Inauguration Day

It's always a tough call. I think we (the human race) need to protect the environment along with several other non-profits and charitable organizations. I don't always agree that a bureaucracy like the EPA or other government agencies benefit the public. I think we can eliminate several federal agencies to help reduce debt and live within our means.

People see the elimination of the EPA as a strike against the environment. Of course, that's what government wants you to think. They want to continually increase the size of government. Compare the EPA failures to any accomplishments. It still pisses me off that the EPA told all the crews at ground zero that the air quality was fine. It shows their level of incompetence where a private company could have easily figured this out.

Now, I'm against offshore drilling and the keystone pipeline. I'm also for environmental regulations. I just think the government ****s everything up and just wastes taxpayer money to either fund their own agenda or their own bank account. I think citizens, not government, are more trust worthy and we can do more together than government agencies who aren't even elected by us.

Look at climate change. I think emissions and other things are causing climate issues but I also don't think it's as extreme as pushed by the left. I'm in the middle on that issue. The left and right are pushing their own agenda. Both sides are based upon making money. The right will allow industries which benefit from higher emissions to make more money through less regulation. The left uses extreme scare tactics and invests in carbon stock/credit programs. This carbon/credit companies use climate change to hopefully let them make billions.

 

Well thought out, rational post.

 

I've been thinking recently about what it means to "live within our means" and the American hypocrisy on this topic is pretty funny when you think about. Everyone wants to ***** and complain about the national debt when the average credit card debt per US family is over $16000 (https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/average-credit-card-debt-household/). Total american consumer debt (including mortgages) is almost nearing the national debt.

Your own personal debt is going to affect you and your family a hell of a lot more than the national debt. I don't really have anything profound to say about it, just found it interesting. I think this country would do well to get back to our roots of living within our means and saving, instead of *****ing about things outside of their control.

 

agreed good post just wish more people felt like that and genuinely took the environment as a precios commodity instead of a moneymaking tool...I dread the day we are walking around with air filter masks like they do in china

 

Won't make a difference--you are already walking around with tremendous "tunnel vision"......

 

I use to have plenty of debt, it's paralyzing once you get in over your head. It took me a good 10 years to get it all under control and was able to pay off ALL debt in my name and in my wife's name.

We've been on a cash only program for a few years now and it's liberating. If we don't have the cash for it, we don't need it. We save when we can and wait for bigger pay days to do things that would normally require financing. We both have a small credit card just to keep an open line of credit, as we found that having nothing at all is just as bad in the eye of mortgage lenders and other creditors. So we use those cards to get gas sometimes and then pay it right off. No finance charges. It's hard to get ahead when you're always paying more for things than they are actually worth.

My advice to anybody who is in credit card debt is to freeze the spending. Close the cards. Pay them all little by little, best you can. Negotiate with the creditors, they WILL negotiate if you take the right approach. One card I had was over 10k, over 25% interest, racking up late charges, over the limit fees, you name it. I finally couldn't do it anymore and stopped paying. They called me and called me and I ignored till about the 6 month mark. That's when I finally picked up and negotiated them into lowering my interest rate to zero so that I could pay them off. The caveat was that I had to authorize an auto-payment each month until the card was paid off. I agreed, it took like 5-6 years if I remember correctly. I was able to set the payment to the amount I felt I could afford. The key was to not let a payment bounce because that would cancel the contract and i'd be back to square one with them. Once the card was paid off it was like a ton of weight was lifted off my shoulders.

 

[video=youtube;T8ikhzYX1nY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8ikhzYX1nY[/video]

 

DP, glad to hear you made it out of that hole. It's certainly an expensive lesson to learn but it really gives you some perspective on what is an actual life necessity.

 

Thanks dude, I can totally see why people end up killing urslef over it. No joke, it's no way to live. I'd rather be poor but paying for things by cash then living above my means financing everything only for it to all come crashing down on me in the end.

All it took for catastrophe to hit was losing my job. I had a new one within a couple days but it was a 60% pay cut and it took me another 6 months to find something else that was comparable. Those 6 months I fell so far behind that I wasn't able to get caught up. That was until I got my sh*t straight and got to work on it.

It sure as hell wasn't easy. I scraped by eating Ramen Noodles many a night. I was robbing Peter to pay Paul. Always extending my power bill due date and paying it off on the very last day just before they cut it off. There were days I came home and the power was already off because I wasn't able to get the money to them fast enough.

I had to do $500 cash advances almost every two weeks for about 2 years just to pay my monthly bills and have enough to eat. This was the hardest part of my life i'd say. But there is light at the end of the tunnel, just takes time and effort and being smarter about it.

Anybody who is in that type of situation and needs help let me know.

 

Seems like you just proved my point.. Just about every person harassed by that chick wit hthe sign said they did not want to talk about Islam

 

Or they just had no interest... Either way it still doesn't change the fact that your initial statement was incorrect.

 

They fail to be properly educated upon the matter. That is one of the few videos (since the inauguration) that I have watched within this thread. I did try to watch the one you posted about anarchy, but it was reclassified as "private" (possibly by the user, possibly not...did not check).

 

I bothered to check. It appears to be that I cannot view it, because I refuse to be "connected" to the borg with an account.