thursday. Amazon's quarterly sales grew 13% year-on-year to $180 billion.

Jassy explained that as Amazon added headcount, locations and lines of business in recent years, "you end up with a lot more people than what you had before, and you end up with a lot more layers … sometimes without realizing it, you can weaken the ownership of the people that you have who are doing the actual work."

Amazon's headcount peaked at more than 1.6 million in 2021; it ended last year with around 1.5 million employees, according to SEC filings.

"It can lead to slowing you down as a leadership team," he said. "We are committed to operating like the world's largest startup, and … that means removing layers."

Although Amazon said this week that the layoffs were more about staying "nimble" in anticipation of future AI efficiencies, the layoffs have nonetheless spurred fears about technology replacing human workers. Amazon (AMZN) shares climbed 13% after-hours following the earnings report.

 

[jason10mm]

If its all the blue hairs they are cleaning out then im expecting a Blue Sky total meltdown.

 

[BlackTron]

I agree to make it just healthy food, so we are not contributing to Obesity. But there is no way 40 million people can't get a job and need gov support to eat. And maybe stop giving welfare to people in the country illegally.

Many "illegal households" have U.S. born kids, who automatically qualify for all kinds of stuff including Medicaid that will pump those numbers. That becomes a birthright citizenship debate.

The food stamps are based on income, for example a retired person with an average social security check might qualify but only receive about $30 a month. The pregnant 22 year old without a job will get hundreds more. Can't say I'm a fan of cutting programs to make room for tax breaks.

 

[winjer]

Amazon Layoffs Spell Doom for Lord of the Rings MMO

It's no secret that Amazon Games had been working on some version of a Lord of the Rings MMO, although the game had already been cancelled once due to contract disputes, and the second version, which was being worked on in conjunction with Embracer, hasn't been seen or heard from in a while. The recent news of Amazon's mass layoffs shift towards casual games, and specifically away from MMOs and AAA games, raised questions about the future of the Lord of the Rings MMO, however Amazon had—and still hasn't—made an official proclamation regarding the game's demise.

Ashley Amrine, a software engineer affected by those Amazon Gaming layoffs has more or less confirmed, in a now-deleted LinkedIn post (via Rock Paper Shotgun), that the Lord of the Rings MMO has seemingly been cancelled. In her post addressing the fact that she had been laid off, Ashleigh Amrine, a former engineer at Amazon Games, wrote: "This morning I was part of the layoffs at Amazon Games, alongside my incredibly talented peers on New World and our fledgling Lord of the Rings game (y'all would have loved it)." Her revelation suggests that it would still have been a while before the new MMO launched, but it was previously described as "open-world MMO adventure in a persistent world set in Middle-earth, featuring the beloved stories of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings literary trilogy" when it was first announced. The team working on the game was the same one that had been responsible for New World, which, despite its hiccups, seemed to have largely been a success, managing to hold onto a fairly impressive ~35,000 daily players on Steam alone.