Observations From Dallas, Part Deaux. Or, Conversation With A Millennial

One of the things I did not mention in my recent post about our transition to Dallas is my current living arrangement. It was not germane to the topic last time, but now it becomes necessary for me to share with you the back story.

When I was 18 and living in rural Oklahoma, my dad and his then wife (Wife #2 for those keeping score at home) adopted a baby boy. They could not have children of their own and after many years of trying, were finally able to adopt a newborn infant. Interestingly, within a year of this milestone event, they were divorced. I probably did not have this thought as a conscious thought, but at some intuitive level I understood that my dad was not going to be there for this baby. I made it a point to stay involved in his life over these last 25 years. When I was in college, about 1 weekend per month, I’d drive to Tulsa and stay the weekend with him and do what I could with him, within my meager means. He still remembers the time we made a racetrack in the backyard for his RC Cars. After college, I got married and moved to Corpus Christi, TX. My wife and I would fly him in and we’d go to San Antonio to Six Flags or to Corpus and spend the weekend at the beach. Because of our love of roller coasters, he has mentioned that it was us who introduced him, and are responsible for, his love of the adrenaline rush.

The point is, he’s not a stranger off the street. Now, he’s a young man, with a successful career in the IT world. He’s making some pretty decent jack, and the company he works for sends him all over the world, doing IT stuff. I think his job is to make sure the flux capacitor is integrated with the ion modulator. Or something like that. He’s got a nice young lady friend he seems quite smitten with.

Now, on with the story: When I planned this move to Dallas, leaving wife and kids behind in El Paso to finish the school year, I did not want to rent a place. Frankly, this move is costing us, big time. We’re hemorrhaging money at every turn. In order to cut down on expenses, I called him up and said, “Hey, dude. I’m moving to Dallas, can I stay with you?” To which he responded, “All I’ve got is a couch, but you can use it for as long as you want.” Hell, I haven’t crashed out on somebody’s couch in 25 years, so I thought it’d be fun. And it is. We’ve joined a group called Makerspace, which is a community owned workshop, and he’s building a new desk. I’m the Transporter Of The Lumber, since I have a truck and he doesn’t. He’s building it, and it looks nice. He kicked me out on Valentine’s Day, which was cool, also. I remember being young & smitten with my wife. Nice. And we’ve drank a lot of beer. Dear God, have we drank some beers! He chastised me just last night for taking more than my fair share of the 12 pack in the fridge. To which I responded, “We’ll get more.”

Here’s a quick summary: Me: 42 years old. Married, 3 kids. Construction supervisor. In the midst of a move which is more than just a little stressful. Politics: Political atheist, with extreme libertarian tendencies, bordering on anarchism. My little brother: 25, single with a girlfriend. Making good money setting up computer networks. Politics unknown.

Last night, over burgers and beer (Twisted Root Burgers: Epic Win!) he let me have it, and how! He gave it to me with both barrels. I don’t even remember exactly how it got started. I don’t really like to talk politics, and I’m certainly no apologist for ANY political party. I’ve come to my views based on my own research. People can do their own research and listen to the same podcasts and watch the same videos I have. The information is out there. So, I assume he must have bought it up. Maybe it was the beer flowing, or maybe he’s just passionate about the topic. Actually, there’s no “maybe” to it. He’s passionate about the topic. And I don’t know that he speaks for an entire generation of millennial. He’s the only Minnie I know. To say he’s a left-leaning liberal is an understatement. He’s a statist. Plain and simple, he thinks Government is the solution to the world’s problems. So much of what he said rankled me so bad, I had to take deep breaths. I didn’t want to try and “convert” him to my way of thinking, so much as I wanted to try and understand his position. So, instead of countering his every point with a counter-point, I asked a lot of questions. Here’s a brief recap of some of his major points:

  • Everybody should be paid a living wage. Everybody. I mean every single solitary citizen of America should receive money to a certain level. To make sure I understood his point, I used hyperbole to make the extreme case. So, yes, even the gang-bangers in South Dallas should receive a living wage. The street artist should receive a subsidy to make up whatever difference his art sales should not generate. When asked where this money will come from, he responded, Higher taxes. A heavier, much heavier tax burden on the rest of us. Somehow, in this system, I will have a salary 3x higher than what I make now, so I should be more willing to pay more taxes. When asked again where this money will come, I was unclear how I was going to make more money and pay more taxes.
  • Also, in his utopian vision, somehow, this payment of a living wage to the gang-bangers eliminates the generational cycle of crime & poverty. I agree whole-heartedly with reducing this cycle, but I am unclear on how giving people money for doing nothing will do this. Don’t we have a system like that in place now?
  • He said that Obamacare was a step in the right direction, but Obama and the Democrats are too weak-willed to really accomplish anything substantive. A totally comprehensive Government health care system is the solution. Nobody should be able to make a profit when it comes to taking care of the health needs of the people. When the profit motive becomes involved in better health for humanity, then the whole process gets corrupted. He used the example of a study that demonstrated that a saline bag costs $0.39 to manufacture and it shows up on your hospital bill for $800 bucks.
  • He correlated the greatest growth period in America in the 50’s & 60’s, which also had the highest tax rates in history. So, apparently, high tax rates = high economic growth.
  • The Post Office could generate money hand over fist, if only they could make their own decisions. But, any time they make decisions for them, then they lose money. (Loosely, I think “they” is the post office people, and “they” on the other hand is Congress.) I had a hard time trying to explain that “They” are both the same people: Government Drones.
  • He set up as a model systems the various statist countries around the world: Spain, France, and course, the Scandinavian countries. I didn’t explain to him that most of Europe is in flames, and what isn’t burning now, will be aflame soon enough. I don’t have any idea how the statism of the Scandinavian countries.
  • The Republican Party is in place for the express purpose of serving the rich. When asked if the Democrats weren’t simply another side of the same coin, he agreed, and stated that the Democratic Party does not have the strength or will to pass really meaningful legislation. I thought of Nancy Pelosi’s remark about “passing a law to see what’s in it.” Seems pretty strong-willed to me.
  • He supports the 2nd Amendment. I told him the left wants to take away his guns, he agreed and said he disagrees with the Democrats on that issue. That’s all I’m going to say on that item.
  • He said that there should be a minimum wage of $20-$25 per hour. Even for burger flippers. When asked what that will do to the price of a burger, he said it will stay the same and the evil burger corporations (And I might agree that the giant burger corporations are, in fact, evil) will take that out of their profit margin. Because no one has the right to charge $6-7 bucks on a burger that costs them $.20 to make.
  • Apparently, in the IT world, a company will profit some 3x the amount they pay a worker and that’s not fair. I tried to explain that the reason the construction company I work for is profitable is because they make more money using me than they have to pay me. They agreed to pay me x. I agreed to work for x. If I wanted a different deal, then I should have not agreed to work for x. If I wanted to take the risk and put in the time and energy to run a construction company, I would have done that. I don’t want to do that, so I agree to work for someone who did want to do that. Presumably, it’s the same thing in the IT world. He said the same opportunities don’t exist today that existed then and it’s harder for people to start a business. I agreed that starting a business now is probably very much more difficult today then it was “then.” (Due to the Government!!) (Now, at this point, a little light bulb is starting to go off in my head.)
  • It’s the Boomers fault. The generation that had the greatest opportunity in the history of the world has taken that opportunity, turned it upside down, and fucked the upcoming generations. (DING, DING, DING! We have a winner!)

There’s more, but you get the general gist of it. It was basically a model of more statism for more solutions to the worlds problems and to take care of people. Look, he’s a smart guy. He’s a computer guy. He’s making good money, and he’s traveling the world. He’s studied, at least to some level, this information. Some of it sounded like sound bites he quoted from another source; Maybe something he heard and liked. He had facts & figures in his head and cited studies to prove-up his points. I can’t disprove the Scandinavian countries models work, because I’ve never been there. But I’ve never seen something that the Government didn’t touch that they didn’t fuck up.

Here’s my takeaway from this. (Here’s where I’m going to go out on a limb. I don’t know Stephanie, and I don’t have anything against her or her writing. But from reading her work and talking to my little brother, I’m going to lump all millenials into a cohesive group, and use the word “they” from now on.)

They know something’s wrong. They see it, they feel it, they live it. Shit is fucked-up and bullshit. But, the see it and draw the wrong conclusion. It’s like they see half the equation correctly, and get the answer wrong. I had to agree with half of his premises. We’re waging unjust wars around the globe, and not taking very good care of our people here. Our current healthcare system sucks. Our education system sucks. (We talked about the student loan debt load, too.) America, once the freest country in the world, is no longer small-business friendly, while at the same time, favoring the large corporations. No one has been indicted in the scandals of the 2008 crash. Our elected officials are criminals, serving only those who donated enough money to get them elected and then seeking re-election. As human beings, we should take care of one another. We don’t do a very good job at that. All these points we were in agreement on.

