Remember When
Quote: Dieter
We weren't "supposed" to accept anything larger than a $1 coupon if it wasn't bound into the booklet. Had to be torn out in front of us, preferably by us, or refused.
link to original post
Never knew that. I carried them around in my wallet with the rest of my money and was never questioned about it. But like I said I only used them in a place where I'd been going for 20 years. Everybody abused the food stamp program, it was just too easy. The day of the month that the food stamps came out was a busy day for us because we carted people back and forth to the liquor store all day long and believe me they weren't buying bread and milk.
Quote: DieterQuote: EvenBobQuote: DieterI believe that change was concurrent with the next generation of the family taking over operations, and food stamps being replaced with payment cards.
link to original post
Back in the '80s when I had the cab company I would take food stamps whenever they were offered because I always got a deal and it was better than no money at all. So if the ride was $5 the guy would give me $10 in food stamps and I would accumulate them and take them to my local grocery store and buy groceries. You were supposed to have a special ID but they knew me for years so they never asked me. This kind of thing was done everywhere by merchants who took food stamps for cigarettes, liquor, lottery tickets. Food stamps looked like money and they were money.
link to original post
We weren't "supposed" to accept anything larger than a $1 coupon if it wasn't bound into the booklet. Had to be torn out in front of us, preferably by us, or refused.
$1's could be issued as change, so they were fair if unbound.
Did it happen anyway? Yeah, and then whichever agency checked those things started spot checking us with "secret shoppers" and the like. This demonstrated worry about the wrong kind of fraud, IMO.
Not DT, so I'll stop my political tangent just there, hopefully short of me taking a week off.
link to original post
We were like the only place in the area that would not accept loose stamps above $1. It irritated people to death. Looking back probably because they bought them on the street.
Quote: EvenBobQuote: Dieter
We weren't "supposed" to accept anything larger than a $1 coupon if it wasn't bound into the booklet. Had to be torn out in front of us, preferably by us, or refused.
link to original post
Never knew that. I carried them around in my wallet with the rest of my money and was never questioned about it. But like I said I only used them in a place where I'd been going for 20 years. Everybody abused the food stamp program, it was just too easy. The day of the month that the food stamps came out was a busy day for us because we carted people back and forth to the liquor store all day long and believe me they weren't buying bread and milk.
link to original post
Some of them got sold for cash; some got used to pay for unlicensed day care.
I'm sure a few must have been used in strict accordance with program rules and guidelines.
Quote: Dieter
Some of them got sold for cash; some got used to pay for unlicensed day care.
I'm sure a few must have been used in strict accordance with program rules and guidelines.
link to original post
Some of them probably actually got used for food. A lot of them got sold for cash, I essentially bought them for cash. I traded $5 worth of service for a $10 food stamp. It's one of those issues where everybody's doing it and you're not going to get in trouble so why not. I'd rather get the $10 food stamp than nothing. I had a couple drivers that tried to pay their Op's with food stamps and I didn't stand for that. Op's are what a driver pays for leasing the cab for 12 hours.
Quote: EvenBobQuote: Dieter
Some of them got sold for cash; some got used to pay for unlicensed day care.
I'm sure a few must have been used in strict accordance with program rules and guidelines.
link to original post
Some of them probably actually got used for food. A lot of them got sold for cash, I essentially bought them for cash. I traded $5 worth of service for a $10 food stamp. It's one of those issues where everybody's doing it and you're not going to get in trouble so why not. I'd rather get the $10 food stamp than nothing. I had a couple drivers that tried to pay their Op's with food stamps and I didn't stand for that. Op's are what a driver pays for leasing the cab for 12 hours.
link to original post
The poverty industrial complex runs wide and deep. Food stamps, EIC, WIC it all adds up. Oh yeah also Sec 8. You are talking maybe $20000 per adult per year.
WIC was crazy. V people had a load of those checks and they were good for months but they rushed to cash them at expiration to the point if the store closed 5 min early on expiration day and the person was locked out the store was in trouble.
