yes - notice he doesnt actually directly answer - just points at a few vaguenesses, and ONLY actual statement is in the end with "the poor" smoke more cigarettes. xanex. really dont need to go much further. but, we can. cocaine. heroin. and, of course, drinking. we can get trite, and add coffee. how about ridalin? oh yes - dont forget the Oxi's & other pain killers.
I dont deny one bit that "the poor" do drugs. but, they are by no means alone. and, they by no means do "the most" drugs - tho that can be split several ways as well by effects, costs, time spent. I also wont deny that if they could - they would do more. and that goes for all sides.
but - in the end - on topic - if you go by cost of drugs vs income - yes - "the poor" are really screwing themselves.
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02:45 PM
Jul 21st, 2011
madcurl Member
Posts: 21401 From: In a Van down by the Kern River Registered: Jul 2003
Will it's about time! Smokers using the streets, driveways, parking lot, and sidewalks as their personal toilet.
SF judge upholds city's cigarette pack surcharge
(07-20) 06:17 PDT San Francisco, CA (AP) --
A San Francisco judge has upheld the city's 20-cent-per-pack surcharge on cigarettes.
Superior Court Judge Ronald Quidachay ruled on Monday that the additional charge was a fee and not a tax and therefore did not need to be approved by voters.
Cigarette maker Philip Morris USA and some local retailers had disputed that.
The 20-cent charge was the brainchild of former Mayor Gavin Newsom, who said it was intended to cover what it cost the city to clean up discarded cigarette butts.
A call to Philip Morris on Wednesday morning was not immediately returned. The company had argued that the surcharge was not reasonably related to the city's actual cleanup costs. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-b...11.DTL#ixzz1SlOv0YYL
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01:53 PM
Scottzilla79 Member
Posts: 2573 From: Chicago, IL Registered: Oct 2009
Wonder how church (synogague, temple, etc) attendance is in relation to the economy (Do more people go to mass when times are tough?)
FInd solace in God?
People from a few generations ago would scrathy their heads in seeing how unhappy so many people are today. Some are miserable because they had unrealistic expectations or have trouble coming to grips with their 'mediocrity' (the fact that they didn't become something 'more')
i dunno.
I can tell you they don't go as much, and they certainly don't give as much. They will cut their church donations before they cut the cable bill.
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02:24 PM
Scottzilla79 Member
Posts: 2573 From: Chicago, IL Registered: Oct 2009
Will it's about time! Smokers using the streets, driveways, parking lot, and sidewalks as their personal toilet.
SF judge upholds city's cigarette pack surcharge
(07-20) 06:17 PDT San Francisco, CA (AP) --
A San Francisco judge has upheld the city's 20-cent-per-pack surcharge on cigarettes.
Superior Court Judge Ronald Quidachay ruled on Monday that the additional charge was a fee and not a tax and therefore did not need to be approved by voters.
Cigarette maker Philip Morris USA and some local retailers had disputed that.
The 20-cent charge was the brainchild of former Mayor Gavin Newsom, who said it was intended to cover what it cost the city to clean up discarded cigarette butts.
A call to Philip Morris on Wednesday morning was not immediately returned. The company had argued that the surcharge was not reasonably related to the city's actual cleanup costs. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-b...11.DTL#ixzz1SlOv0YYL
I'm sorry, but why isn't there also a 20 cent "fee" for gum? Here they have crews of power washers out every morning downtown to blast all the gum off the sidewalks. I don't know if they are city or private employees. This judge should be disbarred. A fee suggests its a payment for use. Therefore anyone who walks or drives on the sidewalks or streets should pay the fee. I'm almost getting tired of saying this but. How bout you just enforce the existing laws? Littering is illegal isn't it?
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02:28 PM
Jun 29th, 2012
FriendGregory Member
Posts: 4833 From: Palo Alto, CA, USA Registered: Jan 2004
Update on this couple. In the next couple months, the young man went to jail, the woman did a relocate (as some of us that have done NA and are friends of Bill know about) and in a couple months came back to other family. She had a bunch of people that came and went but, the guy that would watch her kids while she went to work asked to rent the place with a couple friends. I agreed and when she was out, I came in and found the place was destroyed. Every door was damaged, the bedrooms require replacements, every room had some wall damage, a fist or foot, broken kitchen cabinet drawers. It took 6 truck loads to remove the trash. One bit of humor was that a plastic garbage bag had about 2 pounds of pot. I threw it away.
