Johnny Coli Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 Do you think you would have been content if you only spent 50k on records? No, as I'm still buying them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 Over the course of my life I've spent about $60k on books. That would be a serious chunk of change if invested in an IRA over the same time period. Do I regret it? No...I like reading. But I'm aware of the tradeoffs I make, as well. And now that I'm in a financial bind myself (wife maxxed out her credit cards, didn't tell me until four months ago)...I buy a lot fewer books now. One prioritizes what one has to. A library card is free. [Page 125 The Millionaire Next Door] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 A library card is free. [Page 125 The Millionaire Next Door] Ever seen the military history or physics sections of a public library? Pathetic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Coli Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 Yes, that's what I'm thinking. It is a politically incorrect fact of science that when you have a large set of samples, divide them into two sets, and make a measurement, there will be a correlation. It may be statistically insignificant, it may be significant but random, or it may be significant and meaningfull. But one set will always score higher than the other. So as far as savings go, the first step is to ask what the actual correlation is before asserting that there is none, or explaining it away in terms of external factors. Why are you so sure there is no correlation? Let's tweak the question a bit. Instead of savings rate, are you so sure that there is no correlation between latitude and party? I'm pretty sure that there is. How about income and party? Or support for increasing welfare and party? Why are these plausible while a meaningfull correlation between savings and party is not? Having money and the ability to save does not exclude one from also having the idea that the have-nots should have a safety net. There are plenty of poor Republicans with their hands out, and there are plenty of Dems who save money. Furthermore, neither party is made up of absolutes. There are fiscally conservative Dems, there are anti-Iraq war Republicans. So, no, you are wrong, saving money for retirement is not exclusive to the GOP. Neither is income and party. So your thinking that we're all just lazy commies waiting for the government to give us money is ridiculous, and I'm sure pretty insulting to a large number of people on this message board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 I doubt many would consider a music collection worthless. That's clearly where you and others, and I disagree. Whether I plan on selling any of my record collection or any of my musical gear isn't relevent to the value I put them at. To me they're priceless and have a historical value that no monetary figure could ever come close to. Records and gear spread out over 25+ years, probably approaching 100k. Hard to say, and like I said above, not really relevent as the value of that "investment" has paid for itself a million times over. FYI cap gains on collectibles is currently at 28%.........ouch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 Furthermore, neither party is made up of absolutes. You're on the wrong board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finknottle Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 Having money and the ability to save does not exclude one from also having the idea that the have-nots should have a safety net. There are plenty of poor Republicans with their hands out, and there are plenty of Dems who save money. Furthermore, neither party is made up of absolutes. There are fiscally conservative Dems, there are anti-Iraq war Republicans. So, no, you are wrong, saving money for retirement is not exclusive to the GOP. Neither is income and party. So your thinking that we're all just lazy commies waiting for the government to give us money is ridiculous, and I'm sure pretty insulting to a large number of people on this message board. No, you are wrong - I never claimed it was exclusive. I suggested there might be a good correlation, and I stand by that. There might. It is you whose ideology forces you to deny any correlation at all, rejecting the simple scientific fact that one of the two groups will have a higher savings rate than the other. To me the question is whether the correlation is strong enough to be meaningfull - you can't even get to that question, you are compelled to reject the notion that there can be any differences between groups of people in anything other than injustice suffered. Perhaps you are uncomfortable with notions of statistics and correlation? As a Democrat, it may shock you to learn that although men make more money than women on average - ie a correlation between sex and income - there are high-earning women and low-earning men! Wow, rocks your world, doesn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erynthered Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 FYI cap gains on collectibles is currently at 28%.........ouch! If he sold it, do you really think ole Johnny boy would pay all that money to the goven'mint. I'd suspect he'd try to keep as much of that money as possible. Dont you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 This entire "out of touch" discussion is stupidity at its highest level. So anyone who makes a decent living is out of touch with the common man and therefore unfit to lead? We really don't want a President who is more successful than the average Joe? Whatever. Remember when people who were successful were respected for it instead of despised for it out of jealousy? Just another example of the dumbing down of our nation. No. It is about being out of touch. I would be the first one to say that I am out of touch, well not as equally as Gov. Ponytail. Still, I got a nice secure cushy gov't job... And yes... Gov. Ponytail is way better off then 99.9% of the others... She is in the golden tier of the gov't execs... