Beats me.Even if the TV is made in China?
<--- (inching this thread closer to a lockdown )
Beats me.Even if the TV is made in China?
<--- (inching this thread closer to a lockdown )
No. If the "stimulus" cash was needed, there would be no money for an Xbox, period.So would it make you happier if they used the stimulus cash to buy their food and then used the money they were going to use for food to buy the xbox?
Which is completely unnecessary, and makes absolutely no sense especially with our deficit and debt escalating. Even a married couple making $100K shouldn't need the government's help.Its a check for everyone who makes less than $100k individually or less than $200k jointly.
And, as I said, I am HAPPY to help those people.You have to expect that lots of people in that group will need that cast to keep the lights on and keep food on the table.
Then why should I expect to give money to people who don't need it?But you also have to expect that not everyone will actually need it to survive.
I recognize that there is a vast spread of intelligence levels and varying degrees of common sense or lack thereof in the general populace. That doesn't bother me at all. What bothers me is having to financially support, against my will, stupid decisions.And also there are lots of stupid people out there. If you let that bother you, you're going to spend a good chunk of your life being bothered.
Maybe you need something like this for those trips to Walmart....as I was waiting in the the "pickup order" line vainly attempting to stay the required 6 feet away from other humans (pretty much impossible to do if they don't seem to want to stay 6 feet away from you, but whatever)...
No. If the "stimulus" cash was needed, there would be no money for an Xbox, period.
Which is completely unnecessary, and makes absolutely no sense especially with our deficit and debt escalating. Even a married couple making $100K shouldn't need the government's help.
And, as I said, I am HAPPY to help those people.
Then why should I expect to give money to people who don't need it?
I recognize that there is a vast spread of intelligence levels and varying degrees of common sense or lack thereof in the general populace. That doesn't bother me at all. What bothers me is having to financially support, against my will, stupid decisions.
I’m sick and tired of my tax dollars supporting corporate welfare and helping billionaires buy new yachts, but I don’t have a choice. I’d much rather my tax dollars buy some poor kid an xbox.
Can't remember....maybe it was Heinlein...never elect someone who really wants the office. Always elect the person you have to drag kicking and screaming because they'll do a better job so they can leave as fast as possible.We still do.
Our great mistake was electing that minority to public office. And that's a non-partisan comment, by the way.
But isn't that what DC really is? Keeping them corraled in one place?Honestly I haven’t seen them defer as much as become politicians themselves or simply say nothing at all, because they know there isn’t a solution.
I’m torn on this. I really don’t want the sorts of people who get into and stay in politics out bothering and getting in the way of intelligent people in the rest of the real world.
Keep the failed lawyers trapped in lifelong “lawmaking” service but just limit their power, would be the engineering ideal for such a known destructive and useless crowd, with no good other alternatives on where to keep them in warm meat storage.
I considered flying today, but have too much stuff to do at home that pays the bills.
I considered flying today, but have too much stuff to do at home that pays the bills.
I don't have any desire to help billionaires buy yachts, either... far from it. The term "corporate welfare" is fraught with political bias, but when/if money is being given to corporations who gainfully employ thousands or tens of thousands of individuals in order to make sure they remain capable of gainfully employing thousands or tens of thousands of individuals, that is FAR more valuable to me and a better use of my money than buying "some poor kid an xbox." A poor kid with an xbox never gave anybody a job. AND... if I may be so bold... a kid who is given an xbox is far less likely to be self-motivated enough to get a job and buy his own xbox.I’m sick and tired of my tax dollars supporting corporate welfare and helping billionaires buy new yachts, but I don’t have a choice. I’d much rather my tax dollars buy some poor kid an xbox.
I don't have any desire to help billionaires buy yachts, either... far from it. The term "corporate welfare" is fraught with political bias, but when/if money is being given to corporations who gainfully employ thousands or tens of thousands of individuals in order to make sure they remain capable of gainfully employing thousands or tens of thousands of individuals, that is FAR more valuable to me and a better use of my money than buying "some poor kid an xbox." A poor kid with an xbox never gave anybody a job. AND... if I may be so bold... a kid who is given an xbox is far less likely to be self-motivated enough to get a job and buy his own xbox.
Wow. Just wow. I didn't realize that an Xbox or a large screen HDR TV was required to experience joy. FWIW, I grew up quite poor in a mobile home park. My wife and I, similarly, started with nothing, and I mean NOTHING. Not once did we have a joyless life. If you need expensive electronic toys to experience joy, you have problems that money can't solve.How dare those poor people try to buy something to bring joy to their everyday existence. They should be picking themselves up by their bootstraps!
Which is completely unnecessary, and makes absolutely no sense especially with our deficit and debt escalating. Even a married couple making $100K shouldn't need the government's help.
Wow. Just wow. I didn't realize that an Xbox or a large screen HDR TV was required to experience joy. FWIW, I grew up quite poor in a mobile home park. My wife and I, similarly, started with nothing, and I mean NOTHING. Not once did we have a joyless life. If you need expensive electronic toys to experience joy, you have problems that money can't solve.
