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Thread: $160 per month due to new tax law.

  1. #31
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    Quote Originally Posted by Williamsmith View Post
    Would anyone dispute here and now that while it’s nice to have a military machine capable of deploying worldwide and responding to any threats real or imagined......that capability is causing us to ask for a credit card with higher limits every year? And it is making it impossible to take care of our basic needs at home. If your kids ran their household this way, you’d scoff at them when they got in trouble. You can’t eat bullets.
    +1
    It used to be that Social Security funding was the "third rail" of politics, and politicians dare not discuss any changes to it. Now it's become the military. They actually get funded for projects they don't even want because the jobs are spread among so many politicians' districts that it becomes an economic juggernaut that can't seem to be stopped.
    Years ago I read the book "Are We Rome?" and the parallels with the Roman Empire (which ultimately collapsed due to its overreach) and the U.S. are more striking every year.

  2. #32
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    The Right never did, either--they only pretend to when Democrats are in power. See "the two Santa Claus theory."
    it could be because deficits ultimately don't matter that much, and they know it, but there is political value in posturing. And it could be that the pensions, the brokers, the investors, the financial markets etc. need a risk free benchmark (aka they need treasuries) maybe even to function as they are presently if the deficits are funded by treasuries and not pure monetization (I don't understand all this entirely, but it seems if we are going to see the whole thing systematically, we do need to think about the other half of the trade). It could also be that both parties are corrupt and serve the oligarchs at the expensive of the present and future welfare of everyone else. Well that is indisputably true so we can never assume their actions are for the long term good (their actions on the environment alone prove that), but it could ALSO be that deficits just don't matter that much after all. Now even so it wouldn't follow that everything they spend money on is a great use of money (a bomber the military doesn't even want etc.).
    Trees don't grow on money

  3. #33
    Senior Member gimmethesimplelife's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chicken lady View Post
    Dmc, sometimes I wonder about your life and if you truly understand how it compares to the general population of the world or even the US.

    for me “lawn care” is gas for the mower and tractor every few weeks for about 5 months.

    $160 is more than all my car gas for a month, and it’s almost my heart daughter’s monthly food budget. She has not seen a change in her paycheck.
    Chiming in from the 85006 on a day off after mucho OT - Chickenlady, I can completely understand your take here. I get it. That said, and don't anybody freak out about what I am about to post - I am coming to see (after being exposed to the concept of "management" firsthand) the following:

    There need to be people like dmc who don't understand what it's like on the other side of the tracks so that there can be people like Rob in the 85006.....my zip code is full of folks working "unskilled" (I've always found this word a crock) labor - the kind of people that dmc would hire to do his lawn care. If it weren't for people like dmc (and I have often taken issue with various postings of dmc's, I get it and I am not siding against you here, I'm only posting what has become clear to me lately) being willing to part with money to free up time for whatever or no reason - that would be money that would not make it to the 85006 - or a similar zip near where dmc lives.

    So I get in a way that people who think like dmc are necessary in a way for people like me - there's a truly revolutionary thought for someone from the 85006, trust me on this one! Maybe the compromise is to work for those willing to part with cash to free up time and then offshore pretty much everything you can (easy for me to say as I live three hours away from Mexico with it's much cheaper medical and dental and optical and pretty much anything involving labor - great place to have car seats redone and/or have auto work done)........My take is that to do so is indeed working for The Man, but........then taking the money and applying lower social class 85006 wisdom to the money. In the end I have played the game partly on dmc's terms but once the cash is in my hands, it's much more about MY terms.

    Had I never been promoted, I doubt I would have ever understood that there needs to be people like dmc for the 85006 and similar areas to function. Rob

  4. #34
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    Quote Originally Posted by gimmethesimplelife View Post
    There need to be people like dmc who don't understand what it's like on the other side of the tracks so that there can be people like Rob in the 85006.....
    So when you cross the border to exploit the lower labor costs available there, do you think they may feel the same way about you?

    What is it you think dmc doesn't understand?

  5. #35
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LDAHL View Post
    So when you cross the border to exploit the lower labor costs available there, do you think they may feel the same way about you?

    What is it you think dmc doesn't understand?
    Maybe he does, but only if he has actually experienced poverty. I don't believe anyone who has never walked in the shoes of the poor/working poor can really understand what it's like and how difficult life can be.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
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  6. #36
    Senior Member gimmethesimplelife's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LDAHL View Post
    So when you cross the border to exploit the lower labor costs available there, do you think they may feel the same way about you?
    You have taken my breath away with your post here - literally - as I am at my core a very honest person and I have to admit you have a point here. Jeepers, in Algodones or Mexicali or Nogales I am dmc........to an average struggling Mexican I am dmc. I may not like admitting this but I won't flinch from socioeconomic reality........though to temper my guilt a slight bit, Mexico does have socialized medicine, the only kicker being that you have to work in the formal sector to qualify......people you encounter hustling goods on the street and trying to wash car windows and hustling goods on Mexican buses and the subway in Mexico City......these people don't qualify as they are employed in the informal sector and to be quite honest, are probably paying no taxes on their earnings.