It’s the solution where we disagree. As a libertarian/anarchist, I think it’s up to every human being to take care of him/her self. (I think men have a special role in this, but that’s a post for another day.) If someone wants to reach out and lend a hand up to someone who is down and out, that’s a beautiful thing, BUT I SHOULD NOT BE FORCED TO DO IT AT THE THREAT OF VIOLENCE! And the state IS violence. There can be no mistaking that.

For some reason, the minnies don’t get that. Is it the claptrap they teach them at school? Do they pick this up from their peer group? From the media? The internet?
How can anyone at this point, seeing how fucked up things really are in the world, think that Government is possibly the answer to ANY of our societal problems? I think that the overall trend is going to be MORE statism in the future, not less. LESS freedom, not more. I don’t think, at this point, that there will be any reversing this train until it runs off the rails, collapses, runs into a brick wall and explodes in flames. God help us all.

I love you, bro.

78
Leave a Reply

avatar
  Subscribe  
Notify of
bb

Olga , tell me about yourself.I will know if you are …stupidity gone wild …or if there’s hope for you.

Olga
Olga

I have been called a lot of things over the years but “stupidity gone wild” is a new one … interesting.

bb

TO ALL ,I like most of the people on this site.I give some people a hard time because no one else does.
It’s fun playing the devil’s advocate and it brings people out of their hole.(Tim)

Olga
Olga

bb – let’s get real.

I would imagine that a ridiculous co-intel troll such as yourself struggles with infiltrating a blog – led by the now infamous anti-google patriot JQ and his merry – yet serious – band of INTJ compatriots.

The constant diminution of threads, the off-topic diversions, the personal yet ever-so-cute “assaults” that diverge from the subject yet emotionally draw people in – thus diminishing the content of the post and turning away any visitors is pretty obvious to me.

You are here to reduce the impact this blog may have to the wayward individual that stumbles on over – and nothing more.

I suspect they pay you well because this blog is having an impact and that can not continue.

FAIL

Don
Don

Nobody should be able to make a profit when it comes to taking care of the health needs of the people.
=> Food is more essential to life than healthcare. Should no one be able to make a profit growing or processing food?

When the profit motive becomes involved in better health for humanity, then the whole process gets corrupted. He used the example of a study that demonstrated that a saline bag costs $0.39 to manufacture and it shows up on your hospital bill for $800.
=> There are good types of economic regulation, and there are bad types of economic regulation. Requiring hospitals and pharmacies to post prices on the Web, so that consumers can make informed choices and requiring medical bills to be issued in a standard format that is clear and easy to understand are free market types of regulation.

He correlated the greatest growth period in America in the 50’s & 60’s, which also had the highest tax rates in history. So, apparently, high tax rates = high economic growth.
=> Post hoc ergo propter hoc.
=> There were so many loopholes in the tax system that the wealthiest Americans paid a lot less than they do today. Reagan brought the top tax bracket down from 70% to 40%, but he got rid of so many loopholes that the wealthiest Americans actually paid a bigger portion of their income in taxes. (Congress since added a lot of them back in.)

So far as student debt is concerned, economic studies have shown that the more money you pump into higher ed, the more tuition and fees rise. Certain sectors of the economy work that way. (I forget the name for that economic principle, but I remember that it’s so common that there’s a name for it.) College loans are driving up the cost of college. The government has to get rid of them, or at least make them contingent on lower tuition and fees.

Finally, wait until he hits his 50s (or maybe even his 40s). He’ll see how incredibly strong age discrimination is in the computer industry.

DC Sunsets

I find it funny (no, hilarious) that people pound the table in certainty that the future will be this or that.

Charles Hugh Smith’s blog post on this was brilliant:
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogfeb14/certainty2-14.html

“A lot of people are remarkably certain that their understanding of how systems will respond in the future is correct. Alan Greenspan was certain there was no housing bubble in 2007, for example (or he did a great job acting certain). There is no shortage of people who are certain the U.S. dollar is doomed to collapse, but only after losing the reserve currency status.

“Other people are certain China can launch a gold-backed currency that will replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

“Some are certain the U.S. stock market is going to crash this year, while others are equally certain that stocks will continue lofting higher on central bank tailwinds.