FWIW: this has nothing to do with economics. It's all cultural. As stated above money can't fix that. The same articles on "despair" discuss the cultural side. The economics have been the same for "young people" since before the "millenial" generation except they're the 1st gen who can not deal with it. So long as colleges/universities provide "no free speech zones" and quiet rooms with coloring books for those who can't deal with free speech, they, the millenials will continue to take too many opiods or other avenues to dodge reality instead of pulling themselves up and dealing with it. Or not. Here's one such example of those who can't.Deaths of despair" amongst young people in this country.
The economics have been the same for "young people" since before the "millenial" generation except they're the 1st gen who can not deal with it.
Well yeah, obviously. But I'm not understanding how you could know that a check was going out to everyone who makes under $100k and not assume there would be some who didn't actually need the money. I'm also not understanding how you can go to a Walmart (the one place on Earth where you're least likely to run into a Mensa member) and not expect to see someone who actually needs the money and yet is using it to buy themselves an Xbox anyway. Seriously, how is this surprising to you?No. If the "stimulus" cash was needed, there would be no money for an Xbox, period.
Well I get your point and I can't say I disagree with it. But there's a whole lot of real estate between 'shouldn't' and 'doesn't'. Again, you're shopping at Walmart. Walmart isn't as popular as it is because everyone did well in high school and is now well invested and on their way to early retirement. If you shop there, you should know this.Which is completely unnecessary, and makes absolutely no sense especially with our deficit and debt escalating. Even a married couple making $100K shouldn't need the government's help.
I'm sorry, were you not informed about how our current government works? Were you led to believe that you go out and vote and if your guy wins, then government will only make decisions that are rational and make the most sense for your own best interests?And, as I said, I am HAPPY to help those people.
Then why should I expect to give money to people who don't need it?
I recognize that there is a vast spread of intelligence levels and varying degrees of common sense or lack thereof in the general populace. That doesn't bother me at all. What bothers me is having to financially support, against my will, stupid decisions.
...cynicism snipped...
No, it's not... what? The economics for "young people" have remained the same for decades? Or that millennials are the 1st generation that can't deal with those " youth economics?" But as with any discussion, it requires context. I'm a trailing edge boomer, what generation do you fit into?No, it’s not.
No, it's not... what? The economics for "young people" have remained the same for decades? Or that millennials are the 1st generation that can't deal with those " youth economics?" But as with any discussion, it requires context. I'm a trailing edge boomer, what generation do you fit into?
The economics have been the same for "young people" since before the "millenial" generation except they're the 1st gen who can not deal with it.
No, it’s not.
Generally it really is though.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/millennials-cost-of-living-compared-to-gen-x-baby-boomers-2018-5?amp
Again, no it’s not. Boomers making the same money in 1980 as millennials are today (adjusted for inflation) enjoyed a much higher standard of living than a millennial does because their dollar went much farther.
Don’t let pesky facts get in the way of your anti-millennial diatribe though.
Awesome post, Nate. Normally, I'd snip it, but it deserves a complete reposting. Thanks for taking the time.Generally it really is though.
The main difference isn’t in income level, the ratio of income to what a young person can afford is essentially the same. The difference is in loose monetary supply and everyone awash in credit to allow massive personal debt AND the willingness to use it.
We were all dirt broke when we were young, but the older generations weren’t going to give us loans of ANY sort. Not for cars, housing, even credit cards. No way no how. Not until you had a solid job for a long time would you even be considered for a piece of plastic. And even then you’d be limited to maybe $5000.
The credit opening up, and lifestyle choices, along with lifelong debt addiction is relatively new. Hell, car leases weren’t even a thing, and nobody saw anybody under 25-30 driving anything but a beater in most middle class ‘hoods.
Today, it’s all on the credit cards. Or the never ending payment plan. But I *have* to have that $1000 smartphone at zero percent over two years...
I was a broke computer nerd. I literally rummaged stuff out of corporate dumpsters to repair myself. Wasn’t any constant barrage of youtubers telling me I deserved the latest “gamer CPU” or whatever. I lusted over the cheapest junk in the back pages of ComputerShopper and was giddy at saving enough to buy a printer. My first apartment had cockroaches galore.
I didn’t KILL myself over it either. Go figure.
Because my main home growing up had old carpet, old bathrooms, old cars, and definitely no landscapers or maids cleaning the place. We had some actual sense of where middle class income ACTUALLY fell in the economic sense. Not a weirdly twisted one where mom and dad had massive debt but never told the kids, and a perfectly remodeled kitchen and bathrooms in a 3500 square foot shoe box jammed up against the neighboring one.
I see this weirdness all the time in personal finance groups. “My kid is turning 16, what car should I buy them?”
“What’s your budget?”
“Oh I don’t know. I can afford X per month.”
