Thanks SS..now that im back online maybe we can finally catch up on yahoo.....I'll be on later.

Heheh, with my working hours (anywhere between 12 and 18 hours a day) and the fact that I'm now in China so there's probably some 12-13-... hour time difference it wouldn't be easy By the way, if you're as adept at Civ IV as at Gal Civ 2 I couldn't put up much of a challenge I'm afraid...

Ouch, that's really rough indeed, sorry to hear that! I really hope those interview will work out well! It would be great if you could buy a house, after all renting a place is money down the drain - I know since I'm still renting :p

You seem to have a philosophical approach to life's ups and downs, that always helps to get through life a bit easier

From response 2644.

Looking at the screen shot I just thought it was pretty funny that in that game Christianity was founded... 355 BC. I never played Civ4 so maybe that happens every game but I still think its funny. 

... And welcome back those that have been away. I was starting to think this forum was being abandoned.

Welcome back Neilo!

And thanks Noctilucus.

@ CaptainYar:  The various religions get founded when one civ researches the requisite technology.  For Christianity it's Theology, Islam - Divine Right, Judaism - Monotheism, Hinduism - Polytheism, Taosim - Philosophy, Buddhism- Meditation, Confucianism - Code of Laws.  So it can be somewhat variable when a religion is founded.  That's one aspect of the game I like in that "history" can turn out differently each time.

Sentient species taste better...

I've made jokes on how screwed-up the town I live in is and how low the avg IQ must be.  This MSNBC article from my town only goes to prove it...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28654819/

Just as a caviat, there is FAR more information on this in the local paper...detailing that they were already in the process of moving when this happened.

Thank you for the invite.  The Kzinti are noble warriors indeed.  However, I feel that at the sad age of 37, I am too much in my dotage to be one of the t'kzintar at this time, and have opted to donate my points to the Gerontocracy. 

I look forward to combating the fanged menace that has taken root in our galaxy. 

hmm if that was the bank's fault, i think they should get to keep the money. if they didn't put a decimal in there, however, then yeah.

one time an employee of mine got a check cut with a decimal a place off, for about $16,000 instead of $1,600. he was honest about it though and we cut him a correct check immediately. personally i can't say i'd have ethics like that. i might just cash the check and head down mexico way.

Find a country that fights extradition...like in last week's Monk episode in which the guy who escaped jail (was in for grand theft auto) and got accused of killing a woman outside of the jail.  He needed Monk to clear him of the murder rap, so he could flee to Peru (I think) since the only extradition that they do is on murder cases.

Yeah, it seems the teller didn't hit the decimal key very well.  I think the main part of this is that they (should) know that something was amiss and yet they took it and ran.

Things I got a kick out of in the article here at home was that he only reported $3,800 of income last year and she only made $13.80/hr as a county caseworker.  How they survived on that (reported) income, I'd like to know.  Sure, the bills aren't bad in this town, but I couldn't imagine them floating thru on that income itself.  His "large checks" he got couldn't have been that good...

As for the 100k bail they are in jail for...that's about what the girl that lowered a newborn baby out the window in 20 degree F weather got.  100k bail aint going to happen around here unless you milk bank errors or rob banks (we had a repeat bank robber here...yeah, real winner there).

LMAO referencing Monk.

The mistake should have been found that day. Why this couple had time to do what they did is beyond me. I guess they hoped the bank would never know what happened.

If they only repoted $3800 in income from him but she says they get lottsa big checks, big enough that they didn't even notice $175,000-ish... well i think the IRS might want in on this too.

btw... where is bloomburg PA? I'm in they Lehigh Valley. Should I call you Pisan?

they only reported $3,800? that's barely enough for 2 months 'round these parts.

Presumably we can assume that there was other money that was not reported, but Loup also specifies that the woman made "only" $13.80/hr.  Although hours aren't stated, please understand that from my personal perspective, $13.80/hr is not an "only" by any means.  Even if we assume a mere 20 hours per week average (which should be rather low), this results in a gross yearly income of approximately $14k, which should translate into something in the vicinity of $12k of actual spendable money, although obviously the majority of it would need to be spent on, well, needs, rather than these things that people want that they think are needs.

In any case, the bare minimum necessary would be around $6k (here at least)-but that would be cutting it very, very close.  For two people, $7k is a more likely number, with the above caveat applied.

So $12k (on the low end) and $3800 would be acceptable-or at least more so than $3800 alone-but, again, people decide they need things that they merely want, and then of course there's the issue of living in more expensive parts of the country (as you apparently do, dystopic).

This post may confuse some of you, as I've ranted time and again about how people in the above income brackets (and more importantly the lower ones) don't technically make enough money, regardless of how many hours they work, but the other issue at hand, which annoys me almost as much, is that the vast majority of people don't know how to spend money intelligently.

heh. you and mumble are cut from the same cloth

personally speaking, i know how to spend money intelligently, but i chose not to. at least, not all the time. the amount i can save by pinching pennies doesn't add up to much over the short time frames i'm dealing with, and the sense of enjoyment i can get from spending a little frivolously really helps my day-to-day life be much more tolerable. but i guess my only real point is that it's a subjective issue.

in san diego, my income put me on the upper side of working class. i was able to spend more freely, though, because i don't own a car. now, if i could move to somewhere in the country with a drastically lower cost of living, but still make as much as i was, i'd have a very comfortable life indeed.

