They can be mistaken for deadly nightshade, and both plants are often called "black nightshade". The key difference is the color of the flowers. Wonderberry has white flowers, deadly nightshade has purple flowers.
Posted on 06/01/2011 6:57:16 PM PDT by Libloather
“People WILL survive, and they will try to live as best they can while doing it.”
In the meantime, breeding has come to a standstill among those that think about tomorrow (at least in a financial sense); the biggest unpublicized change is that we now have a birthrate that rivals Western Europe’s (at least among American citizens). That is how cultures die; the election of Obama signaled that we are close to the edge. Not a massive bloodletting or anything like that; we have simply morphed into something unrecognizable to someone who lived through WWII.
I started to reply to your previous statement that folks should “lose big” if they dont pay off their cards everymonth but I deleted it before I sent it.... but now I’ve had it.
$hit happens and that is the truth of it and for you to say that’s stupid ( that people use them for survival )is a bunch of horsepukie. Some people have to choice. I know several in fact who have no choice but to pay a gas or electric bill or buy a few grcoeries with their cc’s.
it’s *just not possible* for *** everyone*** topay em off every month. And if you do so, then you should be thankful and not such a judgemental person.
I dare you to tell me I deserve to lose big because I put my out of pocket expense for my son’s 2 eye surgeries and an MRI on his brain.
I dare you to tell my _4 year old_ that because Mommy put the OOP from his surgeries *** SO that HE COULD SEE somewhat***, that we all deserve to lose big.
And ya know what.... he’ll have to have another surgery on his eyes again here real soon. He’s got too many issues wrong with his eyes and I’ll be darned that if I have to, I’ll put the OOP expense on that card and I’d do it a freakin MILLION times if I had to.
yes, the surgeries were successful but he’ll never have “normal” vision and will always be legally blind in his left eye, even WITH his glasses on.
Student debt for the youngsters is the worst, because they won’t even get a job to let them make ANY payments towards that debt. On a positive note, they’ll be voting to the right of Pat Buchanan.
“a top finance guy on Drudge today, said we are entering a full blown depression.”
Judging by the number of businesses failing in my neck of the woods (NE New Jersey), I’d say he’s spot on.
Oh there has been a massive blood letting thanks to Obaomau.
I want to be hopeful, but the truth is this SOB has buried us in debt.
The pay rate varies by state and which of the programs they hire you into. For me, I was paid $7.25/hr while training, $9.50/hr when I finished the training, and $12/hr now that I coach trainees :)
Best part: they let people telecommute full-time!!!
It is sad when I go to the nearby Meadowlands Flea Market (outside Giants Stadium here in NJ) and see all of the adult toys of yesteryear for sale for pennies on the dollar; gym equipment, skis/ski-boards, computers/electronics, expensive car parts, etc. It is like walking through a time machine, but only five years into the past. My personal index of how the economy is performing is noting the number of bicentennial quarters and wheat pennies I receive in my change, and it is still very high. That measure tells me more than anything the “media” could - the American workers’ lots have not improved over the past 3 years. I even heard Indians working in a convenience store mocking the idea that Detroit was attracting tech jobs; they had come here for tech jobs, and lost them to other Indians working in India.
>>The APR I was paying at the time I “paid it off” was 6.95% And I had RE-finanaced _down_ to that rate from an original rate around 8.5% from when I bought it in 1988.<<
Mine was 4.5% — I refi’d when rates hit the hard deck: pretty cheap money.
>>There is NO comparison to being mortgage-burdened vis-a-vis being mortgage-free. Free wins every time in my book.<<
I am not sure it is that simple (although, as I said, it seems you are debt averse as I am). had you been hit with a $50K emergency the day after you wrote that check, you may have found how expensive free can be. That is why I accelerated while hanging onto my nest egg.
>>Getting out of the 401K might not be so wise.<<
It is tax deferred, so you have to calculate your marginal tax rate (now) into determining its value. I had the same hit you did, but moved some things around a few years ago and was able to get it back to performing like I need. I have been able to get about 2:1 from inception to the last statement. When you calculate the tax advantages it seems like a “can’t miss.”
But as we have seen on this thread, everyone’s opinion of risk, cash, leverage and investment are spread very widely.
But I think we can agree that unsecured debt is not good, eliminating debt is good if you can do it, keeping a good cash reservoir is better still. No matter what your situation, frugality is always a good strategy.
“Those who are currently employed should act as if they won’t be tomorrow.”
Great advice, but it has become difficult to follow as stagnant wages meet inflation. Whatever Americans could put aside from their paychecks 3 years ago would be needed just to buy the same necessities you only needed 80% of your check for back then.
I don’t look down on anyone using credit cards to survive. Without those, a lot of people would go hungry or lose their place to live. I see it in my own family. I’ll be damned if I raise my nose in the air.
What some people fail to see is life is not easy for everyone. Serious things happen, nothing you would CHOOSE to have happen.
You do the best with what you have. You help those you can and be grateful to God for what you have. Whether that’s a little or a lot.
These are hard times. People all over this world are hurting. We need to lift each other up, not slap them down.
I wish the best for you and yours. For everyone here.
>>Wonderberry has white flowers, deadly nightshade has purple flowers.<<
I am sort of reminded of the Gilligan’s Island reading of “How to tell a toadstool from a mushroom” by “the late Dr. Morton.”
Marianne: “The Late?”
Gilligan: “Late?”
He buried our grandchildren in debt; many Americans buried themselves in debt. We’re learning, and hopefully 2012 at least gets this bumbling token off our TV screens.
>>“Those who are currently employed should act as if they won’t be tomorrow.”
Great advice, but it has become difficult to follow as stagnant wages meet inflation. <<
Up until very recently, inflation has been pretty tame — less than 3% http://www.inflationdata.com/inflation/inflation_rate/currentinflation.asp
But it is more of a philosophy than a planning guide: If there is $5 you can cut by not getting that Starbucks latte and you can toss it into a physical piggy bank or (ironically) a coffee can, that can add up to $100 a month or $1200 a year.
I dont have much.
I would like the gov to think I had even less.
>>I would like the gov to think I had even less.<<
If the government will let me skate on paying taxes on today’s dollars, I will take that deal any day of the week. Yes, they are deferred but PVM tells us that even a tiny % for inflation will equal a very large savings years down the road.
Not paying taxes is good in my book.
Unless you are paid under the table, the government knows to the penny how much you make and have. Even if you are in a simple interest bearing checking account you get a 1099-Misc.
Well, like she said, goody for you. And goody for me, because I was lucky enough to come of age in a time that offered few temptations in the way of credit.
I remember as a young teacher getting my first credit card at Sears and Roebuck (tiny credit limits), and getting a few "gas" cards.
Low limits, sensible and provident.
But who knows, as young as I was, what would I have done with the temptations offered by credit card companies such as those that had BOOTHS at university registration days, offering lots of free credit to 18-yr-olds with NO INCOME.
I see this, and I want to go all Carrie Nation and get out the baseball bats and go after these seducers of the ignorant and ineperienced.
What stuns me, is that while he rapes Americans blind, be is preaching about hope for tomorrow.
Wheres the shovel ready jobs?
Where’s the 780 billion dollars?
Sears is now like 21%
put money away, pay taxes on your Roths, don't spend money just to save for "later"...and now the govt will simply take it over, or just index it for medicare/ss, and once again, the savers will be no better off than the lazy impulse buyers with the new cars and boats...
so I stopped adding to it as well....
not that we've had extra money, but paying off bills or helping adult kids makes more sense to me now....anything to keep the govt off our money....
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