WISDOM OF A MILLENNIAL

Another comment so good, it deserved its own post. We sure attract smart, well-spoken people to this site. Rose, a millenial, provides some wisdom beyond her years.

 

For context, I am a Millenial. MY husband is a Gen Xer.

My husband was 16 when his dad died. His family did not have a lot of money and 6 kids to care for. Other than his dad’s social security, which was meager because his jobs were not very high pay, they did not get any outside assistance at any time. He quit school to work days. He finished high school at night and then went on to the community college night classes, while working on a farm 6 or 7 days a week, doing heavy, heavy manual labor and then coming home to study. He paid cash for his education, going when he had the money to pay for it. It took him 8 years to pull it off but he has a degree and it helped land him a managerial job on a farm, a good enough job to allow us to buy a home, own 2 cars outright and have me stay home with our child.

By all rights, when his dad passed he could have jumped on the “poor pitiful me” modern victimhood bandwagon but he is a man and real men don’t do that. I am, as you might guess, more than a little bit proud of the guy. He is a rock. I would walk through hell if he was next to me.

His story and countless others like it prove that it CAN be done. It just takes a LOT of sweat and sacrifice. Whining does not buy you anything but annoyed listeners. If carrying 70 pound cabbage boxes in the blazing sun is what it takes to get ahead, you do it. The only alternative is a lifetime of servitude and self loathing.

I will admit, it is NOT easy to get traction in this environment. We have lost a disgusting amount of money trying to invest in traditional methods as advised by my well intentioned Boomer parents. We got walloped in 2008 and have only just now regained what we lost. Which is maddening because we worked so hard to save what little we had invested. To see it all just melt away was heartbreaking. It also woke us up. Fool us once….

What worked for the Boomers doesn’t work for us. It might never work again. But what my great-grandparents did DOES work. Buy yourself some Horatio Alger and read it like a manual.

We bought a small-ish, 160 year old rural house with some acreage. It needed work but had good bones. You could build a battleship with its oak beams. We can pay the mortgage with one income, and we went for a short mortgage to get rid of it as soon as possible. We have restored it to a working farmhouse. It is clean and neat but not trendy. Screw Martha Stewart if she thinks curing sweet potatoes on racks in the living room is not tasteful.

We dug up most of the lawn and put in a huge garden and fruit trees and bushes and I can hundreds of jars of food a year. We built a chicken coop for meat and eggs. I am trying to talk him into hogs for the back pasture. The idea of homemade bacon almost has him convinced. We buy grassfed beef from a local farm and get a deal because my husband works for them on the side for a break.

I stay at home and am a traditional housewife. This means cooking from scratch, cleaning and repairing things myself and squeezing every penny until it begs for mercy. We do not have cable or dish or cell phones. We line dry laundry on all but the worst of days. Our furniture is antiques that we buy broken and restore. It will last a lifetime. We borrow our entertainment for the library and buy our books at booksales. On the side, for pin money, to keep my brain busy and to fund our homeschooling, I sell excess vintage kids books.

Life is a lot of work but we have truly good and healthy food, a warm, welcoming home, good friends of like mind and a beautiful little girl. We have what matters.

Why am I saying all of this? Because it illustrates a very important principle: you can spend time, or you can spend money. Money is hard to come by, and what you do get Uncle Sugar will steal. Time, on the other hand, if well managed, is plentiful. By raising our own, making from scratch and restoring other people’s castoffs, we use time but save money. I have a good degree and could be working outside the home, but it would be taxable. By my being a stay at home housewife providing many of our basic needs we dodge that, as well as the expenses of childcare and work clothes and mileage on the car. And it lets us homeschool, which frees our daughter from the shackles of public indoctrination. Manual labor for ourselves frees our limited money up for other things. Things like starting a business, which we are working on.

If you want to invest, invest in yourself. Build a foundation that your family can grow on. Forget the snake oil they sell you about retirement. It is nothing but a rat race to get you to forfeit money now, make it unavailable, and then go into debt for things you could have paid cash for if you’d had access to your own money. Invest in solid things, pay off your debts and raise your kids right. And by that, I mean raise them as the Amish do, to pick up where you leave off, to provide comfort to you in old age as you provide them comfort in youth. Be a tribe. Love and family are our strongest weapons. Why else do you think TPTB do their damndest to turn us away from these?

