Quote:My mom just recently took a 50% pay cut, and my dad is out of work. We're just getting by
And why do you think that happened? Possibly bad economy from wealthy corporatations laying off employees?
Dude, let me explain this to you, the houses I saw on TV you couldn't touch in California for less than a million dollars, probably multiple millions. It was also mentioned that a lot of the homes were unoccupied because they were "WINTER HOMES" which implies that the person who owns said house is so wealthy they have multiple houses. Are they losing anything? Not really, just inconvienienced.
You don't have a million dollars, you're family are not millionaries. I doubt your house has statues in the front yard and white collumns and a Mercades SUV parked in the driveway infront of your 5 car Garage.
Tinister Make me a sammich!
(10/27/03 7:12 pm) Reply
Re: I know it's insensitive, but...
Don't be jealous. =(
Re: I know it's insensitive, but...
I know you weren't being serious, but we DO have 2 garages that hold 5 cars.
So you're saying that if you saw my house on fire, you'd be able to see the difference, and would feel worse about it than you do for those other houses.
Re: I know it's insensitive, but...
There is a huge disparity in this country between the rich and wealthy and the middle class, even laws that are enacted are all designed to suppress and inconvienence the poor and middle class and not bother the rich. As it is, the core of middle class America is vanishing as more corporations ship their manufacturing and now technical work to other countries. America is becoming more and more of a service ecomomy.
Here's something to think about the next time you get a speeding ticket driving to a job you hate to make just enough money to "get by."
You might have to pay that $200 fine which could be the difference between your food or your rent, while a rich guy who's showboating for a couple of girls with breast implants sitting next to him in his Porsche zooms past and has to pay the same $200 fine you do, but to him it's basically like you paying a 2 cent fine. Does the rich guy even lament speeding? Hell no. Do you get screwed over yep.
Re: I know it's insensitive, but...
Well, from what you describe, I would classify that as somewhere toward the upper spectrum of middle class although if your house was all busted down and dirty looking or very old I would say stright up middle class. I probably would feel bad that your house was lost and all your things were lost because you weren't rich and replacing it all would be very difficult. You see, you're one of the regular people that have to worry about things like that, just like I do, however there are people that never have to worry about it, or the stuff they might worry about is rediculous, like a collection of sportscars.
If I won the lottery tomorrow, here's what I would do, since I instantly became wealthy.
I would buy a slightly bigger house than the one I have but not a mansion. I would buy a house only as large as NEEDED. I would have 1 reliable brand new vehicle, not luxury. Since I live in florida and like to fish I would have one boat, big enough for me and some of my friends to go fishing on, no sick yacht thing that I would never know how to operate anyway. I would make sure I took care of my parents and give them enough money to retire on. I would give a $1000 to every person I could find that was nice to me or treated me with respect. I would save enough money to support myself or my family until I die, considering the interest on such large sums is equal to man's salary. I would then invest in trying to help less fortunate people out, going to 3rd world contries to give them medicine and at least try to improve their standard of living a little.
I would be the kind of person if I were rich, where if I went to a restuarant and the waitress was nice and honest I would leave a $200 tip, or I would give the cashier at the grocery store $100 just for the work she does because they never pay those people enough. I would give my child's teacher money because they don't pay her enough, I would donate to the local fire department and police because they don't ever pay them enough either.
Re: I know it's insensitive, but...
Yeah, I agree with that. If I were rich, I would probably not use it to buy things far beyond what I need.
Even so, I don't hold it against people that do. It's their money, they can do with it as they wish. If I had a lot of money, I would hope people would say the same about me, no matter how I used it.
Re: I know it's insensitive, but...
If I owned a successful company, my payscale would be very fair. The incremental differences between my entry level laborers and workers wouldnt be that much less than the Vice President's For example, an entry level worker, would make 50,000 a year, while the VP might only make 60,000 a year, and if the entry level worker showed that he wanted to work harder, he would get a bonus for any extra work. My own salary wouldn't be that much higher. I would still be able to have a profitable business with quality and happy workforce. If I started losing money, I would win against the competition by touting the integrity of my company and the value of our business practaces against shady corporations that lay off talented and good citizen American workers in favor of cheap foriegn sweatshops. I imagine my customers would value the integrity that my company showed.
I just don't think it's fair, and completely think it's morally wrong when a CEO makes in excess of 10,000,000 a year plus stock options, bonus, company car, free flights around the world, etc, and an entry level worker in the same company can make $5.75 an hour with the fact that they are expendable hanging over their head. That is sickening. What makes the CEO any better of a person to the Minimum Wage worker? Nothing but a lot of money. It's not fair, and one of the faults in our society.
Did you know that the CEO of K-Mart that did such a bad job the company had to file for bankruptcy took a 40,000,000 severance package. They basically paid him $40,000,000 to fire him after doing a crappy job. How fair is that?
Re: I know it's insensitive, but...
You know what people like more than buying stuff from a company with integrity? Buying stuff from a company that sells cheap stuff.
Re: I know it's insensitive, but...
You know, some might say that I'm perhaps overindulgent with the collections I keep, but here's the deal.
