State of our Union

[masonbengals fan]

It's bad...change my mind...please. 

[*Nately120*]

Right now? Hell, it could be argued that I've spent my entire life living in an era of gilded faux prosperity punctuated with manufactured enemies and endlessly promised victories over the next hill.

[basballguy]

(03-01-2022, 12:15 PM)masonbengals fan Wrote: It's bad...change my mind...please. 

Creating a thread like this leads me to believe you're more prepared to argue why it's "bad" versus have your mind changed.

[Dill]

(03-01-2022, 12:20 PM)Nately120 Wrote: Right now?  Hell, it could be argued that I've spent my entire life living in an era of gilded faux prosperity punctuated with manufactured enemies and endlessly promised victories over the next hill.

Keep the faith Nately!

Once Putin is defeated, the cost of new smart phones and flat screen tvs will drop by 50%! 

Gas will return to $1 a gallon, once we have cut out 70% of Russians market share.

                                               

                                          You'll see!!

[Dill]

(03-01-2022, 12:15 PM)masonbengals fan Wrote: It's bad...change my mind...please. 

Happy to try, but can you tell me what you think should be

our metrics for determining good/bad with regard to "the state of the Union." 

Once we are clear on that we can go from there.

[*Nately120*]

(03-01-2022, 02:15 PM)Dill Wrote: Keep the faith Nately!

Once Putin is defeated, the cost of new smart phones and flat screen tvs will drop by 50%! 

Gas will return to $1 a gallon, once we have cut out 70% of Russians market share.

                                               

                                          You'll see!!

Not to sound like a neo-con, but I haven't really noticed the supply chain crisis because I work a lot and I don't buy a bunch of stuff I can't afford (other than that stupid masters degree back in 06).

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(03-01-2022, 02:20 PM)Nately120 Wrote: Not to sound like a neo-con, but I haven't really noticed the supply chain crisis because I work a lot and I don't buy a bunch of stuff I can't afford (other than that stupid masters degree back in 06).

I'm renovating the bathrooms in my house and the wait time for some items is obscene.  But it's hardly life or death at the end of the day.  It is weird seeing sections of the grocery store still having empty shelves, and not being able to find USDA Prime beef, but, again, hardly life or death.

[*Nately120*]

(03-01-2022, 02:26 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: I'm renovating the bathrooms in my house and the wait time for some items is obscene.  But it's hardly life or death at the end of the day.  It is weird seeing sections of the grocery store still having empty shelves, and not being able to find USDA Prime beef, but, again, hardly life or death.

Well, people love to talk about how "they used to have it hard" and how it "builds character" and all that stuff, so let's just call this a refresher course.

[HarleyDog]

(03-01-2022, 02:30 PM)Nately120 Wrote: Well, people love to talk about how "they used to have it hard" and how it "builds character" and all that stuff, so let's just call this a refresher course.

I sincerely doubt we enter hard times compared to our grandparents. But yeah, will be tough for many. 

[*Nately120*]

(03-01-2022, 02:54 PM)HarleyDog Wrote: I sincerely doubt we enter hard times compared to our grandparents. But yeah, will be tough for many. 

The social psychology of our culture is amazing to me.  I grew up on a steady diet of:

We had it hard, your generation has it too easy.  You don't know what hard times are, and that's why you're all soft.

...to go with:

Back when I grew up it was the good ol' days...the world has gone to hell in a handbasket now.


So what is it?  Do I have it too easy, or am I living in hell?  Did you have it hard or did you live in the good ol' days?  Geez, make up your mind. 

[KillerGoose]

(03-01-2022, 02:26 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: I'm renovating the bathrooms in my house and the wait time for some items is obscene.  But it's hardly life or death at the end of the day.  It is weird seeing sections of the grocery store still having empty shelves, and not being able to find USDA Prime beef, but, again, hardly life or death.

It's chicken that is the problem here. It feels like you struck gold when you find chicken breasts. We are also building a house and there is still difficulty with lumber which leads to long wait times for the framers.

[Belsnickel]

(03-01-2022, 02:26 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: I'm renovating the bathrooms in my house and the wait time for some items is obscene.  But it's hardly life or death at the end of the day.  It is weird seeing sections of the grocery store still having empty shelves, and not being able to find USDA Prime beef, but, again, hardly life or death.

(03-01-2022, 03:03 PM)KillerGoose Wrote: It's chicken that is the problem here. It feels like you struck gold when you find chicken breasts. We are also building a house and there is still difficulty with lumber which leads to long wait times for the framers.

See, the food issues are ones that I have been fortunate with. Most of my red meat consumption is wild game, followed by pork, and very rarely do I eat beef and if I do I'm eating the low-end cuts. For chicken, I'm a dark meat guy so I get thighs. They are less expensive and more plentiful. I make stir fry with it on the regular.

[KillerGoose]

(03-01-2022, 03:16 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: See, the food issues are ones that I have been fortunate with. Most of my red meat consumption is wild game, followed by pork, and very rarely do I eat beef and if I do I'm eating the low-end cuts. For chicken, I'm a dark meat guy so I get thighs. They are less expensive and more plentiful. I make stir fry with it on the regular.

I've been using thighs more recently and I love them. They have been more available than breasts for sure. Cook up some rice, slice up the thighs and fry 'em a little bit. Super easy and delicious. 

[*Nately120*]

(03-01-2022, 03:16 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: See, the food issues are ones that I have been fortunate with. Most of my red meat consumption is wild game, followed by pork, and very rarely do I eat beef and if I do I'm eating the low-end cuts. For chicken, I'm a dark meat guy so I get thighs. They are less expensive and more plentiful. I make stir fry with it on the regular.

