food. So, one month meds, one month food. That is how your “rich, older American” lives! – CharliAnn O. Steven Longenecker comment: CharliAnn, we make no judgements for older folks struggling to get by. But on average, the older you are in America, the higher your net worth. And we know of no young folks getting a guaranteed $1,750 monthly payment from the government. To put your relative wealth in perspective, you would need a more than $1 million portfolio to provide $1,750 per month at a 2% dividend yield. (Or more than $500,000 if you follow the 4% rule and put down capital as well.) And while we aren’t personal finance budgeters here, that’s an awfully pricey studio apartment on your monthly income. A modest house in many places in this nation will cost you $100,000... or a $500 monthly mortgage payment. Of course, that’s what makes America great – you have the freedom to save or to spend according to your own choices. Re: If You Set Your Alarm for 2021 Looking back at PJ's "How bad could 2020 be?"... Pandemic and riots. I guess things can always get worse than we expect after all. Keep up the good work. – Chris P. P.J. O’Rourke comment: You guess right, Chris. It was the 1st century B.C. Roman sage Publilius Syrus who originally said: "There are some remedies worse than the disease." And after 2,000 years, he's still saying it.
steal stuff. The trick is to distinguish between the individuals involved in peaceful protests, and those who wreck things and steal things. My point, though, was that the U.S. has lost its remaining scraps of moral authority to criticize other countries for abusing the human rights (see my response above) of its citizens. I’m not suggesting that one kind of violence in one country or another is any different. Also, what China is doing now is accelerating the timetable of its original deal with Great Britain. Hong Kong was to remain a Special Administrative Region under the “one country, two systems” principle for 50 years, starting in 1997. China is tightening the screws, as you wrote... but it was only a question of time (27 more years, to be precise) until they’d have full justification to do just that. I’m not sure world wars have been fought over an issue like this. Re: The Knee on All Our Necks What older richer Americans? Don’t you realize that most of us are just old and POOR! We are doing our best to survive on our pitiful retirement funds, if our company didn’t discontinue them so they could pay bonuses to their CEOs, or the state used it all up in pet projects so can’t pay the retirees what is owed (i.e., Illinois). So, this rich old person gets a little more than $1,750 a month in Social Security, pays out $1,500 for a studio apartment, and if it weren’t for the little help from her family, she'd have to choose between meds and
American Consequences
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