When did "keeping up with the Jones'" start?

Pretty sure that "Thou shalt not covet..." in Exodus indicates keeping up with the Jones' has been going on as long as the Jones' had a flint fire starter.

There's nothing new under the sun.
 
Which FBO and what airport is this?

I'm not going to say. They are a really good FBO and they really do try hard. No call to publicly embarrass them. Besides, why does it matter?

Seriously, talk to some of these small FBO operations. On one end all the charter birds come in loaded with passengers. They don't buy fuel because they have contracts at certain places. Then the pilots and passengers go in use the facility and leave. Lots of local guys use them as a free club house. Then there are the transient pilots, like I mentioned, that cruise around looking for freebie's with no intention of buying gas or anything else. There has to be some balance if we want independent FBO's around. That's why I always buy gas and tip those guys even if I don't really need it.
 
I'm not going to say. They are a really good FBO and they really do try hard. No call to publicly embarrass them. Besides, why does it matter?

Seriously, talk to some of these small FBO operations. On one end all the charter birds come in loaded with passengers. They don't buy fuel because they have contracts at certain places. Then the pilots and passengers go in use the facility and leave. Lots of local guys use them as a free club house. Then there are the transient pilots, like I mentioned, that cruise around looking for freebie's with no intention of buying gas or anything else. There has to be some balance if we want independent FBO's around. That's why I always buy gas and tip those guys even if I don't really need it.

I pretty much always buy fuel when I stop somewhere unless I need to be down the weight.
 
The guy who invented the credit card says he saw it as a way to take advantage of sales



......and then it became how you pay 20+% a year on whatever you saved money buying.
 
The guy who invented the credit card says he saw it as a way to take advantage of sales



......and then it became how you pay 20+% a year on whatever you saved money buying.

A year ? You might want to look at that amortization schedule again. Some people are paying that compounded monthly. Or more.
 
The guy who invented the credit card says he saw it as a way to take advantage of sales



......and then it became how you pay 20+% a year on whatever you saved money buying.

When I was in college and didn't have a pot to pee in credit cards were my savior. Jobs near my university were non-existant. I used credit cards, bought a bunch of landscaping equipment, and started hustling business. I paid them off in less than two months and built a business that paid me 4-5x what all the other people were making. None of it could have happened without credit.

Like guns, alcohol, and nukes: credit must be used with discipline and good sense.
 
When I was in college and didn't have a pot to pee in credit cards were my savior. Jobs near my university were non-existant. I used credit cards, bought a bunch of landscaping equipment, and started hustling business. I paid them off in less than two months and built a business that paid me 4-5x what all the other people were making. None of it could have happened without credit.

Like guns, alcohol, and nukes: credit must be used with discipline and good sense.

Thing is, if that actually happened, credit cards wouldn't exist.
 
Don't know when it started, but it has made life very expensive for us Joneses. Do you have any idea how much it costs to stay ahead every time one of you gets close?
 
Don't know when it started, but it has made life very expensive for us Joneses. Do you have any idea how much it costs to stay ahead every time one of you gets close?

Jest aside,that is exactly the point being underscored in the book The Two-Income Trap by Elizabeth Warden. One of the main offenders is this albatross called housing, that has gobbled up the lion's share of the net income of a present day household. Housing has probably single-handedly imposed the reality of dual-income households as normalcy and the baseline for pricing in the American Real Estate landscape of today. As we know, the momentum behind that is being provided by the coupling of public school districts to housing-specific property taxes. In America, mom and dad effectively pay tuition via property taxes, in lieu of private tuition. This is a specific race with the Joneses that nobody will apologize for. But it is nonetheless real and gives no alternative to the imposition of dual income household on American families.

I'm a single income household. My wife will eventually enter the labor force to her heart's content. Our agreement is not to live any differently than we do now. Guess what that means? You got it. Cheap housing. As long as we can circumnavigate the educational system in order to provide our child a competitive education, we'll be alright. Most people don't follow this lead though. Most people just up the ante and mortgage their marriage/relationship by requiring two full time employments in order to attain parity. You see, even if everybody decided to downsize housing tomorrow, you'd still have to provide competitive non-disruptive public education to the end users. That means a natural gravitation back towards a runup in housing price bidding as a function of school districting. But, de-coupling housing from school districting will never happen, as those who have paid their pound of flesh in order to provide decent public schooling for their kids will cry foul when the net takers put their heathens in the good school and drag it down. It's a catch 22.
 
