What's changed in the past 4 years? Not a fucking thing~ but idiots call it "progress."

Based on a Facebook post from March, 2020.

I think as we age, we often become more conservative. We spend less, take fewer chances with our health and well-being, save money and invest as wisely as possible, etc. We’re more aware of our aging process and mortality.

We wanna start planning for the years we either choose not to or can’t work like we did when we were young. Living at home with your parents or sleeping on a friend’s sofa is fine when you’re 18, but ya wanna have far better options available before you’ve hit your 30’s.

When we're young adults, we tend to think we're invincible. It's easier to see life thru a benevolent or altruistic lens, because we've been taken care of financially the first 20 or so years of our existence, and few of us have any real sense of how to actually support ourselves.

Simple expenses like gasoline, car insurance, rent, mortgage or even utility payments aren't a reality for us yet. If our parents were generous and supplied us with things we wanted, we grew up believing (in a sense) that money grew on trees. We never had to worry about the practical elements of surviving, because whatever we needed was handed to us. It's easy to feel ultra-generous to others, when we haven't had to fend for ourselves in the world at large.

As we mature and begin understanding how expensive it is just to keep a roof over our heads, our own survival concerns may influence how “caring” we feel and act toward others. Now, we must budget what we spend, or we're out on the street. If the money to help others is coming out of our OWN pocket, we might think twice about what we think others “should be entitled to receive.”

But does this change our programming from when we were young? Do we still carry the attitude that our "parent" (or in many cases, our government) should provide for those less fortunate~ and do we ever consider what the cost of this might be to our own safety, freedom, well-being or comfort, any more than we did when we were kids?

Liberals are “rah rah” in theory for others in need, but their ideologies miserably fail to work in practice. When you over-give to one segment of the population, others suffer severe declines in support and practical resources, which dramatically compromise their safety and sense of well-being.

As a teen, my dad and stepmom had me on a very limited allowance, and if they got upset with me, they reduced it. They called it a "clothing allowance," and all my clothes, shoes, personal needs, makeup, hair products, and even my haircuts had to come from the $20 a month I was given. Now, this was back in the 60's, but even then, twenty bucks didn't stretch that far.

Out of sheer necessity (you should pardon the pun), I started trimming my own hair at 15, in-between going to a small salon. The owner/stylist kept remarking on what a great job I was doing, and he'd love to hire me if I had a license. I was a teenager, so that wasn't an option... but over all the decades since then, I'm still cutting my own hair.

Thanks to a gal pal who recognized my innate talent and enrolled me in a barber college in my late 20's, I got licensed to cut hair at 30... and for many years, that vocation kept the wolves from my door, and allowed me to support myself.

My point is, as a young person I was taught (rather severely at times) the value of a dollar! I've been financially responsible my entire adult life, and it hasn't always been easy. There've been times I had no money, and didn't know where my next meal would be coming from... but I somehow made it by.

I believe my parents instilled in me a sound orientation about money, and it permanently shaped me. Over the years I've grown, I have become even wiser about my spending. My altruism earlier in life had me donating blood on a regular basis (every 2 months) because I didn't have enough monetary success to be charitable in any other way. I'm sure that I helped save a lot of lives, as my cumulative donations amounted to over 8 gallons.

If you believe you want to make a difference in this world, check in with what you are personally willing to sacrifice, to make that happen. A former friend volunteers his time and energy to build houses in Mexico for people who've lived in squalor. Will you reach into your own pocket to help others in need... or do ya wanna keep expecting your government (or the father of your country) to keep doing it? I had to pay off my student loans~ I’m not in favor of others gettin’ a free ride!

Since we’re on the topic, let’s not forget how much of our tax dollars are funding wars we have no business getting involved in. Do we ever get to vote on how our hard-earned moneys are spent by a government that gets insanely wealthy on global chaos and destruction? Doesn’t this sound like we’ve allowed Narcissists and Borderlines to be in charge of determining the health (or lack of same) in our country?

Perhaps most importantly, are you still holding onto the belief that money grows on trees? That it's magically, endlessly available, and that whomever needs or wants it should receive it~ without these expenditures impacting you one iota?

Just food for thought during this crisis time, with everyone on the planet literally scrambling for survival. Kinda brings the issue of personal responsibility home, doesn't it?? And this my friends, is why I’m a conservative-thinking Republican, and not an airhead.