patrick.net

Zlxr says

If you remember 9/11 Firemen sometimes have to take high risks in their jobs.

While in the total picture, the money firefighters pull from the state isn't that significant, on the individual level it often borders on the obscene. Firefighting doesn't need to be a high-risk job, their main job should be hosing down the embers to limit collateral damage. Insurance can cover the structural damage, no need to race in to save it.

Urban rescue (as opposed to firefighting) is a good job and I bet the market would keep wages under $80K without all the generous pension BS.

I guess the problem is not with the concept of paying pension. It's about people who take pension and then join back into public system as a contractor or may be as city councilman. They draw pension and also get paid at their current gig. Technically they can because there is no law that says they can't. Ethically, people may debate.

You LOL Jerry Brown but he's pretty libertarian actually. My kind of liberal: a pragmatist and an empiricist.

AND IMPENDING EARTH QUAKE WITH 99 % PROBABILITY TO LEVEL THE MILLION DOLLAR SHACKS

Bankstere Originale says

I don’t get what Californians don’t understand about YOURE BROKE… as in YOU ARE LOSING MONEY FAST. CASH FLOW != WEALTH YOU STUPID ARROGANT ASSES.

Depends on who you define as Californian! We have lots of people from the North East who came here over the past 10 or so years. Real Californians are moving out, as you point out, because the state is broke from the free handouts.

Nomograph says

Sweet. And while the naysayers and doom-and-gloomers are preaching about the end of the world, the next generation of multibillionaires are developing new technologies

Only if your stupid enough to pay for it. Tech is long gone from the valley replaced with Advertising companies (Google, Facebook), Toy makers (Ipod) and their fanboys. There was a time we actually made something that provided productivity gains in our economy and world wide corporations would spend eagerly 10-15% of their operating capital to purchase such tools, becuase it made sense. We can bearly scratch 5% growth today.

Here is one for you Nomo.. Its 1999 Im going to sell you my Yahoo Stock for $350/share .. wanna buy?
Its gonna make me rich... but it will put you in the poorhouse! Still wanna buy?

... you were saying something about the 'next generation of multibillionaires'...

I left Kalifornia in 2007. I'm surrounded by farmland and water by the Wisconsin river in Gotham, WI. When the southwest runs out of water and food prices triple, I"m in high sheeeeeetttt.

Zlxr says

It’s kind of like Nurses who make $50 - $60 an hour and then get the option to work another shift for 1.5 to 2 times the pay. Is the Overtime part of their regular pay for the year or is it something separate? If they habitually work overtime then would it count for retirement purposes or do only the regular shift hours count?

http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Registered_Nurse_(RN)/Hourly_Rate

I don't know where you live, but nurses rarely make $50/hr. The norm is for a nurse to work 3 12 hour shifts, which is full-time. And according to the scale I posted, the salary of $30/hr is a good estimate for an RN with years of experience working in the acute setting. And these days, overtime has been cut back dramatically. Throwing out random numbers like that doesn't support your argument.

Sure, firefighter's jobs can be stressful - but the ones that I know only work about 10 days a month and have side-jobs that often pay as much as their salaries. Anything over those 10 days is overtime. And they don't perform medical response - that's the job of paramedics. They respond to accidents to get people out of cars and fires and incidents that need a big truck & guys with brawn. It's almost impossible to get fired and they have a huge retirement. I'd say it's time to change the way that they're paid. IMHO, of course.

California falling into the ocean literally or metaphorically is a favorite theme for the haters. Y'all will continue to be disappointed, and so will your grandchildren, that California doesn't descend into Mad Max anarchy except on a movie shooting location. Those of you listing it's flaws of which there are many, live in glass houses of your own. I can point to nearly every state and run down a long list of reasons why it SHOULD nay DESERVES to collapse. I lived in Georgia for 40 years and it's dysfunctions are numerous. Don't even get me started on Utah.

"The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated" - Mark Twain

Nomograph says

thomas.wong1986 says
Tech is long gone from the valley
You have a very narrow view of what technology is (HINT: think beyond computers and programming). We produce novel small-molecule medicines and biologics, medical devices, communication technologies, material sciences, etc., etc., etc. California is a hotbed of innovation.
I’m sorry you lost your shirt on Yahoo, but that doesn’t have anything to do with California’s future.

LOL! actually my background experience reaches into Computers, Software, Mainframe, Telecom, Internet, B2B, Software, Servers&Storage, and Semiconductors industries.

Medical and Biotech are dreadful places to be. It takes 10 years of R&D, Testing, and Govt Approval where many ultimalty fail to make it the market place. For all the wonders, the ultimate end user, doesnt have deep pockets to fork over compared to corporate spending in the industries I have been associated.

All this hype (hot bed of innovation) started back post 2000 as VC (salespeople for capital) started to fan the flames so investors would pour more of their savings into Tech/SV. Frankly it hasnt worked well for them lately. Where was this hype back in the 80s and 90s... there was none! Many simply ignored us and we done well because of low expectations. With this hype comes high expectations
in a region known for high failure rate.

