anyone could live with him, just as long as they don't mind having to pay all the bills

Kindda like a Wife..................

Try that now. 4 years ago gas was only 2/3 the price of today if not less, housing has soared to the point where people are making up to 50% more than they paid 4 years ago on home sales, which means rent has gone up to take advantage of the rising cost of houses and condos, food prices are out of control (dairy, beef, produce, etc.), insurance costs have risen due in part to 9/11 and also due to inflation and price gouging, medical and prescription costs have steadily increased, and lets not forget salaries are way down historically.

Maybe you were doing good on $18 an hour then, but try that now and see where you stand. I make more than that and watch my savings drop a steady couple of hundred every single month. I haven't taken a vacation in over a year. My salary was raised 5% this year AFTER my company released the wage freeze 4 months after I was supposed to receive my yearly raise. That means not only did I lose 4 months of my raise, but I was living under the rate of inflation for those 4 months. Hospitals are not doing well. And let me tell you, healthcare is a perfect example of a bad economy because those people with either a cough or a sprained ankle aren't coming in because they have no insurance, and those that do have insurance aren't coming because of the $500 deductible they have to pay for outpatient surgery or emergency room visits.

This country is in poor shape fiscally and it shows. Maybe you guys that are doing really well are enjoying the spoils of war while the rest of us wait for the economy to do more than moderately hiccup a few shitty menial jobs.

edit: made more legible

Screw you man.. I aint wearin no dress, not for you or any other kinky biotch.

Ya know that reminds me of a story.
There was a guy riding a horse drawn cart down the street and a trooper pulls him over and starts giving the guy a load of crap about having a cart on a highway.

Soon flies began to swarm annoyingly around the officers head and he began to swat at them. Finally the officer exclaims "Damn!! what the hell kind of flies are they?"
The man said horse ass flies.
The officer glaired at him and said "what does that mean?"
The man said "well sir ya see they like to fly around a horses ass and thats why they are called horse ass flies"
The officer looked very sternly at the man and said "are you calling me a horses ass?"
The man said "no sir but seems to me the flies don't know any different."

wasn't but a couple years ago i would make 300 a day min and most of the time a lot more.things are definetly getting worse thats why i'm going to get my own affairs in safer positions.I personally have not had a profitable month for about 6 months.But when times were good i set up my ducks so i can shoot them when i get hungry.Who would care about my troubles if i didn't.
If i enjoy any spoils of war it's is cause i fought that war and lived.

quote Originally posted by 84Bill: Screw you man.. I aint wearin no dress, not for you or any other kinky biotch.

Come on............Wheres your sence of adventure?...............
I'll be gentle......at first.

THANK YOU.

Glad you're coming to terms with the fact that you're an idiot. When you barf, please aim for your computer so we don't have to listen to your desperate attempts to lash out at us anymore (referring to the "nazi jackasses" comment).

What was the point of that little story you decided to share with us? Please explain the point you were trying to make, because the connection to the conversation was far to vague for any normal person to grasp.

"Get Over It"
by The Eagles
Hell Freezes Over album

I turn on the tube and what do I see
A whole lotta people cryin' "Don't blame me"
They point their crooked little fingers ar everybody else
Spend all their time feelin' sorry for themselves
Victim of this, victim of that
Your momma's too thin; your daddy's too fat

Get over it
Get over it
All this whinin' and cryin' and pitchin' a fit
Get over it, get over it

You say you haven't been the same since you had your little crash
But you might feel better if I gave you some cash
The more I think about it, Old Billy was right
Let's kill all the lawyers, kill 'em tonight
You don't want to work, you want to live like a king
But the big, bad world doesn't owe you a thing

Get over it
Get over it
If you don't want to play, then you might as well split
Get over it, Get over it

It's like going to confession every time I hear you speak
You're makin' the most of your losin' streak
Some call it sick, but I call it weak

You drag it around like a ball and chain
You wallow in the guilt; you wallow in the pain
You wave it like a flag, you wear it like a crown
Got your mind in the gutter, bringin' everybody down
Complain about the present and blame it on the past
I'd like to find your inner child and kick its little ass

Get over it
Get over it
All this bitchin' and moanin' and pitchin' a fit
Get over it, get over it

Get over it
Get over it
It's gotta stop sometime, so why don't you quit
Get over it, get over it

Convenient that you left out intereste rates which are currently at all time lows actually making housing for first time buyers some of the most affordable in history. That's also a component why, in some areas, housing prices have gone up, because of the demand of buyers. It's a market driven world.

