Posted on 10/13/2002 9:22:35 AM PDT by American Preservative
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:41:09 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Many middle-class people joke about being "one paycheck away from the street." This is the story of a couple who've slammed hard into that reality.
Over the past 18 months, they've gone from his six-figure salary and life in a tony townhouse apartment complex in Silicon Valley to collecting aluminum cans and sleeping in a 28-foot-long recreational vehicle in a parking lot behind the husband's old office building. Once distracted by VCRs and mega- cable, they now watch local television on an old black-and-white set, stand in line at a public food bank for groceries and do their laundry with a garden hose.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Why cant these poor souls take more of my money in some government program to help them regain thier castle?
I mean the people in MAss have it right when they have destroyed my ability to purchase land even though I am middle-class. I dont desreve it because I am not "enlightened."
MAybe when YOU have lost your man-made lagoon you will start to feel some compassion! Talk about "Mean-sprited"! LOL!
I know the rental market has eased up some in the past couple years, what with the economy and all the new luxury complexes having been built...when we were there we rented a decent-sized one bedroom in a nice, quiet complex in a nice, quiet, unfashionable yet convenient area of town (Allandale/Koenig and Burnet) for $625.
but
I thought she got whacked by the SF Comical.. FR Link
"Let he who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall." The moment one thinks one is "proof" against some personal failure is the moment one is most vulnerable to getting a little nearer to exactly that failure. It is indeed pride to fancy that it is unlikely you will walk in those shoes.
I'm sorry I have to point out that you are failing to mention one prominent individual figuring in this discussion: namely YOU. YOU set YOURSELF up as an example of "oh I probably will never find myself doing this." All I can say to you is BEWARE. Look at King Solomon in the Bible, the wisest man on earth. After warning about adultery, he found himself drawn by his huge harem of wives into idol worship.
The only safe way to refer to your track record is in the past tense. Anything else is "if the Lord wills."
Stop using yourself as a reference and then it will be true that the article, not persons, are being discussed.
Are we talking financial or spiritual?
It is prideful to save for the future?
Or, is it prideful to share a hard won lesson?
The poster indicated that I would end up just as the couple in the article. My view is the couple had made a whole series of wrong decisions. Some unknown force did not reach out and take everything away from them.
Is it your view that because I point this out, that some unknown force is going to visit me and take my possesions away?
I acknowledged that things beyound my control could very well bring about financial ruin. But, as buildings and bridges in California are built to withstand very large earthquakes, I have attempted to construct my life to withstand the "earthquake" of unemployement. If (and when) the big one hits California it may prove that the planning and constructions may not have been enough, and ruin will result. Until then, buildings and bridges survive a wide range of earthquakes of the range that would prove devasting in other, less prepared areas of the world. I can withstand the minor earthquakes, (I am not one paycheck away from homelessness) but that does not mean if a 10.0 hits my life, I would not be devasted as the building in California. We can not protect ourselfs from all harm, but that does not mean we don't protect ourself from some harm.
If this type of planning wrong as well?
I will make my point one more time.
This is a (conservative) discussion forum. A newspaper article was posted for discussion. I pointed out the problem this couple has encountered was to a large degree of their own making. As a further point, for those young freepers that may not understand how this could be so, I pointed out what they could have done to if not prevent, prepare themself for just such an "earthquake"
I do not understand the critism these comments have generated. I do not know this couple. I doubt if they read this forum. I am not trying to be mean to them. I am not trying to set myself up as a better person.
A young married couple my wife and I did not know these lessons, and we paid a heavy price to learn them.
If you think you can go through life with out planning, then go, be happy.
I think your implied accusation towards HTRN here is quite off the mark.
You: May I ask why you need to know this?
Just curious.
You cannot divorce the physical from the spiritual. Even if the world economy, which you can't control, doesn't crash and make a mockery of your "unlikely": you may be diligent today; will you be diligent tomorrow?
Lets see, during the early nineties, I was making ten dollars an hour as an armed guard for HUD(Privately contracted.), and after I decided that I did not want to die for that amount of money, I made even less during the rest of the nineties while the high-tech class was getting rich.
Am I HAPPY that they are in dire straits? NO, but I find it ironic that they feel I should be sympathetic. I believe someone told me before on a thread much like this one that I was jealous and unconsciously enjoying it as a sort of proxy revenge.
Perhaps I am enjoying a "I told you so moment," but that is as far as it goes. I am against the HR1-B visas but I dont feel sorry for anyone, least of all myself. I see hardtimes as a challenge, they see it as a time to cry for help.
Also, even though I am now solidly in the middle class and do not intend to ever repeat my early years I can say one thing, if I had made half as much money as these people, I would never have to worry about money again. Of course, I would be busy trying to raise even more money instead of building "MAn-made lagoons," and living like a king but perhaps I am just silly like that.
I remember listening to a Liberal employee of mine tell me that her friend might lose his vacation house(PITY the thought!) and was having trouble afording the mortgage on the primary residence in thier exclusive neighborhood. I mentioned this before and someone had the temerity to tell me that I hate the rich and am a class baiter. On the contrary, I love the rich yet if I dont agree with the welfare state I hardly see how I can agree to bail out millionaires.
I could easily see a way out of thier situation but they dont WANT to hear solutions or ways to make new capital... they want thier OLD lifestyles back EXACTLY as they were.
Social Darwinism is very real to me. I dont mean that I am some sort of predator but it is real in the sense that some people simply can not hold on to capital even if they are blessed with an abundance of it.
That said, there ARE certain things that are out of peoples control that ruin them and to them I have true sympathy for. As for the people in this article and thier ilk, I would have suggested that they buy rental properties instead of "Man-made lagoons," and the other rubbish first. Then when they had real capital, they could indulge thier nouveau rich fantasies.
The fact that these people indulged thier weird fantasies and then complain when the whole illusion crashed down is insulting to me but perhaps I am just "Mean-Spirited." Since you think it will happen to me, I will freep mail you when I have lost my 500000 dollar fountain on my front yard and ask for your sympathy. After all, would I not deserve it?
Good point. Studies show that the average lottery winner is broke or even bankrupt in 5 years. Worse, the percentage of high school graduates who can balance a checkbook is frighteningly small. A couple semesters of simple finance and budgeting might work wonders.
Just don't get me started on the question of the qualifications of public school teachers to teach this stuff!
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