Some of you are vultures

caveman38

DirectDebacle wrote: »

My original post was to question the claims on here that plumbers earned £75-£90k p.a. and merely provided a link to O.N.S. figures compiled to show average earnings.

In Chigwell £200 a day x 48 x 5 day wks may well = £75k -£90k p.a. Perhaps the mathematics in your area contributes to your feelings of being ripped off.

They don't earn £48k they turnover £48k (£75k in Chigwellandspeak).

Now you say they don't pay tax or insurance and imply they are all working illegally.

I would find living in Chigwell quite confusing. The maths wouldn't make sense and I'd have to keep dodging moving goalposts.:D

It helps to read the threads properly before trying to be a smart !!!!.
My dentist lives in Chigwell, do you get it so far?
I never said £200 a day, I always said over £200 a day. I never said £90K , I said £80K, get it so far?
I suggested that most of the tradesmen I know are happy to take cash in hand and avoid Tax, VAT etc. or is that something you have never done?
Anotherthing, where I live the tradesmen always work the saturdays as well ie X6. Not such a smart !!!! after all eh?

dopester

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

yet their smiles are as wide as I've seen anywhere

In Thailand, and other places, a smile.. even one which looks full of happiness - may not mean what we as Westerners believe it to convey (although it is difficult not to interpret it that way with the photo you've used)/

BBC News or something did a piece about it a while back - using one of the smiling Bali bombers as an example. Smiles over there can have different meanings - some of them quite incredibly sinister, when you realise later there is bad intent behind them.

- yim tak tai: The polite smile, used for strangers
- feun yim: The “I-am-forced-to-smile-even-I-do-not-want-to” smile
- yim cheuat cheuan: The winner’s smile over a rival
- yim tang nam dtah: The truly happy smile
- yim tak tan: The “sorry-you-are-wrong-again” smile
- yim sao: The smile masking sadness or unhappiness
- yim mee lay-nai: The evil smile
- yim cheun chom: The admiring smile
- yim yor: The arrogant smile
- yim mai ork: The forced smile
- yim yair-yair: The smile to apologize and take the heat out of an awkward, embarrassing situation
- yim hairng: The nervous, apologetic smile
- yim soo: The “it-cannot-get-any-worse-therefore-I-better-smile” smile

http://absolutelybangkok.com/the-thai-smile/

mewbie_2

I was in the zoo the other day. Various exhibits, mainly boring. The aviary was smart though. Vulture enclosure particularly impressive - dead meat on the ground though, bit off putting. The strange thing was that I took some pictures, and when I checked at home - the way the sunlight was falling over their nests the shadows looked like plumbers. Spooky or what...

IveSeenTheLight

dopester wrote: »

In Thailand, and other places, a smile.. even one which looks full of happiness - may not mean what we as Westerners believe it to convey (although it is difficult not to interpret it that way with the photo you've used)/

BBC News or something did a piece about it a while back - using one of the smiling Bali bombers as an example. Smiles over there can have different meanings - some of them quite incredibly sinister, when you realise later there is bad intent behind them.



http://absolutelybangkok.com/the-thai-smile/

I ccan understand this and have seen many variances of smile in my time in south east asia.

My post was purely about how happy they all seemed.
Content with what life had provided for them, making the best out of their significantly worse conditions to us "foreigners"

tartanterra

neas wrote: »

indeed... next time you drive a car, type away at your pc... use software, take public transport.

Thank an engineer... can a plasterer ever do that? Most probably not... takes a certain intellect to be a scientist.. not every tom !!!!!! and harry can do it... sure not every tom !!!!!! and harry can be plasterers... but im sure a damn sight more can be plasterers than engineers..

But your prob right... i guess it takes a real talented intelligent cream of evolution person to be a plastere... and thats why he gets paid more?

Yerrr right..

This is the first time I've ever seen any on here think they are better than everyone else! Boy, are you up your own !!!!!:rotfl:

As you may remember, I am also an engineer, for which I served a full apprenticeship, just like anyone in the building trade - hence the reason I give them respect.

I say remember, because I recall you posting on the Armed Forces thread. You were (yet again) prattling on about how skilled you were, then when you were questioned on what you actually did, you hightailed it!

Why dont you calm down and have a cup of tea? I imagine you make a lot of it at work...........:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Rolandtheroadie

caveman38 wrote: »

I suggested that most of the tradesmen I know are happy to take cash in hand and avoid Tax, VAT etc. or is that something you have never done?
?

Got house re-rendered (roughcasted) and paid cash to save the VAT.

DirectDebacle

caveman38 wrote: »

It helps to read the threads properly before trying to be a smart !!!!.
My dentist lives in Chigwell, do you get it so far?
I never said £200 a day, I always said over £200 a day. I never said £90K , I said £80K, get it so far?
I suggested that most of the tradesmen I know are happy to take cash in hand and avoid Tax, VAT etc. or is that something you have never done?
Anotherthing, where I live the tradesmen always work the saturdays as well ie X6. Not such a smart !!!! after all eh?

Oh dear. Have a word with your dentist he may be able to put some teeth into your arguments, whatever they are.

I have to go back to the real world now.

Walter_J

neas wrote: »

indeed... next time you drive a car, type away at your pc... use software, take public transport.

Thank an engineer... can a plasterer ever do that? Most probably not... takes a certain intellect to be a scientist.. not every tom !!!!!! and harry can do it... sure not every tom !!!!!! and harry can be plasterers... but im sure a damn sight more can be plasterers than engineers..

But your prob right... i guess it takes a real talented intelligent cream of evolution person to be a plastere... and thats why he gets paid more?

Yerrr right..

I'm not quite sure how his thread got itself concerned with trademens' earnings, but here goes...

A good tradesman doesn't earn more than an engineer because he's got a higher intellect, or even because he works harder.

He gets paid more than an engineer because that's what he's able to charge!

In a free market economy everyone's financial worth is set by that market. It's simple supply and demand.

I'm a tradesman. I've also got a teaching degree. I chose to be a carpenter rather than a teacher because it allows me a far better quality of life and I am my own boss. I know many other university educated tradesmen who have taken the same decision.

And yes, we all charge in the region of £200 per day. And get it, even in a recession. I'm fully booked with work until September next year.

It is quite obviously what we are worth - otherwise people wouldn't pay it!

Edited to add: I'm posting this at 5.15 on a Satuday morning because I want to be at work by 6.30. A tradesman's day (and week) tends to be a bit longer than a pen-pusher's...

tesuhoha

mewbie wrote: »

I was in the zoo the other day. Various exhibits, mainly boring. The aviary was smart though. Vulture enclosure particularly impressive - dead meat on the ground though, bit off putting. The strange thing was that I took some pictures, and when I checked at home - the way the sunlight was falling over their nests the shadows looked like plumbers. Spooky or what...

You really are very upset about this, aren't you? I am sorry if I have offended you.

fiveyearplan

Thanks Walter J, thats what I was trying to say but you put it so eloquently.

ps I'm not a tradeswoman myself however I am waiting for the BG man to service our boiler. Husband usually fixes it but it is beyond him this time so we have to pay. I don't begrudge paying as long as 'extras' aren't thrown in.

I'm also self employed and see the benefit of working hard/earning more and I certainly don't consider myself greedy - in fact just about hanging on to my own house at the moment.