Munneh, gobs and gobs of munneh...

[msfledermaus]

...I was just looking over my W2 today. My boss forgot to give accounting my new addy, so I had to go bug them for another copy. I'm juuuuust under what the co-op I belong to allows for the cheap rent I have, plus the buyout fee we're all setting up in March. It's funny...I make more in a cheapie clip-on tie and fairly unflattering suit coat than I ever made as a middle-manager-copier-wrangler letter-lugging sort of person. Still fairly humble by many standards, but it's enough to keep my glorious Maushaus and pay for chocolate and the occasional sushi purchase.

It just seems so much, written down formally, compared to the paycheck. We all know how that seems to go--bills, food, rent, health insurance, new shoes, and before you know it the pile whittles down pretty fast. But I do okay for the most part. Which is good, because money scares me. I think it scares anybody with any common sense. Will I have enough? How much is enough? Can I have this? Do I need this? What if I get laid off, or mugged or hurt or catch Mad Cow disease and can't make a living anymore?...

Lately there's more money trickling in, just in time to help with the buyout.
I got a check from my union, who gave me back some of my union dues for fighting the good fight as a steward. Also turns out my rental deposit counts toward the buyout, too, which is nice. I have some projects that are finishing up which means a little more cash for me, stuff like that. And then of course there's the Great Bribe...

In many ways I am royally pissed off about Our Beloved El Presidente's hot idea to toss us some greenbacks. Funny enough, I was reading about Caligula's freebie offerings to the poor at the Roman Coliseum and thinking, "Huh, at least the poor got something from that particular despot." when MPR came on with the news. I was sort of amused at first. The Bush administration has been robbing us all blind for the better part of a decade, and now that things are catching up with them, they toss a little money at it to make it all better. And of course if you've lost your job or are retired or disabled or something, you're apparently out of luck on the great giveaway...

I'm still taking the money; I have to. Everybody pretty much has to. My heating bill went up just like everybody else's. But I know it for what it is: a bribe. Not even a particularly good or skillful bribe. I'll probably donate some of it and put the rest to what I've saved for the buyout. But this administration hasn't bought itself out of anything. Not even close...

D'ohhhhhhh... I wanted to write some flip thing about my finances, and it's turned into a rant about politics. Sorry, folks, my raised-by-hippies instincts took over for a second, and I had to do the 'I'm against the Man, man!" speech before it went back into hibernation...

Comments

[scentedwoods.livejournal.com]

What's it called when you take the bribe money and then don't hold up your part of the bargain? That's what I'm gonna do.

[msfledermaus.livejournal.com]

Danton used to do that--one of the lead guys in the French Revolution. He used to say, "Take the bribe, then show you can't be bought. If they're being dishonest with you, why should you be honest with them? Imagine what it would have looked like, if Judas had taken the silver and then kissed the butcher instead?"

I just think of it as a tiny fragment of what they've already taken from all of us. Grrrr...

[mrbalihai.livejournal.com]

Our Beloved El Presidente's hot idea

Congress had a hand in this stupidity as well.

[msfledermaus.livejournal.com]

They did, didn't they? *sigh*

I wish someone had come up with a better idea. It just feels stupid and kind of dirty to me. I wouldn't mind the money going to something like, erhm, road repair. We've got another bridge that's just about to fal into the river, and my dad drives over the mother twice a day:(

[mrbalihai.livejournal.com]

These rebates are really a dirty trick because you'll have to declare them on your 2008 taxes as income...and then get taxed on them again!

They also address the wrong problem: we're in an economic pickle because of mortgage foreclosures, not because we aren't spending enough on consumer goods. Why didn't they take this money and use it to buy down interest rates on homes instead?

You see? You see? It's their stupid minds...Stupid...STUPID!

P.S. Mrs. BH and I decided that any rebates we receive will go into savings for our childrens' college tuitions.

[msfledermaus.livejournal.com]

Really? We have to pay tax on what they're giving us?!?!? Then why even bother giving people the money at all? bastids.

Yeah, I noticed they weren't doing apparently much of anything at all to help with the massive foreclosures. last time I heard anything on the subject, they were still trying to come up with something...probably something weak and ineffectual, because really they don't care as long as it doesn't touch their bottom line...

And heh, I love Plan 9 from Outer Space...suuuuch a guilty pleasure, that movie, it's just so perfect when I see something awful, and can scream, Nonono, you stupid, STUPID MAN!"

[mrbalihai.livejournal.com]

Yes, really. We also got tax rebates back in 2001, and were required to declare them as state/federal refunds, which are taxed as income. It's complete bullpuckey.

Of course the best thing about the Plan 9 "Stupid...STUPID!" guy is that his name in real life was, "Dudley Manlove", and his previous body of work consisted solely of being a radio spokesman for Lux Soap.

[banana.livejournal.com]

Down with the man.