The new guy should have been a salesman, he sure talked it up. His friends are now pissed at him for not paying his part and consuming resources. I only have a rental agreement with the one guy so, I need to evict him. Crap, this one place has been a ***** . This makes 3 sets of people I have had to kick out! No one said being a landlord is easy.
One thing is that because I can afford it, I have been trying to give people a break that have not had a stable living environment and I may yet learn there is no point.
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04:46 AM
yellowstone Member
Posts: 9299 From: Düsseldorf/Germany Registered: Jun 2003
I used to work in a grocery store when I was younger. The abuse I saw made my blood boil. In Iowa food stamps will pay the deposit on cans and bottles. So guess what. Food stamp recipients buy a lot of pop. Then they bring back the bottles and cans and buy their cigs and booze. Before the "food stamp cards" they would come in and buy 2 pieces of bulk Brachs candy and take the $.98 and then head to the next line, until they had enough for their cigs and booze.
My sister went on a rant once about how people on food stamps get cigarettes and beer and how that shouldn't be allowed.
I told her they are legal so why should we judge them?
Are things more important than that to some of us? Yes. But as long as they aren't doing anything illegal then how can we complain?
Personal freedoms... even if it means I don't agree with them.
Excellent post.
The world is full of finger pointing busybodies hell bent on dominating and bending others to their will, they don’t have a clue what freedom actually means, or if they do they are terrified by it. The hardcore religious types seam to be the worst but you can find it anywhere. I guess in some sick way it makes them feel important, when in fact they are insignificant and powerless in others lives.
I dont deny one bit that "the poor" do drugs. but, they are by no means alone. and, they by no means do "the most" drugs - tho that can be split several ways as well by effects, costs, time spent. I also wont deny that if they could - they would do more. and that goes for all sides.
No but 100% of MY money that is spent on drugs and cigarettes comes exclusively from the poor. I could care less what people spend their own money on, but when its MY money, I should have a say. The money is there to keep them from literally starving to death, instead welfare is used to buy food so the cash they have can be used on non-essential wasteful purchases.
And the minute you accept the first dollar of welfare, until the next check you actually earn your self, doesnt matter if its 1$ or 100$ every penny of that is MY money that you are spending, lest you mail back a check for that 1$ at the end of the week, in which case I dont care if you bought a van full of cigarettes and didnt eat a slice of bread.
Pull that welfare mat out from under their feet and see if they still buy the same amount of cigarettes or booze. Im sure they'll buy some, most people in that situation are there because of their inability to manage themselves, but I guarantee the dollars spent frivolously will change.
To the OP, if you're having problems with your tenants, that's your problem. Should've screened them better, been a better judge of character, etc.
For a lot of people, their lives suck. Working some shitty job that barely pays min. wage isn't going to get you ahead, and busting your ass won't necessarily make you successful. So, instead of striving for things that society says you need to be happy (materialistic things, this idea that everyone has to buy new products constantly, own a nice house, nice car, etc) they fall back on things that give them momentary happiness. The world still sucks, your life still sucks, but for those moments when you're smoking/drinking/etc you don't feel that bad.
Most of my friends are like this. They aren't deadbeats though. They don't start trouble, they are responsible and pay their bills and don't fark things up. Its just, they barely make enough to get by and they still want to have SOMETHING that makes them happy. For them, cigarettes and alcohol are simple luxuries that they can barely afford but give them a little bit of pleasure in a ****ed up world.
Because, no matter how little or how much they have or how much they are in debt or how little income they have, their personal happiness means more to them than anything else--anthing, no matter how destructive that lifestyle policy becomes to their lives. Perhaps they'll be just as happy when ya kick them to the curb.
And we have that pesky thing called freedom. ( at least we did until yesterday )
I am not overly bothered that the particular tenants have had problems, I see it as my chance to offer a hand up, and if they refuse to grip, it is their problem. Hey, if you are underemployed and your landlord says, "go by my workplace and apply for a warehouse position", do you think that just maybe he plans to make sure you get hired? The guy made excuses and took short term positions so that child support payments could not take away from his income. I got this from his roommates.
