FYI Ya, let's make jobs. I'm excited now!
- Thread starter Kevlar
- Start date
before he became mr. green, he was generally regarded as having the personality of a tree.
was a short leap really.
was a short leap really.
and that is fundamentally what is wrong with the US. you want the smart guy in office, not the moron. who gives a fuck about their personality?
Syrup Beaver
pants log
eileenbunny
Druish Princess
I'm still wondering when we decided that if you have kids you MUST have a gigantic car capable of hauling around half of your possessions at all times in case you might need something. Growing up my dad hauled us around in a 60something yellow mustang convertible with a white top (man I loved that car) and my mom drove a 60something Cougar. I get that these cars weren't fuel efficient or anything but they were the cars they chose before having kids. They just didn't see the need to go get SUVs or Minivans. I still don't see the point. I'm still trying to figure out if we can outfit a sidecar for the motorcycle to hold a car seat.
Yes, we didn't have SUVs or Minivans.....however when we were kids, we were all driven around in station wagons. It's the same concept.
You can fit more in a station wagon than you can in most minivans these days.
eileenbunny
Druish Princess
I think my dad drove a station wagon for a little while when I was in my late teens. It was a work vehicle. I've always made fun of people in station wagons. We were never that uncool.
Syrup Beaver
pants log
Except than even an SUV or minivan weighs less than a pre-gas crisis '70s car, and gets better gas mileage, oh, and not to mention, has FAR fewer emissions.
The biggest issue is carseats. We had a Nissan sentra, when kid #2 came along, two carseats barely fit so we traded up for a nissan pathfinder (the smaller older models), they barely fit across teh backseat, if we were to have another, we'd need something bigger. Although, I know PLENTY of people with 2 kids driving around in minivans and giant SUVS and I just don't get that. I love the times I get to drive Shortguys car, its so much smaller and nicer to drive. Next time we get me a new vehicle I'm getting a small truck, something the kids can sit in the back, but with the ability to haul around furntiure and buy wood and stuff when I need it, which really is regularly enough I can warrant a truck. I'm talking small though, like toyota tundra or nissan frontier, none of the massive big stuff.
eileenbunny
Druish Princess
Like I said, I get that. They were cool though. Minivans are not cool. SUV's are only cool if you use them as sport utility vehicles instead of just carting your kids to daycare and soccer practice. I'm just hating on people that aren't me here. Except Kiwi. She has justified herself quite well. And she's hot. I like that.
What year Sentra? The new ones are fucking cavernous. Seriously... I was playing golf in mine the other day and lost three fucking balls.
you have got to be kidding me. anytime we deal with the government the project costs 2x.
Syrup Beaver
pants log
you have got to be kidding me. anytime we deal with the government the project costs 2x.
Only two times?
What about the congressional approvals required to order a screw with two more threads?
if a project would normally cost 100k, we'd estimate 200k and add in another 50k in extra costs. we do that just to make our standard margins... it's not like we're making 150k on the top of our normal ops, we just know there are going to actually be 150k in EXTRA bullshit costs just to do business with uncle sam.
they'll spend a million dollars just to make sure the private sector doesn't somehow screw them out of five dollars. the funny thing is, they've spent at least twice as much as what the project would cost in the private sector, and because they want to save the taxpayer money they end up with a subpar shitty product.
in the construction industry, if my company and uncle sam both were given architectural plans to build identical buildings, i guarantee we'd do it with 1/3rd the cost and the end product would be 5x better. oh, and it'd be done on time. good thing is, someone in the government realized this too awhile back and they now have the private sector build to spec and they lease it back from them. removes them from the construction process almost entirely... savings shittons of money and headaches all along the way.
any gsa project i do just ends up being a giant headache with lots of extra BS work and lots of hand holding.
oh, i didnt factor in the "minority contractor" req's where a minority gets the project, takes our price, marks it up 20% for uncle sam, then has us do 100% of the work, coordination, etc... the minority contractor ends up with a nice chunk of change for simply doing a giant paperwork shuffle, and not having a clue what the project is, what we're doing, or anything between the start and finish. he just wants to know when it's done so he can get paid.
australian government might be efficient, but the US is anything but.