Was out at the gun club today. Grandfather, grandson came out and shot. When it came time to pay Grandfather paid for both. He made a big deal out of it - in a fun way. He was saying why should I be paying? This kid makes more money than I do. He said the 19 year old kid made $95K last year working at an auto plant. He was proud of the kid for making that much money. I would be too. 19 and making $95,000 a year!!! I remember I had to work 2 jobs and mow a couple of yards on the side to make $200 a week when I was the kids age. Little did I know I was going to top out at that wage too. LOL. Then another guy came out to the club inquiring about selling his guns. We all knew him, he was a regular, regular just a few years ago. He was selling because he just didn't see any way he could ever afford to shoot again. We called him tight ass, etc. saying if he would just let go of some of that money he could afford to shoot, it's just that he was too hoggish to let go of any of it. He admitted he had a little money. Proceeded to lay it out - $900K in saving and 401K and IRAs, paid for house worth $350K but then he said no pension, not yet collecting social security, forced out of work. "You try living on what $900K will throw off".. And he has a point - CDs pay maybe 2%.. Then I came home and clicked on the internet news and saw a story where the median job in this country pays $76K a year. How the eff can that be? At 2000 hours a year that has to come out to where the median job is paying $38 an hour!!! GD if this keeps up it will take a dam wheelbarrow of money to go to the grocery store in a few years. I mean I could buy more candy bars with a $1 bill in 1970 than I can with a $20 today. Our money is just absolutely worthless. Don't know why I posted this, maybe because I ain't got a $100 bill in my pocket to just go down to the local bar tonight and get a draft and some wings. 19 year old kid making $95K a year and still expect Grandpa to pay. And the kid says he can't afford a new truck. He might have a point there because some guy just drove an $80K F150 to the club the other day. Not an F250 diesel but a dam F150. LOL Our money is worthless.
A man told me one time years ago that he didn't care how much money you made, but how how much money you could keep. Money is funny. Oddly enough, the more you spend, the less you have. People spend money because they are suckers. They think that spending big bucks make them look important. Really, it just makes them look stupid. My old Subaru wagon was used when I bought it. I didn't care. There really isn't anybody on this planet that I need to impress. The problem with money is that people see money an indicator of their value as a human being. They think, "I have lots of money, therefore I am a worthy person." Man, you can't fix stupid. I grant you, money can do lots of good. By and of itself, it is not a bad thing. But pissing away money on a new F-150 doesn't do nearly as much good as raising honest, respectful, God fearing children. Pissing away money on a new Perazzi doesn't make anybody shoot better than a lot of guys used to shoot with a Model 12. Our money isn't really worthless. More likely, it's those yahoos that throw it around that are kinda worthless.
95K a year, you couldn't live on that in San Francisco, except maybe, in your car. However, you would be rich in Hattiesburg Mississippi. How much one earns and how far it goes is really determined by location, location, location.
I started working as a dishwasher at a local restaurant while in 8th grade. I got $5 a night - didn't matter if I was done by 9pm or had to stay there till 1am. I remember being a freshman in high school an working 7 nights a week. I was the richest sob in the freshman class. I could go to the local gas station and for a quarter (.25 cents) I could get a full size candy bar, bag of chips and a bottle of pop. I've got old man disease - I can remember everything from 40-50 years ago. Penny candy, no sales tax, etc.. Now we got 19 year old kids making $95K a year, a guy worth well over a million saying he can't afford to shoot trap, and the effing sad thing is he probably can't. When this 19 year old kid is my age - He'll be telling kids making a million a year that his first job paid less than $100K a year. And they'll laugh and get a kick out of the old bastard.
I was thinking today about how worthless our money has become. I also got to thinking about me thinking the same thing from a few years ago - so I went back and did a search on this site - and yeap I posted something about our worthless money a few years ago. So I resurrected this thread. With 2020 in hindsight and the US running a 4 -5 Trillion dollar deficit that year and 2021 Biden takes over and everything is going to be free. Free college tuition, student loan forgiveness, Medicare for all including illegals, what the heck is it going to be next year? I digress - anyway a guy at the gun club purchased a new 4 door, 4x4 F250 diesel pickup, he said he wrote a check out for over a $100K including sales tax, excise tax, etc. He didn't say how much over a $100K. Another guy at club said that is nothing - he knew a guy who just purchased a loaded F350 for $150K. I didn't know that was possible. I still think he is lying - no way can you put that much into one, or is there??? I purchased a new F250 SuperCab back in 1975 for $4400. I ordered it - the day before I went to pick it up (recession year) Ford announced a $500 rebate on new vehicles. I asked for that before I took delivery. I think we split that and I got $250 back. Yes it was a stripped down F250 - but it had the SuperCab which was new then, I wanted that so i could have a full 8 ft bed and keep my tools in the extendend cab. Only option was "supercab", power steering, power brakes, radio and the 4 speed might have been an option. I wanted the 4 speed with Granny low first gear. So now 45 years later - what would a stripped down Supercab F250 with gas engine be - $50K?? That 75 I had - I could put 5,000 lbs in bed and haul it with no problem. Todays stripped down F250 can probably do the same - no more, and both the 75 and 2020 have same features. Yet the 2020 cost at least 10 times the purchase price of 1975 one. I guess my point is - heck I don't even have a point. Except our money is worthless. McDonalds is paying $15 an hour to start out around here and they still can't get a high school kid to apply for a job. Unemployed people have been collecting $50K a year in unemployment between state and Federal unemployment compensation. And I could go on and on. The only thing people seem to be upset about cost wise is if - they have to pay a $5 or $10 copay at the doctors office and then they get really bent out of shape. Free this, free that, free, free, free, free. I just wonder when the rest of the world is going to stop wanting to take our worthless paper and start demanding gold or silver in return for their merchandise?
You nailed it, exactly what I said to my wife the other day. 30 Trillion in debt, spend, spend and free this and that. How long before our dollar is devalued to the point that nobody will accept it. When that happens your savings aren't worth crap. Total financial collapse. It could happen & we seem to be headed that way. The debt amassed in the last 16 - 20 years is staggering. We could never pay it off.
Sort of reminds me of the song.....Dont Cry For me Argentina. Instead of Evita Peron passing out money to the poor maybe ol Joe will take her place for the poor of America. Regards........Gerald
Cali is for the weird rich people, Anyone try to spend money wisely won't live there. Its not about how much money you can make it about how much you can keep.
