Back in the early 90s, I picked up a bunch of gear featuring their logo. By the end of the decade, once I started following the NFL, I found myself wearing that Patriot logo again for years. It stuck. Long before that guy became a menace out in the Boston suburbs for the Patriots...
restlesssurfer97 said:The absolute worst part about what you just said is how those Social Security contributions aren't even being made, which basically means it's money down the drain that you can never, ever get back. 🙂
In 20 or 30 years, when my generation actually hits retirement age and they're long gone, the problem remains: people only care about the cash hitting their bank account. Everything else on the pay stub? Irrelevant to them.
Lately, even the big banks like JPMorgan Chase aren't ignoring those salary bonuses when calculating creditworthiness anymore...
Stop playing games with salaries in the States, especially up north in the Great Lakes region. Roughly 80% of employees are officially reported earning between $3,300 and $1333, while their actual take-home pay is padded through tax-free stipends or cash under the table.... The scheme is simple; employers know an employee is worth $5,000 to $1833 a month, but they refuse to pay taxes and social security on that full amount. So, they report the worker at $3,300-$1333, and the gap up to $5,000-$1833 is paid out as "travel reimbursements." It doesn't matter if the person lives two minutes away or drives thirty; as long as the total payout hits that $5,000-$1833 mark, everyone wins. The worker feels satisfied seeing over $5K land in their account monthly, even if their retirement contributions end up being practically zero. It’s absurd. I know someone living 19 miles miles away who gets $467 in travel perks, yet another acquaintance living just down the street gets $167. Meanwhile, the IRS and other agencies look the other way. You even see cases where the exact same employer pays wildly different travel amounts to people with the identical commute.
The same thing was said about federal grants—that Washington would oversee them directly. But look at the reality: they only step in after someone has already won the bid, leaving our own government with massive influence over who gets what in the first place. So the logic follows: better to let "insiders" scoop up 80% of the contracts, then we can play fair with the remaining 20% by selecting the highest quality applicants...
Just a little taste of that deep South mentality.--.. I know a guy who went to a college buddy's wedding. His friend's uncle, who’s lived in Germany for over 30 years and has three sons, hosted him. On the wedding day, the guy asks if they have a brush and some polish so he can clean his shoes. Without missing a beat, the uncle snaps back, "Goodness, what is my wife supposed to do then?"
It honestly makes me wonder how someone like Hillary Clinton ever managed to get elected President....
The smartest move would be to implement a direct religious tax pulled right from payroll, similar to how some Western nations handle it. Then we’d finally see the true number of Catholics and believers living in America. Roman Catholics would pay for their own, Muslims for theirs, Jews for theirs, and so on... Nowadays, you constantly hear about our newly arrived guest workers scrubbing themselves from religious registries just to avoid losing a few hundred bucks from their paycheck due to a faith-based tax burden...
So, according to this, anyone refusing to work for peanuts is a communist—while the "employers" who can't find cheap labor and beg the government for subsidies are all big-shot capitalists.🙏 🙏
In a year or two, wages in America will climb. Employers haven't quite grasped the consequences of stalling pay raises yet. As I understand it, by July 2020, travel restrictions for American passport holders within the EU are being lifted...
Matthew Young35 said:Sure, people are fools, and they tend to drift toward wherever life feels a little less heavy—even if things aren't actually any better there. I know plenty of folks who packed up for Ireland, Germany, or Norway, and none of them have even looked back. Honestly, why would they? It doesn't even cross their minds to come home.
Once you sever ties with your homeland, you eventually commit to moving away for good; there’s a slim chance you’ll return after six months, regardless of how rough things get out there. When my old man moved abroad, he mentioned it took him two full months just to adjust to the German work ethic and lifestyle—and that was with him already knowing the language and having a job referral from his firm. Just imagine it for people who don't speak the language or aren't used to a different way of doing things... I’m talking about the average American citizen here, not someone with the advanced degrees these Western countries are hunting for...
