Paultry $1k/day? It is not likely that that money was split equally. The skilled manual laborors (took in $12 to $20/hour) and the unskilled likely 7.25 to $10. If the average you calculated was $1000/day (125/hour) the owner/manager of a squad four was pulling in a healthy sum by the end of the fortnight, he has an interesting business and his employees have a bit of food on their plates but rent will have to be paid with income from their second job.

There seems to be a misunderstanding -- There are only the two (brothers) -- Which being equal partners and the only employees of their salvage firm... So... I imagine they split the 'profits' equally...

FWIW My calculations were as follows:

$820*24 Tons = $19,680 ≈ $20k
$20k/10 days =$2k
$2k/2 laborers = $1k per day (each) --- Prior to taxes & expenses...

Best regards
HP

 

all for a paltry $1K apiece

As a retired old man I'm living on $800 per month. If my car(2004) and house weren't paid for And free gas for heating the house(gas well on property) don't know what I'd do.

 

The scrap collectors 'invested' ten days hard labor equipped with acetylene torches, 'porta-powers' a 'Serco loader', miscellaneous 'manual implements' and a single F-450 -- all for a paltry $1K apiece per day (prior to expenses/taxes, etc...) --- That anyone could regard such an outlay of blood, sweat and expletives --for so derisory a sum-- as 'equitable' is hopelessly beyond all comprehension! --- How truly "one person's trash is another's treasure" -- A good thing too - considering such is the basis of an economy!


Tennis, rock climbing, xc and dh skiing, sailing and, occasionally, diving constitute my 'nodding acquaintance' with 'manual labor' -- Of course, as is the nature of recreation, said activities are uncompensated -- 'Tho I've high hopes that'll change Re: the latter

Actually, I don't consider myself 'lazy' -- I'm merely one of those 'old fashioned types' who feels time is more important than money

Very best regards
HP

Well my opinion of you just dropped by a factor of about however much you think a good days pay is worth VS mine.

Your whole statement comes off as if you either have no concept of or that you consider yourself above what the avenge person has to do to make a living.
Where I come from and how I was raised at this point in history if a guy makes $200 take home after taxes for working anything less than a 12 hour day he did well and should act humble around those who don't do that well for days work.

As far as what's scrap worth well I have some good friends who run a scrap yard for the last 50+ years and he and his dad are millionaires multiple times over from it and neither is afraid to work a 12 hour day beside a poor lowly guy like myself or anyone else for that matter.

 

Assuming a 5 day work week, $1k per day is more than $200k per year. Around here, that's considered a very nice gross income. Assuming expenses and taxes take half of that, there aren't many of us in Tennessee doing any better, and a whole bunch doing worse.

 

Your whole statement comes off as if you either have no concept of or that you consider yourself above what the avenge person has to do to make a living

I'm truly sorry that, once again, I seem to have come across as an 'elitist' -- I assure you such is not my attitude! --- It is merely that I place far greater value upon time than money! -- For that reason -- and that reason alone -- I cannot fathom anyone preforming difficult, hazardous tasks for so little gain!? -- That said, I neither disapprove of nor 'look down upon' said individuals! --- In point of fact, being (as most of them are) highly intelligent - I both marvel at and admire their high degree of alacrity in the face of such meager cause for motivation...

As far as what's scrap worth well I have some good friends who run a scrap yard for the last 50+ years and he and his dad are millionaires multiple times over

Such is my observation (Re: scrap dealers) also! -- And, perhaps, a clue to the 'paradox' -- All said and done salvage operators are 'commodity speculators' of a sort -- So... perhaps they'll hold my $20k's worth of scrap for resale at such time as they may realize a decent return on their effort? -- I genuinely hope so! They've certainly earned it!!!

and neither is afraid to work a 12 hour day beside a poor lowly guy like myself or anyone else for that matter.

I do not regard you --or anyone-- as 'lowly' or 'beneath me' based upon 'economics' or time vs (material) gain perspectives/values! -- The world would be pretty boring if we all viewed it through the self same lens! --- When I say 'I don't understand' I mean just that! -- Again I assure you, such is in no way a statement of disapproval or ridicule!

I sincerely apologize for any misapprehension and/or hard feeling such may have engendered!

