Too much unemployment ???

[Robby Barlow]

Unemployment, in these days of crisis, is a problem that seems to have been overcome brilliantly by my local council. I was lucky enough today to witness the scene in the photograph, 6 guys and 2 trucks were deployed for 1 hour to pump something or another from one manhole to the next.



Of cause you can only see 4, but that is due to the fact that they were taking turns standing around and going for a drink in the bar, top center of the picture.

Now what I'm wondering about is, if all town halls / city councils etc. were to employ double the necessary workforce, would we end up with higher or lower taxes to pay and would unemployment actually go down or up?

[teshannon]

In Philly there would have been 8 plus a couple of supervisors.

[Stillraining]

Ditto here:

I once did a street crossing by myself on a paved two lane busy street.. I Set up signs, Cut the asphalt, trenched to 8', installed trench shoring, did a sewer tap, run the pipe, back-fill, compact, steel plated it switched traffic to the other side and did the same again, then pull the plates one at a time switching traffic again placing cold mix (temp asphalt repair) in the ditch, cleaned the street, pick up signs..
The two flaggers I hired after I was done came up to me after the 10 1/2 hour ordeal and asked me how on earth I could do that all by myself when they had always seen at least 3 and sometimes up to 8 men taking the same amount of time...they had never seen anything like it before and they said they now had a very different view towards what could be done and would be very critical on future jobs toward slackers.

I told them I own the company and its in my interst to do the job as fast as I can..Limit my risk exposure to the public and maximize my profits...Something (most) hourly person's calculates in the other direction...is called Job security.

and it sucks.

I bid 6000.00 for that crossing.


Wish I had one to do every day...

[Cruisingdad]

Hey Robby,

When did the Spanish start employing Portugese!!!

- CD

[Robby Barlow]

Originally Posted by Cruisingdad

When did the Spanish start employing Portugese!!!

Summer sale - "Buy 2 get 4" - increases the possibilities to get 1 working.

[chucklesR]

I want to know if they came back the next day and pumped it back to the original hole.
In America, that's how it works.

[Robby Barlow]

That's the difference between our continents, here normally another team shows up the next day to fix something broken by their predecessors. So during the course of about 2 weeks you'll see the water board, gas & telephone companies, sewers, etc. taking their turn. Outside my house in London I once had this going on for 3 months.

[Cruisingdad]

Originally Posted by Robby Barlow

That's the difference between our continents, here normally another team shows up the next day to fix something broken by their predecessors. So during the course of about 2 weeks you'll see the water board, gas & telephone companies, sewers, etc. taking their turn. Outside my house in London I once had this going on for 3 months.

Is it just me, or does the guy sitting there in the foreground, standing around and scratching his butt, look like Giu?? I have been wondering where he has been. And he is soooo full of it, I can tell you what they were pumping!!!!

- CD

[Robby Barlow]

Sorry CD but I haven't met Giu personally yet, but this guy certainly wasn't Spanish!

[sailingdog]

Nah, can't be...his hair don't got enough grey in it.

Originally Posted by Cruisingdad

Is it just me, or does the guy sitting there in the foreground, standing around and scratching his butt, look like Giu?? I have been wondering where he has been. And he is soooo full of it, I can tell you what they were pumping!!!!

- CD