Morgan Foster said:A single guy living on $2,000 a month—and even then, he’s coming up short at first 🙏
I don't know... I was giving him advice yesterday, but honestly, what do people like this even expect? In my opinion, the internet is largely to blame for this downward spiral in society. Seriously—for the last decade or so, everyone’s dealing with some kind of crisis, acting like they're too good for hard work or actual education, yet they're too lazy to even look up basic information for a tiny little step forward in life... Anyway, I'm going to take a quick stroll over to visit the crew in Germany. I'll be back in a few days 🙏
That's money from a regular salary combined with side hustles, not some entry-level paycheck...
What can you really expect from an uneducated population like those in America? Everyone wants to do the bare minimum while maintaining the illusion of having everything just so others can envy them... These fairy tales about working in Europe being peddled by American news sites and portals should be written by people who have actually lived and worked there. It’s a joke when a country that hasn't even hit a 90% literacy rate claims everyone is suddenly a polyglot, mastering local languages instantly and cherry-picking high-paying jobs they actually enjoy... Look at the reality in Germany or Austria; for twenty years now, it's been obvious that an average family of four can barely survive on a single monthly paycheck. Yet, Americans in those same countries manage to survive on lower wages, save some money, and—not being cheap—send it back home so everyone back home sees how well they're doing... A friend's brother moved to Germany two years ago because he had some relatives who would take him in temporarily until he could find his own footing and an apartment. As it turns out, rentals are incredibly expensive; they eat up a third of your income right off the bat. Add food, utilities, and basic living costs, and after two years on a salary of roughly $2,000 a month, he's still essentially a subtenant with relatives just to stay below market rates. He's fine since he's single, but if his pay were supporting a whole family, I doubt living and working in Germany would be nearly as lucrative as our glorious American media outlets claim, especially since the days of sleeping in construction site barracks are long gone...
Matthew Young35 said:Fine. What exactly did I do to deserve this? Was I not worth a simple acknowledgment? Have I ever been anything less than respectful toward you? Did I ever direct a single harsh word toward you or your family?
By what measure have I earned this silence?
🙂🙂🙂
P.S. If you can't even remember who I am, then I suppose it doesn't really matter.🙂
Didn't recognize any famous handles, so I just said hello. Only listed the ones that came to mind immediately. Since Papi, Amanda Evans2, and Fortaleza all post on the NFL boards, I figured they were around...
Kudos to the programming director over at PBS for doing an incredible job; we’re finally seeing some quality non-English language films and series popping up on US networks... I’d highly recommend they pick up the German series *im angesicht des verbrechens* (honestly, I can't be bothered to double-check if my spelling is perfect here)—it's a ten-part series about the mafia in Berlin...
Morgan Foster said:Politics and the Church are inseparable here—just like it is with our neighbors in Mexico. The reality is that certain political movements would never achieve this kind of "success" without solid political backing and a specific circle of "clergy" surrounding them.
Then these ultra-traditionalists act shocked when a leader like Pope Francis comes along and calls everyone back to the roots.
The hardliners would love nothing more than for Francis to fade away or pass on quickly. It’s hard to pivot back to bread and water when you're used to high-end catering funded by parishioners who donate blindly, never questioning where their money actually goes... Look at what happened with those American bishops who suddenly ditched their gold-plated crosses and staffs once they realized the current administration wasn't following the flashy precedents set by previous leaders. Then there's the millions sitting in Vatican Bank accounts with zero accountability, especially when people try to use that cash for actual global needs... A contact of mine in Church circles tells me most modern American priests are essentially just administrative bureaucrats. They're focused on finding the fastest route to the biggest paycheck, hiding behind Church autonomy to dodge oversight. Those actually living the faith as written in the Bible? They're treated like outliers and pushed to the margins. I truly hope Francis holds out for another decade to purge this rot from the ranks...