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To be as blunt as possible, if you are not prospering in America, it is because you are stupid/lazy/crazy/obnoxious, not because of politics.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SECOND, in another thread (that you dragged waaaay off topic http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=49739&p=4 ) you posted

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To be as blunt as possible, if you are not prospering in America, it is because you are stupid/lazy/crazy/obnoxious, not because of politics.

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If that's the case, it won't matter WHO becomes President. So you can stop campaigning against Republicans bc, according to you, they can't make a difference anyway.



I know you meant that as an insult, but really, you just killed your own argument.

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SECOND, in another thread (that you dragged waaaay off topic http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=49739&p=4 ) you posted

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To be as blunt as possible, if you are not prospering in America, it is because you are stupid/lazy/crazy/obnoxious, not because of politics.

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If that's the case, it won't matter WHO becomes President. So you can stop campaigning against Republicans bc, according to you, they can't make a difference anyway.



I know you meant that as an insult, but really, you just killed your own argument.

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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What is a family looking to buy a place to do? Buy in cash, if you happen to be rich enough to do that. (A bananas statistic: This spring, two out of every three buyers in Manhattan paid cash.) Buy and refinance when you can, if you happen to have the risk tolerance and financial room to do that. Buy with as large a down payment as you can muster to cut your mortgage costs. Or just rent. For the next decade. Forever.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
That's called a K shaped recovery, dipshit.

Your money buys a hell of a lot less for you than it did before Biden* was elected.

That includes stocks in companies.

This is how inflation works. It's why movies are always breaking box office records when all they do is count how much money they make and they're not counting tickets sold or constantly adjusting for inflation.

Read a fucking book, dummy.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Yeah. I'm an old timer because I remember the good old days 3 years ago when you could buy a fuckin' 2x4 for under $2.

Get fucked, idiot.

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Last home I built for us was in 1980 2×4's were right at $1.79

Not long after we were done the cost bumped to $2.39

Between then and until recently they were fairly steady from $2.39 to around $2.69

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

You wouldn't know, because you don't even know how to hold a hammer.

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It’s tough to say how buy now, pay later fits into the country’s overall debt picture. Providers that offer the service don’t typically disclose how often those bills go unpaid, and the debts aren’t reported to credit bureaus. Klarna, PayPal and Affirm

all declined to share buy now, pay later delinquency rates with CNBC.

Affirm has said the short-term and high-velocity nature of its buy now, pay later service makes traditional credit metrics less relevant. It writes off those unpaid loans within 120 days, which is why it doesn’t disclose delinquency rates for the service. It does disclose other credit metrics for its longer-term loans.

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A growing number of Americans are ending up homeless as soaring rents in recent years squeeze their budgets.

According to a Jan. 25 report from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies, roughly 653,000 people reported experiencing homelessness in January of 2023, up roughly 12% from the same time a year prior and 48% from 2015. That marks the largest single-year increase in the country's unhoused population on record, Harvard researchers said.

Homelessness, long a problem in states such as California and Washington, has also increased in historically more affordable parts of the U.S.. Arizona, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas have seen the largest growths in their unsheltered populations due to rising local housing costs.

That alarming jump in people struggling to keep a roof over their head came amid blistering inflation in 2021 and 2022 and as surging rental prices across the U.S. outpaced worker wage gains. Although a range of factors can cause homelessness, high rents and the expiration of pandemic relief last year contributed to the spike in housing insecurity, the researchers found.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

CBS News: Record number of Americans are homeless amid nationwide surge in rent, report finds

USA Today: New study exposes finances of Americans: Most can't handle a $1,000 emergency expense

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Originally posted by second:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

CBS News: Record number of Americans are homeless amid nationwide surge in rent, report finds

USA Today: New study exposes finances of Americans: Most can't handle a $1,000 emergency expense

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You still have not accepted that in America your finances are controlled by the people you buy and borrow from. The government is nowhere in those transactions, except when you buy and borrow too much. At that point, a bankruptcy judge decides how much each seller and bank gets of your money. If your checks bounced, a lowly justice of the peace decides your finances. Your creditors and bankers are protected. You have very little protection since you don't have a lawyer nearly as experienced as their lawyers who have years of practice taking everything from people exactly like you.