“Being wrong about the way systems responded in the past doesn’t seem to deter people from being certain about the future. Those who were certain there was no bubble in 2007-8 were wrong, and those (myself included) who saw the can being kicked down the road were wrong in not anticipating that global stocks would not just recover their pre-crash heights but go on to new nominal highs, based on the excellence of the can-kicking skills of central states and banks.”

THE BEST part is this:

“Certainty has another advantage: it’s more persuasive than hedged hesitancy.”

People who are sure about their forecasts are, from my experience, unwise.

DC Sunsets

This is all just a big cycle.

People have forgotten what made the West powerful and what made for rising living standards. The principles of 17th century philosophy that underpinned the peak of Western Civilization are discredited.

Is Tim surprised that his brother grasps none of them? Why? Our neighbors do not, either.

Every civilization passes through a life cycle. Ours is in decline.

Get over it, and surf the waves as they come. Our ancestors all did, from the dawn of history through the fall of Babylonian, Greek, Roman, Spanish, Dutch, French, British and United States’ empires.

No one knows the future. All I plan to do is run through my own OODA loop as fast as I can, all the time.

What you do is not my problem.

Billy
Billy

You all are a bunch of heathens…

NOBODY got what I posted about Bistromathics or the IID?

No Douglas Adams fans here, huh?

Fine… all of you must have had your senses of humor surgically removed at birth or something…

Meh…

bb

Olga, you bitch about Google and the government and think they are evil but it’s ok to censor or ban me from this blog .That’s the height of hypocrisy.You don’t like the way I deal with some people and you act as if I have hurt your feelings.If I make you so uncomfortable then you leave.End of your problem .Good grief ,sometimes I feel like a baby sitter.I am leaving now to take my x wife to a movie.HAPPY NOW ?

Punk in Drublic
Punk in Drublic

Billy, I gave you a thumbs up.

Billy
Billy

“Billy, I gave you a thumbs up.” — PiD

For what it’s worth, thanks… I don’t fish for thumbs up… or down, for that matter.

But come ON! Doug Adams wrote some of the funniest books in the history of mankind! And only ONE GUY got the reference?

I tried to explain the Infinite Improbability Drive to my son… the spaceship is calculated to be in every conceivable point in the Universe simultaneously, and then you just choose which point you want… saves messing around with hyperspace.. even HE thought it was funny.. and that Bistromathics had to be calculated by robot waiters to actually work…

Man… nobody appreciates the esoteric.. well, okay, Punk does… but everyone else?

El Coyote
El Coyote

Billy, I perused your comment and decided you were b.s.’ing, something you rarely do but hey, don’t let Olga find out or she’ll boot you off for diminishing the validity of her opinions, er, comments.

IndenturedServant

Billy, I got it but like so much interesting and funny shit that exists on the web, I just have no time for it. Too much other crap to do.

Did you ever look into that pain killer I told you about? It’s some seriously good shit, non-systemic, non-addictive and at least has the potential to make a real difference.
I_S

IndenturedServant

Olga, it looks like Google forced admin to delete my post that contained that article. The article (interview) was in Mother Earth News Magazine issue #31 (part 1) and issue #32 (part 2) and was called The Plowboy Interview: John Shuttleworth. In it, John Shuttleworth mentioned the author and book that mentioned the info on the Dark Ages. The article is posted on the MEN website if you can find it. The interview is long but well worth the read.

Perhaps admin can restore it if he still has it.
I_S

Administrator

Indentured Servant

Do you remember the name of the Post? I have every post ever made in the archive and can restore it in 10 seconds.

Administrator
IndenturedServant

Oh yeah Olga, don’t waste your time with bb. He’s just a giant skid mark in the collective underwear of society. I don’t even read his bullshit comments anymore. It was your comment about him that caught my attention. A fucking tapeworm would make more intelligent comments.
I_S

M111ark
M111ark

Stucky, you clearly have no idea what you’re talking about, not uncommon on this site that is so full of bullshit, misinformation, misdirection, white hot anger that induces stupidity and mind-numbing insanity.

Like I said, congress critters are all a bunch of overpaid ass wipes who couldn’t hold a real job for more than 10 minutes, BUT, this is what she said:

The Context Behind Nancy Pelosi’s Famous ‘We Have to Pass the Bill’ Quote

the whole speech ass wipe. If you can’t read all the big words ask your mommie to read it to ya… slowly so the words sink in.

bb

I S ,tapeworm ? you are ignoring your own ringworm symptoms and you do read my comments.I will be nice to you for a little while.FAIR ENOUGH ?

