When I moved to Saint Paul in the summer of 2013, I had about 6 months until the tabs on my vehicle expired. Due to the move and address changes, the tabs renewal notice ended up being delivered to the old address, and eventually somehow the tabs were sent there, too. At any rate, time to spare, so I wasn't too worried.
Fast forward a few months. Lo an behold, about 2 hours after my tabs expired, around about 2am, the friendly neighborhood peace officer just happened to be driving by and noticed crime in progress. I wasn't too bothered because hey, I hadn't put the tabs I had purchased onto my truck, and this person was just trying to avoid neighborhood anarchy. Fair enough. I stuck the tabs in place, which were in the house by this time. I forget for a few months, but also eventually pay the fine.
Of course, it hasn't been above 40 below in about 4 months, so the adhesive didn't work all that well. Turns out the FRONT tab fell off this winter (rear tab is still in place). This afternoon another neighborhood peace officer was tackling some serious crime waves in the area and ticketed me again for missing tabs. Because, you know, you couldn't be bothered to check the back of the truck to determine that I was actually paid up, and probably the cold caused the front adhesive to fail. Or maybe someone stole my sticker. Neither of those really happen around here, I'm sure and besides: BANKROLL!
Long story short: $232 in expired tab fees for a $52 tab which I'd already bought before the first ticket.
Now go look at the roads these tab fees are supposed to be maintaining. After the melt the roads are actually worse than the ice ravines were. Welcome to economic decline.
And welcome to the city.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Friday, March 7, 2014
Your Importance is Debatable
A recent post by Ol' Remus got me to thinking about the current state of affairs again today.
And another quote from Brandon Smith at alt-market.com:
Because what we're talking about here is living In Lieu of Nirvana, after all.
The political reality and the media reality are ALTERNATE reality. Those responsible for proclaiming what is, the mouth pieces of the reality they want to talk into existence, those people shake their heads and spout condemnations. They wave their hands, put on TV-ready faces of concern, and let the faceless mass of bureaucrats write legislation. They listen to a recited cliff's notes version of what's going to happen, do something with no true understanding of any of it, and kiss as many babies as they can while primping for the next election cycle.
Meanwhile, life goes on in some true reality made more difficult, if you let it, by the floundering going on next door. Rest assured, everything will change again shortly. It is enlightening to watch congress put on their indignation-faces at the last minute because they weren't aware of ramifications of what they did last week, month, or year. Wait, you WROTE that, right? You didn't just read that or talk about that. You WROTE that down. You wrote, read, debated and passed that, side effects and all, so you shouldn't be finding out about whatever this is later. Of course you probably didn't do any of this, actually, but that's what we are paying you to do and it's a simple enough expectation.
"if you let it" goes along nicely with Brandon Smith's recommendation to "build you own localized systems and walk away." I may well have written this before but it's worth repeating here: The system is built on the expectation of continual consumption. Wealth is measured and taxed on the assumption that you need to earn A LOT to continually re buy things which should have lasted long enough that you could give them to your children for them to further reap the benefits of a solid investment. Wealth is measured and taxed on the assumption that you need to earn EVEN MORE than A LOT in order to save enough to re buy all the things which should have lasted long enough that you could give them to your children for them to further reap the benefits of a solid investment, after you retire. Despite retirement having gone extinct.
Invest in quality goods for the future and take all that replacement income off the radar from here forward. Better, learn to make those quality goods for the future and all that "wealth" you would have needed to buy those quality products is reduced to the cost of quality base materials and you aren't paying taxes on the labor you are investing in your own goods. Best, change your expectations and reduce the total goods needed.
All this time he's been thinking their important stuff was more important than his important stuff. Then he got to thinking that their reality is highly dependent on time. He noticed that their amazing, world-shaking events are trite and forgotten if they happened a few weeks ago. On the other hand, the same trivial things happening tomorrow will be shocking and momentous and fraught with game-changing consequences. Their important stuff doesn't seem to have any shelf-life.
And another quote from Brandon Smith at alt-market.com:
Stop waiting for the system to change, or collapse. Change the way YOU live and survive. Build your own localized systems and walk away.
Because what we're talking about here is living In Lieu of Nirvana, after all.
The political reality and the media reality are ALTERNATE reality. Those responsible for proclaiming what is, the mouth pieces of the reality they want to talk into existence, those people shake their heads and spout condemnations. They wave their hands, put on TV-ready faces of concern, and let the faceless mass of bureaucrats write legislation. They listen to a recited cliff's notes version of what's going to happen, do something with no true understanding of any of it, and kiss as many babies as they can while primping for the next election cycle.
Meanwhile, life goes on in some true reality made more difficult, if you let it, by the floundering going on next door. Rest assured, everything will change again shortly. It is enlightening to watch congress put on their indignation-faces at the last minute because they weren't aware of ramifications of what they did last week, month, or year. Wait, you WROTE that, right? You didn't just read that or talk about that. You WROTE that down. You wrote, read, debated and passed that, side effects and all, so you shouldn't be finding out about whatever this is later. Of course you probably didn't do any of this, actually, but that's what we are paying you to do and it's a simple enough expectation.
"if you let it" goes along nicely with Brandon Smith's recommendation to "build you own localized systems and walk away." I may well have written this before but it's worth repeating here: The system is built on the expectation of continual consumption. Wealth is measured and taxed on the assumption that you need to earn A LOT to continually re buy things which should have lasted long enough that you could give them to your children for them to further reap the benefits of a solid investment. Wealth is measured and taxed on the assumption that you need to earn EVEN MORE than A LOT in order to save enough to re buy all the things which should have lasted long enough that you could give them to your children for them to further reap the benefits of a solid investment, after you retire. Despite retirement having gone extinct.
Invest in quality goods for the future and take all that replacement income off the radar from here forward. Better, learn to make those quality goods for the future and all that "wealth" you would have needed to buy those quality products is reduced to the cost of quality base materials and you aren't paying taxes on the labor you are investing in your own goods. Best, change your expectations and reduce the total goods needed.
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