The totally off-topic thread

[whatmeworry]

What phones? I rarely speak to my customers & vendors - its all email these days. Its not like they can start manning centrelink or medicare phones, can you imagine the bogans checking out their neighbours and ex's.

Dodgy employment job service providers like max employment get them to man their own phones.

Meanwhile a scientific paper says the rich don't notice us or our problems.

There’s a growing body of research showing how having money changes the way people see—or are oblivious to—others and their problems. The latest is a paper published in the journal Psychological Science in which psychologists at New York University show that wealthy people unconsciously pay less attention to passersby on the street.

Rich people pay less attention to other people — Quartz

 

[blackcat20]

What phones? I rarely speak to my customers & vendors - its all email these days. Its not like they can start manning centrelink or medicare phones, can you imagine the bogans checking out their neighbours and ex's.

I'm always surprised when a customer digs up my (private) mobile number and gives me a call...I much prefer email.

 

[RooFlyer]

Australia Post is a curious case. Charge more for postage and deliver less often.

Driving me up the wall at the moment. One customer waiting for a parcel posted October 8, another is watching her parcel bounce back and forth between VIC and NSW every two days for absolutely no reason. The constant price increases seem to correlate with massive decreases in service.
<snip>

The CEO of Australia Post is on a salary package of about $4.8 MILLION this year! They had to find the cash somewhere.

 

[Deleted member]

Australia Post is a curious case. Charge more for postage and deliver less often.

Well, we could all help here by writing more letters and stop using email.
Their parcel post business has grown, ironically due to internet shopping. But no one writes a letter any more.
So why send pasties out with empty or near empty sacks?

 

[Denali]

Dodgy employment job service providers like max employment get them to man their own phones.

Meanwhile a scientific paper says the rich don't notice us or our problems.

Rich people pay less attention to other people — Quartz

Im not rich and I ignore everyone when Im out and about.

Which would explain why once I walked into my bank while everyone else was running away because there was a guy with a machette being a little bit crazy.

 

[RooFlyer]

Well, we could all help here by writing more letters and stop using email.
Their parcel post business has grown, ironically due to internet shopping. But no one writes a letter any more.
So why send pasties out with empty or near empty sacks?

The art of letter writing not quite dead, and will be kept alive, even if its just me! I sent out 15 snail mail letters a few weeks ago, on behalf of a volunteer organization I'm a member of, thanking various people for various things. The response was amazing - the goodwill and more was huge. People really appreciate the personal touch.

I'm happy to have a pastie turn up anytime. Lovely with a nice chutney garnish.

 

[Denali]

...
So why send pasties out with empty or near empty sacks?

Pasties and empty sacks? I dont think pasties mean the same thing for you as it does for me.

The art of letter writing not quite dead, and will be kept alive, even if its just me! I sent out 15 snail mail letters a few weeks ago, on behalf of a volunteer organization I'm a member of, thanking various people for various things. The response was amazing - the goodwill and more was huge. People really appreciate the personal touch.

As someone that arranges hampers for raffles ect, can I tell you how important this is.

I donated a hamper to a charity fund raiser and didnt even get a text acknowledgement, so this year when they made a facebook request asking for donations, I did nothing.

Not because I want a thank you but because its an acknowledgement to the company I work for. My company generally doesnt have a "donation/charity" person so its usually me when I get personally asked by family or friend. Without that foot in the door, a lot of hampers wouldnt get made.

 

[Pushka]

Well, we could all help here by writing more letters and stop using email.
Their parcel post business has grown, ironically due to internet shopping. But no one writes a letter any more.
So why send pasties out with empty or near empty sacks?

My handwriting sucks. I should have been a medical doctor.

 

[RAM]

Not at all.

People don't want to pay more tax. People want more services.

The demand for services is much greater than ever before. Better awareness (campaigning, advertising, Royal Commissions) means more reporting. More reporting means more calls and more investigations.

Many of those matters should (rightly) take priority over routine non-urgent matters.

Resources are stretched. Departments are overloaded.

More that the community want money to be spent carefully and accountably. Major issue is where donors to the political parties coincidentally (or their paid lobbyists) subvert the outcome at the greater community's cost.

Interesting looking into the amount spent on say education over the last 20 years vs other OECD countries and the relative ranking of the outcomes. Even more interesting to actually read the Gonski report (did you know that it does not contain any of the so-called "Gonski funding" amounts so-ofdt quoted in the media?).

A couple of other areas to question...