Who wouldn’t buy food stamps at a discount from coupon price? Or WIC items? It’s all that complex and without it many neighborhoods would fall to third world conditions fast. Doing the tax prep job showed me this
Talking to the drivers in the taxis I took they have to work 12 hours a day just to make it, just to scratch out a living. In the '80s you could easily make $300 a week, that's with no taxes, $300 cash. Now to make $350 a week they have to drive 12 hours a day and pay taxes out of that. They also have to pay for their own gas which is something we never had to do. So they're making less take home money than we made in the 1980s and everything costs three times as much. So they're pretty much living at poverty level. We had the taxi for 12 hours but nobody ever worked 12 hours, a typical shift was 8 or 9 hours. Not anymore.
$300 in 1985 is the same as $931 in today's money.
Quote: EvenBobSpeaking of the cab company, I was hurt in February and couldn't drive and had to take a taxi a couple times to the clinic for my appointments. Talking to the drivers, it's a whole new world out there. Back in the '80s we had half a dozen drivers on first shift who'd been there since the 1950s and had raised families and bought houses on what they made driving a taxi. They even drove almost new cars, they couldn't buy new cars because the car dealership would turn them into the IRS and none of them ever paid taxes because the IRS had no idea what they were doing. In those days we didn't collect Social Security numbers because drivers were independent contractors.
Talking to the drivers in the taxis I took they have to work 12 hours a day just to make it, just to scratch out a living. In the '80s you could easily make $300 a week, that's with no taxes, $300 cash. Now to make $350 a week they have to drive 12 hours a day and pay taxes out of that. They also have to pay for their own gas which is something we never had to do. So they're making less take home money than we made in the 1980s and everything costs three times as much. So they're pretty much living at poverty level. We had the taxi for 12 hours but nobody ever worked 12 hours, a typical shift was 8 or 9 hours. Not anymore.
$300 in 1985 is the same as $931 in today's money.
link to original post
Different industries fall into this kind of trap. When I got into pest control the great years were a couple years before. In 1996 or so we found a pile of old contracts from 1992 and found we were charging the same to less! When I left in 2002 I was getting $100 for a termite report for real estate. When I bought a house in 2012 I paid $40 for one!
It is weird how it happens so slow you do not notice.
Quote: TigerWuMaybe the taxi industry just failed to adapt to technology, I don't know.
link to original post
That is a huge part of it, but the reality is in most places taxis had their business so locked up that they did not need to bother much with you and your five block ride or ride to the middle of nowhere where you have a home poker game to go to. (True story there)
I do not know if "jitney" is a local or national term but they were big in the black neighborhoods where the cabs didn't bother going. Jitneys were ride share before there was ride share.
Quote: AZDuffman
Different industries fall into this kind of trap. When I got into pest control the great years were a couple years before. In 1996 or so we found a pile of old contracts from 1992 and found we were charging the same to less! When I left in 2002 I was getting $100 for a termite report for real estate. When I bought a house in 2012 I paid $40 for one!
It is weird how it happens so slow you do not notice.
link to original post
With tree and limb removal it's the opposite. In the '80s you could get a big limb cut down and it was very reasonable. Today you practically have to take out a mortgage on your house to get it done. Last year I got an estimate on getting a big catalpa tree branch that was looming over the top of my house removed and I almost choked when the guy told me how much it was going to be. Screw that, I went down to the next County and found one of those Fly by Night cash guys and he did it for a fraction of the cost. You got to pay cash and you get no receipt but he gets it done. Last fall I was finally getting rid of my old furnace from 1985 in the basement and I called around and they wanted me to pay them $100 to come haul it away. I did the same thing in the next County south of me and the guy came and got it for nothing and told me he was going to sell it for the scrap and it was well worth his time for the money he was getting. My doctor's office calls me periodically to remind me that I need to make an appointment for a visit and looking at my insurance they charged $30 for that phone call now. Are you kidding me? It's a freaking phone call but the woman making the call is conveniently a certified nurse so my insurance company has to pay for this new scam. Sit around and make phone calls all day and make $30 a pop.
