I have to admit I find these days so crazy I sometimes feel I missed some crucial need to know information that seems to have been passed out to just about everyone but me at some point. My guess is it happened sometime in the early 90's or maybe late 80's.
I was always raised with distinct black and white lines that followed base Christian values. Don't cheat others, don't lie, don't steal, don't owe people money and don't hit on your friends' women. (unless you were pretty sure you had a chance). Seriously though I took much of this to heart and although it made so much sense years ago in so many ways these days it all looks like maybe it just wasn't the right attitude for this day and age.
For instance. I never got myself into debt except for my student loans, which I paid back. Now I don't harp on that much as the debt a student was forced to pay back then was nowhere near the amounts they force on these students now but still one should honor their promises. I never burrowed money to buy things but paid cash and saved for em. I never burrowed money to start a business because honestly when I really researched the details it always seemed a certain degree of dishonesty was baked into the deal if you wanted it to be successful. Most everything I had a passion for just didn't pay anyway or as I was to finally find out I was just not the right diversity the world seemed to think they needed.
SO be it.
I chose honesty and my own conscious. It took longer and was much harder but in the end I can daydream of the past and feel very few tinges of guilt for something I did and usually it was a mistake despite my intentions. Many have claimed over the years I have little ambition but what I have always lacked almost completely is greed. No matter what time period I can think of I was usually content by very simple things. Plus I had an almost inexhaustible pool of patience. I was once also described as having the patience of a rock. Another virtue that seemed to have no downside until the world somehow decided it should be as useless as any vice.
The one useful talent I did seem to possess for the modern world is that I am pretty good at investing. I think the patience pays off there a lot as a long term buy and hold type strategy worked well back in the 80's and 90's. Again not so much these days but I have been pretty comfortable knowing I had managed to reach a level that I could stay solvent even in retirement. My property is debt free (except for taxes) and I made enough in residual and dividends that I felt secure.
The rub is this country I used to love so much keeps changing the rules. I am no longer certain I am as financially secure as I once believed. Oh sure the numbers still add up but for how long? I see nothing but useless stupid mistakes all around me. When I wanted to build a new house two years ago I had cash on hand when those in the construction trade laughed and claimed they would not be doing private contracts for years.
I priced the same building today I had wanted almost 3 years ago and that very same plan costs more today than it did to pay off the entire mortgage on this farm for my mother 30 years ago did. I saw tracts of 500+ acres of land that were cheaper than the cost for new construction today.
It seems all these people who have never showed any caution in amassing debt are the only ones making it these days. If they fail they scream for the vote buying Democrats to bail em out. No one seems to suffer their own mistakes and greed. SO why bother living within your means?
Neither party is going to force these people to sleep in the bed they made. When it all starts to crumble we are all going to have to pay for their mistakes it seems.
Keep Prepping Everyone.... If for no other reason than to witness as much of this shit show as you can in the end.
Those thoughts are fresh in my own mind as well. My retirement situation which was once favorable, two years ago, Seems to be in serious doubt now. Gee, I wonder what happened?
ReplyDeletePreps up and powder dry. Gray days ahead.
Sarthurk - Our numbers still look pretty favorable but who knows what these demon spawn will do next? I almost expect direct and forced wealth re-distribution any day now and financial freezes just cause the need to buy more quislings...
DeleteWell said. Human nature is never satisfied and somehow this dissatisfaction is seen as a desirable quality, although it's usually called something like 'ambition.' Contentment is seen as 'complacency,' which apparently, is a bad thing. But nothing will change because there is no motivation to change. As long as government appears to clean up the mess, there are no consequences to our choices and actions. It's actually quite amazing that this system has been propped up for as long as it has.
ReplyDeleteLeigh - 100% any intelligent and self aware person knows there is no such thing as a free ride. We can see what is going to happen but the democrat army will still scream for bailouts when it comes.
DeleteThe wrong path? No, friend, you were raised with a moral anchor. Word have fixed meanings, not changed to hide inconvenient moral issues like "Minor attracted persons" (gag).
ReplyDeleteThose without a Moral Anchor have NO Path, just a wandering wherever their pleasures lead them.
“Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.
But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants "just a few minutes of your time, please—this won't take long." Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time—and squawk for more!
So learn to say No—and to be rude about it when necessary. Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you.
(This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don't do it because it is "expected" of you.)”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love
Micah 6:8 (note that Micah was relaying the accusation of God towards His wayward children of Israel) but tells us plainly what HE expects.
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly[a] with your God.
Proverbs and Robert Heinlein,
Michael - Thanks for that I used to love Heinlein so much as a kid sans some stuff I have mentioned to you before I could have done without of course. I guess what bothers me is the fact so many just know they will be propped up that they still don't bother to adjust even now. I am afraid karma may come after I am long gone which is kinda bad for me to wish it on others where I can witness it but ya know how it is. :)
DeletePP, most of us that are where you are took a similar path to get to where you are (or we got here as fast as we could, as the saying goes). The rules we were all taught: work hard, invest and save, minimize debt - were based on literally thousands of years of civilization and civilized wisdom. Within a 30 years period, that has all been sort of upended.
ReplyDeleteThe reality - the reality that I keep coming back to anyway - is that much like gravity, you cannot argue with basic facts and realities. This current situation is merely a parabola. Where we are on the curve of the parabola remains unknown to us, but the reality is you cannot borrow your way into independence, you cannot laze your way into success, and you cannot be supported until you feel you are ready to be independent.
As some point, gravity still works and everything crashes back down to the ground.
to say diversity is strength is to say cracks in a plate strengthen it
ReplyDelete