I only collect the things I do as an insurance policy for when I'm older and am unable to work or may want to explore the world before I die. I am making a rather logical assumption based upon past trends that items that are rare or collectable appreciate in value and I figure that if I don't make it and create an imcome that will support me for the rest of my life until I die, I can fall back on the collectables. If my father had today all the things that he threw away or destroyed as a kid, I would probably be one of those millionaires in Cali watching my house go up in flames because, just my father's baseball card collection with "Babe Ruth's Rookie Card" and Mickey Mantle and Ty Cobb, etc, I showed my father a Beckett Baseball card Value guide and we added it up to several million dollars worth of baseball cards. He had every single player for the Yankees from like the turn of the century to 1960. His mother threw away all his baseball cards when he was 13. Not only that my father owned 1st editions of X-Men, Spiderman, Superman, and Batman, all of which are worth tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars now. As well he had coins pass through his change that were extremely valuable and rare that can be sold now for hundreds and thousands of dollars each. So I am not taking any chances, I collected a lot of stuff from the late 70's, 80's, and 90's and am taking a gamble on what will be worth tons of money by the time I'm in my 50's somewhere around the 2030's. I'll sell it all and retire if I don't have a decent enough job to do so.
Re: I know it's insensitive, but...
Here are some suggestions for life you people who are still teenagers should seriously listen to as you grow older.
At 18 get a credit card, use it for a couple hundred dollars, then pay it off at the end of the month. Do this like 6 times.
Don't Smoke, HUGE waste of money, on average $1200 to $2400 a year depending on how much of a smoker you are.
Don't get your girlfriend pregnant. Babies are expensive to raise, and chances are like 9/10 that if you are both still teeangers the relationship will not work out and you will have to pay Child Support anyway. However there is a flip side, if you are poor enough and remain together, you don't have to get married and probably qualify for free "mooch off the system like the Minorities and Immigrants do" programs like WIC, Welfare, and Food Stamps. You can also still make cash money under the table. You also get more tax credit for having a dependant child.
Buy a House, never rent if you possibly can. Renting is basically taking your money and flushing it, you get nothing for it. If you buy a property or house and pay a mortgage, you get tax credits for the interest you pay on the loan, and every months mortgage payment brings you closer and closer to owning the house. The government provides low interest rates on Mortgages for first time home buyers called FHA. I currently have an FHA Mortgage.
Never buy a new car unless you're rich. New cars are marked up several thousand dollars. As soon as you take your car off the lot, it loses from $3500 to $10,000 of value (Why do you think the dealers can offer you $2000 cash back why you buy a new one). Buy a slightly used one and you'll save a ton of money and have a vehicle that works just as good as a new one. Now if you can buy the used car cash, do it, but not everyone can do this.
Learn to use coupons, I get so much name brand groceries for less than store brand cost this way.
Shop at Ross or Marshals or the Salvation Army if you like name brand clothes. I found a pair of DKNY jeans for $20 at Ross that normally cost about 80 at the mall. I got brand new Nike T-Shirts from Parc Resale Thrift Store for a dollar each.
Quote:So....You're buying action figures as a retirement plan?
You bet! If I were to sell them at today's value, I would probably get about $5000 for the collection. Remember, I keep all mine sealed in the packaging. I have a huge comic book collection, a coin collection worth about $5000 today's value, many collectable cards and sports cards. If I have a suspicion that it might be worth something or collectable to someone someday I collect it and store it inside sealed large green plastic stackable containers. My closet is completely full to the ceiling with containers with anything from Lord of the Rings, and Final Fantasy, to Star Trek and NASCAR items. I imagine that all the collections I have today may be worth around $20,000 maybe more, I don't really know for sure, however I figure that by the time I'm 50 taking inflation into account, they will be worth around 500,000 to a million by 2030. So screw stocks, I'm investing in "stuff" The only liability is theft and loss. The bins are locked up behind a padlock, although some of the Action Figs are displayed around my house.
Re: I know it's insensitive, but...
Now I am fully aware of the fact that I could be a lot worse in life than other people, who are suffering right now, and for that I am thankful, I just wish wealthier people than myself felt the same.
Re: I know it's insensitive, but...
Disregarding the whole thing about rich people deserving punishment for being rich, what makes you think that all of hundreds of homes that have been destroyed were only rich folk homes? I'm pretty sure they're not all...
And you also seem to be forgetting about the side effects of this. The smoke from the fires, for instance, has shut down colleges. Many people, rich and poor, have had to evacuate. The economic impact on the area won't be anything to laugh at. There's more, but I'm too tired/lazy.
Justice? Who asks for justice? We make our own justice. We make it here...win or die. Let us not rail about justice as long as we have arms and the freedom to use them.
Duke Leto Atreides, Dune
Re: I know it's insensitive, but...
Ditto to Cabbage...
That's just wrong to wish anything like that on anyone. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. I can't even imagine losing my stuff. Not stuff like clothes and furniture, but photos and things of sentimental value. I don't know how far in advance the people knew to evacuate, but did they have enough time to get everything they would want to have saved?
You seem way too bitter about things... maybe you shouldn't judge before you know the whole story.
As for my family's status.. I don't know. What is upper-middle class and lower-middle class? We have had the same house for 18 years. A good 2-story with basement and attic.. we built a 1-car garage and have a swimming pool. (though we haven't used it in over a year). My parents each have a newer than 2000 car, and each kid has their own car (but we pay for them ourselves). My dad works for Honda and my mom works in our school cafeteria and they're paying for me and my sister's college too. I'd say we're comfortable...I'm extremely happy with what we have and I guess I'm pretty lucky...
"..yes, because we all know that when it hurts, that's when it's good" -Brandon
Re: I know it's insensitive, but...
BTW, VGX, there have been over 300 houses destroyed here, and like 32 people killed, you dick.
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With Bow let us win Kine, with Bow in battle, with
Bow be victory in our hot encounters,
The Bow brings grief and sorrow to the foeman; armed
With Bow may we subdue all regions.
Close to his ear, as fain to speak, she presses, holding
Her well-loved friend in her embraces;
Strained on the bow, she whispers like a woman -- this
Bow-string that preserves us in the Combat.
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