I don't know when it started but I know that every time I just about get caught up to them, They get refinanced!:mad:
 
Diner's club was the first IIRC.

I think DC was the first multi-merchant charge-card, but it (like Carte Blanche and AmEx) were charge cards, not credit cards. If I'm not mistaken, BankAmericard was the first charge-card that was tied to revolving credit... aka the "credit card".

In my mind the credit card epitomized the "keeping up with the Jones" mentatlity, as it enabled folks to buy goods even if they didn't have the cash in a bank account to pay for said goods.
 
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How would that help? The Federal Reserve prints all the money and they are who we owe all the money to. Your taxes go to pay interest to the Fed. That was why there was the joke back last term about minting the billion dollar platinum coin and handing them to the Fed to pay off the debt. The Government mints coins, a private banking cartel prints money. Never confuse the Fed to be a government entity, it is not, it is how bankers own the government.
 
How would that help? The Federal Reserve prints all the money and they are who we owe all the money to. Your taxes go to pay interest to the Fed. That was why there was the joke back last term about minting the billion dollar platinum coin and handing them to the Fed to pay off the debt. The Government mints coins, a private banking cartel prints money. Never confuse the Fed to be a government entity, it is not, it is how bankers own the government.

You thought a photo of my personal savings and debt plan on my fridge was about the Fed? Nope. We were discussing credit cards.

Fed is a lost cause.
 
How would that help? The Federal Reserve prints all the money and they are who we owe all the money to. Your taxes go to pay interest to the Fed. That was why there was the joke back last term about minting the billion dollar platinum coin and handing them to the Fed to pay off the debt. The Government mints coins, a private banking cartel prints money. Never confuse the Fed to be a government entity, it is not, it is how bankers own the government.

You thought a photo of my personal savings and debt plan on my fridge was about the Fed? Nope. We were discussing credit cards.

Fed is a lost cause.
 
I'm not going to say. They are a really good FBO and they really do try hard. No call to publicly embarrass them. Besides, why does it matter?

Seriously, talk to some of these small FBO operations. On one end all the charter birds come in loaded with passengers. They don't buy fuel because they have contracts at certain places. Then the pilots and passengers go in use the facility and leave. Lots of local guys use them as a free club house. Then there are the transient pilots, like I mentioned, that cruise around looking for freebie's with no intention of buying gas or anything else. There has to be some balance if we want independent FBO's around. That's why I always buy gas and tip those guys even if I don't really need it.

I try to buy gas myself when I land. Somehow these FBO's have to figure out a way to stay in business. I hope that they can given stories like the "F in Pilots" story.

Those of you who have enjoyed the Kissimmee Jet Center at KISM might note one way of trying to survive. I hope they are doing well. If you go there you will note a humble building. They offer very moderately priced fuel. They also are extremely friendly. When I went there they asked me if I would post a positive recommendation on Air Nav, which I was happy to do If they are doing well I wish that others would copy their example. There seem to be a number of pilots like me who are trying to fly on a budget and this FBO cooperates with that.
 
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When I was in college and didn't have a pot to pee in credit cards were my savior. Jobs near my university were non-existant. I used credit cards, bought a bunch of landscaping equipment, and started hustling business. I paid them off in less than two months and built a business that paid me 4-5x what all the other people were making. None of it could have happened without credit.

Like guns, alcohol, and nukes: credit must be used with discipline and good sense.


I think that you are the exception. I have heard stories of folks borrowing money to get a degree. In a few cases, such as yours, the degree offers a chance to get a nice income and pay off that loan. I am aware of some cases where the debt is simply laid aside and the person has to figure out how to live the rest of their life with a debt that they cannot bankrupt because the job that they can get with their degree is not giving enough income to pay that loan back.
 
I think that you are the exception. I have heard stories of folks borrowing money to get a degree. In a few cases, such as yours, the degree offers a chance to get a nice income and pay off that loan. I am aware of some cases where the debt is simply laid aside and the person has to figure out how to live the rest of their life with a debt that they cannot bankrupt because the job that they can get with their degree is not giving enough income to pay that loan back.

Show me a college student who has a business plan for their life after college and knows the best and worst case scenarios for their payback of their loan. I'd bet 90%+ never look at the price tag vs their potential earnings or they'd wonder why they're signing up for 10-20 years of slavery. The only good news about most educational loans is that they're one of the only forms of debt that is absolved at death.
 
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