On 9/12/2010 2:32 AM, rigsy03 wrote:
Which makes the lavish style of the White House insulting.
Ordinary people are picking up a lot of the tab through increased
taxes, higher premiums and rising prices of goods. Plus my city has
the homeowner assessed for road and sidewalk repair. Charitable
programs are hidden within- such as school and weekend meals.
Craig's list is a haunt of criminals. It's safer to donate directly-
the Red Cross and Salvation Army are reliable.
We've noticed the seasonal overstock drying up and average pricing for
construction goods going up rapidly for years now. My fiancee's family
lost 60% of their retirement investments over three years (morgan
stanley and a few others), I think the largest dip was around 2006. My
father in law keeps saying the markets are shuffling things around to
hide inflation, but when you actually get into buying the numbers become
clear. I imagine many nonprofits are hurting badly, as fewer of the
larger donors don't want to lock in their loss.
There's also freecycle, we've had good experience with them. I'll stay
away from Red Cross since they use funds for political purposes, and
Salvation Army thinks their crap is priceless at the local depot.
I think Craig's list would be attractive to unethical buying/selling,
but it is acceptable to exchange at a neutral location rather than have
someone at your house. Which I understand, where I grew up crack heads
would sell appliances (mostly stereo equip.) door to door and scout your
house in the process. We also go to a lot of yard/garage sales, which
has saved a HUGE amount of money on kids clothes and toys (rapid
expiration). When we're done with things we can afford to just give it
away or resell super cheap. Yard sales only seem worth it in middle to
middle-upper class neighborhoods, same thing with shopping stores. It is
amazing to see the differences in buying power change by neighborhood,
the poorer areas have smaller portions and higher prices for lower
quality product. Regarding taxes, my fiancee's family has a nice piece
of land at a good location, it holds a lot of potential to keep the
family together and equipment to do just about anything but the reality
is the taxes might be more than my yearly income. Estate planning is a
f'ing nightmare! They keep raising taxes whenever possible, getting them
lowered is like pulling teeth and the market probably won't reach the
taxed rates for another 10-30 years if ever.