Quote: EvenBob<snip>With tree and limb removal it's the opposite. In the '80s you could get a big limb cut down and it was very reasonable. Today you practically have to take out a mortgage on your house to get it done.<snip>
link to original post
EvenBob,
So you're saying having a limb removed costs an arm and a leg??? That DOES seem excessive ;-)
Dog Hand
P.S. No charge for trimming your post for my reply!
Quote: TigerWuRide sharing has decimated the taxi industry. It's kind of surprising they've lasted as long as they did. There's nothing exactly special or skill-intensive about driving someone in a car from point A to point B. Years before Uber or Lyft were around, I remember thinking, "what's stopping me from putting an ad on craigslist or somewhere offering to drive people around for money? How come I never see other people doing that? Why has no one thought of doing that?" Maybe the taxi industry just failed to adapt to technology, I don't know.
link to original post
I remember seeing a documentary a long time ago regarding London Taxi drivers
They had to pass a test regarding their knowledge of navigating London and the test was very hard
I'm guessing that knowledge isn't very useful these days with Google maps.
I heard the famous Hollywood sign did not get many tourists because it's a complicated drive
I hear these days it's a popular tourist spot due to Google maps.
I'm big on Google maps
They've actually saved all my driving all over the country in Google history. I can track and see all my trips on a map
they had an incredibly powerful forward - Gus Johnson - who completely shattered and demolished 2 backboards with his shocking dunks
they had Jumping Johnny Greene - an early high flier - who I would be willing to bet could go to the top of the backboard
and then they got Wesley Unseld and the absolutely breathtaking - Earl The Pearl Monroe
I attended the Bullets first home game with Monroe - if somebody other than Monroe had the ball many in the crowd would shout "Give it to Pearl_____!!!!!_______why don't you give the ball to The Pearl_______?????____________________________________(-:\
.
.
before software and computers capital gains taxes were higher
it was very complicated to figure out capital gains obligations accurately with their instructions on their forms - at least for me back then
actually figuring capital gains should be pretty simple - but as I recall their instructions on how to do it were very cumbersome
I gave up - I just winged it for many years - I basically took a guess on the very, very low end
I'm about 100% sure I was wrong on the low end and they never came back at me about it
maybe they couldn't figure it out either................(~:\
.
Heart transplants? Pre-1980 or so this was big news. Heart/lung later than that.
"Test tube baby" was a term in the late 70s and lots of concern of the ethics of it at the time, much of which is still ongoing.
"Baby Faye" who lived weeks with the heart of a baboon.
The artificial heart, which was spoofed in "Robocop"
The last 2 never went anywhere and were probably don on the basis of "well, you will not likely survive long but it may help someone in the future."
Today little makes news like these did back then. New miracle procedures not the same big deal.
Quote: AZDuffmanRemember when what are today common medical procedures made big news?
Heart transplants? Pre-1980 or so this was big news. Heart/lung later than that.
"Test tube baby" was a term in the late 70s and lots of concern of the ethics of it at the time, much of which is still ongoing.
"Baby Faye" who lived weeks with the heart of a baboon.
The artificial heart, which was spoofed in "Robocop"
The last 2 never went anywhere and were probably don on the basis of "well, you will not likely survive long but it may help someone in the future."
Today little makes news like these did back then. New miracle procedures not the same big deal.
link to original post
We might have different definitions of the term common.
Quote: mcallister3200Quote: AZDuffmanRemember when what are today common medical procedures made big news?
Heart transplants? Pre-1980 or so this was big news. Heart/lung later than that.
"Test tube baby" was a term in the late 70s and lots of concern of the ethics of it at the time, much of which is still ongoing.
"Baby Faye" who lived weeks with the heart of a baboon.
The artificial heart, which was spoofed in "Robocop"
The last 2 never went anywhere and were probably don on the basis of "well, you will not likely survive long but it may help someone in the future."
Today little makes news like these did back then. New miracle procedures not the same big deal.
link to original post
We might have different definitions of the term common.
link to original post
Heart Transplants and in vitro are daily things now.