It is true, it IS hard that resources cost so much, but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and do it to get yourself to where you want to be. Give up what you can, do for yourself what you can, and pay the bloodmoney for what you must have.

There are more than few of us Xers and Minnies who see things this way. A lot of us rediscovering old crafts, skills and values and forgoing the i-crazes. Don’t write us all off. There is still backbone in some of us.

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Stucky

Rose vs. Calamity

One is brilliant. One is a total idiot.

You decide.

IndenturedServant

Stuck, How is Momma Stucky?
I_S

Calamity
Calamity

Stucky- Really? That is the best you’ve got?

Any of you? Only trivial bullshit? Tell me more how awesome the Rolling Stones were.

Iska Waran
Iska Waran

Calamity, I don’t remember either Kennedy getting killed or Woodstock. Those look backs annoy me, too. I do remember going to some job-hunting firm in ’84 (young grads sometimes paid a firm to find them a crappy job) and being told that the only job I was qualified for was assistant manager at KFC for $11,000 / year. Tidbits of info like that aren’t usually part of the PBS Woodstock Reminiscences and could shed some light on the question of whether current times are uniquely crappy for young people. Like Admin, I expect young people to do less well in the future – mostly because of competition with foreign labor, but thinking everything was easy for anyone who graduated from college before 2008 is myopic.

El Coyote
El Coyote

Billy says:

“I can’t ever imagine something as retro and cool and SteamPunk as a genuine steam engine – hissing and spitting with gauges and whirling things and spinning things, and with a 5 chime steam whistle? No man, that can never get old…”

THX for the train whistle, did I mention I like trains? Nice vid indeed.

IndenturedServant

Iska, you’re wasting your time. Even if you agree with Clammy you’re still wrong. Those of us who flip her shit are slow learners. We see her potential but hate to see her walking to & from school uphill both ways, having been there and done that ourselves. Like I said, she’ll probably be fine but just needs the school of hard knocks experience. Ten years from now she’ll be here trying to do the same for the next generation with similar results.
I_S

El Coyote
El Coyote

I don’t believe I’ve ever gone gaga for nobody here except maybe stuck and llpoh. matter of fact, I said, if this becomes a pickup site I’m outta here. I even joked later that I was against clammy before I was for her. sorry, no popping boners here, come back in twenty when you learn how to be a woman. SAH and clammy are way too young for my old bones. as larry sears once said, leave the ones my age to me.

SSS

“Anyway, welcome Rose, but don’t let the warm welcome fool you, the big dogs are woman haters… Actually, even some of the women are women haters (I, for example, believe women’s suffrage ruined America). Welcome. Watch your back.”
—-SAH @ 9:12 pm above

Interesting comment, SAH, especially in light of your outburst against me about a month ago when you hoped I commit suicide because of my views on GMO foods. Wow.

This is a tough site, Rose. T4C, a female, advises above “WARNING! You are about to enter The Man Cave of all Man Caves. Enter at your own risk. Forewarned is forearmed.” Probably about 90% accurate, but I prefer …………….

The Burning Platform motto … “No One Gets Out Alive.”

Llpoh
Llpoh

SAH – I for one never liked calamity. I saw through her shit from day one. She held some kind of magic potion over a few of the folks around here, but they have all snapped out of it. You, on the other hand, pissed me off, but at least I always saw a person of substance – even when you were flat assed wrong (you still often are, but the good overwhelms the bad). I am nothing if not gracious in victory. BTW – watch it re the Ivy grad jokes. The education was earned and certainly was not conveyed as a benefit. At least in my case.

Stucky – I am deeply offended that you think I would ever stoop so low as to blame you for something I myself did. I am hurt, I tell you. It was pretty funny, though, wasn’t it? It hit hidden status in record time. A true genius was at work there, whoever it may have been.

