Governor

https://www.state.nj.us/treasury/taxation/ptr/eligibility.shtml

I think Chef has spending problems. His family cell phone bill is probably $500/month. If a single person that has all their expenses paid can’t live in 35k, we obviously need to raise the minimum wage right?

I wasn’t sure about his SS. So, he’s definitely going to be screwed there at some point. He’s never worked. I’m sure he factored that in. He’s in the same situation I would be in if I take my gf’s family house. The property taxes are fixed because the family owned it for so long. it’s some “senior” law. Our house is just under 2 acres and that’s locked in around 7k. His house is only on 1 acre so it’s less.

I was wondering about his SS but wouldn’t he already be collecting that since he was 13 after his father died? His property tax is a fixed amount.

Well, he has a house that’s paid for and doesn’t squander money like most people do today. I honestly don’t know how much he has left. He doesn’t seem too concerned about it. It looks like he’s going to make it. If my NJ house was paid for, and my property taxes were “grandfathered” in at like 7k a year which I assume his are, I could easily live on 35k a year.

I’m not done with you DeSantis. Just taking a break. Why were some of you saying that NJ was worse than Florida? NJ has 26k deaths and Florida has over 40k. Over 1000 just this past week compared to almost none in NJ. Per capita is a useless metric at this stage of the game. Really, the only numbers we should be looking at now are cases and deaths over the last month, 3 months, and 6 months to gauge which states have a handle on it.

Maybe we can just add propellers to your bootstraps.

Comrade, I want you to do me a favor. Find an old person and ask them if they like their Medicare and believe that would be a fix to our HC system. Most blue-hairs have to carry supplemental private insurance on top of Medicare because it doesn’t cover anything. There’s also no dental and vision presently, so most are forced to do without. Biden expanding on that is a HUGE deal until we can move onto a better system. Yes, it’s going to collapse. Passing M4A tomorrow won’t prevent that. The problem is cost. Did you know that your insurance is billed 17,000 for a routine colonoscopy? You can’t fix that unless government drops a huge hammer on the system and sets the prices. That’s not happening anytime soon. It doesn’t matter what model of coverage we use if we’re going to let doctors get away with that. That simply isn’t sustainable.

They can’t figure out how to make them stop and go in reverse in a safe way to where they can be used by the masses. We might not see it either. They’re still looking at it the wrong way.

My dad told me when I was young that I’d never see flying cars like the Jetsons in my lifetime. He’s still right about that. They can’t figure it out.

I’ve been seeing lots of similar companies popping up. The hover vehicles are still using pretty old tech. We definitely need a tech breakthrough but it could happen some day.

The way you view life and purpose is exactly what Andy recognized as a young kid and didn’t want to ever participate in. It’s commonly referred to as the “rat race.” You believe that a career equals purpose. It’s hard to unlearn everything you were taught your entire life. I hope that some day you see it too, preferably before you’re on your death bed. American neo-feudalism is on the horizon. Are you prepared?

Maybe you’ll change your mind once you see how much tax you owe for driving that SUV around each year.

Everyone laughs when I say this country needs high-speed rail but I truly believe it would repair the political division in this country. People would no longer be forced to live in cities. John Edwards was right about there being “2 Americas” and it got a whole lot worse since then.

I know I said that I don’t want this house, but perhaps I need to rethink that and lower my standards a bit. This housing market doesn’t look good at all. It’s going to crash and burn soon. I don’t think they could get strong enough regulations in place quickly enough to stop what’s happening. This isn’t going to end well.

I don’t just sit around. I have lots of interests and stay pretty busy. I just don’t like to do any one thing 50 hours a week. I like things to be on my terms. I may very well fall into something a few years from now but I’m not in a hurry to do so. Our parents aren’t getting any younger and I want to be available during their end of life. After that, I certainly could become bored enough to do something. Lol. I’m not on welfare or anything like that. Yes, I’m independent.

Well, he’s 55 now and still going. He wasn’t a guy that ever took risks. My guess is he had it in mutual funds and has been living off that similar to my brother. Perhaps at some point that million turned into 2 million. Back in 2000, he told me that he has to live on 45k a year to not eat into any his money. So, whatever that means. I agree, 1 million NOW isn’t nearly enough to make it. You’d probably need 3 at our age. I could probably swing it with 2 since I’m a minimalist. I’m done working. I’m not a young person entering the workforce. I came to this realization at 43. My brother retired at 40. He beat me! We’re very competitive.

I hope you get a taste of that sweet freedom some day. Make sure you’re double-masking.

I already did that. Try working on political campaigns for 5 years. It’s not as fun as you think. Starting out, you literally sleep in the candidates house on their couch. Growing up, I had this friend named Andy. His dad died when he was 13 and left him with a little over a million dollars. We were all in HS deciding where we were going to college but Andy never envisioned any of that. Someone very smart got in Andy’s ear and told him the rat race wasn’t worth it. He decided that he was just going to live off of the interest, live a modest life, take a few vacations a year, enjoy his hobbies, etc. The rest of us thought he was just lazy and unmotivated. Decades went by and Andy was still hanging out doing the same thing. How is this possible? Didn’t Andy eventually get bored and want a career since that’s what was ingrained in us since birth? Nah, Andy had it all figured out at the young age of 13. He looked around at his peers and realized that he didn’t want to be anything like them. He watched all of our fathers pour 30 years of service into these companies only to be forced into early retirement at 60. That was common in the 90’s. He watched all of his friends chase the imaginary illusion of success. Andy didn’t want to waste his entire life working for some crap company. Like me, Andy never got married and had kids. He was too smart to be tricked into something like that. He always knew that wasn’t going to be part of his plan if he were to live his entire life without ever having a job. Anyway, I saw Andy in my hometown a few years ago. He was riding his mountain bike on his way to the bookstore. He’s still exactly the same. Not a worry in the world. I decided right there and then that I had it all wrong and I wanted to be like Andy and enjoy my life and my hobbies, which include traveling, poker, guitar, concerts, hiking, and triggering right-wing lunatics on the internet.

“You didn’t build that.”

Yes. Bootstraps. I didn’t say I wanted the house! It will eventually need a new roof and paint. It’s appraised at 450 right now but it’s still ugly and in a county full of bubbas. I wouldn’t pay 200 for it, but you know me.

So you’re in denial about that? These people believe that they’re supposed to protect us until the end, but to then perish in flames before they do. That doesn’t sound like a friend to me. I was just given a house. Needs work. I may be very spoiled and entitled, but that doesn’t make me wrong about the right. They aren’t our friends. Uncle Joe loves you tho!

I mean, it isn’t as bad as belonging to a political party that actually wants to kill you, like yourself. That’s a little weird. I just disagree with Israeli policy and don’t support the violation of international law with the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people and the illegal settlements. You belong to a party that only supports you because they believe you are supposed to be killed for them to make it to heaven. That’s what B-man really thinks of us.

Not paying for things is success. Just ask your buddy Trump. I’m a self-hating Jew. You didn’t figure that out yet?

But you certainly aren’t the only one. I always catch my gf signing up for all of these media subscriptions. Next thing you know, you’re paying for 5 subscriptions AND you’re paying for digital cable on top of that. That’s no longer allowed in my home. I don’t pay for things. Maybe because I’m a Jew? My dad was an IBM’r. This is what’s wrong with this country. People finance cars and lease phones for God’s sake. That didn’t happen in the 80’s. You bought a car back then. You had 5 dollar phone bill each month. People have 150 dollar phone bills, 300 for each car per month, and wonder why they don’t have any money.