The Sancho And Juicehead666 Random Chat Thread!

Yes, you pay by quarter/semister whatever you want to call it. You can get government assisted loans for the cash though - that's what I did. It's extremely low interest rates and they give you several more years to pay the money back than a traditional loan.

 

15% is standard. Personally, I will tip in accordance to how well they did. Shitty service - I'll only do 10, decent service I'll do 15 and excceptional I'll do 20.

 

No hard and fast decisions yet, but we're based in Memphis and will work it out from there.

We want to go see the Beale Street, Sun Studio, the FedEx Forum and Graceland of course, and apparently May is pretty big in Memphis, with a big carnival happening throughout the month.

Might even go and look at the Pink Palace.

Haven't done enough research to see what else the state offers, but i can't wait to get to Memphis (it's the main reason i'm making the trip).

 

Oh ok, the last bit sounds similar to what we have here, although our loans are interest free and have a little more generous terms.

Basically here, the Government pays your way through uni/college, then when/if you earn the median wage you start paying it back through the tax system.

If you're on the median wage you only end up paying back about a grand a year, and if you ever dip below the median wage again, you stop having to pay it back.

If you never reach the median wage, you never have to pay a thing.

 

Do you have those rules for everyone in the service industry, or just those you know are earning a pitiful wage?

 

Memphis is cool - they have great street singers if you like blues and jazz. There are some casino's not far from there in Mississippi if that's you cup of tea. Also in Tennessee is Gatlinberg - it's in the Smokey Mountains - beautiful scenery.

WOW, I'd say a little more generous - that sounds great.

What do you mean? Only the waitresses have that pitful wage that I'm aware of. Well, I think strippers are like that as well but I'm not sure.

 

The music is one of the major reasons we're going, so we'll really enjoy the street singers.

The missus loves the mountains and nice scenery, so if the Smoky Mountains are accessible by car, we'll be there.

It's one of the good things about having only 20 million people, we can look after them, through relatively cheap education, a free health system and lifelong social security.

I was just wondering if that's your tip scale for everyone in the service industry, or are you more generous with waitresses.

 

I think it's about 6 hours to Gatlinberg from Memphis. Don't know how long you're staying but it's worth a day to head over there.

Ha, couldn't imagine a health care system here, and personally I don't expect to see social security by the time I'm able to draw it.

Yes, that's pretty much standard. Most folks in the US are probably close to that.

 

We've got 5 days in Memphis, 5 free days (probably for Toronto), then the last 5 days in New York.

Your social security system does seem harsh.

Here you can get unemployment forever, there is no cutoff (although if you don't look for a job they will restrict your payments).
Also lifelong payments for those with disabilities, and senior citizens get a pension (although it's not nearly as much as it should be).

I think we take it for granted (as well as the free healthcare system), but i also think such things should be the norm in a caring society.

Obviously a lot harder to do in a country with your population though.

 

Australia sounds a lot like Denmark

 

Yeah?

My knowledge of Denmark extends to Peter Schmeichel and that's about it.

I really need to be more worldly.

 

lol

I'm only talking about the things you mention - health care, education, etc.
Don't know much about Australia

 

You have a much smaller population than us, don't you?

We've got about 20 million.

 

Around 5.5 million people. But we have 129/km2, you only have 2.5

 

I don't know how i'd handle having a population density like that.

I feel crowded in Australia, so i would go mad in any of the European countries.

We are only a little smaller than all of Europe combined (in terms of land area), yet Europe has 720 million people, and we have 20-21 million.

Wow.

 

Well, all of our country is populated, you have a lot of desolated areas don't you?

 

Yes.

The majority of the centre of the country are either semi-arid or desert, whilst the vast majority of the population lives within 100kms of the coast in their particular state.

 

I forgot to sleep.

 

oh noes!

 

Yup.