IndenturedServant

LOL T4C! To be honest, I never really give much thought to how people look on the the internet. That is one of the great things about it, looks don’t mean shit. I don’t want to know what people look like. I prefer it that way.

I started flipping shit to Clammy before I had any idea what she looked like. Not that it would have mattered. Having to back up a re-read every third sentence due to grammar, spelling and syntax errors is just fucking annoying regardless of who does it.

I do have to say that the comment by Juan/bb about Clammy being able to receive wi-fi with her forehead was hilarious. I’m gonna use that on a few of my balding friends.

Hot body bimbos are not worth the trouble unless they have a few brain cells upstairs.
I_S

NickelthroweR
NickelthroweR

“Stucky- Really? That is the best you’ve got?

Any of you? Only trivial bullshit? Tell me more how awesome the Rolling Stones were.”

Yeah? You can’t pull that bullshit with me. I’ll ask YOU to put up or shut up. I’m willing.

Lets show our cards and be prepared to back whatever we throw down.

Officer, United States Army, Commissioned by the President of the United States, I can sign treaties and, as a bonus, whatever comes out of my mouth is LAW.

History Teacher, graduated Cum Laude and went on to teach history in innercity schools until I decided that teaching history to kids that couldn’t read was a waste of time.

Audio Engineer/Studio Owner – I’ve done more that 100 full length albums and 20 or so film projects. My partner and I have worked with all kinds of music and acts ranging from Hip Hop to Drum and Bass. I believe I’ve won a dozen or more awards at various film festivals – maybe more.

Black Box Analog Design – I make some of the most sought after electronics in the recording business. Whether it is the TV Show Glee, Turner Broadcasting, Aerosmith, Photek, etc, you get to hear my work. My partner went on tour with 2NE1 and has worked with Tyga, Lil Wayne, Busta Rhymes, etc.

Oh yeah, on the personal side, I’ve traveled in more than 23 countries – 9 of them on my bicycle. I’ve lived in both Germany and Italy as well. Finally, though I’m 47, I exercise at least 2 hours a day and have no problems running around half naked – just saying.

Your turn Millennial – lets see those cards or STFU.

Calamity
Calamity

Nickel- I really don’t care about your resume. Move along.

Stucky

Holy Shit, Batman!!!!!!!

It is now 1:40 AM

Ms Freud and I went to bed at midnight. I was SOUND asleep.

At around 1:30AM there was a LOUD!!! and long pounding on the front door.

I wake up. Ms Freud wakes up. “What the fuck is that?” we both say almost simultaneously.

I pull aside the curtain in the bedroom window. There are TWO cop cars outside, lights flashing.

“WTF??? Did someone die? Did the hidden cameras catch me stealing those condoms this afternoon?”

I go to the door … my heart pounding.

“Can I help you sir?”

“Your neighbors have been complaining about the constant beeping noise. Here!!!” He was pissed, and then he left. Here’s what happened. A couple days ago the carbon-monoxide monitor went off. I couldn’t shut it off (I should have pulled the battery out.). Instead, it pissed me off and I opened the back door and threw it in the yard. We never heard it. And that little fucker is indestructible.

Copfuks pounding on your door in the middle of the night. That’s some scary shit right there.

Ms Freud said “It’s never dull around here with you.”. I don’t think she meant it as a compliment.

IndenturedServant

LOL! Funny shit Stuck! Good thing you didn’t slip up and call them copfuks.
I_S

IndenturedServant

Did you determine the reason the CO2 detector was going off? I would not attempt to live in a house where a CO2 detector went off unless I was certain of the cause and had installed a new one. You might wake up on the brown side of the lawn.
I_S

NickelthroweR
NickelthroweR

Calamity says:

Nickel- I really don’t care about your resume. Move along.

Because you can’t compete. I’m guessing that you’ve never done anything worthwhile in your miserable life and I’m 100% sure that you never will. You can’t put up so now you can STFU.

Worthless POS Millennial. I’m done with you and, yes, moving on.

