Political Crossfire Forums

Don't let John Galt ruin this circle-jerk with made-up anecdotes that were probably implanted by our reptilian overlords to make him seem more human.

My grandparents were polar opposites. My paternal grandfather passed away in his forties, leaving my grandmother with 6 children still at home and 4 that had left home already. My grandmother took a job at a department store (Polskys Department Store in Akron, OH) where she worked until the day it closed in 1978. Even though she owned two cars, she walked to work from near the top of the Wooster Ave Hill, five days a week. She was afraid to drive in traffic. Although she collected insurance policies upon my grandfather's death, she put that money away in case times got bad. She never relied upon anyone and managed to raise all of her children. She died at 72. One day, my grandmother told me that she was saving to buy a new sewing machine. I had just learned that she had a six figure bank account and asked why she didn't just buy it from her savings. She told me that she might need it for something. She knew the difference between wants and needs.

My maternal grandfather lived to 105-years-old, outliving his second wife, my grandmother (who was 85 when she passed the year before him). My grandfather made decisions carefully. He told me that everything he owned fit in a paper sack when he was 14-years-old and went to work for the railroad. When he passed he owned a piece of the most beautiful real estate in the mountains of Utah and a horse farm in Missouri. When settling his estate, the only outstanding bill was his power bill for that month. He had no debts anywhere.

I learned a lot from the examples that they gave me. Yes, I refuse to accept that situations are beyond my control. I evaluate and determine what I could have done differently. Have I made mistakes? You bet, quite a few but I own them. I can only fix mistakes that I made. That means that I need to figure out what I can do differently.

I respect James Robertson because when his car broke down, he didn't sit at home and cry about it. He started finding a way to work. Walking, bus, rides whatever. He has perfect attendance, damn how many of us have perfect attendance? He did what he had to do to keep going and still does.

Well we have to expect that some people are just crap and refuse to be productive even with the advantages given. You could give them two cars and they would refuse to drive either to work and earn a living!

It's a shame he needs to rely on handouts from others though.