From Abraham Lincoln
"..The poor never got wealthy by making the wealthy poor.."
This is not aimed at either political party,just something I read in the past
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From Abraham Lincoln
"..The poor never got wealthy by making the wealthy poor.."
This is not aimed at either political party,just something I read in the past
A poor man has never hired me for a job. With the programs in this country nobody should consider themself poor. Now if you want to go over to haiti you can find some poor people I know for sure as they eat mud cakes and whatever the missions provide. Anyone in the USA tried one? Me either.
Way back in the day when I was in college I just made my fall semester tution payment and bought books for my classes. I was flat broke. That
Friday I walked into my job and was told to go see the office manager.
"We were just bought out by a national company and they determined we are not making enough money. I'm going to have to let you go."
Hmmm. I'm flat broke since all my savings went to tution and books. Rent payment is due in a couple of weeks and the fridge is bare.....This was September and in two months the electric, gas, cable, phone...all utilities were shut off for nonpayment.
It was getting cold outside (Ohio). I dropped out of school. Couldn't concentrate on advanced chemistry classes when you haven't eaten for a week and constant hunger pains won't let you concentrate.
I would have been on the street but my landlord allowed me to stay in the place for 8 months without payment till I could get back on my feet.
No jobs available. Not even McDonalds down the road.
Wasn't eligible for unemployment. 50-60 hours a week for two part time jobs won't allow you to qualify. Must have a full time job.
Welfare....nope. Made too much money the PREVIOUS year (most that went to tution and books).
Move back home with Mom and Dad? Nope. Dad said when you move out you better be sure you can make it because you are not moving back (He stayed true to his word).
SOOOO. No money, no food. What's a starving college boy to do?
I lived next to an interstate highway in the middle of a relatively large city. That didn't stop me though. I had an abundance of neighborhood animals. Just wasn't legal to shoot them with a rifle (or anything else).
But hunger makes a man do things he is not proud of.
All squirrels were extinct in my neighboorhood within one month. Cats came next. They were much easier to take out than the squirrels. In my experience, cats are just plain stupid. Plus they have 4-5X the meat on them than the squirrels.
Dogs were next on the list after the cats ran out. Didn't know what I was going to do after the dogs were gone if I couldn't find a job by then.
One evening my future wife (just a girlfriend at that time) and I were lying on the couch, in the cold, in the dark (no gas, no electric) and I jumped up and ran upstairs all excited.
She heard a pop and saw a cat drop out of the top of a tree in my front yard. I come running down the steps all excited with my rifle in hand. "ALL RIGHT I GET TO EAT TOMORROW!!!!!
I was excited as he%&!
It was then she realized how far things have gone downhill. After that, she took a portion of her parents grocery money every week and bought me bread, oil, pasta, hamburger and tomato sauce. She kept me going and alive when the rest of the world and "programs" didn't give a damn whether I lived or died.
Don't tell me these "programs" do anything for the average Joe because they don't. In reality, you're on your own. Nobody gives a damn about you even if you're a hard working frugal person who never asked anyone for a dime and helped others whenever you could.
My dad taught me a very important lesson that fall of 1989. You're on your own buddy. Sink or swim. I chose to swim.
My wife saved my life that winter of 1989/1990.
I never would have survived without her. At best, I would have been in jail for shooting a rifle in city limits along an interstate highway. At worst,...well I prefer not to think about that.
We were married in the spring of 1991. I will never forget what she did for me.
Ever try kitty kat? I have...many times.Quote:
With the programs in this country nobody should consider themself poor. Now if you want to go over to haiti you can find some poor people I know for sure as they eat mud cakes and whatever the missions provide. Anyone in the USA tried one?
During the depression,it was called city rabbit.To sell a rabbit,you had to leave the feet on.
Dang,Opie...now thats a post!
Your Dad my have taught you a lesson-but what about family/blood thicker than water/stick together...etc...blah/blah/blah...?
I've got 2 daughters and 6 grandkids...at one time or another some or all need help...ya do what ya can....just saying
People tend to forget history.Quote:
The Great Depression was not a sudden total collapse. The stock market turned upward in early 1930, returning to early 1929 levels by April, though still almost 30 percent below the peak of September 1929.[6] Together, government and business actually spent more in the first half of 1930 than in the corresponding period of the previous year. But consumers, many of whom had suffered severe losses in the stock market the previous year, cut back their expenditures by ten percent, and a severe drought ravaged the agricultural heartland of the USA beginning in the northern summer of 1930.
In early 1930, credit was ample and available at low rates, but people were reluctant to add new debt by borrowing.[citation needed] By May 1930, auto sales had declined to below the levels of 1928. Prices in general began to decline, but wages held steady in 1930, then began to drop in 1931. Conditions were worst in farming areas, where commodity prices plunged, and in mining and logging areas, where unemployment was high and there were few other jobs. The decline in the American economy was the factor that pulled down most other countries at first, then internal weaknesses or strengths in each country made conditions worse or better. Frantic attempts to shore up the economies of individual nations through protectionist policies, such as the 1930 U.S. Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act and retaliatory tariffs in other countries, exacerbated the collapse in global trade. By late in 1930, a steady decline set in which reached bottom by March 1933.
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Debt deflation
Crowd at New York's American Union Bank during a bank run early in the Great Depression.
Irving Fisher argued that the predominant factor leading to the Great Depression was overindebtedness and deflation. Fisher tied loose credit to over-indebtedness, which fueled speculation and asset bubbles. [8] He then outlined 9 factors interacting with one another under conditions of debt and deflation to create the mechanics of boom to bust. The chain of events proceeded as follows (1) Debt liquidation and distress selling (2) Contraction of the money supply as bank loans are paid off (3) A fall in the level of asset prices (4) A still greater fall in the net worths of business, precipitating bankruptcies (5) A fall in profits (6) A reduction in output, in trade and in employment. (7) Pessimism and loss of confidence (8) Hoarding of money (9) A fall in nominal interest rates and a rise in deflation adjusted interest rates.[8]
During the Crash of 1929 proceeding the Great Depression, margin requirements were only 10%. Brokerage firms, in other words, would loan $9 for every $1 an investor had deposited. When the market fell, brokers called in these loans, which could not be paid back. Banks began to fail as debtors defaulted on debt and depositors attempted to withdraw their deposits en masse, triggering multiple bank runs. Government guarantees and Federal Reserve banking regulations to prevent such panics were ineffective or not used. Bank failures led to the loss of billions of dollars in assets.[9] Outstanding debts became heavier, because prices and incomes fell by 20–50% but the debts remained at the same dollar amount. After the panic of 1929, and during the first 10 months of 1930, 744 US banks failed. (In all, 9,000 banks failed during the 1930s). By 1933, depositors had lost $140 billion in deposits.[9]
Bank failures snowballed as desperate bankers called in loans which the borrowers did not have time or money to repay. With future profits looking poor, capital investment and construction slowed or completely ceased. In the face of bad loans and worsening future prospects, the surviving banks became even more conservative in their lending.[9] Banks built up their capital reserves and made fewer loans, which intensified deflationary pressures. A vicious cycle developed and the downward spiral accelerated. This kind of self-aggravating process turned a 1930 recession into a 1933 great depression.
The liquidation of debt could not keep up with the fall of prices which it caused. The mass effect of their stampede to liquidate increased the value of each dollar they owed, relative to the value of their declining asset holdings. The very effort of individuals to lessen their burden of debt effectively increased it. Paradoxically, the more the debtors paid, the more they owed.[8]
Quote:
Franklin D. Roosevelt, elected in 1932, primarily blamed the excesses of big business for causing an unstable bubble-like economy. Democrats believed the problem was that business had too much money, and the New Deal was intended as a remedy, by empowering labor unions and farmers and by raising taxes on corporate profits. Regulation of the economy was a favorite remedy. Some New Deal regulation (the NRA and AAA) was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. Most New Deal regulations were abolished or scaled back in the 1970s and 1980s in a bipartisan wave of deregulation.[23] However the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Reserve, and Social Security won widespread support.
Some people don't even know what history is and for them all they have to do is listen to BHO. Maybe BHO should spend more money on our wounderful public education system.Quote:
Originally Posted by superdave1984
I read your post 4 times. You are right on!! Unfortunately people today want every thing free. where it comes from doesn't matter. They may get their way tomorrow.
