How long with the bloated Bureaucracy and RINOs will it take create sustainable change? Just askingš¤·āāļø
Thank you for your thoughts. I agree that there is so much to learn and to do. I find the world interesting and I donāt understand boredom.
But, ok, I spend a while doing and learning. I also think, whatās the point of this.
Iām not bored as such and I like to learn (and I do - though I lack the need and hunger to do so that I once had and that I ploughed into my work), but I think the issue is that I have some needs that are unmet - and they arenāt going to be met by getting better at woodwork or taking up blacksmithing etc. Do you see what I mean and the distinction I am making?
I probably should have got married and had kids, as many people do to find a purpose - though I also see that it leads to misery for a decent number of people rather than happiness. Seen plenty of dreams turn to shit. Iāve only ever met one person who I loved and could have married, but I also knew it wouldnāt work long term so I let her go. Now itās a bit late for a lot of that. Iāve never felt that I want kids anyway, from a young age. But anyway.
I donāt know. Iām not looking for stuff to do. Iām looking to fill holes in my life. I pretty much gave up drinking not long ago, as I (always) knew I was using it to paper over those holes. I knew that for years but it was a classic coping mechanism of professionals and I used it to get the job done. But now I am not working stupid hours per week (I have got the job done), I want to deal with that stuff (actually I donāt want to because thatās hard - I actually just want it all solved!) and fill those holes, rather than paper them over. I can fill my time no problem. Itās filling the holes that is the trickier issue. I mean, I spent today working (solving peopleās problems - all very fulfilling for money yada yada) and this evening doing some hobbies (tonight, mead making from honey from my own beehives - which is great and I especially love keeping bees and being in a club that helps people to keep bees in a natural non-chemical way) but so what? I still have a serious case of CBA and whatās the fucking point.
I know I need to work this all out for myself. I believe in travelling and exploring as you get away from the norm and see different things. You see things and go āahaā - thatās it. Not that I probably need anything unique.
On thing I probably need is some love. But actual love. And not just that as that is just one need rather than every need (eg purpose). By my age, all that is probably left are people who have had and stamped on their previous relationships and who are now looking for a patsy to pay for whatever children they already have by someone who they said they were in love with but then changed their mind. (I donāt need people like that - Iād rather have nothing). That doesnāt sound very loving does it? And who can love someone who is as unsure of himself as I am these days. I donāt know what Iām about so why would anyone want to come along for the ride? What is the ride? This is me talking now. In my 20s I had girlfriends no problem as an ambitious, fit, Big 4 firm professional. And I did that stuff. But I now see it was only part of the puzzle.
Thatās the thing when we hit 40, isnāt it? In our 20s, we and others predict a future for us based on how we are living our lives at that time. If it looks good (as mine did and has turned out in many respects) people want to get on board. Iāve seen marriages fall apart where one half didnāt live up to their hype. I donāt think Iāve had a relationship end due to that. More because they donāt see a future for us - eg kids - because Iām a bit emotionally deficient.
I donāt know. Iām a logical person living in a deterministic world. I can totally see where I am and how I got here. Both the good and the bad. It was a mix of things I did (good and bad) and the way that I am (good and bad). The good things are great. No faulting myself - I did well at those things. The things I am not so good at, I now know that it isnāt like a points test exam. You canāt make up marks in the things you are less good at with the things you are great at. It isnāt a total score. Overachieving in some areas means f all in the areas where I am naturally weak and so have neglected. I needed to work on those things and then maybe I wouldnāt have the holes that I have and that are harder and harder to fill as you age.
Sorry, Iām ranting and rabbiting!
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You are in favor of allowing āTiny Homesā in your town? Is your area in a depression such that there is need for Hoovervilles. My objection is what happens to the land, the town culture, and the distribution of tax revenues. Were you in favor of allowing the illegal immigrants into your town? I suspect that the illegals may make better hardworking neighbors than people in Tiny Homes with no ambitions. Ask yourself, why do these people want to live with no room for winter clothing, no room for childrenās toys etc. Where will they park their cars? Then ask about their social skills and whether they care enough to do menial tasks to make enough money to pay for even their vices. What makes you think Tiny Homes are for young people? How about a trailer park next to your farm? All tax revenues get pretty much distributed regardless of income because the poor also vote. So having Tiny Homes in the city would dilute the services to those who wish to keep the town nice, policed, and serviced. Then there is the issue of lot size, ownership, and if run by the town, then the cost of running a rental service.
