I know where we went wrong in America

Beautiful new homes in landscaped neighborhoods.

They are beautiful now and the grass is green and the neighborhood looks great but look at the homes and you will see how cheaply made they are including the streets they will crack and just a few years and I mean the foundation's the houses are built on and the streets out in front of them you see it everywhere cheap materials. When I see a nice new home I have to look at the construction material and based on that I'll make a calculation of how long it will take before the neighborhood is in a state of disrepair and I move on to someplace else. I am 60 years old and I still have not bought a house and will not because they are out of our league if you are a working man who can afford an 1800 square foot or larger house and land set it on and pay the taxes on it. I would rather live a distance from the city or town out on the open Plains or desert or Forest and build a small cabin or wood house or maybe a brick or adobe home and pay less for it and build it two specifications that I could live with. 800 square feet would be fine.

Homelessness is creeping higher.

Square footage is creeping higher.

What will it take to bring homelessness lower and square footage lower and prices lower so that people can have a place to sleep and raise a family in equality neighborhood in a quality built home?

A decent Society depends on a quality neighborhood.

Will the day be upon us in the United States of America when The Working family will no longer be able to live in and be able to afford the quality home and neighborhood?

a reply to: Bluntone22

My first job I did make $3 hour, and you know, that money went a lot further back then, or so it seems.

I have a home that was built back in 1952. Still has the coved plaster as the wall meets the ceiling. It is a brick home with all hardwood floors. It also has two secret rooms in it. One in the basement and one on the second floor. The one in the basement is creepy as hell and just needs chains on the wall for a victim or two.

Of course, I have a 30 year on it.. The only way its worth it is if the next generation takes over the home. Then they just have the taxes. I will have it paid off and I am willing it to my daughter. It's up to her to screw it all up I suppose.

originally posted by: Scifi2424
I have a home that was built back in 1952. Still has the coved plaster as the wall meets the ceiling. It is a brick home with all hardwood floors. It also has two secret rooms in it. One in the basement and one on the second floor. The one in the basement is creepy as hell and just needs chains on the wall for a victim or two.

Haha, I keep expecting to stumble on a secret room in the basement, but I've yet to find evidence of one. The cat seems to think the basement is NOT the place the be by himself, he's pretty scared of it for some reason. The fireplace's ash pit access hatch in particular.

My mother loves telling everyone about her grandfather's secret room addition to their house when she was a kid. It was supposed to be somewhere he could just disappear to to avoid the grandkids, but they all found it & used to steal their grandma's fresh cookies and eat them in it. I may or may not be slightly jealous of that, who wouldn't want a secret snacking hideout?

When the Supreme court made corporations people is when America was destroyed.

If America had been destroyed everytime some extremist political source claimed we were ... we would never had existed.

The last house I owned was built by a husband for his wife in the 30's out of solid oak milled to actual 2 x 4 dimensions. Wood was so tough you could hardly pound a nail in it. I doubt he had to buy any permits at all. Those were the days!

Homeowners make better neighbors.
With so many renting it's no wonder we have little sense of community.

a reply to: JAGStorm

We went wrong when we allowed taxes, ALL taxes, and then we went off the rails when we allowed politicians to use those tax revenues to pander to those paying the least. We are a snake eating it's own tail.

originally posted by: CB328
When the Supreme court made corporations people is when America was destroyed.

"Your honor, the victim had already been mauled by a bear, beaten by thugs, stabbed by a slasher, shot repeatedly with heavy automatic weaponry, doused in kerosene and burned for at least 3 hours, submerged in a flood, run through a wood chipper, sprinkled with arsenic, and shat upon by feral rodents with Hanta virus... but that man, the defendant, sneered at the aftermath and we are confident that's what killed the victim. MURDERER!!!"

:rolleyes:

a reply to: burdman30ott6

Tax revenues to pander to those paying the least?

Are you speaking of social safety net programs?

Are you saying we should make those available to the rich as well?

????

Hey Genius, taxes are in the constitution.

I can't believe people still claim this stupid crap. You will most likely pay more in interest and fees, penalities, false charges and overcharges to business in your life then you ever will in taxes, but people are still crying about taxes, when they're at the lowest level since the 1930's.

originally posted by: Gryphon66
a reply to: burdman30ott6

Tax revenues to pander to those paying the least?

Are you speaking of social safety net programs?

Are you saying we should make those available to the rich as well?

