That's a really good quote, I'll be sure to remember that one. Yea it's pretty nice here :) cold af and most people are angry and aggressive (at least passively), poverty all around, but we've got our own private patch of woods where I can go whenever I like, clean water from our own well, wild animals literally pressing in through the back gate, can't say it's too bad :) Sure sounds like you know the value of a heated house extremely well now :D sounds pretty tough.
Yea it really sucks to see people that don't do anything doing a lot better than you :D but guess that's life - we're in the situations we are to learn from them, and I like heating my wood-burning furnace every day more than sitting in an office. Done that too, used to be some IBM-certified IT specialist and all that crap :) I'm in Estonia, we like to show tourists the richest parts of our capital and our most successful people but that doesn't really reflect what's going on :) And you? How cold does it get, how bad is it with no heating?
..and we still have it a lot better than in Russia or India, most of China, South America, not to mention Africa ...quote from Forbes - "The Average US Welfare Payment Puts You In The Top 20% Of All Income Earners"
Maybe not better than upper but very possibly better than upper-middle. I've seen both - even the cheapest apartment complexes usually have swimming pools and tennis courts, sometimes gyms, which is a complete luxury here, as are dryers and dishwashers, central heating, and so much more :) Not many people can afford more than 1 or 2 pairs of jeans or shoes, and we pay more for no-names and knock-offs than you pay for brand name clothes. Same with electronics. Taxes are high as f*ck and we don't get much for them - cops say they don't give a damn unless you're being murdered, roads are in a desperate condition, traffic signals often don't work. Even if you live in a trailer park then your kids get to go to schools and you get to go to grocery stores and shopping malls etc that are actually clean and maintained without broken windows or doors that don't work. I could probably go on forever :) I know it isn't easy being poor anywhere, but there's still a lot you take for granted when living in the US (as did I when I was there).
