I’ve started to read a book I got last week, Why Nothing Works ( Why Nothing Works: The Anthropology of Daily Life (Original Title America Now the Anthropology of a Changing Culture)
). I read it decades ago and liked it, and since I bought it used cheap it was worthy of a reread and it is filling in the time as I eagerly await The Gods Of Money ( Gods of Money: Wall Street and the Death of the American Century
).WNW was groundbreaking at the time, explaining, you guessed it, why nothing works. One reason was that companies made more money acquiring companies than taking care to guard their new brand names reputations. Of course this is old hat and nothing new now, but it was a hard lesson to learn at the start of the breakdown of the Manufacturing Age ( already at least ten years old as of the writing, but new to the general public ). It was also amusing to read those passages last night, right after coming back from a weekend of fast food grazing. My stepmother is so anal about the cleanliness of her house that I prefer to go out and eat rather than bringing some groceries. And since eating out is rarely more than ten percent of our food budget, I decide to splurge when traveling. All but one meal we ate out was disappointing. Now, I’m comparing apples to apples here. Fast food is not real food, but just an injection of grease with food as a condiment. It is great for quickly filling up relatively cheap. And that is about all. It seems odd how a guy can get rich reporting this obvious fact, but fast food is like other obvious facts no one pays attention to since it all seems a part of normal life. Anyway, even if it isn’t real food, there are grades of acceptability in fast food. *
Arby’s, which we never go to since the Elko unit is notorious for hiring the homeless ( whose hygiene can be bad even right out of the shower ), had, literally, a pickle size lump of meat in the middle of a huge bun for their “value menu” ( it used to be called a dollar menu before inflation ) roast beef sandwich. The fries tasted great, but I imagine that was only because absolutely no one was in the place and they were forced to make a new batch. But I couldn’t taste the sandwich. Okay, not a huge deal. We were tired from driving, it was late, whatever. But a really huge deal was the fact that lunch the next day was at my once all time favorite, In N Out Burger ( In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules
). They sucked. Every one of us were unhappy, so it wasn’t just me. The tomato was mealy and the shake was funny tasting and worst of all the fries were gross two minutes into eating. Perhaps they had just hired a former Elko Arby’s worker, but I do remember them being so much better two years ago when I last ate there. Then, later on everyone wanted a Dairy Queen ( Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen: A Novel
) cone since it was hot out. $2.19 for a medium cone, and they tasted like plastic. Again, everyone was in agreement that they tasted like sucking on iced ass. So it wasn’t just me. Sunday, eating at McDonalds, was the least objectionable meal. Oh, they are gross, but they have been for decades. At least they didn’t get worse like everyone else. Sad, when the fast food corporations are all serving slop to desperately try to stay in business ( the founder of In N Out was dead set against expanding too fast- he would be spinning in his grave right now ) by saving money on ingredients. That only goes on so long before you have no customers, so it is obviously a last stand measure.*
The Carson City newspaper had a grand total of 9 jobs in the Saturday paper, and 16 in the Sunday. Carson was always bad for good jobs, but now it would seem impossible to get a bad one. The neighboring county, Douglas, is even worse, with a 19% unemployment ( iJobless: 50 ways to Survive Unemployment
) rate. Both were poster children for the real estate bubble, allowing growth far beyond the water resources and traffic congestion. Both crashed hard. The paper portrayed a few typical hard luck stories, the one sticking to my mind the man who complained of having to sell his motor home to be able to afford rent on an apartment housing himself, a fiancé and her two or three kids. This wasn’t a financed vehicle, but an older paid for one. I think his unemployment was running out and they couldn’t live on just her income. The motor home ( Life On The Road: Traveling Full-Time in a Motor Home
) should have been his fall back, his plan B ( Plan B taken from the article from Rawles on the guy with a retreat in Arizona, planning to live in his trailer ( if he couldn’t build a shelter ). The guy was going to give up a paid for home to pay rent on a bigger place for six months. Am I the only one dumbfounded by the idiocy of this plan? Sure, no one wants to live with two stepbrats in a small trailer ( Travel-Trailer Homesteading Under $5,000
). But that sacrifice means living within your means, and as a bonus always having a place to live no matter what the economy does. Instead, he bets that Green Shoots are a reality. Obammy says, read my lips, no new taxes. Immediately, tobacco goes up price from new taxes and a mandatory fee health insurance plan is implemented. Those are new taxes, but since Lord High Halfbreed is both a minority and a liberal, no one raises the same stink they would have on a Republican. He lied about taxes, he more likely than not is lying about Green Shoots.*