We’ve got successful business men here at TBP. We’ve got combat vets here at TBP. We’ve got successful preppers here at TBP and we’ve got people here with amazing insight here at TBP. I look forward to what they’ve got to say. Bye bye little girl.

Next.

SAH
SAH

Llpoh – I know, you were one of the only big dogs who never got a boner for Calamity in the beginning and actually analyzed her ideas and writing. It must be something about Ivy League educations that made her writing like nails on a chalk board for us both. I remember, she drove you out of commenting here for a while because everyone else salivating like morons was too much for you to bear — and in your absence I defended you! That was honestly the beginning of what I consider our TBP “friendship”. You were missed, by me, because you are smart — and either contribute brilliant, droll little nuggets of truth, or you make the finest, meanest, nastiest opponent on this site. Either way I have grown fond of you too. Dartmouth is my 2nd favorite Ivy, you ought to know – I’ve always viewed it as the nice and pure one (lumberjacks, skiing, Mr rogers and capt kangaroo). Odds are you are probably a superbly nice and down to earth guy who is good with children. Me? Should be no surprise to you that I attended the most evil and sinister Ivy of all. Wonder where Rose went?

Miss Calamity is still like a breath of fresh air in this room of old curmudgeons. I enjoy her.

@SSS — Still think GMOs are evil and that all drugs should be decriminalized… and that the CIA covertly runs the illegal drugs into this country and starts most of our wars with their meddling and training and arming of terrorists – But whatever, you seem like a nice enough guy and you aren’t a Baby Boomer… So I apologize again for the flame war that day.

Stucky

I_S

We have a one car garage. It is my old ’96 Buick that’s in the garage. That’s why she is still beautiful and looks practically showroom new. The new Sonata is a lease car … that hot bitch don’t deserve protection. Ha! Anyway, I started up the old beast and let her run for 15 minutes … the detector went off even though the garage door was open.

SAH writes a nice complimentary post and gets 5 thumbs down. Wow. Tough crowd.

TPC
TPC

“She has respect for her elders. There is a respectful way to condemn and disagree, then there is being a thin-skin shrill bitch. And, she is not filled with anger and hatred. You might take a hint.”

Respect is earned, not given. I have shockingly little respect for damn near all of my elders. The TBP crowd (for the most part) falls into a tiny subset of fiscal conservative that I generally respect.

As for the real world, I try to follow the golden rule and educate as much as possible, because god knows the government and the media don’t keep people apprised of reality.

TPC
TPC

@SAH – “So I apologize again for the flame war that day.”

An apology. On TBP.

I knew it was cold, but I didn’t know hell had frozen over.

Llpoh
Llpoh

SAH – great pics. Fine post.

Stucky

I love Cold Dick!!

Stucky

oops …

I meant, Cold Duck

SSS

@ SAH, who said @ SSS, “But whatever, you seem like a nice enough guy and you aren’t a Baby Boomer… So I apologize again for the flame war that day.”

Uh, oh. That was a mistake, as you may have already noted. You quickly recovered, though.

I know that we disagree on certain subjects, as you have already told me in no uncertain terms. Fine. It’s just that I prefer to disagree in a different style rather than attacking someone on race, sex and the rest of that litany. On occasion, I prefer creative insults.

Actual example: “The shit packed between your ears is denser than a neutron star.” I first used this one several years ago, and, if memory serves, it was directed at Admin, who gleefully responded with mockery, funny pics, references to Alzheimer’s, Lawrence Welk, and a blizzard of cut-and-paste articles. After which, I utterly destroyed him. He still walks with a cane. Heh.