????

Not just social safety net programs, corporate handouts, foreign interests, cronies... the middle class and upper middle class fund this nation and see the absolute least benefit out of it. No, the safety nets shouldn't exist at all, on any level. I'm a social Darwinist for individuals and for companies. You fail, you fail... society benefits from the natural culling of weakness.

originally posted by: burdman30ott6

originally posted by: Gryphon66
a reply to: burdman30ott6

Tax revenues to pander to those paying the least?

Are you speaking of social safety net programs?

Are you saying we should make those available to the rich as well?

????

Not just social safety net programs, corporate handouts, foreign interests, cronies... the middle class and upper middle class fund this nation and see the absolute least benefit out of it. No, the safety nets shouldn't exist at all, on any level. I'm a social Darwinist for individuals and for companies. You fail, you fail... society benefits from the natural culling of weakness.

Ah. I should have known your basis was even-handed at least.

My jury is still out on the issue of helping out in terms of housing, feeding kids, etc. I will say the way we have done it was not working as well as I think it could.

originally posted by: CB328
Hey Genius, taxes are in the constitution.

I can't believe people still claim this stupid crap. You will most likely pay more in interest and fees, penalities, false charges and overcharges to business in your life then you ever will in taxes, but people are still crying about taxes, when they're at the lowest level since the 1930's.

Did I say they weren't? I was saying we were screwed out of the gate, Einstein.

Income taxes are at their lowest levels since the 30's because 55% of America doesn't pay jack squat. When you consider inflation is a tax, property taxes, sales taxes, local, state, and federal income tax, death tax, fuel tax, plus all of the hidden taxes such as higher rates for those who have to pay for the subsidies of those who don't have you're full of it up to your eyeballs when you argue taxes are currently at their lowest since the 30s.

a reply to: Gryphon66

I could swallow the pill easier if the decision making process related to who receives what wasn't consolidated in the hands of a select few who also happen to be in near continuous election cycles looking to rise up the political ladders.

America's lack of democracy is staggering in many ways.

originally posted by: burdman30ott6
a reply to: Gryphon66

I could swallow the pill easier if the decision making process related to who receives what wasn't consolidated in the hands of a select few who also happen to be in near continuous election cycles looking to rise up the political ladders.

America's lack of democracy is staggering in many ways.

Agreed 1000% I'm just finishing a read of The Federalist Papers ... my god what we made is not what they intended.

Most of the Federal government is really, really not justified by the Constitution ... (whatever "party" is in power.) Now, I could make a decent argument that the US had to grow and change as time went on incorporating a huge territory and population ... and have.

But jeez ... James Madison especially would not even comprehend that we've done "all this."

They won’t use the billions to hire Americans, boost wages or innovate new products. Instead, the CEOs will buy yachts and tell you that Chinese or Mexicans stole your jobs.
China and Mexico don’t make us poor, predatory capitalism does.

originally posted by: madenusa
They won’t use the billions to hire Americans, boost wages or innovate new products. Instead, the CEOs will buy yachts and tell you that Chinese or Mexicans stole your jobs.
China and Mexico don’t make us poor, predatory capitalism does.

Support those trade tariffs, ya? This country can return to the glory days, but not with global free trade, stringent minimum wage laws and worker protections, and some of the toughest environemental and regulatory red tape in the world. Choose 2 at most... one preferably while loosening one and dropping the third entirely, but no way in hell we do anything but fail with all 3 in place.

originally posted by: burdman30ott6

originally posted by: madenusa
They won’t use the billions to hire Americans, boost wages or innovate new products. Instead, the CEOs will buy yachts and tell you that Chinese or Mexicans stole your jobs.
China and Mexico don’t make us poor, predatory capitalism does.

Support those trade tariffs, ya? This country can return to the glory days, but not with global free trade, stringent minimum wage laws and worker protections, and some of the toughest environemental and regulatory red tape in the world. Choose 2 at most... one preferably while loosening one and dropping the third entirely, but no way in hell we do anything but fail with all 3 in place.

Profits are made on the labor of the poor, the consumption of the poor, and the debt of the poor.
Banks create money out of thin air and then charge interest on it.
America is being eaten alive by corporate greed..
Our government would rather spend trillions on a War with money out of thin air and charge use interest on it..

More Than Half the Members of Congress Are Millionaires
I would love to work for two years then retire....Congress is rapidly becoming a millionaire’s club: