Aren't you glad you're not useless? (A brief grassroots rant)

The CEL is on in this guy's four-year-old Focus, for which he is still making payments, and the dealer told him it would cost $1000 to fix it, so he has to take his sister's old minivan to the vape shop?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/26/us/feeling-let-down-and-left-behind-with-little-hope-for-better.html?_r=0

Seriously? This is what passes for poor and downtrodden in America these days? Not exactly Grapes-of-Wrath starvation-and-pestilence misery, is it?

Why doesn't he skip the vape shop for a day or two and use the money he saves to order an OBD-II scanner from Amazon and fix his Focus? Or just drive it with the CEL on? The counter girl at my local AutoZone could tell this guy what's wrong with his car FOR FREE. Why is the Times holding him up to me as someone to be pitied - a victim of 21st-century America?

You know how I learned to wrench on cars? Same way you did, probably. I was poor and my car didn't run and I needed it to get to work so that someday I wouldn't be poor anymore.

Finally, in conclusion, get off my lawn. Thanks for reading!

Dude. Calm down and step away from the ledge.

Its the berkeleying NYTimes. Ignore it like nearly everyone else and move on.

Quit smoking, get a haircut, and move to wherever the jobs are.

Stefan (Not Bruce) wrote: Its the berkeleying NYTimes. Ignore it like nearly everyone else and move on.

This. The NYT is irrelevant for almost all Americans. Nothing they print gets me worked up anymore because it is almost always trash that is not even worth reading.

In reply to T.J.:

HEY!

They print a pretty good crossword, DAILY.

(badum-tish)

Still.....I agree that people aren't able to work on their own stuff anymore. Its kinda sad

Its no different than being in IT. Computers are such an integral part of the business world, yet so many are still clueless about it. The information is readily available, but its more interesting to some to read about Vape mods or whatever obscure band you like is doing, etc.

Some get their eyes opened through necessity or desire, most don't. This has been the case since the 50's and has just gotten worse as cars have gotten more reliable.

It is a tough concept, 50 years ago it was best to fix what you have, now you just buy new, sue, or start some BS fundraiser. We are all a part of it and responsible for it. I work with coherent adults (30+ years old) that still have mom and dad handling their business.

If it's a 2.3L duratec ZX3 with a manual I'd be interested in picking it up cheap.

Wait, he also has a $300 Verizon bill "because he lost track of how much video he streamed"??

There are some good points further in the article but all the opening did was remind the reader that people who make bad decisions...make bad decisions. 1) Keep track of that E36 M3. 2) or...maybe don't stream video? 3) You can get an unlimited-talk-text-data smartphone from AT&T for $45/mo and the phone costs $40. I have one. I am posting from it. And I just watched that drag racing Insight video posted here on the same device. And they sell this E36 M3 at WalMart. Surely this guy has been to a WalMart before.

Jesus christ, $300 a month on a phone? That is worse than the car thing IMO. Heck it is MORE than his car payment.

The world is full of guys like that- but I once encountered an extremely rare example, one who was self-aware:

I was filling my beat to E36 M3, dirty MR2 at my local gas station in my terrible Maryland neighborhood outside of Baltimore. Guy in a brand new Chrysler 200 pulls up to the next pump, and hops out- he's well dressed and carrying a new looking smartphone. "Hey man, spare some money for gas?" I'm used to this, happens all the time here, so my response is "how come you're driving a brand new car, with a brand new phone, and can't afford gas?" Usually this gets me a "berkeley you, shiny happy person," but not today. This guy looks at his phone, slumps his shoulders, and goes "maaaaaaan, because I'm a dumbass" with the most sincerity I've ever heard. I gave him some change.

Impressive. Where in MD did you live? Because in high school I too had that at most local gas stations. I learned to tell everyone who approached that "oh sorry I only have a credit card" and thankfully credit cards were just starting to be accepted everywhere (fast food etc) so it was a feasible excuse. In any case why is a grown man in begging money from a 17 year old kid in a primered oldsmobile that looks like a wolverine ate the interior? You think I've got...extra money...just laying around?

Edgewood, between 40 and the basketball courts- it was the only place I could afford to rent a house with a garage!

EDIT: On google maps, it appears the save-a-lot grocery next to the pawn shop went out of business and they put in a Harbor Freight- I left too soon!

Wow the people in that article are like almost like cruel stereotypes of poor people. They've certainly berkeleyed up in huge ways by low-income standards, most notably becoming addicted to nicotine, buying brand-new cars, taking cars to the stealership for repairs other than as a last resort, and carelessness with hyper-expensive mobile data. I get the feeling these people actually aren't making super-terrible money, being properly poor and that dumb at the same time would quickly leave you homeless.

The problem is high schools don't teach Metals I, II, III, and IV any more.

