darharrison

joined 1 year ago
[–] darharrison@lemm.ee 15 points 4 months ago

Not the lowest, for sure, but I'm going to put my hat in for auto technicians. Master techs can make over $100K in southern New England but the cost of tools can easily rival college tuition by the time you're a master tech. Everything except proprietary equipment and the car lift needs to be bought by the technician, which can cost thousands of dollars. Health insurance is prohibitively expensive, the flat rate pay system means you only get paid when you complete jobs, and it's an ergonomic nightmare because you're picking up heavy objects and working in cramped areas all day.

As someone who whose fiance was a mechanic until last year, I think it's really disingenuous to hear so many people say that the trades are your fast track to making money. Very little of that $150/ hr that you pay goes to the person working on your car. For every lift the shop has they're taking 80% or more off the top of that $150/ hr, and if the job takes longer than expected the mechanic doesn't make any more money. In fact they're losing money because they're stuck figuring out a solution instead of moving on to the next car.

And don't even get me started on tool loans. It's straight up worse than student loans because they're classified as personal loans. My student loans all hover around 5% interest, but right now personal loans go up to 18% depending on the term. The only saving grace I can think of is that they're usually dischargeable in bankruptcy.

I really could go on all day about how broken it all is because I've lived it secondhand for a while now, and now that I'm trying to gain more of these skills for my classic motorcycle hobby it's all so obvious. Not sure if the other trades like plumbing and welding have the same "take out loans to pay for tools to make money to pay for the loans, then learn more skills within the trade to make more money, and then take out more loans for tools to do the more advanced work" cycle but no one ever mentions this when they talk about how this kind of work is so lucrative.

Don't get me wrong, college is really badly overpriced in the US, but the trades absolutely can be just as expensive once you've made it your career. And I don't want to dissuade people from considering it as a career, either, but it's a monetary risk that you need to really sit down and calculate before you take the plunge, just like college.

[–] darharrison@lemm.ee 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

If you don't care then why are you clogging up the comments by pretending to be the smartest person in the thread

[–] darharrison@lemm.ee 7 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Unfortunately not a new pattern in auto racing - tobacco and later crypto sponsorship out in the open. Sketchy shit, and every "attempt" to ban harmful advertising has loopholes that completely circumvents the initiative. See: Mission Winnow (Marlboro) and whatever Sauber's title sponsor even is.

[–] darharrison@lemm.ee 2 points 6 months ago

Can't say I'd be willing to die on the hill you're on - go off king !!

[–] darharrison@lemm.ee 5 points 6 months ago (2 children)

E Jean Carroll

[–] darharrison@lemm.ee 3 points 6 months ago

If you employed critical thinking for once in your life you'd know

[–] darharrison@lemm.ee 12 points 6 months ago

Do you actually think Bibi is in support of any of those civil rights?

[–] darharrison@lemm.ee 47 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (10 children)

Trump would absolutely make the genocide significantly worse than the track it's currently on if he wins. And he's gonna make life in the US worse too. The "both sides are equally bad" rhetoric has absolutely failed over the last 8 years. If he lost in 2016 the entire world would be on a completely different track and if you don't want to believe it then I'm confident that you don't actually know the differences in policy and ideologies between the Democratic and Republican parties.

And before anyone says I'm accuses me of being a liberal, I'm a libertarian socialist and I'm registered to the Socialist Party of Massachusetts. I voted Bernie in both primaries then Green Party in 2016 (which I've come to regret even though Clinton was going to win my home state by a huge margin) then Biden in 2020. I voted this way in '20 because while Biden ignores socialists Trump wants them all dead.

[–] darharrison@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

In my area I can sometimes find these light blue colored ones that are super rigid, I think they're made of agave? Regardless of the material, I think they're actually just better than plastic for once.

[–] darharrison@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, the marbling is crazy, you can cook it and cook it and you'll never run out of fat in it. I only did a couple minutes on each side though so it was extremely rich. Even a ¼lb was probably a little too much when I had it. Non-hamburger beef is more of a treat to me at this point, I think I enjoy it a lot more when it's a rarer occasion.

[–] darharrison@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, I don't usually like arguing semantics but the serotonin thing grinds my gears since there's so many causes and treatments to depression and serotonin isn't even involved in many situations.

[–] darharrison@lemm.ee 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The most expensive thing I've had that was really notable (as I'm sure I've ordered something pricier and thought nothing of it) was half an A5 wagyu steak from Wegmans. I think it was originally around $250/lb but it was on a manager's special sale. I think it was around $80 for a ½lb, which is genuinely insane to me knowing that manager's special means it's the last chance to buy something before it goes bad.

Anyway, it was really good. A very odd experience though because afterwards I kinda stopped craving/ cooking/ ordering beef for a couple months. It was like I achieved some superlative thing and was just done with the concept of beef for a little bit. A strange reaction to such a positive experience, that said I do still eat beef occasionally.

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