California vehicle registration. I pay $330 annually and California's roads are worse than anywhere I have traveled. And they go up every year. My truck is 20 years old.
What is something you really resent paying for?
- Thread starter Bretrick
- Start date
oldaunt
professional hermit
Mine is a 2012 Jeep, and I pay $25 a year.
Doesn't gasoline cost about $25.00 per week every week, or more ?
And tires , ow much ?
And even just making a key can cost over $200.00 now.
And if the radiator or clutch or transmission goes ? Over $50.00 just for someone to LOOK AT IT.
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Used to be my mechanic would keep my old s10 running 'on the cheap' (low cost, best quality repairs). When he retired, so did th es10.
How many years now since you could buy a car for $200.00 (about ten years ago), running and legal?
Now ? oy vey.... the greed of the world is astonishing...
And tires , ow much ?
And even just making a key can cost over $200.00 now.
And if the radiator or clutch or transmission goes ? Over $50.00 just for someone to LOOK AT IT.
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Used to be my mechanic would keep my old s10 running 'on the cheap' (low cost, best quality repairs). When he retired, so did th es10.
How many years now since you could buy a car for $200.00 (about ten years ago), running and legal?
Now ? oy vey.... the greed of the world is astonishing...
I have been shopping for new sliding patio doors...for about six years.lol
I don't know why I am struggeling with spending the money, I can certainly afford to replace them and they are in desperate need of being replaced. Yet I think nothing about spending $5k on a bicycle or a trap gun, or a vacation.
Maybe I only like spending money on fun stuff and new doors are boring. Regardless I just hate the thought of spending the money to replace those doors.
I don't know why I am struggeling with spending the money, I can certainly afford to replace them and they are in desperate need of being replaced. Yet I think nothing about spending $5k on a bicycle or a trap gun, or a vacation.
Maybe I only like spending money on fun stuff and new doors are boring. Regardless I just hate the thought of spending the money to replace those doors.
hollydolly
SF VIP
- Location
- London England
I agree... and it's unnecessary because in Spain , my daughter had boarding kennels, and was always at the vets with either her own dogs or a clients dog.. and if the prices were the same as here she'd never have been able to afford the insurance premiums.. The same pet medication in Spain costs a 1/3 of the price she has to pay here in the UK..usual UK ripoff...
hollydolly
SF VIP
- Location
- London England
possibly , in some cases that will happen... but really you're inferring that no-one gets better, no-one gets repaired if you like..and that's simply not true.. we have albeit a shortage of hospitals and doctors.. some of the best medical treatment in the world.. Ask American expats who live in the UK.. it's the first thing of which they sing praises ...
Well, that is something many of 'us' are broken-hearted about. They never learned the better way, are not realizing they don't have to be sick or worse, and are not told by the system about the better way, ever it seems.
i.e. under control of pharmakeia, is not good.
Many people simply choose to do nothing, and they get better, better. Even in medical and phramacy school this was one of the things taught decades ago - that nine out of ten times people went to a doctor, hospital or surgery, if they did nothing instead, they got better.
StarSong
Awkward is my Superpower
- Location
- Los Angeles Suburbs
These ^^^ for me, too. In fact, I also resent the many corporations who pay far less than their fair share of taxes. Ditto churches, religions and many faux "charities" that are little more than artfully arranged tax dodges. Some US mega churches and their pastors are obscenely wealthy.
In addition, I think passive income (from investments) should be taxed at a higher rate than income earned by the sweat of one's brow. So outrageous that it's the other way around.
I don't particularly resent paying for goods and services that I use.
Parking lot parking fees are a fact of life. Someone owns those lots and must pay upkeep and taxes on them. Street parking fees and vehicle registration fees go toward road maintenance. Seems only fair that people who use those roads should contribute toward the costs.
Medical and dental fees may be high, but I don't resent them. Everyone needs to earn a living. Sure, a national health system might be better, but good luck getting that through the US government, so I deal with what we have.
School taxes are a fact of life and part of the social contract. People whose children were already grown (or who were childless) contributed toward schools when it was my turn to be educated. Today's children may one day be my doctors, or my children's or my grandchildren's. Some may help sort out the impending climate disaster. We pay back our own education by helping support that of subsequent generations.
I think all those things that 'government' or 'corporations' put their hand to and gain control end up costing a lot more money , ongoing, and become worse instead of better service every year, for several decades historically now, education and roads included. Medicine worst of all.
oldaunt
professional hermit
You mean like the docs who won't tell a patient they need to lose #200, and instead just keep prescribing more drugs to keep the heart and liver going, and surgically repair broken down joints....often more than once?
hahaha, I think you speak from experiential knowledge, first hand experience and many testimonies,
yes ?
oldaunt
professional hermit
I watch people I know deal with it. I work like a demon to keep my weight around 125, and still manage a bit of cake and ice cream now and then. Its harder when you get old. I once made a friend come live with me for a year. She weighed 410 when she arrived and SWORE she could never lose weight. When she left, she was 156 and could buy her clothes off the rack for the first time in her life. She also had no further use for the crap the docs had been filling her up with for 30 years.
Nathan
SF VIP
- Location
- High Desert- Calif.
I think that the hunter-gatherer socio-economic model works the best.