Food prices are out of control!?!?!? Get a grip. Let's look at reality, shall we. From the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Bread
Jan 2000, $.907 per loaf, Jan 2004 $.946 per loaf. A whopping 4.3% increase in 4 years, or a tad over 1% per year

Hamburger
Jan 2000, $1.483/lb, Jan 2004 $2.260 per pound. Beef has gone up a lot, 52%, in that period, but since Jan. it's also fallen back to $2.089/lb so it's declined about 10% since the first of the year. Jan 2000 was also a time of very low beef prices.

Eggs
Jan 2000, $.975/doz, Jan 2004, $1.573/doz. Again, an increase. 62% in fact. It's also come down since Jan.

Milk
Jan 2000, $2.785/gal, Jan 2004, $2.879/ gal. Wow, a whole 3.4% increase, 8/10 of 1% per year

Chicken
Jan 2000, $1.059/lb, Jan 2004 $1.062/lb. Another massive increase of .28% or .07 (7/100) of 1% per year.

Lettuce
Jan 2000, $.748/lb, Jan 2004 $.876/lb. Wow, another increase of 17% or 4.25%/year

Wine
(I included this since it seems to be a favorite of liberals and is probably where you get the impression food prices are out of control)
Jan 2000, $5.458/L, Jan 2004 $6.737/L. A 23% increase or a little less than 6%/year.

The only thing that's really gone up significantly are eggs and beef, most other prices have stayed virtually the same.

Insurance costs HAVE gone up due to 9/11 but also a major component in the increase is interest rates being so low. Insurance companies are very conservative and as such invest policy premiums conservatively. They are requred by law to keep a certain amount available, in reserve, to pay claims. When their investments can't return a high rate for them, they have to make up the difference somewhere and the only place they can make money other than their investments is to increase premiums. It's not complicated, but a lot of people don't realize how insurance companies actually make their money.

As far as your claim of salaries being "way down historically", how about a little documentation with that claim? According to the BLS again, the Employment Compensation Index, which includes all of the compensation that is given an employee such as insurance, time off, taxes, etc., etc., has gone from 146.4 in the first quarter of 2000 to 170.8 in the first quarter of 2004. That's an increase of 16.6%, or about 4.2% per year. Show me some documentation of how wages are "way down historically" when I can show you documentation that it's costing employers more now, than ever, to employee someone.

You were living under a very historically low rate of inflation and have been for the last several years. Your 5% raise was more than the rate of inflation for last year.

Hospitals are not doing well in some areas because they are poorly managed. We have one here that has a very low bed count. In fact if it weren't for a floor that is, in effect, a rest home, it would probably close. They just passed and are going to build a major expansion of the hospital. That's sheer lunacy! The reason the bed count is low is because it cannot, and never will, be able to compete with a much larger, better equipped, and better staffed hospital 35 miles away. The local hospital is basically a Triage unit and that's all it ever will be. Unfortunately, this is pretty typical in the health care industry. They think new buildings and new machines are the answer to their problems and they're not.

BTW-I grew up without going to a doctor or hospital for sprained ankles and a cough. You just pointed out another reason that health insurance is so high. Health insurance is not universal health care. It wasn't designed to be and never will be unless the government (which is the taxpayers) forces them to be.

Health insurance used to be like car insurance or house insurance. If you had a major catastrophe, like a tornado or hailstorm that wrecks your roof, you know it costs you your deductible and that's it. The major expenses, the ones that could break you, are covered by insurance. Somewhere along the line we got the notion that insurance should pay every penny of everything that goes wrong in our lives. Well, if that's what you want, have at it and get the $25 deductibles and so on, just stop whining about what the premiums cost you.

Here's a newsflash for you..........you don't NEED to see a doctor for every cough and sprained ankle. Unfortunately, you see people with just that in the EMERGENCY ROOMS! And we just can't figure out why health insurance costs so much...........

One suggestion, take the $1,000 deduct insurance, put $75/mo in a savings account, and you'll be money ahead 95 times out of 100.

I think you were one of those that said that back when President Bush was predicting 1.000,000 new jobs before next fall that he was an idiot. We're now at something like 700,000 in 4 months or less. Your track record on what the economy is historically and what it will be in the future isn't looking so good from where I sit.

John Stricker