4 ms·

According to their website, there are 15.5 FT employees. I don't consider healthy adults getting paid to do meaningless work a benefit to society.

echelon 5y ago
It can function as a jobs program, giving living wages to more people, and letting them spend their salary back into the economy. But it would be nice if jobs programs produced more benefit.
- savant_penguin 5y ago
  What generally happens is that a select few get to receive pay for a fake job and everyone else of worse off by having to pay for it by force. Actual benefit comes when people get paid by other people voluntarily making the exchange
- ineedasername 5y ago
  There's plenty of work of more value than pumping gas that would give people a living wage and put a lot more back into the economy. Right now it's a drain on the economy, albeit miniscule compare to the whole. Either way, it drives up prices and costs of operation. A jobs program should at least have some benefit beyond being an indirect tax on everyone. Otherwise we might as well just take the same people and pay them to dig holes they fill in the next day while letting people buying gas get through the process a little faster without having to wait for a spare attendant at a busy station. It's always frustrating to pull up to a station with 12 pumps and just 1 or 2 attendants on a busy day as a dozen cars lined up behind the ones at the pumps. Then have to wait 10 minutes just to get the pump started in your own car. And all I can think about are the two attendants running back & forth trying to get as many pumps going as they can, running ragged for a completely bogus reason. Then sometimes the attendants don't even try and the wait is longer, yet those are making the more rational choice of not driving themselves crazy making shit money for a worthless task.
gpvos 5y ago
I understand that 95% of American defense is a jobs program. Let's fry the bigger fish first.
- Aeolun 5y ago
  To be fair, you can actually use that for some purpose if you really wanted. I don’t think that is the case for a redundant board.
- ineedasername 5y ago
  By what metric? About 25% of the military budget is in salaries, and a professional military has to be paid whether or not they're in combat.
hellbannedguy 5y ago
I got through college doing meaningless jobs. Security jobs, and working at a gas station, allowed me to do all my homework.

echelon 5y ago

It can function as a jobs program, giving living wages to more people, and letting them spend their salary back into the economy. But it would be nice if jobs programs produced more benefit.

savant_penguin 5y ago
What generally happens is that a select few get to receive pay for a fake job and everyone else of worse off by having to pay for it by force. Actual benefit comes when people get paid by other people voluntarily making the exchange
ineedasername 5y ago
There's plenty of work of more value than pumping gas that would give people a living wage and put a lot more back into the economy. Right now it's a drain on the economy, albeit miniscule compare to the whole. Either way, it drives up prices and costs of operation. A jobs program should at least have some benefit beyond being an indirect tax on everyone. Otherwise we might as well just take the same people and pay them to dig holes they fill in the next day while letting people buying gas get through the process a little faster without having to wait for a spare attendant at a busy station. It's always frustrating to pull up to a station with 12 pumps and just 1 or 2 attendants on a busy day as a dozen cars lined up behind the ones at the pumps. Then have to wait 10 minutes just to get the pump started in your own car. And all I can think about are the two attendants running back & forth trying to get as many pumps going as they can, running ragged for a completely bogus reason. Then sometimes the attendants don't even try and the wait is longer, yet those are making the more rational choice of not driving themselves crazy making shit money for a worthless task.

gpvos 5y ago

I understand that 95% of American defense is a jobs program. Let's fry the bigger fish first.

Aeolun 5y ago
To be fair, you can actually use that for some purpose if you really wanted. I don’t think that is the case for a redundant board.
ineedasername 5y ago
By what metric? About 25% of the military budget is in salaries, and a professional military has to be paid whether or not they're in combat.

hellbannedguy 5y ago

I got through college doing meaningless jobs. Security jobs, and working at a gas station, allowed me to do all my homework.