Bretrick
Well-known Member
- Location
- Perth Western Australia
I wanted to have my reverse cycle home air conditioner serviced. I was quoted AU$141 - US$98 - non refundable - just to give a quote.
This cost would be added to the total cost. Businesses are simply fleecing customers.
and we all go bahhhh, bahhhhh, bahhhhh....... like sheep led to slaughter every day....
Don M.
SF VIP
- Location
- central Missouri
Yup, all across the entire spectrum. Corporate profits are climbing, consumer costs are rising, the number of millionaires is increasing, and the majority of people are taking an increasing hit on their finances. We are increasingly being divided between the Haves and the Have Nots....and the Haves are winning.
Bretrick
Well-known Member
- Location
- Perth Western Australia
Many "Have Nots" end up homeless with no one on their side fighting for a "Fair Go"
Homelessness is becoming the norm these days and societal norms sicken me.
Why do we, as a society, not protest daily about the unjust treatment being meted out?
Because if it is not directly affecting that individual who has a roof over their head, who has enough of an income to pay the bills and feed the family then why protest?
The sad part is it is too late to protest once people become homeless. No one listens to the homeless. If a homeless person tried to protest they will be taken away with a high posibilty of being locked up.
We as a society need to stand up and say no more.
StarSong
Awkward is my Superpower
- Location
- Los Angeles Suburbs
Doctors repeatedly and strongly advise patients who are overweight, obese or morbidly obese that they need to lose weight. Why would you think they don't?
For many years now, they've cautioned patients to lose weight, quit smoking, reduce alcohol intake, watch cholesterol, cut back on animal foods and fats, exercise faithfully and find a method of stress reduction (yoga, meditation, whatever).
If people choose not to follow good advice, then what? Do we let them die in misery, or should meds, surgery and other interventions be prescribed to help restore as much health as possible?
Lewkat
Senior Member
- Location
- New Jersey, USA
Sales tax of any shape or form. Galls me no end. Worth it to take a trip down to Delaware a couple of times a year to get what we need in clothes and footwear. Also for small electronics.
Bretrick
Well-known Member
- Location
- Perth Western Australia
Superannuation (401?) contribution Tax.
Taxed at 15%
Governments want us to save for our retirement so as to ease the strain on the welfare system, so what do they do? Tax our savings contributions at 15%
Which for me equals approximately $2200 a year.
Taxed at 15%
Governments want us to save for our retirement so as to ease the strain on the welfare system, so what do they do? Tax our savings contributions at 15%
Which for me equals approximately $2200 a year.
Wontactmyage
Daisy Hill Studio
- Location
- A fly over State, USA
CC
I have had a slight different experience here. I was not obese and over the last years some weight came on and I went for blood tests as it was time. The Dr. stated I was “getting towards” the pre diabetic stage. She only offered prescribed pills. I told her what else I could do. I was not sedentary but not heavy into exercise either. I asked if there was something more “natural” to do. No offer but she said if I wanted natural I could do blue stones, you heard that right, get me some “blue stones” to have around the house. SO….. I went home thinking well this Dr. was off her rocker and a pill pusher. I researched things that was happening to me at the current age 66 and beyond, decided I would take on a lifestyle called Keto. I dropped 55 lbs, my ”pre diabetic (heading towards) was gone and all my other blood tests were normal, no thanks to a her. (No, I could not just go to another Dr.) I can agree with all the stop smoking, drinking loose weight however, I do not see the Physicians aiding in the process of more natural-non pill taking to find a route for the person. Sending patient to do yoga, meditation, and so on. Maybe having the patient come back to the Dr. Office and have these “holistic” professional in on the office visit and helping them get started would ease them into taking these alternate routes and get them on the new route.
Whatever they are doing, "medicine/protocols/methods" /doctors/ has been the fastest rising cause of sickness and death for over fifty years, and it is not the top or in the top three causes of death.
See online how many peoples have been and remained healthier because they continued eating good animal foods and animal fats instead of processed foods and processed /bad/ fats. Yes, exercise may help if someone is sedentary instead of active in life.
Smile big. "Good advice" for many here already is "stay away from doctors". In medical school a few decades ago that was also the advice doctors gave their own wives and children - especially stay away from hospitals - and particularly no flu shots ever, no shots in general.
Be or get more active as possible, find as much as possible a raw organic diet with lots of fruits and vegetables, seeds, and piz..... ooops not pizza, pizzazz ....
and distilled water is important instead of tap water. Also use a filter on the shower. And more recently seen - avoid the bad vegetable oils, like crisco /my mom's most used shortening or oil....
Also avoid dairy, white bread, and white flour - known for a century now as the three white poisons that causes a great amount of trouble for multitudes.
oldaunt
professional hermit
Not all of them, no. You are nieve if you think they all do.
David777
Well-known Member
- Location
- Silicon Valley
Ok, have just recalled another one. California has one of the most expensive annual sport fishing license fees that in 2022 was $52 (base cost). It doesn't matter when one purchases a license either in January or December, cost is the same. I fished for recreation a fair amount in my 20s and 30s but since then just a few times each year as am more a photographer. So expensive for the amount fish I usually catch and worse most of my fishing is in wilderness that costs our Department of Fish & Game little as they are mainly self sustaining fisheries.
