and you wonder why people do crazy sh|t
 

Ok, this may seem like Im rambling, or Ive lost my mind(both are quite possible), but here goes.
On the sister forum, I recently sold a piece of test equipment,sent it to him on good faith, since I dont use paypal or plastic. No problem there, guy got the equipment, it checked out ok, he sent me a postal money order, everyone's happy, right?
WRONG
So I head my happy ass down to the check cashing place that I always use since I dont like banks, due to the factthat it just dont seem right for some place to charge me to make money off my money.
I sign it, hand it to the cute young lady behind the counte and she frowns, "Sorry, we cant cash that."
:confused:
"Uhm, why not?" I ask ever so nicely. She then explains that only the post office will cash those, a fact that I was blissfully unaware of.
Ok, thats cool, I will just have to wait till tomorrow and go to THE UNITED STATES POST OFFICE(Big letters and important sounding name which we all are supposed to trust and believe in).
---------------------fast forward to the next morning------------------
BRRRR, freezin cold and I got better things to do, but off I go to getz me cash. I walk up and wait in line while the postal workers discuss the current temperature, football scores and little jennys rash with the local yahoos.
1st teller; "Sorry, I cant cash that, maybe idiot #2 can." (I have to actually give a crap about your existance before I allocate memory space for your name)
Idiot #2; "Nope, cant do it, maybe idiot #3 can."
Idiot #3;"Nope, maybe later on I can."
All this time, the blood pressure is going up, so I make a wise decision and turn around and walk away while shaking my head and muttering "Epic fail"
My question is, if you are in the business of selling a proprietary service, like money orders only you can cash, shouldntyou have the money to cover one, especially first thing in the morning?
You, as a rational person would think so,,,,,right?
WRONG

Which leads me to the title of this post,.Well, the way I see it, people that snap are just done with the bullshit that our existance is so full of. Hell the government gets to do what they want, when they want, and to whoever they want, so Why cant I? All our lives they spew forth rules and regulations and laws, but oh hell no, they dont gotta follow them.
So, the next time some thug beats the crap outta a 80 year old grandmother or some kid gets abducted and chopped to little pieces, you now probly know the primary reason they went ballistic.


have a nice fuckin day,,,,,,,

Sucks, doesn't it? This is just one person's experience versus another's but I've cashed a few 4 figure money orders lately and, though my small post office couldn't handle them, the main post office has been able to.

Hope you find a big enough post office!

John

Think the crazy gone postal guy at the beginning of Lethal Weapon 4 :D

Pete

Our bank here cashes them as generally the local PO does not have that much cash on hand.

You need to buy (not rent) the movie "Falling Down". I probably watch it four times a year.

"You ever hear of the point of no return? It's the point in a man's journey when it would take longer to turn around and go back then to just keep going. Like those guys that went up to the moon and had that problem? They couldn't go back, they had to go back behind the moon and they couldn't communicate for... a couple hours. And everybody was waiting to see if a bunch of dead guys in a can would pop out on the other side. Well that's where I am. I'm behind the moon. And I guess everybody's just gonna have to wait and see if I... pop out."

Perfect example of why we can not let the government get involved with or
take over private business. Otherwise we will all be standing in line like cattle
waiting for our rations.

yeah, saw it, loved it, live it.

Yup. Government can't do anything right. I mean except build the first atomic bomb. That's it. Nothing else. Well, unless you count sending man to the moon. But that's all. I mean except for the interstate highway system. But those are the sum achievements of the... well, Medicare works pretty well. But other than those few thing- actually, they run the best military on Earth, but...

blew me right away the first time i tried to cash a $100 mo at the local po and was told it was a no go. especially when you know they ought to and do have more than $100 just to open the doors everyday-some moron's idea of how to keep robbers away. but blaming the gov't. is way off the mark here. in case you haven't noticed; no one is doing what they are doing. 'bakers' don't bake a loaf of bread to sell anymore; they put together the cheapest facsimile of a 'loaf of bread' that can be merchandised as a 'loaf of bread'.
services are promoted as solving a particular problem or satisfying a particular need, but, in fact, service the promoter first and foremost, leaving the purchaser to work it out on his own; ala the mo. even the sick are rousted from sleep, or what peace they can grab in a hospital, and scheduled into the 'caregiver's' routine so that 'production' will not falter, and billing can proceed.
i worked for the po long ago, and i can tell you that at that time, service to the customer was paramount-no bullshit excuses why mail was late, lost or mistreated. you could then add 25cents or so to the postage and have a guy personally deliver the letter as soon as it reached the po in the addressee's town. i knew very few people there who didn't take what they did seriously.
now the only thing taken seriously is 'how much can we get and put out as little as we can. a buddy called me today to ask my opinion on a guy who did some work for him. changed a termocouple on the pilot light of his basement space heater-$150 plus parts. i told him that no, not that much work was involved but that those guys have to make several hundred a day or they'll drown, so they really don't want to come out for much less than a couple hundred. then he said the guy just does this on the side-not his real gig, and that he had previously replaced the bathtub faucet(valves, spout and showerhead w/ two 12" supply pipes replaced for $650 and tokd my buddy he was getting it 'cheap'. i told him time to find a new guy-this one figures he's got the goose that laid the golden egg. my point really is that we've somehow engendered a society wherein doing things right or well is irrelevant; what counts is maximizing the take and upping the volume. hence, we've wound up w/cars that cost more than my first house and have not a fraction of the substance which used to be 'standard ' on a common chevrolet. the knowledge of a better time and way does not last much more than a generation or two-'special d' is just an elvis tune to a diminishing portion of the living.

