bch2014

So I agree with you on the free college piece-totally unnecessary given the labor force dynamics we see... Especially given that a large portion of those who find themselves in trouble with student debt are those who never complete their degree. Finish your degree and you likely won’t have a problem. Making the debt dischargeable in BK would seem to be the more reasonable policy. With regard to the free broadband, I’m not sure what government program you’re referring to... But if you’re referring to rural broadband expansion, that was one of the few parts of the most recent Biden plan I agreed with... If businesses in Berlin, NH can’t communicate efficiently with the rest of the world, why would they locate there? Would seem to be a great economic boom to rural America, and wouldn’t directly benefit individuals/provide a disincentive to work, but rather spur job creation in areas that lag. I do think it’s amazing though the way you talk about my generation. In my friend groups, none of us live at home, all of us have good jobs or are pursuing a MD or PhD, etc... Most of my friends are pretty liberal too (I’m more conservative than all/most of them), but don’t fit the mold of government free-rider. I’m 25-so statistically my friends are anomalous-but I think it points to the continued bifurcation in American society. Lots of people doing great, and lots doing not-so-great.

Not sure what age group Phineas is talking about but unemployment is actually higher among young men than young women. https://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cpseea10.htm

Yup-You went to Cornell, right (don't know why'd you know Ithaca weather so well otherwise)? The hotel school would be a great example of what I'm talking about... You can get a great banking or consulting role out of there, whereas a hospitality major from Directional State U won't have the same opportunity. I don't really have a great solution to this issue. Even if you diversify the pipeline of students going into these universities, alums are still going to want hire new grads from their institutions... I suppose you could say "you can't hire more than XYZ employees in a year from ABC institutions" but the marketplace for talent is so competitive these days that I don't know if that's practical.

One interesting element to this discussion that is semi-paradoxical is the following: The more prestigious/higher ranked the university, the more the earning potential of STEM and non-STEM degrees converge. A classic example of this is that it's pretty common for an English major new grad from Harvard to get a job doing a high-paying, low-"hard skill" job (say M&A advisory at Evercore or Centerview to use an extreme example) but that would be impossible outside of (most generously) the USNWR top twenty schools. However, taken in the aggregate, top twenty USNWR schools have a higher % of STEM students than the balance of US higher education... So you end up with a situation where the liberal arts degrees that DO have value are "underutilized" and the liberal arts degrees that DON'T have value are "oversubscribed."

In Tennessee/Kentucky (Fort Campbell area) this weekend... Honestly not much of a difference here in terms of masks compared to NYC, which surprised me. Most every business here is still requiring masks. Definitely was expecting lower compliance based on what I saw in South Carolina in March.

RC Cola is actually owned by Keurig Dr. Pepper-I don’t know for sure, but I bet they execute pricing changes on it in line with the rest of their portfolio (Dr. Pepper, 7UP, Snapple, etc). If we’re talking niche sodas though-I’d have to go with Cheerwine as my favorite.

Typically you’ll see visual pricing of 4-5% every two years, and then in the “odd years” companies will take weight out of their packages but maintain visual pricing. It truly is dependent on the category though and there are dynamics at play besides just commodity/labor/input costs-For example, I used to work for PepsiCo-we had a lot more pricing power on the Frito-Lay side of the business as we were dominant player in salty snacks vs. on the beverage side, they always let KO take pricing first as they’ve got higher market share in carbonated soft drinks. None of that is proprietary information, they talk about that kind of stuff on the earnings call.

My (food/confectionary) company just gave a 4.5% net pricing increase to our customers (averaged across the portfolio-some items more, some less). Customers can decide how they want to pass that on to the consumer-They’ll pass along most of it but will take a 20-30bps haircut to their margins. That’s pretty much standard across CPG right now-definitely not 30-40% increases. Can’t speak to what is happening in meat/dairy/veg.

I’m something of a nomad-I can find positives and negatives in any place. I grew up in Massachusetts, went to college in Houston, had my first job out of college in Dallas for 2 years, and have now lived in NYC for 18 months... My company will probably want to move me again mid-2022. Likely candidates are Nashville, San Antonio, or Minneapolis. I can make a compelling argument for why each is/is not a good place to live. Certainly, housing is cheaper in those three markets than the greater NYC area. But, while a move would likely signal another promotion and career advancement, I would certainly miss being back within driving distance of much of my family, who largely live in the DC-SNH corridor. To say that @MJO812 is wrong in considering his family in where he wants to live is misguided.

I see your point but the situation in Baltimore is much, much worse than Boston was at its worst. Boston’s deadliest year (1990) had 143 murders. Baltimore had 330 last year. They are similar size cities (population wise). But Baltimore should fear not-St. Louis is still outpacing it (by quite a wide margin in fact). Other contenders are Memphis and New Orleans.

