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Old 11-23-2014, 07:17 AM
 
Location: Wonderland
67,652 posts, read 60,428,591 times
Reputation: 101031

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Quote:
Originally Posted by drro View Post
You are absolutely right, the credible sources like the US social security administration give a completely different picture than what most Americans claim here in the forums. The US unemployment rate is far higher and the percentage of Americans actually working is at its lowest since decades. This is a good one too: according to the US social security administration half of the country makes less than $27.520 per year. Most Americans are really working class poor.
Just so you know - this figure includes ALL workers, not just full time workers. That's right - even the kid working part time at Sonic.
Wage Statistics for 2012

The average weekly wage for full time workers in the US in third quarter of 2014 is $797, which comes to a bit over $41,400 per year.
Table 1. Median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by sex, quarterly averages, seasonally adjusted
Usual Weekly Earnings Summary
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Old 11-23-2014, 08:17 AM
 
Location: Finland
1,398 posts, read 1,481,747 times
Reputation: 781
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gentoo View Post
You know, the last sentence says it all

Wonder who was first?
It was Finland actually

Map: How 35 countries compare on child poverty (the U.S. is ranked 34th) - The Washington Post
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Old 11-23-2014, 08:23 AM
 
Location: Finland
1,398 posts, read 1,481,747 times
Reputation: 781
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gentoo View Post
Benicia is not far from where my mom currently lives. So much of that area of western Contra Costa County was built that way. The homes are of lesser quality too than older structures built in better locations. So much of the shoreline around San Francisco Bay up to the delta where Benicia is were landfills and those areas that were developed should have never been. The city of Berkeley turned it's old landfill into a park. Not even businesses were allowed to build there.
Hmm do you think the quality is worse now than in the past? I remember that my friend's apartment had only double glasses and very poor insulation otherwise too. It would get very cold there during the winter so he is paid a lot for heating. It is a big company that rents it.
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Old 11-23-2014, 08:26 AM
 
Location: Finland
1,398 posts, read 1,481,747 times
Reputation: 781
Quote:
Originally Posted by Natnasci View Post
The assumption that wooden houses are of poor quality is a peculiar European one. The oldest house in Amsterdam is a wooden house.
Yet how many wooden houses are there in Amsterdam? 3?

All the better houses are made out of bricks or stones. Many wouldn't buy a wooden house at all.
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Old 11-23-2014, 08:38 AM
 
Location: Wonderland
67,652 posts, read 60,428,591 times
Reputation: 101031
Quote:
Originally Posted by Majurius View Post
Yet how many wooden houses are there in Amsterdam? 3?

All the better houses are made out of bricks or stones. Many wouldn't buy a wooden house at all.
So what? I wouldn't buy an igloo here. I wouldn't buy a big tent here. I wouldn't buy a house with a basement here. I wouldn't buy a house WITHOUT a basement in New Jersey. Different building styles, different available materials, different CULTURES.
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Old 11-23-2014, 08:40 AM
 
Location: San Diego, California Republic
16,580 posts, read 27,291,324 times
Reputation: 9032
Quote:
Originally Posted by Majurius View Post
Hmm do you think the quality is worse now than in the past? I remember that my friend's apartment had only double glasses and very poor insulation otherwise too. It would get very cold there during the winter so he is paid a lot for heating. It is a big company that rents it.
That's just it. Places in CA, especially southern CA aren't as well insulated as they should be. Newer places often got hot in summer and cold in winter so energy bills do tend to be rather high. Now as far as other things, there have been some improvements as all new structures in CA have to meet seismic standards due to the reality of earthquakes in this part of the world.

More so than will residential buildings, other structures simply are not built as they should be. The new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is a perfect example of this. It took them 20 years to build the damn thing while both spans of the original bridge only took 4 years during the great depression. There have been problems with this new span since before it opened. The old span needed replacing but I'm not confident that this new span is any safer. This is what construction has come to. Takes much longer than it used to and although up to seismic codes, I'm not sure the quality is any better otherwise.
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Old 11-23-2014, 08:45 AM
 
Location: San Diego, California Republic
16,580 posts, read 27,291,324 times
Reputation: 9032
Quote:
Originally Posted by Majurius View Post
Yet how many wooden houses are there in Amsterdam? 3?

All the better houses are made out of bricks or stones. Many wouldn't buy a wooden house at all.
It makes sense there however as that's a rather damp climate and stone houses require less maintenance and aren't as vulnerable to mold. Just ask people in Seattle about that.

Now, in places like California, your stone house would be a pile of rubble after the next earthquake where as wood flexes with the movement up to a point.
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Old 11-23-2014, 08:49 AM
 
Location: Finland
1,398 posts, read 1,481,747 times
Reputation: 781
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gentoo View Post
That's just it. Places in CA, especially southern CA aren't as well insulated as they should be. Newer places often got hot in summer and cold in winter so energy bills do tend to be rather high. Now as far as other things, there have been some improvements as all new structures in CA have to meet seismic standards due to the reality of earthquakes in this part of the world.

More so than will residential buildings, other structures simply are not built as they should be. The new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is a perfect example of this. It took them 20 years to build the damn thing while both spans of the original bridge only took 4 years during the great depression. There have been problems with this new span since before it opened. The old span needed replacing but I'm not confident that this new span is any safer. This is what construction has come to. Takes much longer than it used to and although up to seismic codes, I'm not sure the quality is any better otherwise.
Oh this is something very different from Europe. Here they make stricter rules every year. Especially regarding the energy consumption! They are already building houses that use less energy than they produce. And Finland is as cold as northern parts of the usa.

Many people are building these geothermal heat pumps for their heating purposes if they don't have option to join the district heating network. No one uses oil or electricity for heating anymore.
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Old 11-23-2014, 08:52 AM
 
Location: Finland
1,398 posts, read 1,481,747 times
Reputation: 781
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gentoo View Post
It makes sense there however as that's a rather damp climate and stone houses require less maintenance and aren't as vulnerable to mold. Just ask people in Seattle about that.

Now, in places like California, your stone house would be a pile of rubble after the next earthquake where as wood flexes with the movement up to a point.
Yep the mold tends to ruin wooden houses at some point!

I wouldn't choose bricks if there were quakes but I believe Japanese have some kind of a solution. They also have very strict rules.
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Old 11-23-2014, 08:54 AM
 
Location: San Diego, California Republic
16,580 posts, read 27,291,324 times
Reputation: 9032
Quote:
Originally Posted by Majurius View Post
Oh this is something very different from Europe. Here they make stricter rules every year. Especially regarding the energy consumption! They are already building houses that use less energy than they produce. And Finland is as cold as northern parts of the usa.

Many people are building these geothermal heat pumps for their heating purposes if they don't have option to join the district heating network. No one uses oil or electricity for heating anymore.
Now, I can't speak for other parts of the US but I know where I am, they do tend to cut corners when they can. However, they are getting tougher with some things but the problem is when you award a project to the lowest possible bidder, you should expect some corners to be cut.
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