Most sincerely
HP

 

As a retired old man I'm living on $800 per month. If my car(2004) and house weren't paid for And free gas for heating the house(gas well on property) don't know what I'd do.

While I'm no accountant - I daresay the afore mentioned (per diem) 'income' would be rather less than $800 following taxes and expenses

Best regards
HP

 

Assuming a 5 day work week, $1k per day is more than $200k per year. Around here, that's considered a very nice gross income. Assuming expenses and taxes take half of that, there aren't many of us in Tennessee doing any better, and a whole bunch doing worse.

I'll take your word for it that one can live comfortably on $200K (gross) per year ---That said, do you feel such is fair compensation for the intense labor and not inconsiderable health liabilities attendant to the work in question?

A genuine, respectful, non-argumentative question

Best regards
HP

 

It's merely that 24 tons 'looks like' a much, much, larger 'number'

24 tons is a big number? Once upon a time I calculated a days work and it was over 1000 pounds of loading and unloading trucks, and that was merely incidental to installing the air conditioner.

So, I already know I can load and unload 1000 pounds a day with my bare hands. I can't do it every day because I'm 65 years old and, right now, my right knee is swollen from working under a car yesterday. I'm afraid @tcmtech would run circles around me. But, if this was local to me, I could mosey over there every other day and feel like a fat cat averaging $200 a day for 3 months.

I could eat steak and lobster from what you throw in the trash can!

 

24 tons is a big number? Once upon a time I calculated a days work and it was over 1000 pounds of loading and unloading trucks, and that was merely incidental to installing the air conditioner.

So, I already know I can load and unload 1000 pounds a day with my bare hands. I can't do it every day because I'm 65 years old and, right now, my right knee is swollen from working under a car yesterday. I'm afraid @tcmtech would run circles around me. But, if this was local to me, I could mosey over there every other day and feel like a fat cat averaging $200 a day for 3 months.

IMO most of the work was in the 'demolition' (i.e. cutting and loading) including carrying/dragging 350-400 lbs plates 20 yards by hand so as to position them within reach of the Serco... Out of curiosity, I had a 'go' at one of the plates - Only to discover that I was barely able to lift one end (in the manner of a 'trap door') Aye! Aye! Aye!

Best regards
HP

 

I was barely able to lift one end

Nobody expects a human to lift 400 pounds, let alone do it all day, but then nobody around here expects somebody to volunteer 24 tons of stainless steel for the taking. That's the kind of incentive that causes people to find a way.

 

Funny how estimating calories in a cubic light year of ice cream is less controversial than the value of a load of scrap.

 

Funny how estimating calories in a cubic light year of ice cream is less controversial than the value of a load of scrap.

Ice cream was Question 1. Value of an average pick-up truck load dropped at a scrap metal dealer is this thread, Question 2. We are, surprisingly, still on topic unless this work/pay/elitism topic runs astray - although it is still about the work associated with scrap steel.

 

Sorry, I just took your comments as being a bit elitist being I lived with someone who for last two years made a point of letting me know that she saw what I did as being the lowest form of work and thus worthy of none of her respect.

Now that said someone offers me 24 tons of unprepared scrap stainless steel you would see some pretty creative scrap engineering going onto get that picked up and out of your way with the most efficiency as possible.

Forget cutting torches and chop saws. I would be on site with my 100 amp plasma cutter and a 30KW gen set to power it and I guarantee there wouldn't be one piece that was over 100 pounds if I had to do the loading by hand.

As with#12 24 tons is not all that much when yo break it down into smaller bits. In my younger days we did square hay bales by the thousands every summer and a typical day for me was loading and unloading a good 300 or more myself which works out to with all the moves to and from the field and trailer to the final stack easily moving 30 tons of material a day despite the average bale not weight much over 50 pounds.

So honestly with #12 doing the plasma cutter work and me doing the loading by hand 24 tons cut and loaded between the two of us in 2 - 3 day tops would be totally doable even with my bad back.
Being if it was my equipment and hard labor I would probably give him a 25% of take home cut. If he did a fair amount of loading or equipment operation for hauling the stuff to there ever it needed to go for us to get the cash that 25% would go up to fair 1/3 cut pretty easy.