As far as welfare payments go, I do not think we should be giving away money. Beans, rice, milk, cheese, vegetables, and meats of the season. I was unemployed for much longer than I liked, I would have been overly happy with a gas card( a paid up bus pass if the area was really metro). A voucher to be paid to a landlord or mortgage company would have been sweet also. Maybe a print pass at the library would have been a good give away. I used a couple hundred dollars worth of paper and ink in the time I was not working( I was working on and off for 3 years). I guess some people need some cash so that their house of cards that make up their life does not collapse for things like school loan payments or proper clothes to apply for a job but, I am not sure that it is the job of the taxpayer.
Best way to not have scum tenants is to price the property out of their budget. A nicer place at a high cost will attract higher-income tenants, unless it's in a real bad neighborhood.
On the flip side, a lot of these people are used to having slumlords, who provide well below the legal minimum, and rent out run-down shacks, so they have always treated them as such.
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08:26 PM
lurker Member
Posts: 12355 From: salisbury nc usa Registered: Feb 2002
Originally posted by madcurl: Will it's about time! Smokers using the streets, driveways, parking lot, and sidewalks as their personal toilet.
quote
Originally posted by User00013170: Not all are like that.
i'm careful with my litter. i field-strip my butts, put the filters in the trash, if there are no trash cans or ashtrays i'll pocket the filter. when i lived in town, i used to go out to to the sidewalk in front of my house and pick up the trash. just because pigs pass nearby doesn't mean i have to live in a pigsty.
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10:32 PM
Jun 30th, 2012
spark1 Member
Posts: 11159 From: Benton County, OR Registered: Dec 2002
Originally posted by RWDPLZ: On the flip side, a lot of these people are used to having slumlords, who provide well below the legal minimum, and rent out run-down shacks, so they have always treated them as such.
Good point, I have been called, even by the guy I am kicking out, the best landlord they have ever had. I am very generous with the money above covering the costs. One of my renters had their pilot go out on their water heater, it was relit by the neighbor. On inspection, it went out again already but, was easy to relite. I seen that it was more than 10 years old and said that I would be replacing it. In the next 2 hours, I went to Orchard Supply, bought one, called the renter and have a date to replace on the 4th. Inspected within 12 hours of reported, Up and running in the next hour, Functional appliance that is failing to be replaced within 4 days of issue seen.
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06:07 PM
rogergarrison Member
Posts: 49601 From: A Western Caribbean Island/ Columbus, Ohio Registered: Apr 99
Something else Ive noticed in the news and in person. All the people complaining they have no jobs and no money to buy food are almost always wayyyyy overweight. If they cant buy enough food, why are they so big....duuhhhh. Starving people in other countries are skin on bones, not 350 pnds. Maybe no money to buy food would be a good time to diet. Then of course you have the ones who complain they dont have money for anything, but riding in a newer car on 22" chrome rims.
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06:59 PM
82-T/A [At Work] Member
Posts: 25214 From: Florida USA Registered: Aug 2002
My new renter has opened up about how desperate they are financially and within the same 5 minutes told me about how every night they drink 3 32oz beers and smoke a pack of cigarettes. I asked if he had a computer and it was destroyed one night in a drunken party where they lived before. I got a call from one of the neighbors telling me they had a broken window and there had been fighting going on for days. Apparently, the wifes mothers gets drunk and instigates fights between him and the wife. F'en mother does not even live there, just came to visit. If the window is not fixed at the first of the month, they get evicted! They have 2 toddlers and there is broken glass several places on the property. What dummies. I had the place tidy before they moved in.
The neighbors hate me. Or at least what I have done to the neighborhood.
Something else Ive noticed in the news and in person. All the people complaining they have no jobs and no money to buy food are almost always wayyyyy overweight. If they cant buy enough food, why are they so big....duuhhhh. Starving people in other countries are skin on bones, not 350 pnds. Maybe no money to buy food would be a good time to diet. Then of course you have the ones who complain they dont have money for anything, but riding in a newer car on 22" chrome rims.
The cheaper your food is, the worse it is for you. Usually.
Not saying they need to eat it all, just giving that perspective if you haven't already thought of that.
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08:25 PM
yellowstone Member
Posts: 9299 From: Düsseldorf/Germany Registered: Jun 2003
I think that is BS. If you want it, you can have pretty cheap and relatively healthy meals. It may require food shopping and cooking (=effort!) and smaller portions and more frequent meals, but it can be done. I'm quite sure of that...
