05-11-2017, 08:15 AM
(05-10-2017, 03:45 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: [quote pid='25492' dateline='1494433035']Sometimes I tend to wonder if said rural, small-town settings might someday become a refuge for many retirees who no longer feel they need to have the trappings of more urban surroundings, such as big-name entertainment and trendy theme restaurants which are usually quite pricey. I fully believe one reason for the high cost of living is that most folks today want so much more, and wouldn't be satisfied with the lifestyle of the "Leave It to Beaver" days.
(05-09-2017, 11:56 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: What rural people often forget is that with those high-paying jobs comes exorbitant rents and high taxes. A couple might be able to live on three near-minimum wage jobs in rural Illinois, but definitely not in Greater Chicago. But live in Chicago, and real estate is costly (if it is in a place where one doesn't live in fear of violent crimes such as rape and muggings) , commutes are long and expensive, and taxes are high. Want good schooling? Not only will you pay to keep up the bad public schools, you might have to send your kids to a private school if they are to do reasonably well in life.
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The world of the "Beaver Cleaver" is an upper-income reality by the standards of the 1950s. There weren't the electronic goodies that even a poor family would have in the projects today. The Cleaver household was uncluttered; there just wasn't that much to clutter with. Note well that there is no TV? "Ward Cleaver" is an engineer, a well-educated fellow, and a TV doesn't really fit into the Cleaver life. TV made its way into the poorer neighborhoods before it reached the middle class, and the only reason for it to reach the upper class was for 'the help'.
'Trendy theme restaurants' that can get pricey?' I think of Cracker Barrel, Applebee's, Bob Evans, Country Kitchen, and to some extent Denny's... and those places aren't for the 'movers and shakers'. They can be pricey.
Current trends suggest that the American poor are going to be priced into nastier and nastier places, and the rich will be in complete dominance of anything that has any desirability. The poor might get access to stupefied amusements (television is obvious enough) as an inexpensive 'opiate of the masses' ... and be allowed to visit stupefied amusement parks as rewards for unusual effort. But the elites, whether 'ownership' or 'cognitive' will get the good stuff. That will include high-quality camping and hiking. The poor will be expected to eat themselves and drink themselves to death so that they get no pensions that they pay into. Chips, sodas, milkshakes, beer, and candy... Just think of all those people bigger than the average bear who use carts in Wal*Mart. You know that they will never collect from Social Security.
But you know how it is with Trump as President: the dysfunctional world is forming around us. Have fun living in the set of a bad piece of reality television -- if you can!
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.