One under discussed issue in this thread on the price/availability of housing is the role that NIMBYs play in stifling development. It is nearly impossible to develop a new neighborhood in the northeast these days... And God forbid you try to build new apartments... In the town I grew up in (Concord, MA), people get their panties in a wad if you try to build apartments or condos, claiming it will “alter the character of the town.” Of course, the same cranks bitching about development are the same ones who have BLM signs in their yard. Here in NYC, a development was just approved in my Financial District/Seaport neighborhood after years of red tape... The objection: it was “architecturally inappropriate.” So one would think it was replacing a building that the Dutch had built... Nope, it was replacing a parking lot. https://www.google.com/amp/s/champ.gothamist.com/champ/gothamist/news/smaller-plan-250-water-street-south-street-seaport-approved-landmarks-commission

I haven’t really seen much of an issue with chain restaurants forcing local spots to close. Reality (absent of Covid restrictions) is that Americans eat out more than ever so everyone, both chain and mom & pop, can get a piece of the pie. I do agree that Mom and Pop grocery stores and the like are failing...But I think Wal Mart, Target, etc are misplaced villains in that fight. But whatever, I’m just a shill for big retail/CPG. The company to criticize for decimating retail in truly small/economically depressed areas is Dollar General.

The "mom and pop" shops don't exist in brick and mortar settings anymore because they aren't economically viable! If you're going to offer the marginal consumer higher prices, less assortment, and a less consistent experience, they will shop elsewhere. That said, monthly business formation has grown in the U.S. compared to 15 years ago so the idea that there is less entrepreneurship in current times compared to years ago is incorrect. But maybe that business is happening on Etsy instead of Main St. https://www.census.gov/econ/bfs/index.html Out of curiosity, I pulled down the county level business applications dataset (on that page under "Annual County Data" header) and compared the business formation rate from 2005 to 2019 for some of counties that people hail from on this forum (plus a few others of interest): State County County Code fipstate fipscty BA2005 BA2019 growth rate TX Collin County 48085 48 085 7947 15872 200% DE Sussex County 10005 10 005 1943 3871 199% VT Chittenden County 50007 50 007 1196 2032 170% TX Dallas County 48113 48 113 24721 39228 159% MA Suffolk County 25025 25 025 6887 10866 158% MD Baltimore County 24005 24 005 7280 10757 148% ME Cumberland County 23005 23 005 2680 3479 130% NY New York County 36061 36 061 38028 47027 124% MA Middlesex County 25017 25 017 11786 14348 122% CT Fairfield County 09001 09 001 10705 12890 120% MA Norfolk County 25021 25 021 5167 6017 116% VT Lamoille County 50015 50 015 217 242 112% MA Plymouth County 25023 25 023 3415 3692 108% MA Worcester County 25027 25 027 4953 5242 106% NH Hillsborough County 33011 33 011 3257 3445 106% CT Tolland County 09013 09 013 759 760 100% NH Coos County 33007 33 007 195 166 85% Looks like you've been spending too much time in Randolph! Hopefully summer time in Delaware reinvigorates your hope in American entrepreneurship... Just be aware that they might not be brick and mortar stores!

Uhh, I lived in West Plano which is essentially the model for an upper-middle-class suburb. Sure, lots and lots of chains but also lots of small business, many run by immigrants (in the case of Plano-mostly Asian immigrants). The most chain-ified areas are lower-income, ex-urban/rural white areas. If your community's population is stagnant/shrinking and incomes aren't rising, what's the incentive to form a business?

1) Suburban Dallas has higher average incomes than rural Vermont. 2) There are plenty of boutiques in Dallas. 3) Am I the only one who doesn't mind shopping at chain Grocery stores? I much preferred shopping at HEB when I lived in Texas vs. the shithole mom and pop grocery stores here in the city... These larger chains generally have better assortment and better prices for the consumer while for employees, they pay higher wages and offering more career advancement than the smaller competition.

The assertion that there are all these lazy, college-educated 25-35 Y/Os sitting around, doing nothing, waiting on a minimum wage increase from the government isn't empirically true, at least compared to other segments of the population. The labor force participation rate AND the unemployment rate for college graduates is higher/lower than any other education subgroup. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t04.htm If you want to talk about work ethic-it's people at the lower end of the education spectrum who don't have it.

To be honest, the most Covid cautious ski area I skied at this season was Magic... Which I wouldn’t expect given their “old school vibe.” They had people shouting at folks getting OFF the lift about pulling your mask up. Really annoying honestly, but the snow was good that day so I dealt with it. The most Covid “cavalier” was Snowbasin.. Which of course is a Vail/Epic partner. They were loading up full gondolas in January. All the Vail resorts were somewhere in the middle in terms of rules/enforcement.

I'd avoid True West in Acton. I think their beer (and food) is mediocre. Cool place to have if you lived in Acton, but not worth travelling for. In Keene, I think ModestMan has both great beer and a great ambience. Also in Keene is Branch and Blade-the ambience isn't as good (it's in an industrial park) but the beer is quite good and they've got a nice outdoor setup if the weather is nice.

Hail in NYC

Hail in the financial district.

What’s the earliest melt out of all time at the snow stake on Mt Mansfield? Was thinking we were going to see it this year but maybe the recent snow has saved it?

Just went and got a haircut and barber had his vaccine card taped on the mirror in front of the chair. Asked me if I was vaccinated, which I am, and said I could take my mask off... Gladly did because getting a haircut with a mask on sucks.

Got it. I remember skiing Pico not long after that storm and it was choked with snow. But yes-maybe there was something weird with it staying more snow the further south you went.

Call me crazy-But wasn’t there a massive event at the end of February 2010 that dropped 40-50 inches on the mountains? This was the storm that dumped like 70 inches in the Catskills in five days... But I think VT did pretty well?

Theaters were in secular decline pre-covid so it’s not surprising to see many of them fail. I rarely went to the movies in the first place so no big deal for me but I understand how many loved it.