I think that is BS. If you want it, you can have pretty cheap and relatively healthy meals. It may require food shopping and cooking (=effort!) and smaller portions and more frequent meals, but it can be done. I'm quite sure of that...
Yeah, maybe you're right. I eat really well, but it takes a lot of time, and I spend a lot of money doing so. I guess I'm just thinking of those McDonald's dollar menus that my friends eat from. You can get a double cheeseburger for a dollar! I try to bargain shop but I have never split up my grocery bills between meals so I have no idea how much I spend daily.
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10:49 PM
Jul 3rd, 2012
FriendGregory Member
Posts: 4833 From: Palo Alto, CA, USA Registered: Jan 2004
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: I would be SHOCKED if they were Democrats...
Well, the neighbors are not anymore! The girl getting section 9(housing assistance) was having all sorts of weekday parties including broken bottles in the the street. I told the neighbors that I could not get her out so easy because of the government rules. So, I show up during one party( after all, it was all party all the time), climbed the tree with ropes and a chainsaw, powered with a generator I brought in my truck and proceeded to remove a tree. The neighbor calls during another party, I pull up, put the gun that was in the car "conspicuously" in the trunk and then reamed her about her guests and broken glass in front of the guests. It suddenly was not the cool place to hang out. I did her a big favor, her little girls know what I did and treat me with respect.
The neighbors were in shock, big tattooed Mexican gang men and "interesting" women.
The world is full of finger pointing busybodies hell bent on dominating and bending others to their will, they don’t have a clue what freedom actually means, or if they do they are terrified by it. The hardcore religious types seam to be the worst but you can find it anywhere. I guess in some sick way it makes them feel important, when in fact they are insignificant and powerless in others lives.
quote
Originally posted by rogergarrison:
Something else Ive noticed in the news and in person. All the people complaining they have no jobs and no money to buy food are almost always wayyyyy overweight. If they cant buy enough food, why are they so big....duuhhhh. Starving people in other countries are skin on bones, not 350 pnds. Maybe no money to buy food would be a good time to diet. Then of course you have the ones who complain they dont have money for anything, but riding in a newer car on 22" chrome rims.
Go shopping on next to nothing for a few years, and see what happens. Need meat? The hamburger you can afford is mostly fat. nearly everything that is affordable as a poor person is much less healthy than the more expensive choice. Go look, do some math, what's cheaper, a light chicken salad, or a box of Mac n Cheese and Hamburger? Want a snack? Here's a few apples for 5 bucks, or a bag of off brand cheeto's for a dollar.
The most "affordable" items in stores are the worst for you. Bread, pasta, and items containing way too much sugars.
Then the powers that be decide to make it mandatory to mark the stuff that's healthy for you, and Shazam! it's suddenly more expensive because it's marked as healthy.
Now it's cheaper most times for people to eat fast food daily than to cook at home which is another problem. Heck, we could get a bag of cheeseburgers and eat them for a week and save money. I know we've done similar before when we had to.
I've actually tried to go on a diet with a limited budget, it was not financially viable. It was cheaper to eat the crap, and go on. At the time I didn't want to eat the crap, I dreaded eating the crap and was loving the diet. I ate the crap because I had to.
I'm thinking that perhaps you are a little out of touch with reality man. I'll trade ya cause this reality **** sucks.
The car part I agree with you on.
Brad
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04:46 AM
yellowstone Member
Posts: 9299 From: Düsseldorf/Germany Registered: Jun 2003
I read a comment from an African immigrant once where he was amazed at how wealthy America is - even the poor people are fat. Here, poor means you choose lower quality food but you don't go without. Most places in the world "poor" means "no food," not fast food.
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09:24 AM
PFF
System Bot
Khw Member
Posts: 11139 From: South Weber, UT. U.S.A. Registered: Jun 2008
I still disagree. Put in the extra effort for shopping&cooking, reduce portion sizes (saves money and calories), rearrange priorities.
