None the less, majority should always rule within reason and not every state should be the same. I have no WI connection beyond Renny so part of me sides with my friend by nature of that fact that I hope he gets what he wants, even if I am generally for the teachers in my district.
While watching his back-and-forth with supporters and debaters on facebook he happened to write about things he has done since becoming a husband and father to make sure he can provide for his family. This was in response to someone assuming he woudln't want to pay for private school at 7K a year for his kids.
"I quit smoking. I quit chewing. I quit drinking. I quit going to concerts. I don't remember the last time I bought a CD. I canceled my gym membership and started working out at home. I don't have netflix anymore. I only buy used cars with cash to avoid additional expenses. I don't have video game systems. I don't have computer games...My wife and children are my life, I will shovel shit in a rainy ditch before my family knows need. Anything is affordable if you want it bad enough."
Renny is a guy I havent seen in years, but through face-space, have turned to for advice on wine making, beer brewing, where to find a cheap case of PBR (find the distrbutor that is located as far from hipster hang-outs as possible so there is no ironic demand for it) weigth-lifting, cycling etc. With similar interests and a few years extra under his belt than I, I look up to the guy.
You see, I think of myself as a man's man, not afraid to get hands dirty, not afraid of sweating, not afraid of telling the truth, standing up to a challenge. And perhaps most importantly, not afraid of going without. It's a manly ability. It's based off of the personal fear/interpersonal contempt for being the opposite.
A man's man like Renny realizes that if at some point in his life he was sitting on top of an offroad motorcycle, or in the drivers seat of a huge pickup truck with all manner of gay upgrades, or maybe a shiny sports car, and from the doorway his wife is holding a baby and crying that the power has been shut off,, to a real man there should be a law requiring him to go sell a kidney, donate his testicles to science, give the money to his family, and allow the doctor to just step away from the operating table and let him bleed out afterwards to free earth of the burdens he creates. No anastesia. This is not because of political banter about the welfare state, but because of the age old laws of maleness.
Enter the buzz word of the day: Frugal-Fatigue. Heard it on a morning show today. American's are getting tired of spending less during the recession.
Does it surprise anyone that in a country where we'd have to sell off every material and intellectual property in Manhattan, the capitol of the world, to just put a dent in the national debt, that we get tired of being frugal? Thats like saying I get tired of lifting Buicks over my head. 'We' get tired of just thinking about being frugal.
My initial reaction to the concept of Frugal-Fatigue is that I feel a bit guilty. Recently I bought a Kindle and I have a small wearable camera arriving next week. Keep in mind this is coming from a guy who asked that his christmas gift be two pairs of jeans and a bright cycling jacket (bright for safety purposes).
I also worked enough overtime to pay for the Kindle even after taking taxes into consideration. The camera was purchased with cash-back points from my credit card. The only thing that actually dipped into my discretionary income for was the part of the memory card not covered by cashback points. In other words both gadgets, combined cost of 412 dollars, had the effect on my bank account of spending 73 dollars out of my usual pay check.
What's the difference between Me and Renny vs. the indebted American? We buy things like those gadgets at a loss to funds we feel we should have saved Vs. just plain straight-up spending. We buy things we want with money we didnt literally need. Other people feel they need the things they want.
I knew a guy named 'Junky Joe' once (don't judge me, it wasn't my fault I met him) who would have to crap outside when his toilet stopped working because he couldn't afford gas to drive to home depot let alone buy a new ball cock. Single? Fine. But Junky Joe was a dad. He drove a Jeep Cherokee on a Hyundai Elantra income, and he took dumps outside like a dog. I passed within feet of him at an amusement park once and pretended not to see him because I was embarrassed to have met him and I was with my family. Couldnt afford to shit inside but went to ride roller coasters. He never let it rest that I snubbed him. Fuck'em.
As it happens, Junky Joe served in the same Army Division Renny and I did, 10th Mountain. When your kid has to go outside to take a dump in the middle of winter you should probably think about re-enlisting.
Waiting a year for my card to build up points enough to buy my camera is something called delayed-gratification. A professor of mine who worked as a newspaper columnist once wrote a whole column about delayed gratification. He was inspired when he found out that Pumpkin Pie Tasty Cakes, a seasonal offering so far as he had known, were available at one grocery store all year long. He decided to not give in and buy one in August on some random day. He would wait for the season. I do the same thing with cadbury eggs. April only.
Delayed gratification isn't what we all necessarily think of when we think of America.
Ok, that was completely out of left field.
Cocaine is delayed gratification. I mean, compared to putting the final deckhand figurine on a 1:1000 scale coastal cruiser inside of a glass 2 gallon jug, snorting cocaine is a much more instant gratification. But compared to crack cocaine....My what wonders will American ingenuity come up with next?
Somwhere in the middle, but leaning much closer to ship building, is making your own wine. I remember Renny's advice, "find some older people in your town who have a pear tree and offer to clean up their yard for them in the fall. You give them the good pears and you take the rancid pears. Those are good for country wine."
I also got some chicken-raising advice from Renny. I feel dumb that to date I've neither made my own wine or raised chickens. Gotta get me some land already.
I never fatigue of being frugal. I can't understand the concept. I'd get tired really fast of having to pay interest on my credit card by not paying off the balance in full each month. 200 dollars of cash back rewards certainly gives me energy. Buying a starbucks coffee once a week was delayed gratification. Not having one for a few weeks sent the mental value of a caramel machiatto through the roof now that I've had one today. Sometimes when something is good you have to resist the urge to say "I should do this more often" Maybe your doing it exactly enough to keep it's value high. Try not doing it for a while.
Heroin addicts get tired of being heroin addicts in about a week and continue on with habitual behavior anyway for months, years, lifetimes. People do the same thing with their credit cards. Long after the thrill of buying is gone, they continue chasing the dragon. Studies have found that at a point it becomes more pleasurable to want something than to have it. I've enjoyed wanting for years. Sometimes I say to myself while wanting, "I should do this more often."
As a buzz-word/phrase "Frugal Fatigue" is just a shorter buzzier way of saying "People want business-as-usual back." I think AA would call it an 'addiction relapse'.
Renny and I would call it 'personal weakness' in the presence of our families or, 'a bunch of fuckin pansies' in the presence of a case of PBR.
I think's its funny how liberal I am and how conservative Renny is and yet, no matter how he's voting, I know the world would be worse without him. Politics is just a filter to see him through but the real meat and potatoes is his character. I'd like to think he'll raise kids who can stop the Nazi's or build a space program because he will instill in them the same spirit of improving their condition that made America all of the good things that it is/was. American ingenuity knows no bounds. We both worked at Fort Drum and went to Afghanistan and continued on to build lives. Some people on the other hand came from our shared beginnings and are taking dumps in the woods. Does it matter as all how Junky Joe votes? Voting is an expression, a word. Actions speak louder than words. (Possible exception: Mish-Mash's of Buzz-Words)
Crack a PBR to real men, delayed gratification, putting politics aside to remember the people behind them, and last but not least, Operation Enduring Frugalilty. When the recession passes and we all start flipping houses and snorting cocaine again, 'Never Forget' that it won't last forever. Realize that no matter how much time I spent out of work during the worst of it, I was never in debt, never starved and thats probably because of the lack of designer clothes in my closet. Discipline people! Enjoy the pleasures of delayed gratification.
