The general decline in standards today

[Virginia Creeper]

Exactly! Most people will help others. Look at those who give when disaster strikes.

But I can't justify forcing others to give. You remove the joy from giving when you do that. When I feel that someone thinks they are entitled to my money I am less likely to help you.
I'm just stubborn that way. :rofl:

You know, I've never considered all that social safety net stuff to be enforced giving, probably because I benefit from it just as much as anyone else. I suspect this may be a case of running into cultural differences. Which at least is less painful than running into walls, which I do with distressing frequency. Really, one would think I would know the layout of my house by now. lol

 

[sheeplady]

People really are very lovely creatures when given the chance to be. I'm happy to hear your family has received so much goodness and generosity.

Yes... they definitely are! I'm always stunned by how much people want to help my family. I always thought people were good (after all, I was good and always wanted to help people) but I have been amazed these past 8 months. I'm talking total strangers who have just put their money, time, prayers, and effort down for us. Yet alone what family and friends have done. I'm seriously humbled. I'm actually getting pretty teary thinking about it.

I can remember the first time someone brought my family a meal. Her mother had cancer when she was young and this woman I hardly knew was bringing us enough food to eat for a week from a restaurant, paid for by her family. I said to her "This is too much, I don't know how we're ever going to make it up to you." And she said to me, "You won't. What you do is you go on when you are well and you take care of some other family who is going through it." That is very true. When a woman I semi-know told me she needed a biopsy but had no one to take care of her son during the procedure, I immediately gave her my phone number and told her I'd come up to the hospital and sit him. No questions asked. I've been there, there is no freaking way I would let another woman struggle.

It's going to take two lifetimes to give what we've been given back into the world. I hope that the one thing that my daughter takes away from this whole experience that has been in many ways so hard on us is that she starts a lifetime of service.

 

[Virginia Creeper]

Yes... they definitely are! I'm always stunned by how much people want to help my family.

I understand that feeling well. Our youngest was born with an autoimmune disorder and a circulatory disorder, and was a very, very poorly little fellow for quite a long time. (He's been in reasonably good health the last year, touch wood.) The incredible generosity we were recipients to when he was at his most acute is enough to blow the mind, but the prolonged love, giving, and patience we continue to receive is, as you say, humbling.

 

[vintageTink]

You know, I've never considered all that social safety net stuff to be enforced giving, probably because I benefit from it just as much as anyone else. I suspect this may be a case of running into cultural differences. Which at least is less painful than running into walls, which I do with distressing frequency. Really, one would think I would know the layout of my house by now. lol

I run into stuff all the time. My toes are always bruised and swollen. My husband says "Wear shoes!"
In the house?! What planet is he from?

 

[Guttersnipe]

lol I seriously spit out my drink.

It's true. There is debate about the earliest use of full debit-credit double-entry accounting, but it originated in Italy during the late medieval or early Renaissance period (we're talking 13th or 14th century . . . )

 

[Gregg Axley]

I don't know if she can. She does pump her own gas though.

Tom, she knows where the gas station is, which means she can get dinner.
She's a keeper.

 

[Stearmen]

That's a huge plus. Most your age cannot say that.

I get up at 4:30, even after I've worked until 11:00 the night before. You do what you have to do and don't complain about it. Most of the younger crowd are aghast at the thought of getting up before the sun.

You get up at O Dark thirty and don't complain? You obviously are not in the Armed Forces! If the men aren't complaining, you know something is wrong!

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I wear shoes or slippers in the house always. Being barefoot hurts my feet too much, even on carpeting.

I run into stuff all the time. My toes are always bruised and swollen. My husband says "Wear shoes!"
In the house?! What planet is he from?

Heck, I have a hired guy for that nowadays lol

And can work on cars, push for that one Tom.

 

[vintageTink]

Tom, she knows where the gas station is, which means she can get dinner.
She's a keeper.

Bwahahahahahha!

 

[Gregg Axley]

Bwahahahahahha!

BTW we haven't seen any more adventures from him, regarding that place.
Gas station tacos, or burgers, or anything.
Don't tell me the board of health shut them down.
What is the local Cardiologist going to do now, for future patients?

 

[Stray Cat]

I'm hoping that if I work hard now, I can retire early enough to actually enjoy my retirement, not spend it in a home.

That's my next stage in life milestone. lol

With age comes experience, and as I have said to you before, I really do wish you well, but do temper your willingness to work, with those who love you. If you are good at what you do, people and customers will accept no for an answer. As in: "No, I am not working on Sunday, but if you come back on Monday....... People only go elsewhere when the service level is poor, most folks that I know, prefer to wait and get the best.

Well said. :thumb:

My sister-in-law is looking for a good man to settle down with.

Well, you never know

"Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match........."

I see I've missed out some interesting things.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's going to take two lifetimes to give what we've been given back into the world. I hope that the one thing that my daughter takes away from this whole experience that has been in many ways so hard on us is that she starts a lifetime of service.

