"Buerste" wrote in message
...
snip--
What I never understood is how one can be happy with or even tolerate
unearned wealth.

Tolerate? Most wear it like a badge of honor. At the risk of offending,
how many union members willingly go on strike for higher wages and greater
benefits, with no thought to putting more effort in their jobs? Seems to
me, the common theme is more for less. From where is this unearned money
going to come?

I've lived long enough to watch first class postage go from 3¢ to, what,
44¢? (In case that doesn't come through, the sign is a cent sign). In the
same period of time I've watched a soft drink escalate from 5¢ to $1.75. I
no longer buy them. It's not that I can't afford to------it's that I
refuse to pay the criminal price.

I started my machine shop in 1967, charging a whopping $7.00/hr for my time.
Prior to my shop, I was working for wages in a job shop, earning $3.50/
hour. I was making respectable money, and earning every penny. Today, in
Washington State, minimum wage is $8.55/hr., for, in many cases, morons that
can't pour **** out of a boot with the instructions written on the heel.

From all indications, the only way we're going to learn anything is to fall
on our asses and stay there. Live under a bridge or two---lose everything we
thought we "needed", and start from scratch, earning our way. Then, and
only then, will we regain any semblance of good sense.

Harold