Posted on 10/10/2002 8:18:53 AM PDT by Lorenb420
Sometimes it gets up there (Martin Sheen's pandering to the NEA was sickening), but it's not as bad as listening to pretty much anything x42 or Gore says. I just have to constantly remind myself that it's *good* that liberals have to create a fantasy world where they're the good guys, since reality is not their strong suit.
They will do what todays seniors do. Demand free this and free that, and will fall prey to the RATS mediscare campaigns and think republicans are going to take away their SS.
Oh, I have got to see the economic model that predicts that a large principal placed into competently chosen low-risk investments will yield an annual return of only 1.37%*. My bank pays almost double that rate on my checking account.
An overestimate, acutally, since it presumes that you need $100,000/year forever and ever, amen.
Because there's no power in that. Having the power and control is what socialists and commies are all about.
Wait a minute now! The WWII generation grew up during the Great Depression, and upon maturity had to fight WWII!! It's only natural that you want something better for your children. Nobody wants their kids to suffer the way that they suffered.
The WWII generation endured extreme suffering, so as a result they spoiled their own kids. It's understandable. Not excusable, but understandable.
That's what I've called them since the late 1980s. That's when I realized there were differences between people like me, born in the early sixties, and those who came later. One difference: they unlike me, obsessively played Nintendo and other video games. Our "pre-Nintendo" generation was born between 1960 and 1966 or so - that is, until the baby-boomers started having families. We can't really be called baby-boomers. Our parents were too young to have served in WWII which is a defining criterion of a baby-boomer. More likely, we've gotten the scraps of what's left over after the boomers and, we've missed the opportunities afforded those who were born to baby-boomers (i.e the fruits of accumulated wealth). We've paid more for our homes - the boomers drove prices up. We'll probably lose equity in our homes when the boomers start selling theirs as they move into retirement thus driving prices down. It's anyone's guess what will happen with social security - which returns me to the original topic: How many of my "generation" have provide for retirement?
Yea, to say nothing of the 40%+ of their income sucked up by various taxes and "fees." God forbid these people dare think about spending some their hard earned money on themselves.
Ingrates. Don't they know they have responsibilities?
Must be nice to have all the answers, to have the world all figured out.
If only more people would listen to folks like you, huh?
Some may worry about the quality at these cheap local schools ("You get what you pay for"). That's a legit concern, but at our school one of the math teachers is an old Hungarian who teaches to supplement his retirement income. He fled Hungary in '56, but was educated there and really knows his calculus! Besides, calculus = calculus = calculus. If you know what the standards are, everybody learns the same stuff. If you can secure a good teacher, you can learn the same thing as they do at the bigger-name schools. Obviously the student body won't be on the level of MIT, but in the end you educate yourself. It matters less where you are than how disciplined you are in prosecuting your studies.
As for, say, English classes, if you can find an old-style liberal who is appalled by PC madness and has an old fashioned love of literature, good solid instruction can be had.
Of course, this approach won't work for everyone. Our corner of the country is solidly "red zone," so the locals have more traditional attitudes. But you'll find similar conditions in the unlikeliest of places. I myself am a UC Berkeley grad. I was lucky, however, to discover the Rhetoric Dept. It was composed of a lot of the old-style liberals who were horrified at the excesses of the 60's and wanted to start an enclave that preserved the old-style learning. It was a kind of academic "refugee" country within the U. It's slant was of course liberal, but when it came to scholarship there was no nonsense. We spent a lot of time doing line-by-line analysis of Aritotle, Plato, Cicero, et al. The deconstructionist, feminist voices were there, but they were muted.
This was what I experienced in the mid-80's. David Horowitz made a similar observation on his website. He argued that at the big "megaversities," enclaves develope that can't be strictly controlled by the PC police. The institutions are too spawling to monitored. Unfortunately, the old guard at Berkeley's rhetoric dept has either retired or moved on.
Ramen noodles by the case from a warehouse club. They have a surprising amount of fat, which will allow one to keep the thermostat set extra-low in the winter.
I have--my plan is to die at my desk.
"Too high" means they are having trouble paying them, which is an obvious result of having to pay 40%+ of everything they make in taxes.
I have the same amount of money extracted from my paycheck as they do and Im not having trouble paying my bills. Because Im not out there buying 60" TVs and turning over $35K SUVs every 2 years.
And their bills are too high because they are unable to be happy and live within their means. Taxes are a component of it, but just as with Budget deficeits at the federal and state levels, SPENDING is the biggest component.
Not necessarily true. While not part of the primary "boom", many of your peers are actually baby brothers and sisters of boomers. (Americans were still having fairly large families back then.)
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