El Coyote
El Coyote

Do they still sell that shit, Ripple Boy? I got news for you, that disco ball in the living room is no longer considered ‘the latest’. Find a neighborhood gay and get some help redecorating the old barn.

angry white man
angry white man

calamity’s attitude is what you hypocritical libertarian boomers can expect from millenials as they realize more and more how completely betrayed they’ve been as young people by the older generation. I’m in Ithaca now and kids are dropping out of Cornell, turning down job offers from citigroup after graduation because they feel disillusioned, and ex-communicating boomer parents that are pushing them toward echo-boomer careers that only a delusional workaholic could ever want. You people talk a great game with lots of nice sounding arguments – but your actual behavior is both disgusting (race hate, constant sex weirdness, social darwinism, blaming and punishment fantasy regarding anyone in a weak or down position) and completely at odds with your supposed rationality and application of moral principle. If you espouse rugged individualism but work on your ass for a large corp. and have a gut that hangs over your trousers, you have no credibility to a young human being PRIMA FACIE, too bad for you. If you wanna stay on the farm with rose as some type of atonement ritual and return to your childhood – go ahead, she sounds very sincere and has memorized all your boomer tropes and thought patterns. What you do is basically irrelevant anyway – you’re all locked in to your jobs and houses to the literal bitter end at this point and your WORDS won’t change much of anything.

Llpoh
Llpoh

Kids are dropping out of Cornell? Bullshit. Cornell has one of the top grad rates in the country. Some kids drop out of any school. But to suggest there is a lot at Cornell is crap.

Llpoh
Llpoh

AWM is a dullard. He needs to buy a clue.

angry white man
angry white man

Llpoh, i truly wish you could spend a few weeks in Ithaca’s collegetown and meet students and do some people-watching here. I am friends with a young woman who worked for google transcribing people’s private conversations unbeknownst to them. She went back to cornell for a math degree and found out literally everyone but her in a class was cheating on the internet to ace the class. it caused a large scandal in the department. she did not drop out but is quite disillusioned with the system and will not be acting in the ‘hero’ archetype of strauss and howe henceforth. Your comment about high graduation rates accurately describes the other 15 kids in her class, who all cheated on 100% of their homework. 12 of those kids are asian. The boomer professor thought my friend was falling behind due to laziness, now his job is in question. Boomers on this site are about as perceptive in their daily lives, but think they are john galt. You are right though, many of the people I’ve met are graduates – the anger and disillusionment set in 2-5 years after college for millies I think. And they aren’t going to be like Rose when that happens to them.

Llpoh
Llpoh

Angry – that comment I appreciate and can respond to more measuredly.

I find cheating an abomination. I went to an Ivy and it never happened. Never. It was a long time ago.

Where did the mils learn that stuff? I blame the parents, and the schools. Where has integrity gone?

Re Asians, my son is a grad student, and his experience is that Asians cheat on everything. He believes they know no different. It is a way of life for them. He has no respect for them as a group.

I remember being pissed off at my school after graduation. I thought they did too little to prepare us for the real world. Some things do not change.

I am going to be a lot like Rose shortly enough. The plans are well underway. The difference is in the funding I will bring to the preparation. But whenI am done I will be very self-sufficient.

Not all of us Boomers will remain tied to jobs and houses. I consider myself a country boy, and I assure you it is a great lifestyle if set up properly.

angry white man
angry white man

we agree on most of what you just posted. I also don’t think that calamity’s attitude is a particularly productive one – but I think it is important to understand in a purely logistical, cause-and-effect way what the young generation is going through, and to be real enough to admit that frustration and anger are going to be part of the awakening process. Many people have only average, ‘normal person’ responses to draw on, and being constantly outraged because they have not behaved like an idealized ‘good person’ is an intellectually bizarre posture given people acting kind of dumb for as long as records exist. A system where your average dumb person has no chance (economy faced by average millennial) is a system that’s going to produce massive failure regardless of any ideology. Also, the cultural and economic distortions of our time are too deep for simplistic ‘return to the land’ solutions. Personal self-sufficiency is of great value and too rare – but if we all go back to homesteads our western industrial lifestyle is dunzo just as surely as it will be if we attempt soviet-style collectivization. More frugal households and smart use of resources (like growing nutrient dense fresh plants yourself to reap massive health benefits) are part of the way forward, but the millennial generation needs to get into organizations and start optimizing and min-maxing them ruthlessly. If there’s anything the smart millennials do better than anyone before them, it is ruthless application of game theory to an incredibly wide array of often absurd projects. The logistics and workflow of the global economy is a shadow of what it could be – but massive job losses and chaos would be part of such an imaginary future..

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