The idiots on TV have been proclaiming the end of the “recession” since it started. Yet it keeps getting worse. Nevada has a projected fifty percent deficit coming up in the state budget. Gaming revenues go down ten months out of twelve year after year. You won’t listen to me when I report the facts gathered over at http://www.americanenergycrisis.blogspot.com/ about the last three years of oil imports down seven tenths of a percent every month. For three years! Less oil, less energy, less wealth, no growth, no green shoots. Things will get worse, not better. Stop playing the sucker bet, or at least hedge your bet with the Super Deluxe Bison Frugal Survival Stockpile And Junk Land Living Insurance Plan. Look at our buddy Mayberry. He is trapped in a worthless mortgage by an uncompromising wife, held hostage by his children and his fear of losing them. But he doesn’t despair and give up. He has the back up plan, a place to go and a motor home. Stored food and lots of commie ammo. He might have had to fight to get the motor home and that food, but at least he didn’t allow the wife to totally scrap the emergency plans. Unlike some yuppie scum idiot that allows a girlfriend to call the shots and set them up for failure and homelessness. He isn’t married and he doesn’t have kids with the gal. He is only trapped because he allows himself to be. Idiot. You must have a plan for the economic implosion.
END
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10 comments:
Of course you are talking about two different points of view. It seems stupid for the man to sell his paid for motor home. Yet from the womans point of view it isn't because she will never be homeless, the state will jump to take care of her and when that happens she will kick the guy to the curb.
So the guy needs to open his own eyes but of course he won't.
This is the main reason most women will not become preppers, they don't feel they will need to and unless there is a total collapse they won't need to.
Why do you think so many more homeless are men?
I eat out less and less as I spiral into my dotage. But one great truth asserts itself: Waffle House rules. Good food. Good service AND the corporation donates only to conservative causes.
McDonalds and Kroger give heavily to gun-control and leftist groups.
Sure, the Nevada hard-luck guy doesn't want to live with his flock in a crowded motor home, maybe he is right. The space under a bridge is much roomier.
He (uncle brown sugar) wont raise your taxes or mine; Just raise the fat rich white guys tax. But, the Bush tax cuts will expire this year, its expiration will increase all of our tax across the board, marriage penalty will also return.
But it will still be Bush's fault.
I think your just great Bison. Your blog makes gloom and doom fun to read. Keep up the good work.
For some reason, In-N-Out outside of California is really bad. If you're lucky, it'll taste OK and all you'll get is a case of the shits from the soy oil they fry in outside of Cali.
Fast food is rare for me too, living on far far less money than you do. The Angus burger at McD's actually is pretty good, that and a small fries and a water makes a pretty decent meal.
I think that going with P. Preppy's comments that men are still wired to protect/defend although culture is definitely doing a pretty good job of making men into depressed/angry feminine beings.
So more men will still be wired to want to prepare/protect against a potentially hostile future. Quite a few women still want to nest, and they want their nest to be nice--and fit with the irrational norms of modernity. It's really just about social conformity. The masses wish security, even if its false security, and women even more so.
Debt slavery has been the status-quo since the 80's in the USA, so people just learned to accept all the propoganda--that's what good slaves do. Most would rather be a cared for slave, then a free man--if that involves hardship.
Bison,
Oh great,wise, hetersexual, and noble oracle, with the hair that needs no grease.
Please allow me to comment....
Hey, why go to fast food when you can take an hour for a civilized lunch at the Olive Garden or Ruby Tuesdays, or even (sigh)Red Lobster. Or better yet go to the Lark and the Dove, or the Four Seasons. (they both have excellent wine lists) I think you would find them much more suitable then the eat and barf fast food places. After all we your slavish minions need you to keep writingfor us, the ungrateful and undeserving.
Anonymous 7:49,
You must have a different kind of Waffle House where you live. 'cause the ones in NC Piedmont area are over-priced, serve stuff I would prolly not serve to my dog (if I had a dog), and the mustached waitresses act like they would sooner toss you out the door than serve your order with any kind of courtesy. Sort of like the DMV of the food chain.
anybody who would sell a PAID FOR motorhome deserves what he gets.
I love you o lord bison. another great post....
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