And that was a fundamental value of the Era.

"Being a member of a community means that each one of us takes part in and contributes to its life. The hand is a member of the body. It receives life from the body, If the body is sick, the hand cannot do its work well. If the hand is crippled, the body suffers. So your life is closely interwoven with that of the community of which you are a member. The best of your life comes from participation in its life."

-- The Community and the Citizen, by A. W. Dunn. High School civics textbook, 1914.

 

[Feraud]

I believe that one should voluntarily give some of one's pay to charity. My philosophy is partially based on the idea of tithing and partially on the ideals of "alms to the poor." In other words, charity should just be something that is seen as something you plan on giving some of your income to, AND the fact that someone is always worse off than you are.

I absolutely agree with this.
Perhaps if there were more charitable people around we wouldn't need to constantly gripe about a decline in standards.

 

[1961MJS]

I absolutely agree with this.
Perhaps if there were more charitable people around we wouldn't need to constantly gripe about a decline in standards.

Hi

I think that one problem on both sides of the charitable issue (giver and givee) is that our governments take tax money and dool it out as they see fit. You have to give it to whomever they (you don't even know who THEY are) want, and you don't have a say on how much. It's not easy to give 20-40% to the government, 10% to the church, and then feel charitable after that. I doubt that you feel really thankful to the neighbors when you get the debit card from the Government either since your neighbors didn't give it directly and aren't that thrilled that they gave it to you.

On a flip side, my Mom has been paying the local unemployed College Graduates a job mowing the yard and painting the garage.

Later

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've *been* the person using the food stamps and eating the government cheese. It's not my place to judge those who are doing so today. I don't know their exact situations. The other day I saw a trim, well-dressed, middle-aged, middle-class looking woman buying food with an EBT card, and then spending her cash on a box of chardonnay. Not for me to judge.

Not being under the Mosaic Law, I don't tithe. I support my community directly, thru direct volunteer activities and contributions to organizations I support.

I have no beef at all about paying taxes, and I don't get most of the breaks the people who complain loudest about them tend to get: I don't own a house, I don't have kids, I don't have capital gains, etc. etc. etc. "Render unto Caesar" and all that. My only complaint with how the public weal is spent is that the city does the street-repair work in the middle of summer.

The overall tax burden today is substantially less than it was during the mid-1940s, a time when putting a war on the cuff was inconceivable.

 

[Matt Crunk]

Not being under the Mosaic Law, I don't tithe.

Just curious LizzieMaine, do you attend church regularly, and if so, what kind? I can't imagine any church that would not expect tithing, under Mosaic Law or not.
I don't tithe either, but then I don't go to church. If I did, I'd probably be compelled to put something in the plate when it was passed.

 

[jamespowers]

I have an undergrad degree in finance, with a minor in accounting, in addition to a graduate school education in economics. I can assure you, the above is absolutely, positively, and emphatically not true.

On the other hand, (double entry) accounting is something that was invented by people who burned witches and believed the sun revolved around the Earth . . .

Obviously you are doing it wrong then.

 

[jamespowers]

Tom, she knows where the gas station is, which means she can get dinner.
She's a keeper.

:rofl:

 

[jamespowers]

I've *been* the person using the food stamps and eating the government cheese. It's not my place to judge those who are doing so today. I don't know their exact situations. The other day I saw a trim, well-dressed, middle-aged, middle-class looking woman buying food with an EBT card, and then spending her cash on a box of chardonnay. Not for me to judge.

Not being under the Mosaic Law, I don't tithe. I support my community directly, thru direct volunteer activities and contributions to organizations I support.

I have no beef at all about paying taxes, and I don't get most of the breaks the people who complain loudest about them tend to get: I don't own a house, I don't have kids, I don't have capital gains, etc. etc. etc. "Render unto Caesar" and all that. My only complaint with how the public weal is spent is that the city does the street-repair work in the middle of summer.

The overall tax burden today is substantially less than it was during the mid-1940s, a time when putting a war on the cuff was inconceivable.

I dunno:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...-cards-dump-spending-limits-article-1.1484953

 

[Feraud]

Hi

I think that one problem on both sides of the charitable issue (giver and givee) is that our governments take tax money and dool it out as they see fit. You have to give it to whomever they (you don't even know who THEY are) want, and you don't have a say on how much. It's not easy to give 20-40% to the government, 10% to the church, and then feel charitable after that. I doubt that you feel really thankful to the neighbors when you get the debit card from the Government either since your neighbors didn't give it directly and aren't that thrilled that they gave it to you.

On a flip side, my Mom has been paying the local unemployed College Graduates a job mowing the yard and painting the garage.

Later

My comments on charity are about the voluntary help a person provides to others. This has nothing to do with government programs and taxes. The pros and cons of government programs is another issue.
I understand there are people who do not have the extra income to give. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Charities need volunteer time as much as money.
I respect equally someone who helps a neighbor lug groceries from the shop as I do one who writes a check.