Janitor's lottery win helps build his school a new track

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Terry

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A King County parks grant paid for part of the $175,000 track. The rest, $40,000, came from Curry, out of the $3.4 million he won from a lottery ticket on June 6, 2006.

"I want to put in things that can be useful to people, that can be used by the kids, by neighbors and other people. It's not about me, it's about other people and what I can do for them."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015553417_lotteryguy09.html
 

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Tom Sawyer

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Unfortunatly with economies tanking and cities looking for ways to cut expenses it won't be long before public schools have to rely on generous donations such as this gentlemans.
 

Ian Gills

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I think what he did was great.

For those Americans that are less generous, I say raise taxes.

Washington knows how to spend your money better than you do.
 

Ballvalve

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He should get a statue if he built a plumbing, electrical, welding, janitorial and woodshop for the kids. Then make the kids jog to the shop class.

There are enough closed up strip malls that for 200 bucks the kids could have painted the track in an afternoon and gated the entrances.

So I get a 18 year old that knows how to run and operate a computer. He'd be a whole lot more useful if he could program my CNC flatbed router, AND know how to make something on it.

Thats how the Chinese do it, and thats why we have about 600 Manufacturers a week being auctioned off. I could fill his shop with the BEST machines for 5 cents on the dollar from auctions.

My parents and their kids did their jogging chasing a shot pheasant or rabbit for dinner. And instead of watching MTV, plucked the birds.

We are designing a country of incompetents. And celebrating it. Does'nt anyone get it?
 
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Ian Gills

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I get it. But we shouldn't expect kind men like this to give money for essential public services.

Taxpayers need to do that.

So, let's raise taxes and provide a decent education for all American kids, including any here illegally.

That way America will be able to compete.

And those kids when they become well-paid workers, their taxes will close the deficit.

It ain't rocket science, so why do Americans make the question of taxes so complicated?

Raise them!
 

Ballvalve

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Yes, when some mega company head gets 6 million in cash and 10,000 shares of stock, for picking his nose 98% of the year, half of that should go to a grant fund for MECHANICAL education, and sports second at best.
 

Ballvalve

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So, let's raise taxes and provide a decent education for all American kids, including any here illegally

What kids need are parents, [2] good ones. Without that, no amount of taxes will fix our disaster.
 

Ian Gills

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Nope. The Government can do a better job than many parents in any country.

If your parents are poor, even having two of them is not going to help you.

A single mother with grants to send her kids to university would do more than most fathers (even the good ones) ever could.

People need skills to compete in the modern world. Not tips and tricks handed down from father to son.

Knowing how to use a screwdriver is not going to get you very far against the Chinese. A university education will.
 

Ballvalve

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A university education in Sociology? Or Phychology? Or English literature?

85% of university education is an excuse for a debauch and endless partying, and avoiding real work.

My nephew has a degree in architecture, couldnt build a garden shed with a sunset book. He'd be hospitalized if you gave him a nail gun for an hour. His drawings look like stuff I did when I was 12. Works at the walgreeens and lives with mom and dad.

America doesnt need any more over educated imbeciles, it needs kids that grew up with screwdrivers, can operate a CNC machine, or a skil saw, and can fix anything with a moving part.

A government with a 50 trillion deficit is not qualified to wipe its own butt, much less teach my kid.

And imagine, that jury of 12 potatoe heads that freed the baby killer probably raised 20 to 40 kids to be as stupid as them.

Lets re-pipe America using lead pipes and get this over with soon.

How much university education did your kings and Abe Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson have? They had candles and books in French and Latin. And parents teaching them nips, tricks, pips and bits.

I'll bet when ol' honest abe got caught watching MTV or Nick Teen on his plasma, he got a hell of a whipping with a strop.

Its fairly evident you dont have a wife or a son, so try that out, and you will discover that your entire attitude will take a drastic change.
 
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Ian Gills

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Most of the guys I know with a degree in architecture now do very well as architects.

As for some of the other degrees you cite, they are often enough to provide a sound foundation for further training. I've known lots of people with language degrees become accountants and history grads become lawyers.

Engineering is not going to get any kid anywhere in a competitive world against the Chinese.

My best friend is an engineer by training and manufacturing has declined to such an extent that the only places he can now work are in niche, small firms: he currently hand builds replacement parts for vintage racing cars. There aren't enough of those jobs to employ a generation of young Americans so you'd best get their sorry behinds into a university with a government grant.

Daddy's teaching will only leave them unemployed. And it would be a very bad parent that teaches their son skills that will simply not be required in an America by the time they grow up.

Teach him the piano instead.
 
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Ballvalve

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Plenty of jobs for GOOD engineers. And the kids got 2 piano's and a squeezebox.

And beyond belief, America is still far ahead of any country in amount of MFG. output. Yes, even China.

Perhaps you could make minimum wage at the piano if you live in a city with a few hundred piano bars.

