Depression? Is it coming?

[carugoman]

I live in the "Deep South" or what we locals call it "The Redneck Riviera." Having Victory gardens and taking in boarders hasn't gone out of "style." Since I spent my whole military career of 24+years as a front-line combat engineer puke, I'd have to say my body has taken a wee bit of a bash. I have a 36' travel trailer (4 y.o.) that I 'rent' for work around the farm/ ranch. I have a vast knowledge on many subjects and practical experience on several. I have many younger adults just starting out,many with very young families and almost all with no money; on which they equate no success in life?

I have to rant here on this last note. When did it become the whole point of life was no money equals no hope no success? I may have not always have had money but I always had hope. Living the American Dream is a nightmare! Keeping up with the Barkojevicz or Joneses is overblown. Learn all that you can-any skill, any trade. Read everything that you can get your hands on. Go to libraries and read books! Albert Einstein was once asked why he read so many books, newspapers, magazines anything that he could obtain. To paraphrase what he replied was something like..." My friend Sigmund Freud has concluded that the human brain will retain 3% of long-term memory of what a person reads. If a person were to read only 10 books in a life time...this is why I have read many thousands of books!"

At the end of the day as I sit on the veranda watching that orange ball slip into the distant horizon, smelling the roses, jasmine and the herb garden, sipping a mug of fresh ground and brewed coffee and smoking a cigarette...I hug and kiss my DW and thank God for all my Blessings! I'm in Paradise and at Peace...here on the Earth! God dam Satan!

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Quote:
To which I add an Amen! We don't need all the "stuff" we have to equate happiness. There is much joy to be found in very simple pleasures and I think the very pursuit of the "American Dream" as it has come to be defined (lotsa stuff and spending, spending, spending) can actually hold us captive and keep us from actually realizing true joy and happiness in life. I'm not suggesting that's true for all, but the risk for that is certainly there.

Where I live (smack dab in the middle of OC, in a high cost, small personal land area) seeing this pursuit of things is a daily thing. It has invaded every area of this community, and it's sad. The contrast between the haves and the have-nots can be quite stark. But, there are glimmers of hope and I know folks who're bucking the local trend. From the immigrant family who lives across the street from my BIL, who grow edible food in every square foot of their 5000 sf lot, then sell the excess at a deep discount to others in need, to neighbors who share what they grow in their tiny backyards, with others who don't. The exciting garden project that we're running at our church (see my posts over at TEG) is an example of another way that we can buck this trend and do things a different way.

So, I tip my own coffee mug to you as we sit on opposite ends of this country and enjoy our personal paradises!

 

[Davaroo]

My one beef is that we are to blame and must somehow bear the brunt to "change." You hear it all the time: We are admonished to do less, spend less, drive less, breathe less, even sh*t less. But we, collectively, are not entirely to blame. We're just trying to make it; guilt shouldn't be our burden on top of that. Apparently, though, we should expect to pay for everything.

The new energy-efficient flouro light bulbs that will supplant incandescent bulbs will need to be processed for the minute bit of mercury in them, once they have burned up. Care to guess who is gonna bear the cost of that?

But how about the fact that illegal immigration and all it's problems costs this country over 330 billion dollars a year? Yet, too many of us believe The Devil Bush's War on Terror is bankrupting us....

How about the fact that oil has gone down substantially in the last few days but the pump price hasnt budged? Let crude oil go up by a dollar/barrel and the pump price goes up, almost immediately. What's "up" with that?

There is no shortage of petro fuel - you can buy all you want, right now. Meanwhile, the means to get 50-75 miles per gallon on gasoline, reduce emissions and not use any "emergent" technologies doing it already exists. And yet it isn't being done.

You need only 12 sq. ft of garden space with 3 chickens living on it to balance your personal carbon load on the environment. This isn't unknown, yet I'll bet no one has told you nor are they planning to make that happen.

Alcohol as a fuel is a sham. Flatly put, you cannot grow enough bio-fuel crops, or cut down enough forest to produce it - and still have enough water to drink or food to eat. Some bargain, huh? Yet all you hear is "Biofuel, Our Saviour."

If the Dems gain the White House, they have avowed to repeal the tax cuts you have been enjoying for the last few years. Another way of looking at this is you will have even less money for yourself, for all your hard work.... because you will pay more for the governments bad spending tactics. This would be funny, if so many weren't clamoring for this force-fed "change." Sheeeesh.

It all reminds me of the movie "The Sting," where the plot was to rip off the bad guy without him knowing it. Somehow, we've become the bad guy at fault.

WE can all do more to live with less - that is a truism that will always be right. And we will, soon enough - of that I'm certain. But who is spending our money, where and profiteering on whom around here?

Ill get my coat now...

 

[Rhett&SarahsMom]

Peopel also lived with their parents longer and even after they married and began their own families.

In my neighborhood(small, middle class) we have a home that is a triple decker. For those not from MA that is a 3 floored building with an apartment on every floor. Usually a small pocrch out back on each floor for each family. Well. when we moved in three seperate families lived there. They sold and each bought their own home a few towns away. The people that bought it did so as an investment. Then the market went CRASH! They paid too much, couldnt get renters in that could pay and then the house became a problem. Drug deals etc. Not fun> I was on the phone all the time with the police. The house was foreclosed on and was empty for a while. Then a miracle happened. One single. extended family moved in. At least 4 generations! They have fixed it up, they are nice people. I can even stomach their dog, which they leave out all night long and allow to bark continuously. I dont complain since I had "that" dog a few years ago!

PLus I am the crazy neighbor getting chickns. I dont need to piss anyone off.

At this point our trips to visit my mom(nearly two hours away by car) will be via train. Leave the car at the stop here and have my mom pick us up at the stop by her. And then stay a day or two. It will be less frequent. Since I have animals here I am responsible for besides the chickens. But it is going to be this way. First time will be before Thanksgiving.

Oh. And they have to repeal the tax cuts.
Bush has gotten us into a HUGE deficit. The US is over extended just as much as many of our fellow citizens are. We are in debt to other nations. One of which is also in trouble due to the high price of fuel.

In my city many residents are mad at the new mayor right now. She looked at the budget( last mayor was a Republican) and had to make cuts. One of the cuts was to the library. Instead of it being open for 6 days it will be open 3. It means it looses state accreditation. But there is NO MONEY to keep it open UNLESS they raise property taxes and/or take it from the schools, police or fire depts. Hmmmm library 6 days a week or cut teachers, police officers or firemen? I will take the cut in library hours and will even support a raise in taxes to get the city(and the country) OUT of this very mess.

We want the kids to be educated and safe. but no one wants to pay for it. Kinda stupid if ya ask me.

 

[DuckyBoys]

Quote:
Elderoo, I like you!