I'm still happy with my HSA.

No it certainly does not, unless you think "anecdote" == "data".

(I wish you wouldn't snip so closely)

If there were no promise, I'd have taken a hike. I don't like significant risk unless there is a significant reward. The reward of "back pay" doesn't cut it. Of course if there is no other choice, it's no longer a risk.

Me? Of course not. I love life. I want everyone to be happy. Leaching off someone else is not the way to be happy. In case you hadn't noticed, Demonicrats aren't a happy bunch.

directly,=20

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Better idea, workfare only.

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Bingo! That leaves only the severely incompetent.

Ding ding ding! Yup, you got that one right, at least for engineering jobs. But humans come "highly variable" (some noticeably higher than others), like it or not. Indeed, some of the most successful businessmen out there are "highly variable" -- see, e.g., Steve Jobs or Larry Ellison or T. J. Rodgers. It's just part of the human condition, and it isn't a good indicator for how

Oh, they paid for the drug test -- you just had to go to one on their "approved" list, one of which was in the same town I was living in at the time.

It's particularly silly when there's a pre-hiring drug test but not ongoing random testing: I have to believe there are plenty of people at Tek today who regularly use drugs!

Perhaps fewer carcinogens than BBQed burgers?

---Joel

Cigarettes,=20

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system...

I won't speak for Jeorg, but i sure have; i am seeing more of it = recently.=20 It kind of tracks unemployment.

OK, but I claim your original statment was only anecdotal as well.

Sure, and I wouldn't have blamed you; it's just another anecdote about how not everyone views their jobs as little more than a means to milk their employers.

You kinda come off to me as being rather angry at times, but I realize that can happen with straight text and expect people don't get that impression if they meet you in person.

Some aren't, certainly; I'm not convinced there are necessarily more unhappy democrats than republicans, though.

Heck, I bet some of those welfare abusers we've postulated quite happy and vote democrat 100% of the time! ;-)

---Joel

But Steve Jobs isn't hiring Steve Jobs. He's hiring an engineer to slog circuits. Actually, by all accounts, it is a *VERY* good indicator. That's precisely why it's used.

I've never had a random test. I probably wouldn't work in such a place, either.

At least BBQ tastes better than my shoes (though I'm not a huge BBQ fan, either).

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year)?

I think it is too long. 1) it does not mater much at the low end of the = job=20 market, duds wont be kept long enough to pay for hiring costs and the tax= =20 difference is trivial. 2) at the middle range it is too long, it overly=20 encourages keeping employees that are marginal too long. 3) at the high=20 end it is foolish from the git go, high end prospects are worth filtering= =20 to get the best fits before hiring.

Try 3 months maybe.

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I am not so sure. I have good reason to expect that much of this testing= =20 is the result of HR people trying to CYA (but going insanely overboard=20 doing it). =20

I daresay that, though i am more than a bit demanding in my professional=20 relationships, no one gives me more than trivial guff over it because i=20 am usually on point (amphibole intended).

And there are way too many for all the high level government jobs or TV reporters. The worst cases always need Teleprompters.

Time to ditch stuff like that TV subscription and cell phone plan then :-)

Infrastructure programs can make sense, if to some degree. But eventually we must lat industry take over and creat stuff our country can export. Else the trade deficit just keeps growing and that erodes things.

I'd have not problem sweeping the street ourselves _if_ the respective tax goes away. However, the tax remained and the sweeper never comes anymore. So now we and the neighbors are cleaning the street ourselves and we also pay the tax for an imaginary service.

I do believe in some alternate energy. Wind, solar, but only where that makes sense and is economically sound. It must be able to live sans subsidy in due course.

that

Have to disagree here. I know people who were very committed but then it turned out the other party was not, and had managed to quickly put a serious financial crimp into the relationship. One spouse was then left holding the bag WRT the financial mess.

A typical scenario: Main breadwinner suddenly let's it all go, quits job, tips bottle, mortgage payments not made anymore, etc. There's also other scenarios that have played out, such as someone in the family secretly and seriously getting into gambling addiction. By the time it's discovered the damage has often been done.

A lot of times people are hired for their personality. Considerations like "Can this person get along in a team?" or "Can this person manage?".

I know some people whom I would not hire if any sort of project management or team management was involved. Smart folks, but too abrasive in nature.

Nukes make a lot of sense and can certainly live sans-subsidies...

I agree with your sentiments, although we might quibble on just how long "due course" is...

The Government Motors (Chevy) Volt has a system designed wherein the internal combustion engine can directly power the wheels... but there's no accomodation for it to recharge the batteries. How silly is that?

---Joel

They do, but first we must solve the problem of spent fuel disposal. Otherwise it's worse than the outrageous spending spree right now, we'd live on the backs of our children because they end up paying the piper for us.

Really? Then my faith in the engineering capabilities in the automotive industry has just slid down another notch :-(

Maybe they should get back to the olden days where companies bought cars from Japan and slapped a domestic brand sticker on it.

Fair point.

I got that from Car & Driver, and apparently it's not quite as bad as it first sounds... but it's still not impressive. See:

---Joel

That looks like they are anticipating driver behavior that isn't there. A driver does not want to look for an outlet in the next town and be forced to drink a Starbucks until topped off because there's nothing else to do. IMHO the goal of hybrids should be that they can run mostly on batteries once the car gets into stop-and-go city traffic. And with the battery at 30% that's not going to happen.

Maybe they should spend some more time talking to Prius drivers? Even if their unions would bristle at the thought ... :-)