In Europe they sort out the kids that have mechanical skills from the lily whites suited for the drafting table and send them to the school they need.
 
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Ian Gills

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The Conservatives in Europe killed its manufacturing long ago when they abolished the unions.

Your Republicans will do the same, if they ever come to power. They'll finish what Reagan started.

So the choice is yours....lower taxes or manufacturing jobs.

You can't have both.

My kids will do engineering for a weekend hobby. Not a serious job that pays the bills. The days of engineering will be numbered for the next generation of Americans. Enjoy your jobs while you can. You are the last generation of American engineers.

There will still be demand for plumbers and electricians in America of course, but they'll be competing with low wage immigrant labor. I want my kids to earn a decent wage so, again, that will be just for the weekends. Not a serious occupation.

I challenge anyone else on this forum to seriously come forward, look me in the eye and say they would want their kids to follow in their footsteps.

I don't expect any takers on that one except you Ballvalve.
 
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Ballvalve

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No one killed MFG in Europe, if we discuss Germany and Poland and Czechoslovakia. They are going strong and bigger. Because they sort out the kids for training. The kid can STILL decide to work an accordian after learning the lathe of he so wishes.

I have yet for find a south american electrician or plumber. Poles, czechs, etc, yes. Maybe a few screwball English.

I would tell my kid to become a winemaker or fly for the air force. Drive a excavator or bulldozer on the weekend to relax and improve some land. But he better be equipped to change his own water heater and fix his chainsaw.

He already speaks polish at age 5 [wish it was Slovak but its close enough] and has a house in a village in Poland that looks like Dr. Zhivago's. I'd say thats pretty well rounded.

So drop in, I have a guest house on a river with a nice waterfall, and I'll give you the tour of the wine cellar with free tasting to any quantity.

And I hope my kid follows my lead, because I arrived here without nary a penny.
 

Pipehacker

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And the even sadder fact is that the cost of obtaining a poor quality liberal arts education at a major public university has exceeded inflation by about a factor of 500% in the last 20 years.
 

Ian Gills

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The best thing my ancestors ever did for me was not to encourage me to follow in their footsteps (all of them mechanics, electricians, plumbers and engineers).

I was off to university to pursue a desk job.

Doing DIY at the weekends.

Twenty years on, the complaints I heard then about their trades turned out to be true, at least in Europe but here soon as well.

Sure, you can still do those sorts of jobs in Poland and the Czech Republic if you want to earn the same as someone working behind a counter in an American (or London) fast food restaurant. Not for me. Or my kids.
 
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Ballvalve

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I hate to tell you Ian, but the vast majority of Englands tilesetters, plasterers and mechanical guys are Poles, Turks and Czecholsovaks. They take 3/4 of your guys money, send it home and build huge castles with the cash. I know, I know them and I know the houses they built on doing better work, faster, for less money than the English who were out having their hair bobbed.

Some great Vets and doctors in eastern europe make a lot more money parking cars and waiting tables rather than being paid by the "free" health care system that leaves only the incompetent drunkard to slip the knife on your liver.

Better hone your skills, because aftet the debt ceiling gets dropped, you'll have your desk sold for scrap and can start parking those Jags of the congressman. Be careful, one of them was my partner in a winery development and ended up in the ethics committee after he screwed me and 40 or 50 other honest souls. Get your tip up front. Or get a Polish accent and go set tile in London.
 

Ian Gills

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You're right Ballvalve. Those Eastern Europeans in England are doing exactly the types of jobs that British people no longer want to do.

Very similar to fruit pickers here.

Not so long ago you would pay a fortune for a plumber in England. Immigrant labor from Eastern Europe put an end to that.

But plumbing and electrical work is still fun to do at the weekend. Not for a proper job though.
 

Ballvalve

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The best thing my ancestors ever did for me was not to encourage me to follow in their footsteps (all of them mechanics, electricians, plumbers and engineers).

I was off to university to pursue a desk job.

Doing DIY at the weekends.

Twenty years on, the complaints I heard then about their trades turned out to be true, at least in Europe but here soon as well.

Sure, you can still do those sorts of jobs in Poland and the Czech Republic if you want to earn the same as someone working behind a counter in an American (or London) fast food restaurant. Not for me. Or my kids.

By the by, its illegal to do that without a contractors license. Better watch that passport carefully!
 

Ian Gills

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No, around here you can do your own work as long as you pass a simple test, pull a permit and get the work inspected.

Hardly freedom, but there you go. Nobody lives in the US to be free. They live here for the rules! Just like Russia used to be without the shared income.

Thankfully a lot of fun DIY does not need a permit at all. Tiling. Replacing doors. Replacing windows. I could go on. The unions didn't get those.
 
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Terry

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If you nail a window in upside down, it doesn't pollute your neigbors water supply.
And laying tile crooked in your home doesn't really affect them either.
 
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