I'll take that as a compliment. 

I wasn't calling out names specifically, dys-just saying that in general that's what I observe.

Almost due NW from ya, right on I-80.

As for the "only" comment on her income.  It's a decent income around here if you're working 40hrs, but not enough to pull dead weight around that only pulled in 3,800 last year.  Being a caseworker though...I don't know if thats a 40hr job.  I think I said "only" to try and put some income perspective to her vs the $175k that she didn't think was a big deal about.   Their house isn't worth that...gotta love county records being online eh?

And nay, I'm no Pisan...try Pennsy Dutch/Irish from the Pottsville area (Minersville to be specific).

as it was meant to be

i didn't mean to sound defensive, i was just continuing the topic. i don't consider myself exactly spend-thrift, except when i need to be, and i've certainly seen some people who throw money away so quickly you'd think they're under the impression it causes second degree chemical burns.

Those would be the ones I'm talking about.

-

@Loup

Eh, didn't mean it that way, but your points are valid.

For one, I have to wonder, what with recent events, if there are any houses left that are still worth $175k.  [/sarcasm]  But, yes, it is unusual (*cough*) that she wouldn't notice that admittedly rather large check.  Additionally, I would agree that regardless of whether or not it is a 40 hour a week job that it is a bit low to be supporting dead weight on.

It's said that parts of PA are years behind the rest of the world and that we wouldn't know it for some time that apocolypse happened.  Our housing prices have yet to faulter here.  In fact, I bought my house in '05 and it's gone up in value by 20% since then.  The problem of housing prices really seems to stand where people were handed those "crap" loans.  I don't know how many around here got them, or if the brokers around here had a morale chip on their shoulders and called shennanegans on their futures...either way, I haven't seen an increase in sheriff sales in the local rag.

Central Illinois is much the same. Housing prices simply didn't crash.

Maybe it's a similar case as in Belgium: the press is shouting that housing prices are dropping like bricks yet if you're looking to buy or rent a place prices are at an all-time high. In fact the renting price index increased by more than 8% versus last year.

I don't want to criticize anyone, but having spent 3.5 months in the US I can agree that on average you guys seem to have an even bigger problem than say the average Western European country when it comes to spending money: everything bought on loans, plenty of people living above their standards (cars, plasma tv's and other hardware, eating out, travel, holidays, ...). And so much advertising still on TV trying to convince people who are buried in loans that they can't pay off in the first place, to keep spending :p

I think home sale prices around here have dropped off a lot. But thta is mosyly due to an oversaturation of new home over that last 15 years or so. What were corn fields are now 100 unit single family home developments. Being near the PA / NJ border, there was a real draw for people from NJ to come to the Lehigh Valley. HOme prices went up but were still a lot less that the same houses would be in NJ and the commute to the higher paying jobs as far away as NYC is worth it to many people.

However at some point the prices will rise, making them less attractive to people from other states, especially when gas was about $4 a gallon. Not much new development now but still not many for sale signs either or forclosures. The developers have the egde when they sell new construction for 100k less than a simialr older home; at least for the first several units sold, then the prices go up some.

I believe the next area that is going to get hit with development is around the Pocanos. Loups area is going to be a hot bed. Just my guess of course. I know a few other engineering companies that are opening small offices up there to try to get some "local" work.

Social conditioning at it's worst.  The people that are generally in trouble are the ones who were raised on the mentality "get what you want, when you want it".

It's also those very credit cards that inflate prices.  Every purchase made with one costs the retailer money.  They either have to eat that cost to keep their products lower than ther competitors, or raise their price to cover the fee.

The one gas station by my work was able to keep prices 5% lower than any other gas station around since they only accepted cash and thus passed that savings (or part of it) to their customers.

Any "mom and pop" store I shop at, I remember to either bring cash or pay with a check to help them out as much as possible.  Walmart or other chains...F-off, you're seeing my credit card (which gets paid off every month, but gives me 1%-5% cash back).

I do agree though, too many of us focus on "wants" instead of "needs" since we seem to have moved things into the "need" catagory.  There is a big stink right now about TV over-air brodcasts going digital next month and people are up in arms about it.  Last I checked, TV wasn't a "need"...

Eh, that's still about 1.5-2hrs away to the east of me.  My area really took a hit when the textile industry dropped due to foreign imports.  The GM hit is currently causing a local car-carpet plant to lay people off.  We HAD a nice fountry here too that made tanks for the government...but that's long past it's prime and no longer has contracts w/ the government.

So what's left?  Um...trees, over abundance of deer...bear...'mountains'...corn...  My company itself doesn't fit the mold of this area.  At least in it's current form.  We use to do dairy-food work, but now we only do bio-pharmacuetical work.  Farmers really don't got much money to keep you going...

well when you consider that the per capita GDP in the US, when adjusted for inflation and the nominal cost of living, has decreased consistently since the 1960s, then yeah, you're absolutely right. moreover homelessness isn't officially tracked in the US, despite the fact that its risen substantially since the 60s. so the totally destitute aren't accounted for in US economic figures.

Loup, if i might suggest a book, i think you'd find No Logo by Naomi Klein quite interesting.

I may look into once I finish The Devil We Know by Robert Baer, since I don't have anything qued up yet.

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