Miscellaneous Discussion Thread

Quote: AcesAndEights

I've been with my wife-elect for 3 years now (we're getting married in just a few short weeks). We rarely have knock-down drag-out arguments/fights. Actually I'd say only one in our whole relationship, which was 100% my fault for f***ing something up.

But other than that, we tend to have pretty mature, open dialogues. I do bite my tongue from time to time; usually if it is something small or something I don't really care about. But for serious issues I make my opinion known and then we discuss it. If it's something that requires a decision, we often time compromise, otherwise one of us will give in. If it's just a random debate about something, a lot of times neither of us will change our mind. Since she went back to school and I started paying for everything (both halves of the rent, all the food, etc.), I pretty much control the finances, which she is fine with. We're both pretty frugal by nature, so there aren't a lot of disagreements on that front. But if she wants to buy something frivolous, I maintain nearly-absolute veto power and exercise it frequently :).

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with our communication skills. Which one would hope, since we'll hopefully be together forever!

After some reflection (and this similar topic coming up somewhere else), I think the communication habits noted above may have something to do with me being an engineer, and her being a scientist.

Quote: RS

is figure out a way to solve the homeless problem.

Didn't some ruler of long ago solve that problem by announcing a great feast for all homeless, drunkards and layabouts. And then as they enjoyed the feast, he had the doors locked and the building torched.

My boss decided today that he would buy us lunch. There are only 8 people in the company. We pulled out a menu to a local restaurant and people started writing down what they want. I write down a normal type lunch sandwich. I notice that other people wrote down $17 shrimp scampi and appetizers. It annoys me to see people do that when normally they would order 1 sandwich and split it.

We didn't get here making ethical decisions and I doubt they will be made anytime soon considering the capture of Washington by Wall St. It's the boomers who will suffer the most in old age for this but I think they deserve it the most having the most negligence anyways.

Quote: AcesAndEights

After some reflection (and this similar topic coming up somewhere else), I think the communication habits noted above may have something to do with me being an engineer, and her being a scientist.

It sounds to me like you are still being nice to each other because you are not married yet.

(Note: That was only half tongue-in-cheek. But, what the hell do I know? I've never been married and hopefully never will be)

Quote: onenickelmiracle

We didn't get here making ethical decisions and I doubt they will be made anytime soon considering the capture of Washington by Wall St. It's the boomers who will suffer the most in old age for this but I think they deserve it the most having the most negligence anyways.

The whole "Wall St. owns Washington" way of thinking never made sense to me. No doubt, it's influential, but some of the hugest Wall St. winners are those who profess liberalism (Buffet, Gore, etc.). Certainly other winners profess conservatism. The point being, Wall St. winners don't necessarily practice (if not profess) one side of things; there are winners on either side.

But ... only one side sets up winners as villains, so when I read a comment like this, it's hard not to attribute its application to conservative politics ... which, by the way, could not be more clearly debunked with examples actual Wall St. winners.

And ... if Wall St. is about unfettering capitalism to make a buck, why is the political momentum going in exactly the opposite direction? The only reason I can think of might be that these existing winners want to keep the size of their club small ... in other words, they know that moving towards liberalism locks in the winners and keeps out the not-winners, but they do it anyway. BUT ... a liberal political rhetoric staple is that they're trying to get equality.

That's why the whole "Wall St. owns Washington" way of thinking never made sense to me, unless we're dealing with utterly bad actors on the liberal side who are knowingly lying to keep the not-winners down, which I just don't want to assume.

Quote: GWAE

My boss decided today that he would buy us lunch. There are only 8 people in the company. We pulled out a menu to a local restaurant and people started writing down what they want. I write down a normal type lunch sandwich. I notice that other people wrote down $17 shrimp scampi and appetizers. It annoys me to see people do that when normally they would order 1 sandwich and split it.

I would do this on a company expense card, if it can only be used for food. My company is XYZ casino and usually they don't let me keep the change so if the comp is $50 I spend $49.99, mostly on appetizers, a drink, entree, dessert, and maybe takeout if I have money left over.

If it was something like your situation I would limit the costs because it can be traced back to you and of course you don't wanna screw your boss like that lol. I guess you know people's true characters when it comes to integrity. Not that I'm high and mighty, I like to stick it to casinos whenever I can as common courtesy :)

Oh yeah at casinos I will use every last penny. In this case though it was an out of the blue, "hey everyone I am buying lunch today." We work in a small office and everyone ordered way above normal. I think it is just common courtesy to order normal and not take advantage of it. If I were him I would never offer to buy again.

I'm not sure that $17 for lunch is really sticking it to anyone, but then I also know that food prices are different in different parts of the country.

As for ordering something better than you usually would, what if someone was normally not frugal about food, and they just ordered what they usually would (which would be expensive). Would that be ok? The next question is, if it is ok, why is it ok for them to order something better than anyone else?

I dunno; I guess this doesn't bug me. If I offer to buy someone lunch, I expect them to get something that they really want, even if they would be too cheap / poor to pay for it themselves. It's not like they are ordering extra stuff to take home afterwards or anything (that's where I'd draw the line). I guess there are other limits too; if I take someone out to a nice restaurant, I don't expect them to order a $1000 bottle of wine.

Quote: GWAE

Oh yeah at casinos I will use every last penny. In this case though it was an out of the blue, "hey everyone I am buying lunch today." We work in a small office and everyone ordered way above normal. I think it is just common courtesy to order normal and not take advantage of it. If I were him I would never offer to buy again.

I see it the same way you do. Or maybe the boss meant for everyone to go over the top and order whatever they wanted. Like a grandpa and grandson in a candy store, where the grandpa tells the child "I'll buy you all the candy you want!"

Or maybe your boss just wanted to save $5-10 from the employees' pockets.