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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 17, 2023

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I don’t think no data is true. From the article I posted here.

https://twitter.com/Birdyword/status/1639536708059533313

I think it’s starting to be real.

https://www.sambowman.co/p/britain-is-a-developing-country

UK salaries are low but after discussing this on Reddit last week I learned that UK income statistics are often disposable income (after tax). That doesn't fully explain the gap but it does narrow a little apples to apples.

Yes, by household disposable income the UK is still much lower than the US (by far the world’s number one), but very close to peer countries like France, Denmark, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and so on.

$125k is still an insane salary for someone working at a car wash in the US. Median personal income is just over $40k. Median household income is like $75k. In this case the Reddit thread about it when it was posted suggested this was a big place and the ‘manager’ was actually a relatively senior employee with a large staff.

That said even the cashier is making $17/hr which is incredible to me, I made $6/hr as a cashier in 2005.

I saw something on Twitter recently showing that the highest wage growth in recent years has been to people making under twenty dollars an hour. That matches my anecdotal evidence well enough. I saw a McDonalds offering $17.50 an hour a few days ago. Ten years ago that would have been a literal minimum wage job.

You have to understand the Bucee’s business model to make sense of that sign. Every point on a major interstate highway has thousands of people who pass by every day. Those people all need to stop for food, gas, and restrooms somewhere. The marginal return on reputation in a market like that is huge. The Bucee’s model is to earn and maintain a reputation for elite service, especially when expanding into new areas like Alabama, where people have heard the hype, but may not have personally experienced it before. You will never see an “out of order” sign at Bucee’s. You will never see shit stains on your toilet at Bucee’s. You will always have toilet paper in your stall at Bucee’s.

These signs themselves are part of the aura. They are displayed prominently at the entrance to the store. Everyone entering the store knows that the workers are professionals and that this is a quality establishment. They have to be to deal with this.