For example:

• Why is a country with a population less than 1/5th of Australia's and a GDP 1/9th the size paying as much as 70% less to the pharma companies for the exact same drugs as Australia does?
• Why is it supposedly cheaper to outsource to the private sector which has a significantly higher borrowing cost and a required return on equity generally 3 to 4 times higher than the cost of public capital?
• Why once the out-sourcing has occurred are the actual guaranteed rates of return no revealed to the public (eg; Sydney's CSELR - guaranteed rate of return [like the gold plating of the electricity network] to the consortium out of consolidated revenue. Not linked to the farebox in any way).
• Why do State and Federal Govts pay up to three times the price for the same IT equipment that I can purchase with no economies of scale?
• Why are total fees, bonuses, retainers, commissions etc paid to consultants/Investment banks/merchant banks (Australia-wide) on avg (since privatisations and corporatisation began) a top ten budget cost year in and year out when separated out of each dept's budget?

Just a couple off the top of my head.

 

[JohnK]

What phones? I rarely speak to my customers & vendors - its all email these days. Its not like they can start manning centrelink or medicare phones, can you imagine the bogans checking out their neighbours and ex's.

How silly of me. Of course you are right. What was I thinking?

Still it'd be nice to be able to talk with someone. Email not the answer to everything. Hertz only just getting back to me on emails from over 2 weeks ago and same with Qantas.

 

[Flying mermaid]

1533704[/URL]]Anyone participating in Halloween?

We finally succumbed last year and decorated the lawn and had lots of kiddies and hubby has even more stuff for this year.

Im still not comfortable about accepting it but I can support the concept of free chocolate.

Miss FM's godmother is originally from the USA and for many years she organised a large Halloween celebration. She had all the houses around her involved and about 100 little kids being sent off in groups of 10 accompanied by an adult with a map of which houses to attack. All the houses were decorated and it really was a lot of fun. One year we were stopped by a lady with a huge bowl of chocolates. She had just arrived from the States and had become so homesick when she saw the kids rampaging around, that she had rushed out bought a whole lot of chocolates and was now stopping groups as they went past her, so she could participate.

i always make sure I have lollies in the house at Halloween, just in case someone knocks on the door.

 

[Hvr]

M

• Why is it supposedly cheaper to outsource to the private sector which has a significantly higher borrowing cost and a required return on equity generally 3 to 4 times higher than the cost of public capital?

<snip>


Just a couple off the top of my head.

I've removed a few examples but the key word in the remaining paragraph is supposedly.

Governments always omit specific features and costs when functions are privatised. Private companies know that once they have the contract and staff have been retrenched they have the government by the gonads and all of a sudden costs rise and some parts are downgraded or even ignored.

Various things that governments did such as train apprentices are seen as expenses and companies rarely want to have such expenses. This short term thinking means that society loses even more than they know with false short term savings put into the current government's books but the costs left for future governments.

Finally, when companies fail to meet their obligations and/or have cost over runs then the government is expected to bail them out with no penalty. So much for the efficiency of the private sector!

 

[Denali]

i always make sure I have lollies in the house at Halloween, just in case someone knocks on the door.

The year before last (no decorations) we had kids knocking but we werent prepared so I opened a box of favourites that I had in the cupboard.

So last year hubby thought if we have decorations then the kids will know we have chocs and its safe to knock and we had heaps of kids.

 

[amaroo]

When you're happy to be a lowly WP

Guess which is my seat....

 

[Flashback]

Miss FM's godmother is originally from the USA and for many years she organised a large Halloween celebration. She had all the houses around her involved and about 100 little kids being sent off in groups of 10 accompanied by an adult with a map of which houses to attack. All the houses were decorated and it really was a lot of fun. One year we were stopped by a lady with a huge bowl of chocolates. She had just arrived from the States and had become so homesick when she saw the kids rampaging around, that she had rushed out bought a whole lot of chocolates and was now stopping groups as they went past her, so she could participate.

i always make sure I have lollies in the house at Halloween, just in case someone knocks on the door.

It's big here in the UK also. In my street I'd count nearly half the houses that have decorations up, pumpkins on the porch etc. We have to clan from Ireland coming over to stay with us for the week arriving on Monday, alas with 2 children I fear I shall not be able to escape the party SWMBO has planned..... Last year I went to see Knife Party at the O2 Brixton Academy. Now that was a great night!

 

[Denali]

When you're happy to be a lowly WP

Guess which is my seat....

View attachment 82462

I'm afraid to guess

 

[JohnK]

When you're happy to be a lowly WP

Guess which is my seat....

8A, 13F or 14F!

 

[amaroo]

8A, 13F or 14F!

Close enough - 14D

 

[TheRealTMA]

The year before last (no decorations) we had kids knocking but we werent prepared so I opened a box of favourites that I had in the cupboard.

So last year hubby thought if we have decorations then the kids will know we have chocs and its safe to knock and we had heaps of kids.

Can't really be Halloween without real Cruncy Frogs. It's Trick or Treat after all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs8KNgT-kqo

 

[whatmeworry]

Phil Collins on The Tonight Show.

[video=youtube;mjiq0DoSQD8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjiq0DoSQD8[/video]