Harbinger's of Economic Disaster

[Jogeephus]

Some posts got me to thinking about some signs of economic troubles that you might want to watch out for.

You might be heading for economic trouble if: ....... and you truly believe this.

...... "yes its expensive BUT its tax deductible"

...... "its grant money! Won't cost us anything"

...... "I can write off the interest on the loan"

...... "it costs more but I'll more than make up for it in gain"

...... "you deserve it, you owe it to yourself to buy it"

Here is a good example of what grant money can do for you. Oh, and it won't cost us a thing. (only tripled the taxes on our property taxes but we deserve it right?)

Not bad for a county administration building for a county with less than 10,000 people. If you look closely, you will see the water fountain that only cost us $30,000. But we deserved it right? Didn't cost us a thing, right? It was only grant money - well a portion of it. I've been calling it the "water trough" but I think I'll begin calling it the "fountain of prosperity".

Oh, if any of you would like some water troughs like this on your farm I can get you hooked up with the contractor and the excommissioner that is responsible for this. And remember, it is deductible! ;-)

Oh, don't know why I thought about this and don't mean to highjack my own thread before it gets started but for some reason I found myself compelled to do some research on tar and feathering. Found some 1770's writings on the subject and was surprised to find that after you put a coat of tar on the person with a tar brush and after you coated them with as many feathers as possible you were to set the feathers on fire. I did not know this and thought it was worth sharing as this information might be useful one day. Sorry for the highjack.

 

[1982vett]

What, no $50,000 chunk of rusting or galvanized iron to display for the art council. ;-)

I was doing OK till you got to here...

...... "you deserve it, you owe it to yourself to buy it"

But I do ask myself if I can afford it or actually have a use for it before I buy. :nod:

 

[Angus Cowman]

The Gov't is always telling us to tighten our belts that way we can't feel it when they take our wallet out

Gov't is the most wasteful and most detrimental to our economy everyone is making less money(avg wrking guy) unless you are a congressman or senator and tehy get raises

One farmer does more good for our country than all the politicians put together and most of us can't even afford health insurance

 

[Ryder]

Some posts got me to thinking about some signs of economic troubles that you might want to watch out for.

You might be heading for economic trouble if: ....... and you truly believe this.

...... "yes its expensive BUT its tax deductible"

...... "its grant money! Won't cost us anything"

...... "I can write off the interest on the loan"

...... "it costs more but I'll more than make up for it in gain"

...... "you deserve it, you owe it to yourself to buy it"
Good points. Very good.

Oh, don't know why I thought about this and don't mean to highjack my own thread before it gets started but for some reason I found myself compelled to do some research on tar and feathering. Found some 1770's writings on the subject and was surprised to find that after you put a coat of tar on the person with a tar brush and after you coated them with as many feathers as possible you were to set the feathers on fire. I did not know this and thought it was worth sharing as this information might be useful one day. Sorry for the highjack.

It has been my undestanding that after the tar and feathers, they are to be ridden out of town on a rail. Did you come across any specifics for the rail thing?

 

[Jogeephus]

Didn't see anything about a rail. What I was reading was a "how to guide" that was written in the 1700's during the revolutionary war period which I think pre-dated the rail lines. It was interesting that they put it on paper.

 

[Ryder]

Didn't see anything about a rail. What I was reading was a "how to guide" that was written in the 1700's during the revolutionary war period which I think pre-dated the rail lines. It was interesting that they put it on paper.

I don't think it was about railroads. More like a rail from a fence. Set them a straddle on it or maybe tie hands and feet together and hang them upside down on the rail and carry them out of town. I think in some place it was used for scalawags, carpetbagers, and unpopular politicians.
You can imagine as they carried them down the street shouts of "Carpetbager is coming, scalawag is coming, change is coming."

 

[dun]

I don't think it was about railroads. More like a rail from a fence. Set them a straddle on it or maybe tie hands and feet together and hang them upside down on the rail and carry them out of town. I think in some place it was used for scalawags, carpetbagers, and unpopular politicians.
You can imagine as they carried them down the street shouts of "Carpetbager is coming, scalawag is coming, change is coming."

