The upcomming class war... So should I go riot or hide behind high walls? (legal, cost)
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Per CD, the average income of my ZIP is just over 80K, my personal income is between 50-60K. I own a house (with a mortgage), drive a new car and have a big TV, as well as a big belly from never having to go hungry. I have a BA degree, no debt other that my house and new car.
On the flip side, I only have 1 bathroom, wear walmart and secondhand store clothes, sit on used furniture, have an unglamorous dead-end job and am fairly ugly.
Since the country is polarizing into 2 camps (the angry peasants massing in the town squares with pitchforks and torches and the lace 'n powdered wig nobility nervously rubbing their necks as they watch from their palace towers) I figured I'd better pick a side. Where do I belong?
The anarchists are being bussed in by unions and are saying what you earned doesn't belong to you and that the money should go to a communist totalitarian government in the name of economic justice (code statement for communism).
If you are a mindless deadbeat you join them. If you earn money and own stuff you defend against their stupidity.
Per CD, the average income of my ZIP is just over 80K, my personal income is between 50-60K. I own a house (with a mortgage), drive a new car and have a big TV, as well as a big belly from never having to go hungry. I have a BA degree, no debt other that my house and new car.
On the flip side, I only have 1 bathroom, wear walmart and secondhand store clothes, sit on used furniture, have an unglamorous dead-end job and am fairly ugly.
Since the country is polarizing into 2 camps (the angry peasants massing in the town squares with pitchforks and torches and the lace 'n powdered wig nobility nervously rubbing their necks as they watch from their palace towers) I figured I'd better pick a side. Where do I belong?
I make about $55,000 a year too. Live in a big rented 1-bedroom apartment filled with a mix of second hand furniture and IKEA stuff, in a half-gentrified, half-African-American neighborhood in NE Portland. Done great with investing in stocks in the last few years, have absolutely no debt whatsoever, got plenty of savings and drive a 1999 Audi. I look disheveled from 12 hour+ workdays by the time I get home and I spend most of the other time with my under-employed girlfried or on my Xbox, sitting on a beaten up couch. I drink good Oregon pinot noirs and 100 percent agave tequila but I stick to the $20-$30 bottles.
If there is a revolution, depending on who wins I could either be the sympathetic petite bourgeoisie to the poor masses or a helpful lackey/doormat to the uber-rich nobility.
The anarchists are being bussed in by unions and are saying what you earned doesn't belong to you and that the money should go to a communist totalitarian government in the name of economic justice (code statement for communism).
If you are a mindless deadbeat you join them. If you earn money and own stuff you defend against their stupidity.
Depends on how you define 'earned'.
What if you earn a pittance and at the end of the day have nothing to show for it because a vulture investor took half your money in the form of rent?
If there is a revolution, depending on who wins I could either be the sympathetic petite bourgeoisie to the poor masses or a helpful lackey/doormat to the uber-rich nobility.
hmmm... playing both sides... risky, but there's some potential there.
I was kinda thinking of starting a third-party too:
I'm thinking the name would be something along the lines of the "Leave me alone a-holes, I'm not stupid or spoiled and can take care of myself" faction.
Sadly, there are only a few people left who would meet the qualifications, in a country that was once almost entirely made up of them..
I understand the fear of a class war, but why the necessity of picking a side? How about being on the right side? How about doing the right thing? How about taking care of yourself and telling others they can do the same?
I personally don't think there will be a class war. It's more like 310 million from all walks of life pitted against a few thousand who've literally walked through life. Trouble is, those few thousand have anticipated, perhaps even encouraged a future battle and they have assured themselves they have all the power before the first match is struck. Any violence by the opposing 310 million will be futile.
What the few thousand can't control is our ability to create. We can literally create something else entirely different, a reality that completely disempowers them and any attempt by them to gain control. They expect a fight. Why give them one? They'd crap their pants for having wasted all that expense on a sure-fire response from us only to discover we didn't oblige. We walked away, we did something they couldn't have predicted. And now control--as well as all its responsibilities--will be ours. Will we recreate the past because we pine for the familiarity of a system we know will be doomed to failure way down the road OR will we learn to combine our resources in a creative spark of ingenuity that makes Earth blossom, its human souls shining brightly after escaping their prisons and learning a valuable lesson about the universe? It's that important.
What if you earn a pittance and at the end of the day have nothing to show for it because a vulture investor took half your money in the form of rent?
If you earn a pittance it would because you have very little marketable value due to a lack of marketable skills.
If the vulture investor (which I think we would call the landlord) charges more than you can afford, then you are living over your ability to earn and you need to find a much lower class establishment to dwell in or find another person or family to move in with to share expenses.
Maybe you should stop giving your neighbor your car and paying for his cable TV so you can have the money for you and your own family.
I make about $55,000 a year too. Live in a big rented 1-bedroom apartment filled with a mix of second hand furniture and IKEA stuff, in a half-gentrified, half-African-American neighborhood in NE Portland. Done great with investing in stocks in the last few years, have absolutely no debt whatsoever, got plenty of savings and drive a 1999 Audi. I look disheveled from 12 hour+ workdays by the time I get home and I spend most of the other time with my underempolyed girlfried or on my Xbox, sitting on a beaten up couch. I drink good Oregon pinot noirs and 100 percent agave tequila but I stick to the $20-$30 bottles.
If there is a revolution, depending on who wins I could either be the sympathetic petite bourgeoisie to the poor masses or a helpful lackey/doormat to the uber-rich nobility.
When you get displaced, try far outer SE, it will never be gentrified. Either that or St Johns.
If you earn a pittance it would because you have very little marketable value due to a lack of marketable skills.
If the vulture investor (which I think we would call the landlord) charges more than you can afford, then you are living over your ability to earn and you need to find a much lower class establishment to dwell in or find another person or family to move in with to share expenses.
Maybe you should stop giving your neighbor your car and paying for his cable TV so you can have the money for you and your own family.
Problem is, government imposes middle class housing standards on everyone, whether or not we can afford them. I rent a room in a house and there are already four others here.
Not sure what you mean at the end, I don't have a car to give anyone and I don't recall ever paying for my neighbor's cable TV.
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I feel like the poor chump in the town square----
hmmm... playing both sides... risky, but there's some potential there. 