You can disagree all you want that doesn't make it so. At times when we were broke, 3 boxes of generic macaronni with a can of tuna in it was dinner. So, that's a dollar for the 3 boxes of macaronni, 1 and a 1/2 sticks of margarine for a whopping 20 cents, 3/4 cup of milk that cost what maybe a nickle out of the gallon of milk and then a cheap can of tuna that was less then a dollar. So we feed our family of 6, a dinner that cost about $2.00 to make and fed everybody. Now, give me a healthy alternative I could have made for that same amount of money that fed 6 please?
There was once a thread on here that asked for suggestions on how to make inexpensive meals. I do not remember any suggestions of meals that would have been considered "healthy" in that thread. I'll try looking for the thread when I get off work tonight unless someone else knows it and links it before then.
[This message has been edited by Khw (edited 07-03-2012).]
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09:24 AM
2.5 Member
Posts: 43235 From: Southern MN Registered: May 2007
Ever wonder if you could use lawn weeds in a salad, or steam them?
Lived in a trailor park at the time, what's a lawn weed? We had a rock, concrete and asphalt yard /shrug. I know dandelion greens are etible, but we'd have to have a pretty big lawn to get enough of them to feed 6 people.
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09:45 AM
yellowstone Member
Posts: 9299 From: Düsseldorf/Germany Registered: Jun 2003
Originally posted by rogergarrison: Something else Ive noticed in the news and in person. All the people complaining they have no jobs and no money to buy food are almost always wayyyyy overweight. If they cant buy enough food, why are they so big....duuhhhh. Starving people in other countries are skin on bones, not 350 pnds. Maybe no money to buy food would be a good time to diet. Then of course you have the ones who complain they dont have money for anything, but riding in a newer car on 22" chrome rims.
hmpf....all the homeless I know are skin/bones....... and no car either.
I suppose they are buying Mercedes & Fur Coats with food stamps too, huh? ......
such BS.
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11:50 AM
2.5 Member
Posts: 43235 From: Southern MN Registered: May 2007
Lived in a trailor park at the time, what's a lawn weed? We had a rock, concrete and asphalt yard /shrug. I know dandelion greens are etible, but we'd have to have a pretty big lawn to get enough of them to feed 6 people.
Yeah I think living in Utah limits your choices. I think I have about 6 different kinds of "not grass" that are trying to grow in my lawn right now. I suppose any of them. They'll even grow in a drought . Dandilion greens is a good example. Looking at these pics, its like a garden of salad Just need real good dressing. http://www.lawn-care-minnes...-identification.html
Like adding hot sauce to a bad dish, a good dressing would probably make anything taste alright, barring its not poisonous,
[This message has been edited by 2.5 (edited 07-03-2012).]
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11:55 AM
2.5 Member
Posts: 43235 From: Southern MN Registered: May 2007
"Roadkill is edible and people have been living off it since horse coaches and cars have been killing wildlife in the hundreds of thousands. If you're squeamish about the idea of consuming roadkill, then it's not going to be for you but for a growing number of freegans, foragers, back-to-nature lifestylers, and for those with budgetary constraints, eating roadkill can be a great source of nourishment"
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12:02 PM
87antuzzi Member
Posts: 11151 From: Surrounded by corn. Registered: Feb 2009
I eat healthy for around 60 bucks a week. This last week I have had nothing but chineese takeout so sometimes I will stray but 9 times out of 10 its all decent food for little money. Hell, some blackened mahi mahi with some brown rice and some sort of veggie will set you back less than 10 bucks. For less than a hours pay you can make a healthy meal with leftovers. Tuna fish sammich, cheap as hell and if you dont load it up with processed garbage you're good to go. A bag of lettuce can be had for next to nothing, once again, dont load it with processed garbage and guess what, a cheap dinner. There is PLENTY to eat thats not bad for you on the cheap. Today I broke my bender on chineese food and cooked at home again, I made a chicken breast, with brown rice and a white wine sauce, less than 4 bucks.
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12:21 PM
MidEngineManiac Member
Posts: 29566 From: Some unacceptable view Registered: Feb 2007
Why is it that every-single-time an individual hits an unexpected financial crunch, the very 1st thing the self-rightous do is point at tobacco and alcohol and scream "If you didnt smoke/drink you would have had the money" ...Ya never hear them crying about or pointing at R/C hobbies, shooting hobbies, electronic hobbies or any of the other myriad of things money gets spent on.......but they sure love pointing at the smokes and beer...
and neither should anyone else.
Just need real good dressing.
