lonecity.com

It is unfortunate that life has become so busy for those of us living below the poverty line that we don’t really have time for the simple things.   No longer can we enjoy a visit to the countryside or a day at the park.  Time off is more often spent doing odd jobs “on the side” than resting and recouping strength in preparation for the next work day.  I bring this up because this last week I took vacation time from my work.  I’ve situated myself to where I am so un-expendable that getting the time off means that things will have to go unfinished.  There is simply nobody else to do them.  In the past I’ve lost accrued vacation time because of inability to take it.  I vowed to myself never to let that happen again.  Whatever didn’t happen this last week that should have, my employer can suck it up and take it as a loss. 

Instead of doing the things that I should have done this last week, (pay the bills, go to work, ect) I spent the bill money on gasoline and took a drive across the west coast to visit my dad.  Gasoline is at the cheapest it has been in years right now, and still it is expensive. It has me wondering what I would be willing to do to avoid using it. What would you comprimise for a gasoline alternative? 

Living in the heart of this giant city I’ve watched over the past decade the sprawling out of people to everywhere.  There used to be empty fields stretching to the mountainside west of here.  Now there are houses all the way. I’ve long felt that overpopulation and overdevelopment are a major threat to our society.  Seeing the barren country side on a long (14 hours each way) drive at least put my mind at ease.  Is overdevelopment still a threat?  Of course it is, but its nice to see that there are still places where you can’t see the city lights at night.  (Even if those places exist only right in the very middle of a dessert.)  I also see land that ten years ago would have never been concidered for a ranch, developed into residential plots.  Why anyone would pay a lifetime’s worth of housepayments for a shack in the desert without even enough room to stretch your legs is beyond me.

Truth be told, the downturn in our economy is largely due to the developers building these houses.   It seems like a great business model to go and buy 500 acres at $100 per acre.  Break it up into 1000 half acre lots and build a thousand homes.  After fifteen to twenty thousand dollars worth of materials and labor per unit you end up with a thousand homes each worth $250,000 dollars.  (well at least according to the puck who is selling them)  In my oppinion you have a thousand homes worth $20,000 each, but thats just me.  The other half of the folding economy is the banks willingness to lend money to poor people who are duped into buying these overinflated homes. 

Do you really think there is less money to be had today than there was last year at this time?  Are americans producing less products?  Is less work bieng done?  So why would there be less money to go around?  Its simple.  The banks and credit unions gave it all to a select few real-estate investors and lost their shirts.  Then they cried to the government and in turn we as americans got the bill.  These investors are probably happily living in a mexican villa on their billions while we scrape for food and gas. Do the math.

All in all, I’ll be turing off my cable this month because a few days of sanity has cost me more than I can afford.  I’m not sure what I’m going back to when I return to work.  I’m positive I needed to take a few days off.  I had to break the monotony.  Still I can’t help but feel it may have been the last straw.  I’ve been barely keeping afloat for so long that I’m sure its only a matter of time before I drown. 

I look foreward to meeting you all at the bottom of the river!  The recession is going to take us all down eventually.