I kinda did. It was all fun and games before it turned into work. It was self employment, when a poor person like me didn’t have the capital to start a brick and mortar business. The pay also was based on results. It always sucked to be the hardest and best worker, making less than the idiot whose single accomplishment was seniority.
Hmmm… well, a house was never really one of the goals. 10-15 years ago, I was planning to be really rich without doing a lot of work. Most of my friends at the time just wanted a good job. About 5 years later, I decided it would be ok to get really rich while doing “some work.” 5 years later, I decided it would be ok to get rich while doing “a lot of work.”
Ummm, soooo, I did a lot of work over the last 5 years. What do I have to show for it? Well, I have virtually no debt (besides a damn house). I have a whole crapload of stuff. I feel like I have a bunch of shit to do today, tomorrow, the next day, and so on. Truthfully, I was a lot happier when I was making 1/20 of what I make now. Instead of spending time on the computer, I spent time working out, playing raquetball, and whatever the hell I felt like doing.
Lately, instead of being rich or trying to get richer, I’ve spent more time thinking about why I used to be happier, and what things I need to do to head in that direction again. It still might include some aspects of getting rich.
Intelligent people like yourself have a hard time ignoring things they know are going on around them.
Democracy, especially at this point, is mostly a farce. It doesn’t pass a bullshit test for people to form a club – and then include me in it because they are giving me an option to vote on a leader. If I don’t like that this leader wants to take money from me, I can be put in prison. Or, I can just pay it until I vote for his friend who will do the same thing.
Don’t get me wrong… I pay 100% of my taxes, and I have a former IRS agent CPA CFE who makes sure of it. I do it ONLY because I know I will get my ass handed to me if I don’t.
The acceptance of your quote above is why I would say I switched from self identifying as a libertarian to self identifying as an anarchist. The fact is… there is very little to be done to help.
That was a goal of mine at one time… changing things. Now, I just think that the winners write the history. Looke at Abe Lincoln. He did a lot of terrible things, but he came out smelling like Jesus.
Look at the “founding fathers” america speaks of. What did they do? Were they so smart for writing a living, breathing constitution? Uh, no, or they would have been smart enough to say so. What they did was divide up a bunch of land for themselves and try to make it hard for others to undo it.
Seeing that it’s governmental winners writing the history to be learned in schools, they want to make it sound like voting is the way to affect change. That’s right… Vote! Convince others to vote! Talk to friends and neighbors! That’s the way to change things!
Well…. bullshit. How often do we really see any change without violence? Does the US threaten other countries with voting? ha.
That rose tinted picture of the past is supposed to affect your perception of the present in a positive way. I would say it wasn’t really like that in the past either, in most cases.