I really do not think you thought this one through.
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He says āover the decadeā but chart is from '04 to 2024 +87% GDP.
Thatās some 3-4% yearly growth which for wealthy country is actually good. Lots of numbers show 0 to 1% growth for most of those years.
But taxes have risen and debt level grown, telling tale of latest scouting report that GDP is artificially bumped by public spending and other loose debt spending.
Chart is from '03ā¦thatās a 20-year chart
Not sure how old you are, but more than likely your learned behavior (emotional deficiency) stems from environmental factors while growing up (jus a thought). Those type of learned behaviors are hard to reverse as you get older.
Speaking for myself, I tend to be overly emotional, which could put a damper on any situation with the future we face. So, consider your lack of emotion in some areas a bonus! Itās ok to be strong in some areas and a little less stronger in others. Best wishes in your future endeavors!
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As a public school educator, we had a glorious year and a half recently with no administrator whatsoever on site. Morale and productivity were never higher. We all learned a valuable lesson about the total lack of necessity of site level principals, at least in a setting like ours.
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Thatās a lot of assumptions and straw men in one screed.
As much as I love the IDEA of tiny homes, our experience as part of a town where one part of the town wanted āanything goesā, and the other part was worried about what would happen once the occupants of these new tiny homes and temporary homes and trailer homes started drawing upon town services caused the town to vote to split in half. So now there were two towns, a highly populated town center that wanted as many workers as possible for the factory, and the outlaying L-shaped area that was essentially a bunch of hick farmers.
The āsmall townā let people park tiny homes and trailers on their lots, build accessory units above garages, in basements and attics, and strips of apartment buildings went up. Lots of service-sector businesses moved into town ā convenience stores, restaurants, pizza shops, and then art galleries and gift shops. They were āhigh societyā for a few years, but then the mills closed up and went overseas, the jobs dried up, and all the businesses went out of business, leaving the smaller ātiny home / trailer home / condoā town constantly teetering on bankruptcy as they had to pay for, not just schools, but police, fire, and ambulance for all those people whose properties did not have enough tax-value to pay for the services they consumed.
The ādumb hick farmersā had the last laugh. Pretty quickly, tooā¦ It was less than a decade between āthe town divorceā and when economic reality reasserted itself.
Ironically, the ādumb hick farmerā half of the civic divorce revamped their zoning laws to set minimum road frontage per unit allowed to be built on their land, no apartment buildings or subdivisions, but they also allowed some pretty interesting off-grid experiments for people who bought an adequately sized plot of land. A -ton- of āshed to houseā off-grid homes were built by young people. They did have to pass a law that you could only live in an unfinished cellar hole for two years before you had to build a house on top of it to squelch tax-evaders. So the problem isnāt really tiny homes. Its that policemen, firefighters, teachers, plus the guy who plows out your road all deserve to be paid, and the people who live in that town need to contribute enough tax money to pay for those services. Nothing is freeā¦
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@resiliencerob I totally get where youāre coming from, because Iām in a very similar situation. I got laid off in my early 50s and didnāt really need to search for another job for financial reasons, so I didnāt bother. But my whole identity was wrapped up in my career, and to this day (itās been almost four years now), I still find myself asking myself āWho the f even AM I if Iām not [former career]ā? And not that Iām not incredibly grateful to be in this position, where my days are my own to spend as I please, I canāt shake this feeling that my skills and abilities are just being wasted somehow. I have a part-time job that I do for community service more than the token paycheck, but it doesnāt feel like enough. I also quit drinking seven months ago, which eliminates the easy copout of just mentally checking out at night.
Regarding your comments on war, thereās actually a book on that exact topic. Itās called āTribe: On Homecoming and Belongingā by Sebastian Junger. It talks about how, as twisted as it may seem, war is sometimes the best time in peopleās lives, because it creates intense emotional bonds and feelings of community and solidarity that our modern Western world doesnāt otherwise provide.
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Thatā¦ isā¦ terrifying. The state of education is much worse than I thought.
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