March 1, 2023

Yesteryear
One year ago today: March 1, 2022, Remember Pawlowski?
Five years ago today: March 1, 2018, the sub-panel requisition.
Nine years ago today: March 1, 2014, cheddar cheese soup.
Random years ago today: March 1, 2005, beachfront plus 12 miles.

           The Toronto Star laments that, Canada-wide, beer sales continue to fall. A tragedy, since liquor taxes are a significant money-maker in a land where two glasses of beer per week gets you classified as an alcoholic. California got hit with up to ten feet of climate change and over here we woke to a heavy Gulf fog that will make for a pleasant morning later. Welcome to March, 2023, I’m nearly twenty years past my expiry date and today, time permitting, we will write letters.

           The sovereign nation people are making news again. I’m against driver’s licenses being used as ID. No, Ken, they are NOT the same thing. You’ve only been brainwashed to think they are. The reason for the authorities pushing the issue is that while they cannot demand ID without due process, but they can demand a driver’s license—and you lose an important advantage in the process.
           That’s the catch-22. You are not required to produce ID on demand, so they call it a driver’s license. It is far from a license to drive a car, they will hand license to anybody who can pass their kindergarten test. For clarity, unless you have first been arrested and charged with a specific crime, there is no obligation to identify yourself.

           Oddly most people are so uneducated on this matter that they cannot imagine a world where everyone has a right to be anonymous. But that is a separate issue. That, anyway you slice it, demanding ID is an unreasonable search unless you have already been arrested for the exact crime in question. (The State makes it difficult to sue for false arrest, just in case.) The general argument against having to produce a license is the “right to travel” provision that says that right cannot be restricted. The State then bends the law by ruling that having a license doesn’t restrict your right, why you could always walk. Then they remove the footpaths and any other way to get there.
           Are there enough stupid people to allow these illegal activities? Consider this, a study by Northwest Mutual. They say at age 25, you should be saving 15% of your income until age 67. If you average total taxes off your paycheck to be also 18% (being generous) and most everything you need to buy is subject to a 7% sales tax. That’s 25% gone before you can invest a penny. Try to save 15% on top of that and you just kissed 40% of your income goodbye. The only people I know who can take such a body blow were born into a comfort zone.

           Wait, there’s more. They suggest by age 40 you should have 3x your annual income in savings and investments. Put another way between age 25 and 40, lop off another 20% of your income, (right? 15 years working minus saving 3 years of it) because that leaves you just 12 years in which to amass this fortune. To put a dollar figure on it, the average American needs $120,000 invested for basic retirement needs. On the surface, it looks like all you must do is sock away $400 per month. Try it. There is a reason most Americans never reach even that limited goal. Remember the Horatio Alger Curve?
           He’s the failed writer to penned many of the rags-to-riches stories popular in middle American history, 1850-1950. Several studies calculated the amount of money one would have to earn to have a million dollars in a lifetime considering the cost of taxes and existing while all this savings was taking place. The results vary wildly, but the studies that produce the most consistent results show you need to earn $13 million to save $1 million. Even disregarding inflation most people never get anywhere close.

Picture of the day.
Behind the wheel
(of Fortune).
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Confirmed, the raccoons have been rounded up, but here is a reminder they have sharp teeth. This was my rodent-proof birdseed container. Once they knock it to the ground, if you don’t notice it in a day or two, they find a corner and gnaw it off. Just big enough to get their snout inside. Nearby you should also see a picture of a cutaway electrical outlet. I call it the InsideOut-let. It’s probably built to the cheapest standard our society can achieve.

           The planned trip to the west coast in October has received a major boost. An old friend of mine will also be in the area. We have the option to stay anywhere and might add a week in Oregon, but the plan is to meet up near Bothel. This could be the last time I’ll ever be in Washington State, it is not the same sleepy spot I found over 40 years ago. I no longer have anything there except memories (the last person I knew passed away in 2019). Which brought the conversation to the Leopold. It’s a hotel in Bellingham that I’ve driven past countless times.
           It’s named after a brewer who died there a hundred years ago. It’s been taken over by two Airbnb types who promptly changed the name to “the Leo” or something. It’s now apartments mostly, starting at $1,400 for a one bedroom. I had walked into the lobby once in 1982 when the building had re-opened as a retirement home. I wrote about it, how the prices were so outrageous. If I recall, it was something like $3,000 per month back then. In 2019, it was over $5,000 per month. Mind you, the place had terrazzo flooring, chandeliers, and fountains.

           The cost spiral began around 2011 as a rumor and by 2017, the residents were given notice to vacate. I was often near the place but never attended anything. They had ballroom dances and writing clubs and there was once a toy store in the basement. Advertised hotel rates this week are $169 per night and double that for a penthouse. I vaguely recall they won’t accept cash. I find it ironic that when I finally consider staying there, it is under practically opposite conditions of the former residents, most of whom were similar in age. They went there to die and I have no such motive. The place is just another town taken over by crazies from California. I regret not buying ten houses there when I had the chance, but who could have known?

           Speaking of Airbnb, you people with nothing to hide now have more of nothing to hide. That company is now blocking people who are “closely associated” with any party who has been banned. How they determine who you associate with is unknown, but it takes them a third of a second. Reasons for being banned include unpaid parking tickets, unleashed dogs, and paying with a spouse’s credit card. Aribnb defends the practice saying it is “safety-related”.

           Has China lost its Mars rover? You know how great they are at copying American tech, but they don’t always get the latest. And that is nuclear power. The problem with solar panels is they can only function until the first time they get so covered with dust they can’t generate the electricity to clean themselves. The NASA spy satellite, er, I mean Mars Reconnaissance Rover shows the Chinese knock-off hasn’t moved since May last year. For the record, Israel and India also have copies of the US landers, and both crashed in Mars instead of landing there.
           To me, one thing that epitomizes the shallowness and stupidity of GenXYZers is this whole cash back concept. You can, the radio ads say, get “up to $200” back buying gas with their credit card. You get 25¢ per gallon back on your first fill-up. In return, they sell your information to databases like Airbnb, to serve your projected future safety concerns, which you will be informed of when the time comes.

ADDENDUM
           One of the looniest this year so far is companies in places like New York saying they are such nice places to work you should take up to a 60% pay cut to be there. Or how about Canadian workers bitching they only make 64% as much as Americans for the same work, conveniently forgetting the government picks up the tab for their medical and retirement and baby bonus and medical.
           There is now a psychiatric disorder related to people being romantically rejected by their digital companions. Outfits like Replika were meant as an emotionally supportive substitute for deadbeats who could not find the real thing, and now even the bots find such people a turn-off, double-ha! What’s happening is the original scripted answers are being replace by A.I. generated replies. Predictably, the users quickly learned to bypass content filters and rumor has it Italian schoolchildren were using the app to get themselves molested or something.

Last Laugh