    Getting back to the point though......you are correct in what you have posted as far as I am concerned. Rob

  7. #37
    Senior Member gimmethesimplelife's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by catherine View Post
    Maybe he does, but only if he has actually experienced poverty. I don't believe anyone who has never walked in the shoes of the poor/working poor can really understand what it's like and how difficult life can be.
    +1,000.....Thank You, Catherine for "getting" this. I could not agree with you more, but I also believe that whether I like it or not, LDAHL has raised a valid point. Rob

  8. #38
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by gimmethesimplelife View Post
    +1,000.....Thank You, Catherine for "getting" this.
    I've been close enough the edge to know how stressful life can be. I've had to tell my son he couldn't go on a field trip with the other kids because we couldn't afford it. I've had to accept hand-me-downs from neighbors, only to have kids bully my son for wearing them. I've had to ask the owner of the convenience store if I could pay him for milk and bread the following week. I've had my house foreclosed on. I've had my electric turned off so often, my son was able to watch the guy turn it off and learn how to turn it back on with out paying. I've had my phone turned off, just moments before I had to call my husband from the hospital where my daughter was to have an emergency appendectomy, so I had to call a neighbor as ask them to walk to my house to pass along the message to my husband. I've had my debit card declined at the supermarket with the school psychologist in line behind me offering to pick up the charge for me. I've been delinquent on my kids' lunch money. I've had to turn furniture upside down to find change for food.

    So, I've had a taste of the ignominy of poverty.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
    www.silententry.wordpress.com

  9. #39
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    I have never been poor but see dailey the sheer instability of life in the behavior of those on the streets and in nearby neighborhoods. The public housing project down the street currently has a mouse infestwtion. Their Alderman has set up a GoFundMe account for that. Right there as an example, filth and disorganization can be a factor in the lives of the poor that uses energy and resources.

    I would argue that in the world of victims,Rob has far fewer credentials than he thinks he has, as he is a privelged college educated white man with a mortgage no less. They dont give mortgages to truly poor people. The poor dont even have bank sccounts.

    I would also postulate that being poor and single is one level of stress while being poor and having to deny your children stuff is exponentially worse.

  10. #40
    Senior Member gimmethesimplelife's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by iris lilies View Post
    I have never been poor but see dailey the sheer instability of life in the behavior of those on the streets and in nearby neighborhoods. The public housing project down the street currently has a mouse infestwtion. Their Alderman has set up a GoFundMe account for that. Right there as an example, filth and disorganization can be a factor in the lives of the poor that uses energy and resources.

    I would argue that in the world of victims,Rob has far fewer credentials than he thinks he has, as he is a privelged college educated white man with a mortgage no less. They dont give mortgages to truly poor people. The poor dont even have bank sccounts.

    I would also postulate that being poor and single is one level of stress while being poor and having to deny your children stuff is exponentially worse.
    IL.......you also are not without a point here, gotta give you that and please don't be shocked I am doing such. At the moment, I am not poor based on the amount of my checks.......I am actually borderline middle class and can no longer qualify for government assistance (which is as it should be, given the size of my current checks)...........that said, it takes a lot of time to "unpoor" yourself......certainly I am not raising my standard of living other than for some possible travel. I stash all that I can in the credit union as I know that every dollar you can save is one share of insurance against America - and I will always see it that way, given that human life is not worth socialized medicine in the US.

    But lately you are correct, I do have fewer credentials than I used to. About the mortgage - the amount of the loan was around 50K and we qualified to get me on the mortgage at a high interest rate that is still doable due to the smallish amount of the loan. We had to go to a high interest loan as my income in F and B at the time was very unstable, very much unpredictable. About banking.....most but not all 85006 residents bank at a credit union - thankfully some of the big Hispanic oriented credit unions here have made a big push in the 85006 and similar areas to sign up folks for free checking and lower fee accounts overall than banks accounts. So thankfully here there are not as many unbanked as there might be out your way.

    I am also very much aware that so the rich can become yet richer, there will be no job security for me whatsoever. It is my responsibility to deny the system a bulk of my earnings and to save everything I can, with a few exceptions such as the annual VNSA booksale that I posted about today. I may be doing better these days but that does not mean that I don't see things as they truly are and that I now trust the system one iota. But I will admit it does feel nice to stash cash away against America - definitely this helps me sleep at night. And it's nice to know that I can now afford to go to Mexico and have a few crowns done that I have been putting off @$175 a crown (see why I flee to Mexico and make such a big deal about it?) Rob

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