Disassociate much? :rolleyes:

Sure, it has been my experience that if you want something really, really FUBAR'ed give it to some private business, like our local power company. They could not find their collective arse with both hands and a flashlight. I will admit that Congress runs a close second. With most large banks close behind.

(Snort) "We're from the Guvverment...We're here t'help..."(Snort, snort) Every year, taxes get higher & higher, & the level of service goes lower & lower...Most of those jokers couldn't hack it as Chief Tester in a Mattress Factory...

And after that they hit us on the head and grind us into hamburger. ;)

John

Man, I gotta tell you, this simply is not true. Taxes are at historically low levels now.

Check it out:

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfa....cfm?Docid=200

Federal only. I can't find a total graph.

Pete

You need to correlate that to the number of employed people and salary increases. I am sure there are a few more people in the country now than there were in 1960.

Yes, you've also got to look at the increased commercial and industrial wealth of the country over time. The chart reflects total revenue from all sources, not just that from personal income taxes.

The attached graph from the CBO shows the resultws of our tax cut mania.

John

I don't understand. That chart says that as % of GDP we're at the lowest rates since 1993 and rates consistant with the lowest since 1945.

Yes, in terms of receipts and outlay but not in terms of the deficit as a % of GDP.

John

I feel I must warn you all that my father was a statistician (that's how I know how to spell it) and he taught me that "there are lies, there are damned lies, and there are statistics." They have to be the most mis-used sets of data extant.

I understand Rob, but we've got to have something to tell us what's going on!

As a percentage of GDP seems apropos to me. Yes, it's low, by what, 1%? Stop the presses.

Increasing deficits, well take a look at what the Dems are doing to us right now. That is ALL about spending, not the (current) tax burden.

Pete

oh my, it's those nasty dems again



God Bless

Who else? :)

We don't have Cheney to blame anymore :D

Thanks, bless you too noone.

Pete

Sure we do! Darth Vader is the gift that keeps on giving.;)

Did you hear him on Hannity the other night? Amazing!

John

Cheney is a whack job. Is now and always has been. And Hannity isn't much more sensible.

BTW, take a closer look at that last chart, and when the historical rises in deficits are. Like the period between about 1980 and about 1992-4, then again from 2001 to the present for example.

But, then again, wasn't it Cheney who said deficits don't really matter?
Oh that's right, deficits don't matter unless it's Democrats that are running them up.

Of course there is WW2, but I think that may have been a bit different.

Dave

Look at 08 to 09 spending.

Pete

Yes, the entire quote is, "Reagan taught us deficits don't matter."

I guess what he means is Reagan taught us that when Republicans run up record deficits, as they did in the 12 year Reagan-Bush presidencies, a Democrat will eventually come along and clean up the mess. After inheriting those deficits Clinton managed to leave office with a surplus. I hope Obama can at least put a dent in the damage Shrub did.

John

You do realize that 700 billion of that is TARP, don't you?

John

It was sort of like when a departing tenant blows out the pilot light on the gas water heater then when the new tenant comes in and the place blows up they get blamed. :p

This is mistaken, a shell game.

Yep, that tril worth of pork'll get that spending in line!

TARP was a loan, payments are already coming in. Which will be spent too on top of that tril.

Pete

Wait just a dog gone minute. Now that I think about it I've seen other info that contradicts that chart. Let me see if I can find it.

Pete

No, it's not. Ever since Bush squandered it the Republicans have been claiming that it never existed but it most definitely did.

http://www.factcheck.org/askfactchec...e_federal.html

If you want to talk about shell games we can talk about the Bush war spending.

Pork? Explain, please. How is it pork to loan money to critically ill critical industries?

Yes, I know it was a loan. So was the money Congress authorized after Obama took office. The fact that so much has been repaid so soon is an indication of its success.

Yes, I know it's going to be loaned out again (not "spent"). I think that's good. It'll do a lot of good for the smaller businesses which were totally ignored under TARP. Maybe it'll even go to some of the homeowners who got stuck with those criminal mortgages.

John

The stimulus was a loan?

Here's the skinny on the 'surplus', straight from the treasury department:

to 1999:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/r...ebt_histo4.htm

2000-present:

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/r...ebt_histo5.htm

Pete

Um... yup!

Pete, you need to learn the difference between deficit and debt. They're not synonymous.

John

So, when we're running a surplus the national debt goes... up?

Pete

It can. Learn the difference between debt and deficit and then think about it.

(If you learn this for yourself, you'll believe it. If I were just to tell you, you might not.)

John

So you run a surplus, but go further in debt. You are absolutely right, I DON'T understand it. Hence shell game.

Pete

So Clinton didnt pay the bills for a few years and balanced the budget. Give
that man a cigar - oops nevermind.

That chart isn't adjusted for inflation. When you do that here's what you get:

Inflation Adjusted Increase/Decrease In National Debt
1982-1985 Reagan +49.0%
1986-1989 Reagan +40.2%
1990-1993 Bush +32.7%
1994-1997 Clinton +13.2%
1998-2001 Clinton -0.2%
2002-2005 Bush +22.8%

The source for this didn't have Bush's second term.

This is interesting too:

1978-2005 Dem - Fed Spending +9.9%, Fed Debt +4.2%, GDP +12.6%
1978-2005 Rep - Fed Spending +12.1%, Fed Debt +36.4%, GDP +10.7%

So with Republican government since 1978 you get more spending, more debt and less growth.

Here's a graph I really like. :eek The upper block is debt in trillions of dollars. The lower block is debt as a percentage of GDP.

John

LOL!

John