<html> 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, gracefully 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 messy. 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 how globalization reversed most of the gains achieved by unions back in the 30's. I think that part of the reason for the tangled bureaucratic mess so many people are getting smothered in is that it is human nature to demand the impossible. We make demands on our supporting institutions which no one could fulfill. We ask doctors to cure everything without disturbing our lifestyles. They unfortunately think that they must pretend that they are able to work miracles. Miracles are in short supply -- so people sue. Then the lawyers have full employment, but health insurance (which 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. (What saps -- if they don't, the T-bills they were foolish enough to buy already will turn into wallpaper.) So, my thought is -- seeing that this bandwagon everybody is piling onto is about to suffer a one-hoss-shay collapse -- better to hop off voluntarily 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 much rather have a stove which can get warm from old dried-out apple and grape prunings, instead of some future federally-funded heat-bill-assistance 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 system. 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 perennial food plants going in this little yard. Better than assuming that produce 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 of paper promises. No tapping into home equity -- I'd rather have the real house. And when I fretted over the cost of the masonry stove, I thought about how little those dollars would be worth in five years if I just put them into bonds or bank CD's. Very hard to inflate or charge interest on soapstone. <grin> Susan <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>  <dl> <dd>  Susan<font= face="Arial, Helvetica"> <dd>    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?<font= face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2> </dl>   With our favorite federal tax orgs. merry go round, greedy state taxes ridiculous regulations, real estate prices etc.  It can make life very difficult to say the least . It does require balance & budget. I still love Calif. &the job but dislike the State of things in business unfriendly Calif.  No wonder you left. <dl> <dd>  & now real estate has launched a whole generation (my  kids) into being potentially permanent renters.  What a drag. </dl>  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 one is still claiming shortfall.  I smell somethin........   Workmans comp... what a joke.    What I respect about your post is that you have thought it thru & decided & 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 any more than I do.  When or if we do its' for our own chosen reasons. <dl> <dd>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. <dd>   The best of things to you Susan<font= face="Arial, Helvetica"> <dd>   Dale Erwin </dl> </blockquote></html>