Sunday time

It always seems to go too fast, as of late, so make it slow down with Victor Davis Hanson’s latest

I was watching on television last week both Barack Obama and his wife Michelle speak about the supposedly depression-like conditions in the US, and a people strapped by students loans, near hungry, and without hope of betterment. Neither said anything of substance, though both were engaging, effective speakers. Still, never has so much talent been invested in saying so little.

If you were to believe them, we are in a sort of “It’s A Wonderful Life,” Frank Capra-era housing depression, not a boom-and-bust cycle where for the last five years, rival television shows proliferate on “flipping” houses (in which strapped investors and rookies borrow against rising equity to put in granite counters and stainless steel appliances for quick flip sales).

I have developed a bad habit up in the Sierra (Huntington Lake is hardly Tahoe) of asking strangers about their playthings—big boats, jet-skis, jacked-up four wheel-drive trucks with chrome struts that require a ladder to enter, all-terrain vehicles, recreation vehicles, racing-type snow-mobiles, etc. Most of these toys cost several thousand dollars. I am struck by the background of most that I meet who are driving them: the owners are electricians, cops, plumbers, teachers, government inspectors, etc. So far very few lawyers, doctors, and investors.

Count me in the “jacked up four-wheel drive trucks” category here in the next couple day. Most likely I will not be needing a ladder for entry, but I am already questioning my ability to swing my legs up those extra few inches when I’m wearing my flannel-lined Carharts.

He’s right when he’s talks about “The Toys”.

Folks are having to sell their toys, which they really couldn’t afford in the first place, because they didn’t buy them outright, they used their credit. Now they’re in debt and the toys have to go. This, along with the constant media line of “how bad it is out there” that makes them feel like we’re living in 1929. Stupid self-pitying freaks.

The other scenario I’m seeing is the need to sell the “old toys” to buy the new toys. That was how it was when I was brought up, but I’m hearing my co-workers bitch about how they really wanted to keep it for the son (or wife, or nephew, or the neighbor kids, etc.) and I’m just about sick of it.

They can’t keep they’re current Tonka truck AND get a new one, and it is the government’s fault.

Actually, it is the government’s fault, though not because the economy is beginning to slow down, but because tax rates are too damn high. I did the taxes up for the wife and I last weekend: Between Withholding, SSI and Medicare, there was 30% taken right off the top. Add in the state, county and local bullshit taxes and I’m losing 45% of my income to some government department. And that is not even counting the near 10% sales tax! The Mom, who is retired, drove cars around for a local dealership and made a whole $600 in the fiscal year of 2007. The fed took 1/3 of it last week.

I tell this to these guys and they get jacked up the right direction for a couple days until they hear some media bullshit and get their attitude gets spun 180 degrees and I have to remind them again of where the problem is really at.

Bah!

I’d like for them to spend some time playing Guess Which Collectivist Said It at The People’s Cube

But since I can’t tell them about it until the work week, why don’t you give it a shot.

Have a good Sunday. And now if you’ll excuse me, it’ll be 08:00 very soon (20:00 for me) and it’s time for grilled Flat Iron steaks and beer.