Opie I seriously doubt your story but if it is true I bet those cats had alot more protein than a hatian mud cake.
You had it tough Opie1, tougher than I or most anyone else has ever experienced. But one thing you mentioned-no jobs available....Tax the rich just because their successful as Obama wants to do, and they'll no doubt cut the jobs, or the wages, or both. Heck, they might even pack up and move out of the country. What good would that do? The "rich" worked hard to get that way, most of them, and they will do what it takes to stay that way.Quote:
Originally Posted by Opie1
You are free to believe what you want to believe Mr. Cork. But let me assure you that I was being totally straight and honest with what I wrote.
My point was that these "programs" aren't there for me or the middle class.
They are only for single, unwed mothers who keep popping out babies for a larger monthly check.
The average Joe the Plumber has nowhere or no one to turn to when times get rough.
That is why it is your own personal responsibility to save and prepare for bad times when times are good.
Like I said, I chose to swim and I made a vow that I will never, ever be put into that type of situation again.
Today at 42 years old, my house has been paid for for almost 6 years, my three trucks and cars debt free, boat debt free, heck I don't owe a penny to anyone. And I never will again in my lifetime.
I had no political bent to my rant. Feel free to put words in my mouth SpeckWick. I just saw the post about all the wonderful "programs" out there just trying to help people and some old and not too pleasant memories of these "programs" came to mind.
Don't get me started about United Way. The biggest ripoff in charitable giving in the USA today. I still haven't found one person who they helped.
Salvation Army-Outstanding people. I try to help them as much as possible.
I am your same age opie, I just thought nobody in this country was on the edge of starvation. I have been corrected and I apoligise.
I can't imagine being a parent who would turn a cold shoulder to their own child in need. Just doesn't seem natural.
Hope you're right about never owing anyone a penny again. Just doesn't seem possible.
I agree---who in the world would let their child be reduced to killing and eating cats to prove a point? Gee, he was a really caring father.Quote:
Originally Posted by mduncan62
Glad you survived.
Im sure opie was making a funny about the cats.
opie too bad you didn't know how to fish back then.lol You could have been eatin high on the hog.
opie
I don't know if the story is true or not but it was a good story and as things turned out it doesn't look like your fathers attitude hurt you. I didn't detect bitterness towards your father in your story just that this was the way it was.
Your fathers attitude allowed or forced you to rise to the challenge and it seemed to be a very good character building experience for you something the youngsters of today are missing out on as evidenced by the attitude of intitlement so prevelent today.
As a fellow cat afficianado, I thought maybe we could swap recipes, techniques of shaving them, and personal best distances cat-flinging.
I grew up in a household where Mom insisted I scrape all the fat off the cats so she could make cat lard. And good golly, the slippers grandma used to make outta the pelts! It was always fun to trip up yur siblings playfully by stepping on the tails of their slippers.
Thanks Opie, this brought back some good old memories.:)
Now I do think this has gone too far Shoer. Maybe you were trying to make it funny but that picture definately is in bad taste. If that is a true picture then I feel that you are one sick individual.
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Originally Posted by horseshoer
hahaha...love it!!
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Originally Posted by Ragfly Jig Man
Naw,just add a little tobasco and it'll taste great! :)
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Originally Posted by horseshoer
Or cooked down in a nice Okra gravy. Or a nice Sauce Piquant. Man, I just bruised my lips with my tongue!!!
Pooch with them water rats as big they are around your neck of the woods,you might want keep a few of the bigger ones alive.lol
Think I would like to see the the skin and fur first removed then floured and put in some hot grease in a skillet.
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Originally Posted by Ragfly Jig Man
Ragfly, yur taking things too seriously. I have no idea if that is a real pic, I doubt it. My point is, I googled "cooking cats" and regardless if the pic is real or not there it was, thru no advocation of mine. I copied & used it.