Either become your own accountant and lawyer or get slaughtered by rich people who have highly competent lawyers whose sole job is killing you for money. Since at least half of Americans can't even understand how to balance a checkbook, their destiny is to be slaughtered. There could be protections for ignoramuses, but the Republican Party is obviously and completely opposed to such.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Everybody has agency and the ability to make better decisions for themselves even if the public school system is designed to churn out stupid lifelong wage-slaves.

Don't try to take that away from them.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Are you going to do any actual work today, pig?

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Originally posted by second:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Are you going to do any actual work today, pig?

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I'm paid similar to firefighters.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

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Originally posted by second:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Are you going to do any actual work today, pig?

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I'm paid similar to firefighters.

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No you're not. You live in your mom's basement and have no income.

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Originally posted by second:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

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Originally posted by second:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Are you going to do any actual work today, pig?

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I'm paid similar to firefighters.

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No you're not. You live in your mom's basement and have no income.

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The Trumptards I know are very quick to say “I’m amazing!” but they are even quicker to blame external circumstances or some immutable lack of talent for their failures. A psychologist wrote:

I’ve spent 20 years studying how to raise successful kids—here’s the most ‘overlooked’ skill I tell parents to teach

As a psychologist, I’ve spent nearly 20 years studying how to care for and raise good humans. The overlooked skill I always tell new parents to teach is inner efficacy.

Inner efficacy is an individual’s belief in their own capacity to do what it takes to meet their goals. Self-esteem might say, “I’m amazing!” but inner efficacy says, “I have what it takes to figure this out and achieve what I set out to.”

Kids with a strong sense of inner efficacy are more likely to challenge themselves and put in the effort. Rather than blaming external circumstances or some immutable lack of talent for their failures, they’ll focus on factors that are within their control.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/28/i-spent-20-years-studying-how-to-raise
-successful-kids-heres-the-skill-all-parents-should-teach.html

I assume they are Trumptards whose parents knew how to raise good humans, but I never met one of these Trumpards/Good-Human combinations. They must be rare specimens.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

I'm a problem solver. I actually figure out how to fix things.

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Maybe it's buried...

]

Pay attention Jack, because once again you show yourself to be clueless and dishonest.

Go Joe go...

T

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Most analyses of Americans’ financial health tend to tell a tale of two consumers. On one side are the roughly two-thirds of Americans who own their homes and those who’ve invested in the stock market and done substantially well. They generally had the savings cushion necessary to weather high inflation. Delinquency rates on single-family homes remain at near historic lows and home prices have continued to climb.

But for the rest of America, things are looking rough.

“You have these noticeable pockets of consumers -- mostly middle- and lower-income renters who have not benefitted from the wealth effect of higher housing prices and stock prices -- who are feeling financial stress and that’s driving up these delinquency levels. They’ve been hit very hard by inflation,” said Warren Kornfeld, a senior vice president at Moody’s, in an interview.

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Having a car is getting more expensive for drivers across the country as auto insurance premiums continue to soar.

According to a new Bankrate report, U.S. drivers are paying an average of $2,543 annually, or $212 per month, for car insurance — an increase of 26% from last year. That's 3.41% of yearly earnings for those with a salary of $74,580, which is the national median household income according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

"Auto insurance rates have been rising at a breakneck pace," said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst for Bankrate. "And though the pace of increases will eventually slow, that doesn't mean premiums are coming down."

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The constant presence of high inflation is pushing more Americans to take on a side hustle as the cost of everyday necessities continues to rise.

The Labor Department reported on Friday that nearly 8.13 million people held multiple jobs in January – up from 7.87 million one year ago. In total, they represent about 5.1% of the total U.S. workforce, an increase from 5% just one year ago.

The growing likelihood of Americans holding more than one job comes as they continue to confront stubbornly high inflation that has rapidly eroded their purchasing power.

In fact, the government reported last month that the average hourly earnings for all employees was $11.10 in December, which represents a 2.89% decline from the $11.43 figure in January 2021, shortly before the inflation crisis began.

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The last time Americans spent this much of their money on food, George H.W. Bush was in office, “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” was in theaters and C+C Music Factory was rocking the Billboard charts.

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