And so much more common than they used to be. Only old people had them when I was young, now you see many young people with sticks and crutches....must be contagious.
Looking at the Sharapova story. Do I believe that she was caught out when it was added to the banned list....possibly. But Meldonium was added to the prohibited list because athletes were found to be misusing it as a performance enhancer....especially in Russia. She said she was taking it for a range of undefined illnesses....amazing in such a fit woman. Meldonium is banned in America (where Sharapova lives) but is available in Russia (her home country). So she is a rich woman living in a country where medical facilities are top drawer (for the rich), yet she takes a drug that an American doctor couldn't prescribe. So we are expected to believe that for ten years she has preferred to be treated in Russia for a range of illnesses (she has quoted possible diabetes as one) rather than a top doctor in the country she lives in. No wonder Capriati has come out guns blazing as she had to retire early with health problems rather than take banned drugs. It is possible that Sharapova was caught out when the drugs list changed, but I think she was taking this drug as a performance enhancer for ten years....following the law perhaps but not the spirit of the law.
Don't want to get involved in a disagreement - but I think these figures are based on "paid time" - don't forget that most management positions don't get paid overtime and, typically, work a lot more than 40 hours. I would regularly work 10 - 12 hour days (in my previous life ) and I bet those aren't taken into account in these figures. I shall shut up now and sit back to enjoy my retirement ................
My first wage was £4 per week (because I was under 18), but would have been £6 if my genitals had been different Gave my Mum £1.50 and saved rest. At that age (and for several years after) you would be expected to live at home, so money was ok. No chance of benefits because you wouldn't have the stamps. Just out of interest....not saying life isn't hard now.
At least (hopefully) the difference between male and female pay has gone now, but I know what you mean. Without trying to sound like an old fart (I know I am), we got by on a lot less than the "essentials" (as they're called) these days. I understand that things can be very hard for some people these days, but it irritates the hell out of me when you see someone pleading for an increase in benefits when they have a colour TV, Sky, an iPhone, ***s, drink and takeaways ...... Sometimes (as me mum always told me) you have to cut your cloth ................
I was in much the same position before retirement. My concern was as technology aided modes of communication proliferated, people felt the need to gather information that previously had been considered unnecessary which then fed verification vehicles and non - virtuous circles were created.. A long winded way of saying much of the information was collected because it could be rather because it was needed. Needless to say we counted the things that didn't count. Indeed in the last organisation I worked for there was actually an 'information department', it had no responsibility for what happened at the sharp end but made unreasonable demands on those who did. Consequently, I worked longer hours feeding the machine. I'm glad to say I have left such organisational psychosis a long way behind.
Was trying not to say that as it winds some people up. There are people having a hard time, but when I was young (when dinosaurs still walked the earth) I had to save for a tranny (not in the modern sense of the word) and I never had a holiday abroad till I was 27. I paid for my first home by doing without (second hand furniture, clapped out car, no new clothes, and a night out was one drink in the pub on a Friday). The difference is that I never felt hard done by....too many people have a sense of entitlement nowadays. I worked in a shop and I was surrounded by people on low wages, setting a good example to their kids, and raising them well. And they got pretty angry at people similar to themselves who resorted to shoplifting...left to us, shoplifters would have no hands My sympathies are with people who try and still struggle and am totally against zero hour contracts (how are you supposed to balance your life like that) and am against room tax (bet it costs more to administrate than it saves, yet causes suffering)., so not a total reactionary.
Archers, Archers,your last paragraph,whilst I don't disagree I'd say we all worry about our children's prospects but if you think back ( unless yo were lucky) very low pay and being caught miles from home so free overtime has always happened.my starting pay was £4.12( shillings ) pw that lasted at least 18 months and even then it didn't break into a fiver. Tight bastards.
Me and my friend used to sit nursing one drink in a pub in Ashurst...bet they loved us . Our first house contained nearly entirely second hand furniture. We went around trying to convince our relatives that they needed a new item and we would kindly take the old one off their hands
Glad to hear it,hope you realise how fortunate you are,so many have to do much more than they are contracted to do and always have.I believe these are the people Beefy was calling the average Joe's. and he was correct. They will never show up on any daft chart or fact sheet.
Maybe I was lucky. My first days work was labouring on a building site for a mate of my dad's; flogged me half to death and left every muscle in my body singing, but paid me properly. I had dozens of jobs before settling down to a career (of sorts). Many of them were dirty and dangerous, some (like working in factories) utterly soul destroying, but I don't think I was ever ripped off the way I see my son's generation being ripped off. Whilst not many of my contempories went to university, the ones that did weren't saddled with debt at the start of their working lives. One more thing; the housing market wasn't completely beyond reach when it came time to start a family; and if it was there was always council housing which, far from being seen as a hand out was a method of providing decent rented accommodation for working people. I consider my generation to have been extremely privilaged (I was born in 1961 btw), but those privilages were hard won by previous generations, and now I fear they're being lost forever. The idea of a fair days work for a fair days pay - my grandads mantra - seems to have been abandoned in favour of every man for himself. As a society I think we're all poorer for it. Bit of a rant that, sorry