Were I to see anyone doing that I would dump the boiling water on them instantly. I love animals, and although I am not a cat lover I certainly dont become a cat hater at that point. My neighbor has 2 and thru the summer months she puts a little glass bowl of water out in full sun on her steps for them to drink. Well you can imagine its temperature. I fill a 2 gal pail and set it in the shade for them and even change water and wash out the pail atleast once a week. Needless to say the cats go to it. We let our dogs out the back of the house cuz her cats are in front so they dont chase em.
I am a horseshoer by profession, I have never abused or advocated abuse of an animal in my life. I was raised on a farm and my Dad was a shining example of patience & understanding with critters, I never so much as saw him boot a dog outta the way. I am his son and a carbon copy in that way.
You are right no doubt that the pic itself is in poor taste but if you read the
BS post that goes along with it you surely must see it was meant to be in good fun, extreme sarcasm, certainly not reflective of anything I go along with.
I am not upset or here defending anything or anything like that. If the mods think its too much it will go. If you, having seen it, find yurself going back and being disgusted by it over & over holler at me, I'll take it off myself. I know some will see that as backing down, a weak move, whatever, but squint and prepare yur self for the following: I don't care.
:D
Now lets all go fling a couple cats!
Hey Shoer thank you for the clarification. You are correct that I did take it too seriously. I will admit that I was wrong in jumping on you like that. I ought to get usaed to it. You are a good man Shoer.
I never met shoer in person but do frequently come to visit the Va board just to see what he is stirring up here. It is always worth the reip but you cant take it too seriously. LOL Its always funny though. LMAO on the cat in the pot. Looks like he is enjoying a hot tub.
Dang shoer you have just destroyed my image of you with that post. Your credibility is now in jeopardy by dilvulging your hidden but true marshmellow persona.
Its just not going to be the same around here having to go around unwinding all the torqued up folks that don't seem to see and enjoy all the humor that life offers us all.
Also keep the I don't cares there shoer.
[QUOTE=LBM;613412] true marshmellow persona.
Dangit Dustbowl you caught me off guard with that one, just added another seed to all them rolling around in my lungs.
Ragfly, I wouldnt even have said anything man but the (it was) distasteful aspect was SO distasteful (animal cruelty) I just had to explain myself. Not a problem whatsoever, never was or even close. You fellers have a good one.
Tough love!Quote:
Originally Posted by Rapprunner
Man, I now this is an off topic forum, but shooooo-weeee!!! This is way out there.
Opie - I for one take you at your word. Got to admire a man that does what he has to to survive. Yes, you broke the law - both civil and societal, but many a man would turn to stealing or serious crime as an easier way out. Plus, somehow you managed to stay in school and still find time for a little sumpin' sumpin' on the side with the future Mrs. Opie. Now that's getting it done dude.
Wannabe...
After reading all this stuff, I guess I need to find another source for homemade catgut string. Wife likes it on her tennis racket even though it smells somewhat.......
I am guilty of catgut stringing........:(
Opie if I offended you with my post, my appologies, for real. I wasn't attacking you for anything you said and didn't really think you were leaning one way or the other politically. Just something you mentioned about the jobs thing struck a cord. In the past the election thing hasn't gotten to me as this one has, and I replied without thinking of how it would come across. You went through Hell, man. And you came out on top. That's more than a lot of guys in that situation would have done. Many turn to drugs or worse. You didn't. I appologize again for sounding like a jerk.
No apology needed SpeckWick. You had a "struck the cod" moment just like I did originally.
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I don't know if the story is true or not but it was a good story and as things turned out it doesn't look like your fathers attitude hurt you. I didn't detect bitterness towards your father in your story just that this was the way it was.
Your fathers attitude allowed or forced you to rise to the challenge and it seemed to be a very good character building experience for you something the youngsters of today are missing out on as evidenced by the attitude of intitlement so prevelent today.
My dad wasn't a bad man. In fact he was quite the opposite. I wondered for years why or how he could do something like that. People of that generation (at least in my family) tended to stick their head in the sand rather than deal directly with a problem.
I learned more about my dad in the week after he died in 2004 than I knew about him while he was alive. I think I know what his thinking was at the time. Don't agree with it but I understand. I think the experience made me a better person. I have more sympathy for people than blame them for situations that I used to think was their own fault.
One thing for sure-most people don't realize how good they have it because they never experienced how bad it could be.