The hype we see today will eventually fual another round of fraud just to meet the inflated expectations of a few people to save their VC wealth. It will not be pretty.

Zlxr says

I have heard that we are bringing in nurses from foreign countries and starting them out at about $60,000 per year (which is low pay) and they also get like a $20,000 sign on bonus and help with housing.

LOL! unlikely since they are not licensed by the State to perform such services as all RNs are.
What you are seeing is Medical Tourims where insurance companies are sending patients for expensive procedures to Thailand which cost a fraction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_tourism

thomas.wong1986 says

actually my background experience reaches into Computers, Software, Mainframe, Telecom, Internet, B2B, Software, Servers&Storage, and Semiconductors industries

Yes--your background clearly expands much further than computers and programming.... lol

tatupu70 says

Yes–your background clearly expands much further than computers and programming…. lol

Tools for the global market place fualed by corporate spending to increase productivity...
everything else are toys for the masses.

thomas.wong1986 says

When you start comparing back in the 80s to mid 90s..
(1) all our employees were based in SV compared to only 10% or less today. Cant afford them all being in SV today.
(2) global corporate spending on capital was 15-20% annually compared to 5% today.
(3) equally competitive vendors from other states and nations produce the same products cheaper.
(4) we no longer have pricing power over goods and services as we had in the past.

Sounds like your company/industry has matured. That's how the business cycle works. It's time to innovate again and develop some new products.

thomas.wong1986 says

There are no haters, just those who actually work in the business of the local industries and have seen how rapidly things change for the worst in a matter of weeks and months. You dont see cheerleaders in the workforce, we are all just struggling to make a difference and move forward given the nature of this business. To simply claim everything is just fine and the sky is the limit, is being blind to reality in the real world.

In todays business climate, you must keep innovating or else you'll get passed by-probably moreso in high tech industries. No doubt about it. Sounds like you work at a company that isn't developing new products or making improvements on their current portfolio. Fortunately, there are plenty of companies in CA that are...

tatupu70 says

Sounds like your company/industry has matured. That’s how the business cycle works. It’s time to innovate again and develop some new products.

All industries mature quickly in the valley.

tatupu70 says

In todays business climate, you must keep innovating or else you’ll get passed by-probably moreso in high tech industries. No doubt about it. Sounds like you work at a company that isn’t developing new products or making improvements on their current portfolio. Fortunately, there are plenty of companies in CA that are…

Im in Accouning/Finance i can flip from one industry to another. Im giving you a load down on my observations for the past 30 years from startups to F500. Innovations is meaningless when the next guy adapts/copies and sells it into the market place for under your costs. That is why you are hearing more recently about Apple suing HTC and why AMD was succesful in coping Intels CPUs, and now Intel is coping AMD chips. There is a lot more when you start reading the business press.

Zlxr says

Anything over $40,000 is really good wages to people in the 3rd world countries. It’s pretty hard for many to understand that it’s peanuts over here in CA.

$40k is damn good around here. Jobs are scarce.

Zlxr says

Anything over $40,000 is really good wages to people in the 3rd world countries. It’s pretty hard for many to understand that it’s peanuts over here in CA.

they dont come here, we go there...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_tourism

A forecast by Deloitte Consulting published in August 2008 projected that medical tourism originating in the US could jump by a factor of ten over the next decade. An estimated 750,000 Americans went abroad for health care in 2007, and the report estimated that a million and a half would seek health care outside the US in 2008. The growth in medical tourism has the potential to cost US health care providers billions of dollars in lost revenue.[9]

A large draw to medical travel is convenience and speed. Countries that operate public health-care systems are often so taxed that it can take considerable time to get non-urgent medical care. Using Canada as an example, an estimated 782,936 Canadians spent time on medical waiting lists in 2005, waiting an average of 9.4 weeks.[10] Canada has set waiting-time benchmarks, e. g. 26 weeks for a hip replacement and 16 weeks for cataract surgery, for non-urgent medical procedures.[11]

Additionally, patients are finding that insurance either does not cover orthopedic surgery (such as knee/hip replacement) or imposes unreasonable restrictions on the choice of the facility, surgeon, or prosthetics to be used. Medical tourism for knee/hip replacements has emerged as one of the more widely accepted procedures because of the lower cost and minimal difficulties associated with the traveling to/from the surgery. Colombia provides a knee replacement for about $5,000 USD, including all associated fees, such as FDA-approved prosthetics and hospital stay-over expenses. However, many clinics quote prices that are not all inclusive and include only the surgeon fees associated with the procedure.[12]

According to an article by the University of Delaware publication, UDaily:

“ The cost of surgery in India, Thailand or South Africa can be one-tenth of what it is in the United States or Western Europe, and sometimes even less. A heart-valve replacement that would cost $200,000 or more in the US, for example, goes for $10,000 in India--and that includes round-trip airfare and a brief vacation package. Similarly, a metal-free dental bridge worth $5,500 in the US costs $500 in India, a knee replacement in Thailand with six days of physical therapy costs about one-fifth of what it would in the States, and Lasik eye surgery worth $3,700 in the US is available in many other countries for only $730. Cosmetic surgery savings are even greater: A full facelift that would cost $20,000 in the US runs about $1,250 in South Africa.[12]

Sure, medical tourism abounds. But I've personally witnessed several infections that caused debilitating and embarrassing results due to people going to other countries for less expensive treatment. If our medical care was less expensive, people wouldn't have to go through this. Only one of the people had elective plastic surgery (lipo), the other three had "elective" surgeries such as knee replacements.