I grew up doing hard labor for next to nothing and I have the lower back problems now while only being 41 so to me the value of manual labor is very well understood and rightfully compensated for with me. Anyone who sits behind a desk all day and shuffles paper around is to me not worth much over minimum wage.
Sure they will argue that it's a cognitive skills job but to be honest the #1 source of unnecessary, unneeded and unwanted labor for me at any job has always been because some office paper shuffler didn't know anything of value of what I and everyone like me did for the company.

Anytime a person can be gone from their position at work for a week and not really cause any problems they are not worth any more than minimum wage in my views but you take most of us bottom level workers out for more than a half a day and stuff starts hitting the fan all the way to the top office.

Seriously take the top 5 people out of a company for a week. Odds are no one would barely even notice and business would continue on as normal. Take the janitors off their jobs for just one day and everyone notices it. Most by noon even and by day two replacements will be getting called in.

 

Ice cream was Question 1. Value of an average pick-up truck load dropped at a scrap metal dealer is this thread, Question 2. We are, surprisingly, still on topic unless this work/pay/elitism topic runs astray - although it is still about the work associated with scrap steel.

Simple. A cubic light year of ice cream is a totally fictitious concept that no one can create let alone relate to in our reality.

A pickup load of metal is something that anyone can relate to being everyone who has ever lived has loaded a pickup box sized container of some kind with something at one point in their life.

For me physically handing a pickup load of most anything by hand is a trivial task.
A cubic light year of ice cream? It can't exist in my reality so it's not worth the waste of my thoughts to ponder on.

 

Anytime a person can be gone from their position at work for a week and not really cause any problems they are not worth any more than minimum wage in my views but you take most of us bottom level workers out for more than a half a day and stuff starts hitting the fan all the way to the top office.

Seriously take the top 5 people out of a company for a week. Odds are no one would barely even notice and business would continue on as normal. Take the janitors off their jobs for just one day and everyone notices it. Most by noon even and by day two replacements will be getting called in.

Trump-speak seems to be permeating our society. Say what ever you please, wait to see if the fan base is pleased or offended. If pleased, use same strategy across additional topics. If offended, claim that the listener mis-understood you or took your answer out of context.

I don't think you needed to apologize. I don't think you were the one who misunderstood anything.

 

There is a metal recycling foundry (if that's the right word) just south of me, and I see lots of really beat up semi trailers headed there every day. Many of them are loaded with crushed cars with the wheels and tires still on them; I don't know if the engines and transmissions are still there or not. I always wonder if the loads are bought by the pound regardless of the content or if the recycler somehow pays based on the material mix. I always wonder how much a load brings, and I think about all the junk cars that are scattered over the countryside and wonder if they are worth hauling out for scrap. (It's just idle thinking; I am not going in the scrap business.)

 

While I'm no accountant - I daresay the afore mentioned (per diem) 'income' would be rather less than $800 following taxes and expenses

Best regards
HP

That's after state and federal income taxes, but not the $2500 yearly property taxes. My income is actually $1300 a month, but I give my wife $500, to help out her and her mother who live 25 miles away. My wife is her mothers care giver.

 

That's after sate and federal income taxes, but not the $2500 yearly property taxes. My income is actually $1300 a month, but I give my wife $500, to help out her and her mother who live 25 miles away. My wife is her mothers care giver.

I think your comment that your income is $800/MONTH slipped by her. Her reference was $1k per DAY and that was even considered unworthy of a practical person's effort.

 

I don't think you needed to apologize. I don't think you were the one who misunderstood anything.

For the record I was not requesting an apology! - I was, in point of fact, offering an apology for any misunderstanding my post may have caused! --- @GopherT if you have something to say to me I would ask that you do me the courtesy of coming straight out with it -- as opposed to engaging in 'oblique sniping'...

Thank you
HP

 

That's after state and federal income taxes, but not the $2500 yearly property taxes. My income is actually $1300 a month, but I give my wife $500, to help out her and her mother who live 25 miles away. My wife is her mothers care giver.

@shortbus My remarks were in reference to the $1K per day earned by the scrap collectors --- I apologize that I must have seemed to be taking an officious interest in your personal finances

Very best regards
HP