“Why would you finance a car for a teenager? It is going to be wrecked anyway.”
“Well I just want them to be safe! Something with 40 airbags would be great!”
Ugh. It’s a disease of expectations being wildly out of whack. I can easily see how it would cause enough mental instability to consider suicide.
Nobody gets promised anything in life. I’m sure many of my months of life in the early days of being on my own would’ve been labeled all sorts of things these days. “Paycheck to paycheck”, “Food insecurity”, “Broke ass cracker.” LOL. But it wasn’t even close to producing enough “anxiety” to even think about suicide.
Digging around popular online hangouts for a younger crowd, the stuff they claim produces “anxiety” is almost so far out to lunch you wonder if they’re joking. Buffy the Gerbil needed a vet visit that cost $40. Buffy might be seriously ill.
I mean, did you think gerbil care and feeding was free? I had a freaking goldfish once when I was dead broke. I fed it and kept it’s little tank clean. It died. I flushed it.
I’m kinda joking around a little here with the gerbil but not really. The stories abound. And in the finance groups asking for advice they get worse. Stuff like “I had a court order to pay X a month but I haven’t in six years. This really stresses me out. What to do?”
“Weren’t you just asking about buying a brand new car last week?”
“Well yeah but I needed that for work.”
I don’t even want to know what stupidity led to the court order. The last things I would ever do when I was poor was anything that would take me anywhere near a court. That’s expensive!
Seriously. There’s just a ton of totally out of whack messages in our society about what people should think they “deserve”. It’s wild.
We expected beater cars and renting mediocre pads, really. Especially with normal jobs. You didn’t get to bust out all the bling and buy houses and new cars and toys to fill them unless you were in “a career” for quite a while. Or you were senior at a traditional blue collar job. If you did buy anything you fixed it up yourself.
Wasn’t a big box store on every corner to get the stuff from either, you were headed to the construction supply places and Grainger. Whatever lamp fixture they had, that’s what your bathroom was getting. Haha.
What’s your expectation for the young today DW? What should they automatically have that the previous generation had that they don’t, that’s so important they should be killing themselves over it?
I’m honestly curious.
I never gave two thoughts about whatever J. Paul Getty is was up to when I was broke and a family member worked for him. Envy wasn’t going to change anything in my life. It appears it makes many younger folk these days quite unhappy though, comparing their lives with celebrities and business owners. Mentally disturbed even?
Your generation could work a minimum wage job and still afford to go to college, mine can’t pay rent on a minimum wage job.
That was ridiculous, but the other comparison is even more laughable. A 1954 beetle was the cheapest piece of crap car you could buy. It was cheap to run, and a handy person could keep the thing running forever for almost nothing. A 2012 beetle is a middle of the road car not a stripped down, ultra econo car like the 54 was. The heater in a 54 beetle was run off an exhaust shroud. Smelled like you were going to die of CO poisoning, but didn’t really heat much, even when working perfectly. The closest modern equivalent of a 54 beetle would be the cheapest Kia they make with no AC, automatic transmission, anti-lock brakes, or power steering, but even that is orders of magnitude better.Laughably, the first car the article mentions in the comparison is a Porsche 911.
Key words. My parents were well off for their social standing. But I never asked for help nor accepted when they did offer. You did. You can spin it any way you want, but it boils down to taking responsibility for your life and living within your means, regardless of the quote-unquote economic differences between my generation, your generation, or any generation. My 1st solo venture into life required 7 roommates. Most millennials cringe at such a situation. I currently have a group of X'ers and Millennials within my inner circle. Only one is not dealing with this situation or life in general but they have been diagnosed mental issues. So call as you want. But, thankfully, there is still a large majority who can deal with life and it will continue after this. However, in 30 years.... who knows.my parents were able to give me a jump start
True dat. We had a '59 Beetle when I was a kid, and I learned to drive on a '69 VW bus. There isn't a single car manufactured now that can come close to the barebones cheapness of those vehicles. They wouldn't even be ALLOWED to be sold as a new vehicle now.That was ridiculous, but the other comparison is even more laughable. A 1954 beetle was the cheapest piece of crap car you could buy. It was cheap to run, and a handy person could keep the thing running forever for almost nothing. A 2012 beetle is a middle of the road car not a stripped down, ultra econo car like the 54 was. The heater in a 54 beetle was run off an exhaust shroud. Smelled like you were going to die of CO poisoning, but didn’t really heat much, even when working perfectly. The closest modern equivalent of a 54 beetle would be the cheapest Kia they make with no AC, automatic transmission, anti-lock brakes, or power steering, but even that is orders of magnitude better.
So... Why mention it then???ROFL.... we are in total agreement. Unfortunately. Believe me, I knew.
Generally it really is though.
The main difference isn’t in income level, the ratio of income to what a young person can afford is essentially the same.
...
What’s your expectation for the young today DW? What should they automatically have that the previous generation had that they don’t, that’s so important they should be killing themselves over it?
I’m honestly curious.