Houses with full yards and large garages DO make sense in rural areas, as do pickup trucks and other things that suburbanites tend to claim are ALWAYS a luxury and bragging rights.
I use my full yard for free-range chickens and a vegetable garden. Just the ability to get eggs and fresh veggies at an extremely low cost (A $.25 pack of seeds OR a $1.25 set of six plants can net you over 800 cherry tomatoes) helps offset the extra cost for the larger property.
A European friend of mine was amazed to hear we actually had a BATHTUB, but he was shocked to find that we filled the bathtub with water when a bad storm was coming in case we LOST POWER.
When your dad was your age, he probably didn't have a cell phone, an mp3 player, credit cards, a dishwasher, a car loan, Internet service, satellite/cable, or half as much house as is now standard.
Well, I don't know about HIM personally, but the American Dream is so much bigger now than it used to be when "happiness" meant "having the means and strength by which you could do your duty to family and society". People have more stuff and more monthly payments than ever before. They produce less, save less, repair less, and buy more.
Ask him about his standard of living at that time, try to match it, and then find out if you can afford a house the size of the one he had.
I suppose, then, that it's the 'rare exceptions' that are getting crosses taken out of college chapels and graveyards, student-led and student-initiated prayers out of graduations?
Couldn't say for sure, but I suspect the ratio of activists in both atheist and gay communities to ordinary people is greater than that of the general population.
Personally, I've found one in five atheists do not try to change my private beliefs and practices.
Slashdot Mirror
Thank you!
Houses with full yards and large garages DO make sense in rural areas, as do pickup trucks and other things that suburbanites tend to claim are ALWAYS a luxury and bragging rights.
I use my full yard for free-range chickens and a vegetable garden. Just the ability to get eggs and fresh veggies at an extremely low cost (A $.25 pack of seeds OR a $1.25 set of six plants can net you over 800 cherry tomatoes) helps offset the extra cost for the larger property.
A European friend of mine was amazed to hear we actually had a BATHTUB, but he was shocked to find that we filled the bathtub with water when a bad storm was coming in case we LOST POWER.
When your dad was your age, he probably didn't have a cell phone, an mp3 player, credit cards, a dishwasher, a car loan, Internet service, satellite/cable, or half as much house as is now standard.
Well, I don't know about HIM personally, but the American Dream is so much bigger now than it used to be when "happiness" meant "having the means and strength by which you could do your duty to family and society". People have more stuff and more monthly payments than ever before. They produce less, save less, repair less, and buy more.
Ask him about his standard of living at that time, try to match it, and then find out if you can afford a house the size of the one he had.
I suppose, then, that it's the 'rare exceptions' that are getting crosses taken out of college chapels and graveyards, student-led and student-initiated prayers out of graduations?
Couldn't say for sure, but I suspect the ratio of activists in both atheist and gay communities to ordinary people is greater than that of the general population.
Personally, I've found one in five atheists do not try to change my private beliefs and practices.