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon in Pasadena Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 Ever seen the military history or physics sections of a public library? Pathetic.Is there a local university library to which you could wangle access? I get to use the Caltech library for free! (I suppose technically it's not "free", since I paid some nominal amount years ago to join the Alumni Association. But I consider that to have been amortized to a few bucks a year at this point) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 Actually... You should see the stuff that the BECPL has in their stacks... Some of the military... And history stuff is almost imposible to find records on. I used to do grant work where we would go through the history collections and then serach to find a record in OCLC... Then put the record into the library system. What you see out on the self at the Buffalo and Erie County main branch is only a very minor % of what they have in between floors buried in the stacks. The old military pamplets (especially construction) and what not were almost impossible to locate in OCLC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDBillzFan Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 No. It is about being out of touch. I would be the first one to say that I am out of touch, well not as equally as Gov. Ponytail. Still, I got a nice secure cushy gov't job... And yes... Gov. Ponytail is way better off then 99.9% of the others... She is in the golden tier of the gov't execs... Gov. Ponytail. :lol: That's awesome. I'm really going to miss all this when Obama puts the smackdown on McCain and gets elected president. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bills_fan Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 Gov. Ponytail. :lol: That's awesome. I'm really going to miss all this when Obama puts the smackdown on McCain and gets elected president. I don't think Obama has to do a damn thing. McCain was gifted an opportunity with the economy and he fumbled. Game, set, match. Now, imagine what the election would be like if McCain had chose Mike Bloomberg as his VP. McCain could roll out Bloomberg on any economic issue, sit back and watch Bloomberg tear all of them a new ****. Missed opportunities.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDBillzFan Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 McCain was gifted an opportunity with the economy and he fumbled. I'm not sure I follow what you mean by this. Can you please elaborate? What was the opportunity? How did he fumble? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 No. Totally untrue. I don't mind someone having more. I just want to see the person below me have the same or MORE. So what are we supposed to do, give them money, food, housing, clothes? I'm confused here. You want them to have more. Why, what's wrong with them. Why can't the do it themselves? Are they stupid, lazy, just like it where they are? Do you have any idea how ridiculous it sounds when you say you want them to have more. Or worse yet them having the same as me? The same as me? What on earth does that mean? I give them some of mine so they have the same as mine. Well then I no longer have as much as I did. Is that fair? Why can't they do what I did to get where I am? Once again, are you calling them lazy...stupid? God that thinking fries my balls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 So what are we supposed to do, give them money, food, housing, clothes? I'm confused here. You want them to have more. Why, what's wrong with them. Why can't the do it themselves? Are they stupid, lazy, just like it where they are? Do you have any idea how ridiculous it sounds when you say you want them to have more. Or worse yet them having the same as me? The same as me? What on earth does that mean? I give them some of mine so they have the same as mine. Well then I no longer have as much as I did. Is that fair? Why can't they do what I did to get where I am? Once again, are you calling them lazy...stupid? God that thinking fries my balls. I know you can't fathom this... Maybe somebody is actually keeping them down. I know you think you had everything against you and still made it. Maybe not. Maybe you really don't understand what others have to go through. I know I don't underdstand when I try to judge other's lives through mine. In the end, it is not about how hard I had it... It is all about how easy I can make it for someone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erynthered Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 I know you can't fathom this... Maybe somebody is actually keeping them down. I know you think you had everything against you and still made it. Maybe not. Maybe you really don't understand what others have to go through. I know I don't underdstand when I try to judge other's lives through mine. In the end, it is not about how hard I had it... It is all about how easy I can make it for someone else. So why dont you just did into that 401 you were talking about, hand out some of those dead presidents and make someones life easier. Do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 I know you can't fathom this... Maybe somebody is actually keeping them down. I know you think you had everything against you and still made it. Maybe not. Maybe you really don't understand what others have to go through. I know I don't underdstand when I try to judge other's lives through mine. In the end, it is not about how hard I had it... It is all about how easy I can make it for someone else. What? You're going with the man is keeping them down? That's great. Who is the person keeping them down? Ok so what do you want me to give them? Money, clothes, food, housing? We've been doing our share for more than 50 years and I can see it's worked wonders. So you'd be happing if I made $200k and someone else made $30k and I gave them $85k of my money so we'd both have $115K. Now we're even. Confess that would make you happy wouldn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDBillzFan Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 I know you can't fathom this... Maybe somebody is actually keeping them down. I know you think you had everything against you and still made it. Maybe not. Maybe you really don't understand what others have to go through. I know I don't underdstand when I try to judge other's lives through mine. In the end, it is not about how hard I had it... It is all about how easy I can make it for someone else. The problem is that you believe the government should make it mandatory for everyone to do their part for the people who need help by taking what we earned and handing over to them. When you simply give to people without demanding accountability on their part, you enable laziness and apathy, and you ultimately go backwards. But like Eryn said, go ahead and hand out your 401K if it makes you feel better, but stop thinking the goverment should make it mandatory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 I know you can't fathom this... Maybe somebody is actually keeping them down. I confess...it's me. I'm The Man, keeping people down. In the end, it is not about how hard I had it... It is all about how easy I can make it for someone else with other people's money. Fixed it for you. Give a man to fish, and you can feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you can tax his gear, make him pay through the nose for a license, and then give his fish to someone else, because why should he have fish when others are too unfortunate to have fish? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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