This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment Time to read Walden again... David Ilvedson, RPT Pacifica, California Original message From: "Susan Kline" To: pianotech Received: 1/2/2006 10:45:34 AM Subject: Re: New Year's rant Dale, you're a gentleman -- I think that your kids will get a reprieve from those high house prices= at some point. When prices are so high that nobody can buy, even with = funny-money mortgages, nobody will. Prices may simply collapse, gracefu= lly or awkwardly depending on how much nerve today's speculators have. = If everyone rushes to the exits at the same time, it could get very mes= sy. Interesting that the state managed to end up in a situation where house= prices reversed the devastations of Prop. 13 for them. Sort of like ho= w globalization reversed most of the gains achieved by unions back in t= he 30's. I think that part of the reason for the tangled bureaucratic mess so ma= ny people are getting smothered in is that it is human nature to demand= the impossible. We make demands on our supporting institutions which n= o one could fulfill. We ask doctors to cure everything without disturbi= ng our lifestyles. They unfortunately think that they must pretend that= they are able to work miracles. Miracles are in short supply -- so peo= ple sue. Then the lawyers have full employment, but health insurance (w= hich has pretended that it can pay for anything at all) starts to fall = apart. So people demand that government take a hand, for instance with = the seniors' drug subsidies -- and now government is so deeply in debt = that its unfunded liabilities already taken on, to be paid to us all in= the future as our group gets older and sicker, come to several hundred= TRILLION dollars. No one -- NO ONE -- is ever going to see this money!= The Fed is issuing T-bills hand over fist just to pay the interest on = our _present_ debt, and some "helpful" foreigners are buying them. (Wha= t saps -- if they don't, the T-bills they were foolish enough to buy al= ready will turn into wallpaper.) So, my thought is -- seeing that this bandwagon everybody is piling ont= o is about to suffer a one-hoss-shay collapse -- better to hop off volu= ntarily before one gets trapped in the wreckage. So I "just say no" to = various "benefits" which I don't feel are all that big a favor. I'd muc= h rather have a stove which can get warm from old dried-out apple and g= rape prunings, instead of some future federally-funded heat-bill-assist= ance program 20 years from now. (you know, from the bankrupt gov't run = by spendthrifts?) YMMV, as they say. No blame to people who still try to depend on the sy= stem. Who knows, it may last us out ... or not. What I want to do, that= I'm very slow at getting done, is to get more fertile soil and perenni= al food plants going in this little yard. Better than assuming that pro= duce from all over the world will always be there, cheap, in the stores= , nicely picked by the helpful but poorly paid foreigners. To sum up: I'm trying to move my resources into "real" stuff, instead o= f paper promises. No tapping into home equity -- I'd rather have the re= al house. And when I fretted over the cost of the masonry stove, I thou= ght about how little those dollars would be worth in five years if I ju= st put them into bonds or bank CD's. Very hard to inflate or charge int= erest on soapstone. <grin> Susan Susan I feel like it's easy to relate to your frustration to some extent= with all the high every things you mentioned. Who can't? With our favorite federal tax orgs. merry go round, greedy state tax= es ridiculous regulations, real estate prices etc. It can make life ve= ry difficult to say the least . It does require balance & budget. I sti= ll love Calif. &the job but dislike the State of things in business unf= riendly Calif. No wonder you left. & now real estate has launched a whole generation (my kids) into bei= ng potentially permanent renters. What a drag. I realized that all over, that the State/local the gov. coffers have = been raking in property tax revenues now at twice to 3 times the rate = because of rising property prices & hence property taxes. Yet Every on= e is still claiming shortfall. I smell somethin........ Workmans com= p... what a joke. What I respect about your post is that you have thought it thru & deci= ded & articulated very well what works best for you. Many folks never = have. Your business model works for you in your ecomomic climate. Good= for you. I've know you a long time & I bet you don't work for free an= y more than I do. When or if we do its' for our own chosen reasons. It's good to hear from one who has been instrospective enough to decide= what is important to them & is doing the way that just makes then feel= good inside. The best of things to you Susan Dale Erwin ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/81/38/5f/c2/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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