Correct about the rail.

 

[john250]

Geez, that is "nice". You folks in those high income zip codes...
Our courthouse was built in 1853. Remodeled in 1958. We're going to put a roof on it which will cost more than the construction and the remodeling combined.
Next door to the CH, we have a several million dollar jail, for about 30K residents. We have, if I recall, 125 beds in the jail. When I was a kid, for the same population, we had 4 beds. Justice has become a major employer, you can see.

 

[Alberta farmer]

The thing that bugs me about these darned municipal/county governments is their attitude about spending. In my county the money was rolling in as the oil/gas companies were punching holes as fast as they could...and the county was blowing it as fast as they could! New monstrosity of a county office, new trucks, cell phones, laptops for all the boys working there. Big hiring binge...even the secretaries had secrataries!
Then things got a bit slow. So did they cut back? Nope! Just cracked up the taxes and raised all the permit fees.
Now if the county was a business, or a household....what would they do? How about cutback on expenses?
Instead they just crank up the income! Maybe I should tell Cargill/Tyson I'm going to need quite a few more dollars this year? Or if I was a worker tell my employer I'm going to need a 30% raise....which is how much my taxes went up!

 

[Jogeephus]

I don't think it was about railroads. More like a rail from a fence. Set them a straddle on it or maybe tie hands and feet together and hang them upside down on the rail and carry them out of town. I think in some place it was used for scalawags, carpetbagers, and unpopular politicians.
You can imagine as they carried them down the street shouts of "Carpetbager is coming, scalawag is coming, change is coming."

Correct about the rail.

That's interesting. Reckon a 4x4x12 would make do? And would it need to be pressure treated? :lol2: :lol2:

The thing that bugs me about these darned municipal/county governments is their attitude about spending. In my county the money was rolling in as the oil/gas companies were punching holes as fast as they could...and the county was blowing it as fast as they could! New monstrosity of a county office, new trucks, cell phones, laptops for all the boys working there. Big hiring binge...even the secretaries had secrataries!
Then things got a bit slow. So did they cut back? Nope! Just cracked up the taxes and raised all the permit fees.
Now if the county was a business, or a household....what would they do? How about cutback on expenses?
Instead they just crank up the income! Maybe I should tell Cargill/Tyson I'm going to need quite a few more dollars this year? Or if I was a worker tell my employer I'm going to need a 30% raise....which is how much my taxes went up!

I find myself with mixed feelings about your post. On one hand I'm sorry this stupidity is not limited by borders on the other I'm glad for I was beginning to think there was something wrong with our water supply. ;-) :lol2:

To build the "white elephant" we had to tear down an old wharehouse. EPD inspectors came in and took paint samples and found there was a door painted with lead paint! Since everyone was so traumatized by this find fearing that herds of babies would stampede to the door to mouth on paint chips we paid "specialists" to remove this aweful biohazard. You would have thought we had 200 lbs of spent uranium in the wharehouse. White suits and all. The wrapped this biohazard up and shipped it to a toxic landfill in Alabama somewhere. Best guess on the cost of this process was about $5-6 thousand. Of course, the safety and well being of the community was at stake so I think everyone will agree this was money well spent. Also, relative to the $650,000 we spent on attorney fees for this project - this is peanuts. And besides, it was "only grant money".

 

[dun]

That's interesting. Reckon a 4x4x12 would make do? And would it need to be pressure treated? :lol2: :lol2:

Don;t think it would have the same impact is riding an old split rail

 

[Jogeephus]

That's interesting. Reckon a 4x4x12 would make do? And would it need to be pressure treated? :lol2: :lol2:

Don;t think it would have the same impact is riding an old split rail

Guess you are right. I got a pile of split rails made from the heart of longleaf pine. As they are purely pitch, they would give an incredible affect if done at night but might limit how far you could tote the scallywag.

 

[grannysoo]

Another harbinger?

Anytime you here this:

I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.


Run away fast and lock up the wimmens and chilluns.