One year ago today: December 2, 2014, every third day off.
Five years ago today: December 2, 2010, here’s my notepad.
Nine years ago today: December 2, 2006, a better biodiesel?
Random years ago today: December 2, 2002, the most wonderful thing.
MORNING
In keeping with policy, I followed up on the purchase information of all the places we’ve looked at since May, including the auctions. Mainly to make sure what we were told was sold actually stayed sold. Florida is the land of the crooked real estate deal. Take the “civic center” slated for my old place, the one I cost a bundle when they tried to shaft me. They eventually sold out to the city at a loss and the city promptly announced a new civic center. These civic centers never actually get built.
Without a whimper from the gullible public. How gullible? Well that depends a lot more on basic education than some people think. Public schools can be obsessive about teaching anything that does not toe the party line. I’ve told the story of how in my school the guidance “counselors” were under threat of termination if they answered questions about how things worked in the big city. Year in and out, it was drummed into us to not be concerned with “the small things” until by graduation, nobody around me could think critically about a thing.
Push that ahead into adult life, and this rezoning scam that is going to put tremendous pressure on this community because the infrastructure was totally designed for laid-back single family residential service. Now there will be another 180 cars pouring onto Federal every morning, even longer lineups at the post office, and a worsening teacher-to-pupil ratio in the surrounding schools.
A big part of the problem is apathy, I know, but that is not an excuse. It is not the same in the computer age because the information is widely available. I’m saying scams that worked twenty years ago should not work today, but they do. Example, I go to pay my cell bill today and I get zapped for an extra 40¢ for some bunk called “police and fire”. I didn’t ask for it. But people who do not have the balls to steal the money directly are still able to pull this kind of stunt.
It ain’t the fault of the store clerk, she can’t cancel the charge. The store manager has no say. The cell service provider claims they are only following orders. There should be rights be a civic outcry against this tax. I’m not getting any more “police and fire” protection than before, and I sure didn’t ask for any. But one of the hallmarks of being really stupid is the refusal to see where things are going. That 40¢ is somebody’s slack job, I wonder if any of it actually winds up as a real service.
NOON
I took the scooter up to Pro Bass shop to look at some camping gear. But their prices are so outrageous lately I tend to often leave there without spending anything. See this photo, that’s a bundle of sticks to start your campfire. Eight dollars. Mind you, they are “guaranteed” to light even if wet, but anybody too thick-headed they can’t understand that tinder must be dry should probably not be in the middle of a forest lighting fires. And being that dumb, it is only right they lose their eight dollars.
This is why I can make the claim that if there had been even on person like me in the 15,000 who worked at Enron, I would have caught the crooks within 48 hours. But that stupid majority who lost their entire pensions would have told me I was sweating the small stuff and to go get a life. Funny, I now have a life and they don’t. 15,000 of them. By coincidence that was almost the exact same size as the company I worked for. And I’ve gotten every dime of my money.
There is a little more to “sweating the small stuff”, as people who lack the ability to do so love to tag it. When it comes to money, there is no “small stuff”. Another situation I got into a pitched battle over was voluntary deductions that became mandatory. I’ll tell you about it as long as you promise to keep in mind that people who work for a union are not smart, and in fact they are often a dismally stupid as any ape in the zoo. But you know, that is about the mentality of anyone who would argue with me about money.
What happened was ever Xmas season the beggars would come around. Any of the pet causes chosen by the union could be voted in as a ¼% deduction of your paycheck—whether or not you supported that cause. Well, it wasn’t long before the so-called charities learned to quit asking the workers and focused on the union staff. I objected to the first such deduction and was widely called names because it had some fake name like “feed the puppies & children” or something.
So, I posted the chart above my desk. Over the years, those “little” ¼%s began to add up. By the end of five years, those miniscule deductions had aggregated to a whopping 7.5% of your paycheck. Then, there was an outcry, but the most that could be accomplished was a union moratorium on any more deductions. We were all in a 35% tax bracket, so that factor added up to 42.5% of everybody’s pay going down the tubes, probably none of it reaching the alleged destination.
I also took dead aim on that rip-off, the “United Way”. They now post who they dish the money out too (before me, they never had to), but even that list is disgusting beyond belief. They still give money to United Way. Not me. Have you seen some of the shady outfits they channel your donations to? I began warning against United Way [for corruption, misallocation, & exhorbitant salaries] back in 1982.
Last Laugh
(Meanwhile, back in Jersey . . .)
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