One of them nearly lost their leg and ended up filing bankruptcy anyway.

Troy says

You LOL Jerry Brown but he’s pretty libertarian actually. My kind of liberal: a pragmatist and an empiricist.

I can hear strains of "Desperado" by Linda Ronstadt in the background. Where are those leisure suits and bell bottom pants when you need them? Nothing like a trip back to the future. Go Jerry Go!

thomas.wong1986 says

All this hype (hot bed of innovation) started back post 2000 as VC (salespeople for capital) started to fan the flames so investors would pour more of their savings into Tech/SV. Frankly it hasnt worked well for them lately. Where was this hype back in the 80s and 90s… there was none! Many simply ignored us and we done well because of low expectations. With this hype comes high expectations
in a region known for high failure rate.
The hype we see today will eventually fual another round of fraud just to meet the inflated expectations of a few people to save their VC wealth. It will not be pretty.

This is true. VC are salespeople that create spin. The strategy is this: if a stock price climbs because other investors believe, that is good enough.

It is also true with CA real estate.

Can someone please explain to me the significance of spelling California with a "K"? Is the implication that California is racist (KKK) and hence doomed?

NJ says

Can someone please explain to me the significance of spelling California with a “K”? Is the implication that California is racist (KKK) and hence doomed?

Depending upon the tenor of the thread, California is either a communist regime or an extension of Mexico at the expense of WASPs.

It's difficult for people to spell "Mexifornia" with a "k".

Damn, I'm klever! tee hee hee

NJ says

Can someone please explain to me the significance of spelling California with a “K”?

Калифорния

Yep, times are hard here in "The Valley". The things people will do to maintain their lifestyle and "appearances".

On page 3B of this morning's SJ Mercury News:

"A former bank manager has been charged with embezzling from elderly customers, possibly cheating them out of more than $900,000. John Tran faces charged including theft from an elder, grand theft and forgery, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office."

"Tran was manager of the Wells Fargo Bank branch on Lincoln Avenue in San Jose from March 2009 to February 2009...."

"Prosecutors allege Tran also forged signatures, including of customers who had recently died, and drained their accounts."

"Tran was arrested Wednesday. Anyone with information about the suspected crimes may call detective Leonard Lim of the San Jose Police Department's financial crimes division at 408-277.4521".

And you thought your deposits were "safe" because of FDIC insurance.

I lived in Georgia for 40 years and it’s dysfunctions are numerous.

The question is, WHY?

A girl? A job? Family? A favorite eatery?

BEIJING (AP) -- China plans to bid for contracts to build U.S. high-speed train lines and is stepping up exports of rail technology to Europe and Latin America, a government official said Saturday.

China has built 4,000 miles (6,500 kilometers) of high-speed rail for its own train system and President Barack Obama issued a pledge in November with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, to cooperate in developing the technology.

"We are organizing relevant companies to participate in bidding for U.S. high-speed railways," Wang Zhiguo, a deputy railways minister, told a news conference.

Wang gave no details of where China's railway builders might seek contracts, but systems are planned in California, Florida and Illinois. He said state-owned Chinese companies already are building high-speed lines in Turkey and Venezuela.

^ we went to the moon in the 60s but can't build a f---ing train anymore?

Republicans FTL, though the Dems haven't covered themselves in glory on this topic, either.

^ That's right. When it comes to high speed electro magnetic leviation train, Germany(ICE) and France(TGV) has developed the technology. South Korea, Japan and China adapted the technology from them, then modified it to their own way. US didn't spend a dime for that, thus US can't f---king build it.

But why china?

Someone who's behind this story is GE. China has a plan to build 40 or so nuclear reactors in near future, and GE want that project. France, South Korea, Japan, Russia and USA is possible candidate for the project, and as the weakest contender, USA can't stand a chance on that over those countries without cutting a chunky deal or two with chinese government.

Ok, that's about it for now.

You guys go back to the topic and discuss ahead.

seaside says

Someone who’s behind this story is GE. China has a plan to build 40 or so nuclear reactors in near future, and GE want that project. France, South Korea, Japan, Russia and USA is possible candidate for the project, and as the weakest contender, USA can’t stand a chance on that over those countries without cutting a chunky deal or two with chinese government.

I think Westinghouse (owned by Japanese) already has many Chinese contracts for Nuclear plants.