My son who is wrapping up year #3 of a chemistry doctorate called home to tell me he is taking a short required class on how to run the equipment in the student machine shop.

Not sure if this or the potential doctorate makes me proud.

I couldn't love GRM the magazine or the website more, and believe me, I don't like to be the P.C police or anything or the guy who has a problem with everything thing, but I do have a problem with this... I find it a bit offensive that you use terms like “New York" and "Times" for your little descriptions or whatever in the discussions. I myself do not Smoke e-cigs, or drive a Ferd, but I feel sensitivity for people who do, as I am a student living among them, and my Girlfriend is pursuing her masters in the field.

These terms although I'm pretty sure are not even real words, are obviously meant to resemble the words used to describe social leaches who mainly need to get off my lawn, and it appears that they are used on these boards in a joking sense which, as I view it, makes light of people who stream video of dragracing hybrids

American culture puts a tremendous importance on keeping up with Jones' in terms of "Have you watched the latest Game of Thrones?" and "Do you have a sweet vape setup?" and "Have you seen my rad tattoos?"

Being "cheap" is often seen as a negative thing. "I'm trying to fix my alternator and I need some help" isn't seen like "cool man I'll be over with some tools", instead it's "why not pay someone to fix it you cheap SOB?"

Unfortunately, this is being passed down from well-to-do families to their middle-class children, and now ultimately their poor grandchildren. Grandpa, despite a sweet retirement in Florida at age 55 (20 years ago) can still fix a lawnmower in his sleep, but has so much disposable income he can pay someone else to fix his brand new car. His daughter won't touch a wrench because she's grown up where girls don't do that, and his son doesn't have the time working 50 hours a week. Grandpa's grandchildren never learned to wrench because dad was never around to teach and grandpa has lived in Florida since he retired.

So 20 something recent college grad thinks working a skilled-labor job is below him, but can't find work in white-collar America because he lacks experience, now also can't fix his car because he views it like a nuclear reactor or something, but man can this kid tell you all about Game of Thrones.

My dad wasn't the best wage earner. Aside from a few years good money driving bridge girders, my father struggled to find good paying work that he enjoyed. His lack of stable employment necessitated him working on his own vehicles and allowed him to teach me how to work on my own car. That automobiles are actually pretty simple machines (at least those without computers). My dad's daily driver for a few years was a 1980 Jeep CJ7 which I wrenched on and he helped me fix my VW Fox. My stepfather was a good wage earner, and therefore he payed other people to do his dirty work.

When I graduated highschool I had no idea what to do with my life so I got a job changing oil and doing tires. It didn't pay much but man did that experience help later in life.

PHeller wrote: So 20 something recent college grad thinks working a skilled-labor job is below him, but can't find work in white-collar America because he lacks experience, now also can't fix his car because he views it like a nuclear reactor or something, but man can this kid tell you all about Game of Thrones.

I liked this bit so much,I peed a little.

Mostly grew up not far from there. That town is now where near as bad as the article suggests.

I hate people sometimes.

captdownshift wrote: If it's a 2.3L duratec ZX3 with a manual I'd be interested in picking it up cheap.

Best GRM reply yet. 2004 was the last year of that combo.

Jesus christ you could cut the judgementalism in this thread with a steak knife.

Just reacting to the article as presented.

PHeller wrote: So 20 something recent college grad thinks working a skilled-labor job is below him, but can't find work in white-collar America because he lacks experience, now also can't fix his car because he views it like a nuclear reactor or something, but man can this kid tell you all about Game of Thrones.

I laugh at this because that's how I view most of "my" generation. I have a masters degree in project management but I turn wrenches on aircraft full time, and they pay me damn good to do it. Why? Because it was the only job I could get out of school in 2008 when no one wanted some dude fresh out of college with a BS, a Cisco Cert, and help desk only experience. Luckily I had an A&P and trades are always hurting for people.

Meanwhile most of my peers from both college and high school are behind desks hating what they do and complaining incessantly about it while I make quite a bit more than most of them and travel to all the worst places the world has to offer. (It's an "adventure" )

Hell I'm not even that good at the mechanical part since I'm a klutz but I can troubleshoot the E36 M3 out of wiring diagrams, step through the logic of most systems on my aircraft, manage people, and offer inventive solutions to keep aircraft flying when something goes wrong.

Jay wrote: Jesus christ you could cut the judgementalism in this thread with a steak knife.

Yeah, every couple of months we get one of these threads. The typical topics are "kids these days are entitled brats", "nobody knows how to fix stuff anymore", "this is why the nation is declining" and the like.

The reality, of course, is that there have always been idiots and useless people like the one in the article. It's not a new phenomenon.

I don't blame the useless kids as much as I blame their useless parents.