The economics of chicken wings that I've seen over my lifetime is a story of its own.

[basballguy]

(03-01-2022, 03:03 PM)KillerGoose Wrote: It's chicken that is the problem here. It feels like you struck gold when you find chicken breasts. We are also building a house and there is still difficulty with lumber which leads to long wait times for the framers.

Builders have been using "lumber shortage" as an excuse for delays since humans stopped living in caves.  

[basballguy]

(03-01-2022, 03:22 PM)Nately120 Wrote: The economics of chicken wings that I've seen over my lifetime is a story of its own.

I always wondered why chicken was so cheap (before it's current inflation).  Being able to buy a WHOLE chicken for 5 bucks just always seemed like an incredible steal.  When i was strapped for cash back in the day, baking a whole chicken (with some vegi sides) was one of my go to meals to feed the family.  Chicken just always seemed underpriced for the value (to me).  

Yesterday I bought a whole chicken for 10 bucks..... 

[Dill]

(03-01-2022, 03:01 PM)Nately120 Wrote: The social psychology of our culture is amazing to me.  I grew up on a steady diet of:

We had it hard, your generation has it too easy.  You don't know what hard times are, and that's why you're all soft.

...to go with:

Back when I grew up it was the good ol' days...the world has gone to hell in a handbasket now.

So what is it?  Do I have it too easy, or am I living in hell?  Did you have it hard or did you live in the good ol' days?  Geez, make up your mind. 

LOL I can sort this one for you.

1929-45 = very hard times for your grandparents and my parents. Even if you didn't fight in the war or lose family members, your sugar and tobacco were rationed and you couldn't buy a new car. Young men faced mass conscription for symmetrical war in massive battles against other industrial powers. People seriously feared en masse for the existence of the nation until '43 and the war in both theaters was finally going our way. 

1949-72 good old days for white people who weren't socialists and making less than 100,000 per year. Children respected parents and parents respected teachers. No one knew yet how bad the wallpaper and carpeting were in their homes. TVs appeared in many homes, displacing radio with warm family sitcoms and westerns affirming liberal values. Some homes were getting telephones both up and downstairs. Trust in government and the press was pretty high, no matter who was in office. 

Children, without cell phones, read a lot. Everyone knew why we fought WWII and the Korean War, and against whom. We never learned much about the bad in our own past, which made us feel better about ourselves, even though school was harder back then. And we had never lost a war, except for the one against Red Cloud, which was ok because he was fighting for his homeland and we didn't use our whole army. And "both sides" did whatever political wrongdoing was afoot.

So I grew up in the good old days, even though it was ok to spank children back then, I had to walk to school until my junior year, and we only had one phone in the house. 

[Belsnickel]

(03-01-2022, 04:45 PM)basballguy Wrote: I always wondered why chicken was so cheap (before it's current inflation).  Being able to buy a WHOLE chicken for 5 bucks just always seemed like an incredible steal.  When i was strapped for cash back in the day, baking a whole chicken (with some vegi sides) was one of my go to meals to feed the family.  Chicken just always seemed underpriced for the value (to me).  

Yesterday I bought a whole chicken for 10 bucks..... 

Volume. So where I live, poultry reigns supreme. Specifically turkey, but chickens as well. The way poultry is raised is cheap as hell. They are in crowded barns where thousands of them are crammed in there. You have to wear a respirator to walk in some of them because you'll suffocate from the ammonia. They have a very quick turnaround from pullet to slaughter, no more than 20 weeks. The processing, then, is amazingly efficient. It wasn't always like this, though. The way chicken is done now is relatively new. It's only been roughly 30 years since chicken took the top spot for meat.

This is what I have learned living in what was once the turkey capital of the world. Not joking. There is a turkey statue at the border of the county in each cardinal direction.

[XenoMorph]

(03-01-2022, 05:39 PM)Dill Wrote: LOL I can sort this one for you.

1929-45 = very hard times for your grandparents and my parents. Even if you didn't fight in the war or lose family members, your sugar and tobacco were rationed and you couldn't buy a new car. Young men faced mass conscription for symmetrical war in massive battles against other industrial powers. People seriously feared en masse for the existence of the nation until '43 and the war in both theaters was finally going our way. 

1949-72 good old days for white people who weren't socialists and making less than 100,000 per year. Children respected parents and parents respected teachers. No one knew yet how bad the wallpaper and carpeting were in their homes. TVs appeared in many homes, displacing radio with warm family sitcoms and westerns affirming liberal values. Some homes were getting telephones both up and downstairs. Trust in government and the press was pretty high, no matter who was in office. 

Children, without cell phones, read a lot. Everyone knew why we fought WWII and the Korean War, and against whom. We never learned much about the bad in our own past, which made us feel better about ourselves, even though school was harder back then. And we had never lost a war, except for the one against Red Cloud, which was ok because he was fighting for his homeland and we didn't use our whole army. And "both sides" did whatever political wrongdoing was afoot.

So I grew up in the good old days, even though it was ok to spank children back then, I had to walk to school until my junior year, and we only had one phone in the house. 

so whats after 72.... dont leave me hanging lol

[Bengalzona]

(03-01-2022, 02:26 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: I'm renovating the bathrooms in my house and the wait time for some items is obscene.  But it's hardly life or death at the end of the day.  It is weird seeing sections of the grocery store still having empty shelves, and not being able to find USDA Prime beef, but, again, hardly life or death.

Same here. Been remodeling the bath now for about six months waiting for items to come in and trying to find workers.

But like you said, it ain't life or death. Heck, the re-routed traffic from the highway construction causes me more grief than shortages or prices.

Things aren't bad for us here. Our lives just keep rolling along.