El Coyote
El Coyote

M111ark says:

“Stucky, you clearly have no idea what you’re talking about, not uncommon on this site that is so full of bullshit, misinformation, misdirection, white hot anger that induces stupidity and mind-numbing insanity.”

Bullshit = Misinformation + Misdirection. Mind Numbing Insanity = Stupidity

Therefore, what you said was: Stucky, [I] clearly have no idea what you are talking about….this site…is so full of bullshit, that [it] induces [in me] stupidity…

This is exactly why I suggested that commenters dumb down the language they use, so numb-nut knuckle draggers like M111arse will not suffer needlessly.

Welshman
Welshman

M111arse,

Stucky is TBP “Dave Barry” guy who is a good man, and very delightful and insightful. You sir can go fuck yourself.

Administrator

M111ark is a liberal troll. He shits on the site while offering no alternative viewpoint. That is the liberal MO. Worthless ignorant piece of shit brainwashed by the liberal media and public education system. Too stupid to think for himself.

Tim
Tim

@ bb: You consider yourself to be some kind of intellectual Agent Provocateur or something, in that you’ve often claimed your reason for being at TBP is to elicit us to look deep inside ourselves or some such horseshit. 100% of the remainder of the people on the site, and I mean, literally, 100% see you as something different. Nevertheless, I’m going to try this, against my own better judgement.

My high school football coach told us once that there’s nothing wrong with BEING ignorant, but the problem was STAYING ignorant. bb, you are IGNORANT as to the idea of anarchy that I am proposing. And, by ignorant, I mean: You do not know. You do not have knowledge. But. that’s OK. The word has been so twisted over time (perhaps intentionally?) that “the word does not mean what I think you think it means.”

When most people hear the word “anarchy” they think of cities burning, looting, blood in the streets, etc. That’s what I thought, too. Recently, I found a guy named Mark Passio on YouTube who does a great seminar on Natural Law. It’s about 8 hours long, so I had to listen to it in chunks as I was working outside. From the Greek:
An = Without
Archon = Rulers

Anarchy= Without rulers.

A similar analogy would be that the slaves do not need a master.

In this idea of “anarchy” each human being takes responsibility for their own life and becomes their own internal ruler. I don’t need a “master” to tell me what or what not to put in my own body, or whether to wear my seat belt or not, or any number of other ridiculous “laws” to tell the slaves how to conduct their own lives. Don’t tread on the rights of others.

Again, Mark Passio does a much better and more detailed job of explaining this. You’ve judged me based on my words, which you have no understanding what the words mean or what my value system is. Hope this helps to clarify.

bb

Tim ,the main reason I come to this site is for the good economic.information.
Admin ,does a good job cutting away all the lies and misinformation about the economy and there are others here with decades of.business experience.

All these irreligious ideologies are just nothing but dressed up pagan idolatry.Most are Godless and satanic to the core.Millions have been murdered because of people worshipping these idols.The biblical ignorance and the worshiper of false gods go hand and hand.You want admit it but.anarchism is another one of these worldviews.Those who came up.with it hatred western cultural sought ways to destroy and undermine our nation.You may see something else in anarchism but it’s core is evil.

Stucky

M111ark

I submitted a brief video of Pelosi in her own words.

You submit a 2,986 word link that supposedly analyses her comment.

Typical libtard bullshit. You need to be told what you just heard because you can’t think for yourself. You think 2,986 Words Of Obfuscation is the answer?? bwaahahahahaha

Libtards provide more humor than I can ever muster.

bb

Tim.,if you don’t want people to challenge you worthless worldview then don’t tell what you are.I.was being nice to you .If we would have been on another site I would have verbally pulled your tongue out your butt and beat you over the head with it.This is admin site and his blog.I try ,I really try to remember this when I am dealing with.people ….You don’t have to worry about being nice to me .I can take and give.

IndenturedServant

Thanks admin! For just a minute I thought I was losing my mind when I didn’t see that post in my list of posts but then I remembered The Great Purge you had to make. Thanks again. I hope Olga finds it.
I_S

Bruce
Bruce

IS

You said to Admin………………….

“Do you remember the name of the Post? I have every post ever made in the archive and can restore it in 10 seconds.”

So does the NSA and they can pull it up in ,03427 seconds or less.

Discover more from The Burning Platform

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading