Posts by darthfader

Only 100 people would probably doom the species due to lack of genetic diversity or a disease. The only chance for their survival would be a coordinated "breeding" campaign using strict genetic selection and probably go as far as to coordinate contact between individuals in order to properly manage the spread of disease (you want to encourage some virii to spread).

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Why a millionaire wants autoworkers to take a pay cut

by darthfader in

13 years ago

interesting article.

http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/why-millionaire-wants-autoworkers-pay-cut-160603932.html.

the former head of the obama administration's auto task force says he should have pushed the united auto workers for steeper sacrifices in the general motors bailout, including wage cuts.

darthfader 13 years ago

Interesting Article

http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/why-millionaire-wants-autoworkers-pay-cut-160603932.html

The former head of the Obama administration's auto task force says he should have pushed the United Auto Workers for steeper sacrifices in the General Motors bailout, including wage cuts. The people earning $9 a hour in a suburban Detroit GM plant would disagree.
Former auto czar and wealthy Wall Street financier Steven Rattner told a luncheon in Detroit on Thursday that while the $50 billion GM bailout was successful, "we should have asked the UAW to do a bit more. We did not ask any UAW member to take a cut in their pay." He also said that "friends on Wall Street" were concerned by GM's earnings and communications with the market, pushing the stock down to a level that would lose the goverment $14 billion if it sold its shares today.

Meanwhile, at General Motors' Orion Township, Mich., plant about 45 minutes away from where Rattner spoke, there are three tiers of hourly workers. Roughly 900 workers at the top tier, the most senior UAW workers, make $29 an hour, a rate unchanged since 2008. Another 500 or so UAW workers are paid about $16 an hour — a rate, adjusted for inflation, equal to the famed $5 a day Henry Ford started paying his workers in 1914.

And at the bottom scale are 200-odd workers technically employed by an outside supplier but who work in the plant moving parts to the assembly line, jobs once done by GM workers paid $29 an hour. The contractors' pay: $9 an hour with no health care, a rate which over a year's work would leave them below the poverty level for a family of four.

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10

Hippo (For those who could use a good laugh.)

by leavingwt in

14 years ago

.

someone sent me this video, with the description: "taco bell has this effect on me.".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ywmbtkxgea.

13 years ago

darthfader 14 years ago

LOL thanks for sharing... I think

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10

Six Waltons Have More Wealth Than the Bottom 30 % of Americans

by darthfader in

14 years ago

all i can say is.... wow..... http://news.yahoo.com/six-waltons-more-wealth-bottom-30-americans-182819449.html.

different people will take this different ways, but jeffrey goldberg tells us that six members of the walton family (the original owners of walmart) have more wealth than the bottom 30 % of americans.

in 2007, according to the labor economist sylvia allegretto, the six walton family members on the forbes 400 had a net worth equal to the bottom 30 percent of all americans.. .

14 years ago

darthfader 14 years ago

Interesting point -- it seems that the reason for taking these policies out was to reduce tax burdens -- which the IRS closed that loophole in the 90's:

Until the mid-1990s, Walmart took out corporate-owned life insurance policies on its employees including "low-level" employees such as janitors, cashiers, and stockers. This type of insurance is usually purchased to cover a company against financial loss when a high-ranking employee (i.e. management) dies, and is usually known as "Key Man Insurance." Critics derided Walmart as buying what they called "Dead Peasants Insurance" or "Janitor Insurance." Critics, as well as the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, charge that the company was trying to profit from the deaths of its employees, and take advantage of the tax law which allowed it to deduct the premiums. The practice was stopped in the mid-1990s when the federal government closed the tax deduction and began to pursue Walmart for back taxes. [ 117 ]

cheers

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10

Six Waltons Have More Wealth Than the Bottom 30 % of Americans

by darthfader in

14 years ago

all i can say is.... wow..... http://news.yahoo.com/six-waltons-more-wealth-bottom-30-americans-182819449.html.

different people will take this different ways, but jeffrey goldberg tells us that six members of the walton family (the original owners of walmart) have more wealth than the bottom 30 % of americans.

in 2007, according to the labor economist sylvia allegretto, the six walton family members on the forbes 400 had a net worth equal to the bottom 30 percent of all americans.. .

14 years ago

darthfader 14 years ago

Im not sure I beleive that about the life insurance though...

Someone just cant take out an insurance policy on someone else without their permission.

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10

Six Waltons Have More Wealth Than the Bottom 30 % of Americans

by darthfader in

14 years ago

all i can say is.... wow..... http://news.yahoo.com/six-waltons-more-wealth-bottom-30-americans-182819449.html.

different people will take this different ways, but jeffrey goldberg tells us that six members of the walton family (the original owners of walmart) have more wealth than the bottom 30 % of americans.

in 2007, according to the labor economist sylvia allegretto, the six walton family members on the forbes 400 had a net worth equal to the bottom 30 percent of all americans.. .

14 years ago

darthfader 14 years ago

I'll bet that a bottom 30% spend a larger amount of their income at Walmart than the "upper" 70%....

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10

Six Waltons Have More Wealth Than the Bottom 30 % of Americans

by darthfader in

14 years ago

all i can say is.... wow..... http://news.yahoo.com/six-waltons-more-wealth-bottom-30-americans-182819449.html.

different people will take this different ways, but jeffrey goldberg tells us that six members of the walton family (the original owners of walmart) have more wealth than the bottom 30 % of americans.

in 2007, according to the labor economist sylvia allegretto, the six walton family members on the forbes 400 had a net worth equal to the bottom 30 percent of all americans.. .

14 years ago

darthfader 14 years ago

All I can say is.... wow....

http://news.yahoo.com/six-waltons-more-wealth-bottom-30-americans-182819449.html

Different people will take this different ways, but Jeffrey Goldberg tells us that six members of the Walton family (the original owners of WalMart) have more wealth than the bottom 30 % of Americans. Here's where he says it:

In 2007, according to the labor economist Sylvia Allegretto , the six Walton family members on the Forbes 400 had a net worth equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans.

And given that he quotes us here at Forbes on the point, he's almost certainly right.

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13

Do Movie Ratings Make Any Sense to You?

by TD in

14 years ago

my wife and i have a "movie night" once a week where we watch two movies.

she picks one and i pick one.

here's the two movies we watched tonight and their ratings.. .

14 years ago

darthfader 14 years ago

I'm a bit surprised by the "G" rating of Andromeda Strain... The farther back you go, the more strict most if the MPAA ratings are. I cant count the number of movies that has an "R" rating back in the 70's or 80's that have similar movies out now that are "PG" or "PG-13".

cheers

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