"McDonald's" will not hire just anybody. I lived in Seattle for almost 8 months before finding a low-level wage job. The McDonald's argument is what entitled people say to poverty stricken people who are suffering.
Also "find an apartment you can afford" is hilarious and patronizing. I make enough money in the industry I have worked in for over a decade to not really be able to afford a 140 square ft efficiency.
Anecdote, possibly no longer relevant because of political changes (especially 9/11):
I've been in the US for six months, back in 2000. A few days before my visa expired, I was in a fast food and started talking to the guy selling me food. (Not a McD.) Turned out he was the owner :) One thing led to another, I told him I was bummed because my visa was expiring and I had to leave; he said "you speak English very well, I will hire you - none of my guys here have a visa". I didn't want to take him on, the company I was working for at the time had promised me they would try to bring me back (they didn't) and I didn't want to overstay since that would have been an automatic rejection.
The worst thing was... the company I was working for (as a programmer) was paying me around $15 / hour. He offered me $17 :)
Anyway, back to your point. That event had also led me to believe that finding a job in fast food is incredibly easy... I'm surprised to find out it's not.
Totally agree re: "find an apartment you can afford". My parents we're laughing their asses off when I told them "it is not easy to find a room for $600 in NYC with a month-to-month lease".
They thought I was brain dead. It just turns out that they haven't apartment hunted in 30 years.
Talked to a local business owner here. He started a small restaurant because, after having moved here and looked for a job for a year, he couldn't get hired. Big box stores, grocery stores, other restaurants. He's ... probably early 50s, and was looking to just be a good employee someplace, clock in, clock out... and could not get hired. He's always been a hustler, and that probably comes through in the interviews, and they pass on hiring him. So... the "go get a job flipping burgers"... isn't always as easy as it's made out to be in many regions. For the record, he's now flipping burgers in his own burger place (made his own job, basically).
To be fair that line of think is a problem here on HN, among millenials, and among older generations as well. Americans in particular, but our species as a whole need to learn to separate the ideas of success and merit.
There are still plenty of labors of love all over the place, but my own personal experience is that if you create something as a sincere act of self expression or love for [x], people don't bother with it. I think a lot of what the internet has turned into has also primed us as users to seek that sort of stuff out. I've been trying to distance myself from a lot of services and the meme-o-sphere in favor of occupying the types of sites that used to matter to me (personal web pages, no social media, a couple blogs, rss from a few news sites, SLSK). I have partly HN to thank for this, after reading everyone's disgusting unsympathetic responses to Seattle's "homeless problem," I've distanced myself from the site and don't regret it one bit.
Edit: it really did feel like we were on the verge of the future, but the rise of communications technologies has hobbled all of us, and Idiocracy may be the only future that's possible if we don't slow the ocean currents to a halt first.
Artists upload lossless audio to the internet all the time. I don't understand how anybody can even be bothered to argue their opinion on this matter. A lot of you guys sound like jerks though.
> Artists upload lossless audio to the internet all the time.
It can, in fact, be quite difficult to obtain the 5.1 surround sound layer of an SACD as a digital download for many releases. That is why people are inclined to rip the SACD or torrent someone else’s rip.
This was a major influence on the life and work of William S. Burroughs. I am overjoyed to find out this is still occasionally in print. I had always wanted to read it but been under the impression it was long unavailable. Thanks so much for reminding me of this and alerting me to its availability.
Most of the sugars present in the wort (or juice in the case of wine or cider) are consumed by the yeast who produce alcohol and carbon dioxide as waste products
Also "find an apartment you can afford" is hilarious and patronizing. I make enough money in the industry I have worked in for over a decade to not really be able to afford a 140 square ft efficiency.