Integrity matters

I actually care about the environment and about ecology, but I was reminded recently by BB that being poor as I am I need to protect myself and that I can afford to not put my health or the environment first.

The thing is that BB is wrong and I can afford to care about the environment especially and being poor does not give me carte blanche where the environment, ecology, and my health are concerned. Just because I am poor and have to live on a small fixed income does not give me an out where my responsibilities lie. That is where we all as humans continue to fail where our planet and our responsibility to humanity and people begin and end.

I think being poor is how we got into this situation in the first place. It is the reverse of tomorrow or let someone else do it; they can afford it.

With that kind of thinking, nothing would ever be done and Mother Theresa would never have gone to Calcutta to take care of the poor and minister to the poor of Calcutta. Well, Mother Theresa is dead and has been declared a saint so she is out of this world and out of the problems we face every day.

I did take my cousin's advice and put my poor talents on Indeed to get a job. I had my first face-to-face interview yesterday, the first in over two years, and may well have a job where I first started out at McDonald's down the street. I can walk there in about 15 minutes and so can work whenever they need me to work since I live nearby. My interviewer asked if I had reliable transportation. I responded by telling her my feet worked and I lived nearby ... within sight of their store. That is pretty reliable -- my shoedebakers -- my feet.

She asked my strengths and weaknesses (always a difficult question for me) and I responded, "Jumping in without knowing my limitations." It is true, although I could have responded that I tend to get caught up in whatever I'm doing and do not keep a check on the time, which is also true. I often tend to be late because I have everything planned out in my head while the time slips away. I also tend to imagine I can do anything and then find out I cannot follow through, which is the problem with my bike. I will have to adjust the seat again to make certain I can take the best advantage of the height so my knees do not lock up on me. I get around quite well with walking as long as I take my quad cane with me to keep from falling and ending up a traffic statistic. I walk facing traffic, but with my bike I need to ride with the traffic and obey the traffic laws. Walking is the opposite of biking, something I need to remember. I appreciate and love the bicycle a local bike shop owner gifted me, but that was before I figured out I still did not have the bicycle in perfect running condition. The handlebars still sink with the least amount of pressure which the bike shop said would not happen unless I leaned on the handlebars when I was standing up riding -- NOT TRUE. They still lean with the least amount of pressure and are not safe for me when I do get the handlebars fixed permanently, which I must do. There is always something. When everything is finally fixed to my satisfaction.

I had envisioned myself biking to the Senior Center, going to job interviews, to the library, and tomorrow or all the other excuses to put off my responsibility; it is about me and about what I can do now, today, and without funds. I will find a way to make my imagination coincide with my reality.

shopping; none of which has come true. I'm still concerned about the eco-friendly bicycle versus the gasoline-powered vehicles that come and pick me up to go to the Senior Center, the library, the store, and to appointments. Yes, BB, I am poor and do not have access to my own gasoline-powered vehicle, but I still care about the fuel powering those vehicles at any rate. Yes, I am poor, but I still care about my carbon footprint and the impact on the environment. I am poor, but I still care about the environment and still believe that a bicycle-powered composting service in this community is still workable and one I can still participate in. For me, it is not about

That is all. Disperse.

Usury every day

The Medici were constantly faced with being accused of usury. If you want your checks to go through banks will charge you a lot of money, anywhere from $25 to more than $30 each time. Nowadays banks charge you for not having sufficient funds; that is called usury. People do their best to keep their accounts up to date and only write checks for what is owed. Banks charge every time you overdraft your account. Keeps you honest. No way you want to incur NSF charges. Credit cards do the same thing, charge you whenever you overdraft your account or pay without sufficient funds in your bank account.

The Medici saw usury (see the above) as a sin. Banks do not feel that way about the exorbitant charges (usury) they ding your account and you with. No wonder the Medici (bankers) felt their honor was impugned every time people called them usurers. To the Medici, those were fighting words. Not so where banks are concerned. All the banks see is they will manage your money as long as they are in business: NSF charges, overdraft charges, ATM charges, charges for making out a money order, etc. Basically, the banks make money, not just from using your money to fund their business, but to make money by lending your money out to other people. For this service, they will pay you for borrowing your money to loan out to other people, usually a whole 0.14%. That makes a big dent in their business when they pay you a whole $0.14% on every time they use your money to loan to other people.

Haven't you figured it out yet? The banks charge you $4 to type up a money order because their time and their paper are far more valuable than writing out a money order that you could get from the corner store for far less money, usually $1.50 for a money order. Could that be because the corner store charges only for making out the money order than the bank does for the same service? After all, bank employees are paid more for their time than the corner store pays their employees and you must make up the difference.

Costs, doesn't it? And you are paying the freight.

Banks are still involved in usury, unlike the Medici who considered doing business, invoking usurious charges from the poor. Not so nowadays. Usury is still a sin, but banks do not care so much. Banks are in the business of making money and if that money comes from those who can least afford it -- so what? As long as you pay the charges, you will be poorer and may be able to get Welfare. Welfare does not work out so well. It's rather like paying the poor. That is how socialism works. Is it working for you? Probably not.

I worked hard for decades, learned a great deal to do my job, and ended up broke and poor and not getting my share of Welfare either. Must be because I worked so hard for decades. That is the way socialism works -- at least for people like me who worked hard and were tossed out because I was too old. I still had work left in me, but no one wants me because I put money into various 401k schemes and got nothing for my diligence and hard work. Too bad the Medici do not work in the banking business any more. The Medici were more worried about the sin and the way people saw them.

I could not get Medicare or Welfare, except for $15 a month. I was lucky when I got a raise in my SNAP (food stamps) benefits. The government decided that I had earned a whole $1 more. Wow! Socialism really works for people like me who are poor, but not poor enough. Maybe instead of the $1114 a month I get I could actually get more food stamps, up to $195 a month instead of the $16 I get now. I would get more money if I still had small children and the amount would cover the cost of feeding small children. Since my children are grown and on their own, they can get more for their children than I can get for myself. Socialism works for all people -- or so we are told. Does not work out so well, at least not for people like me who worked hard and paid into retirement funds 6095-- at least not for me. Socialism works well for people who really need assistance, but not so much for me. The difference between $195 a month and $16 a month is the reality.

It is like living in a HUD apartment. When I moved into this building, they decided I would only be charged  $326 a month. When it was discovered I was going to college, the federal grant money $6095, I got for going to college to get the paperwork to vouch for what I already knew, it was decided that the grant money (none of which I received and all of which went to the college) my rent went up $11 a month: $337a month. The bank had already raised the rate for getting a money order from nothing to $4 to print out the same money order I got for free the month before because I had money in the bank. No more free money orders. I had to pay their fee for the ease of walking up to the bank to get my money order, $4. Probably would have been best if I had withdrawn MY money and taken it to the corner store to get a money order and paid $1.50 or go somewhere else and paying 53 cents for the same money order I would have had to pay $4 for the convenience of getting the money order at my bank. I may have saved myself the walk and $2.50 or $3.47 depending on where I went. Taking advantage of doing it all in one place cost me more money. After all, the bank has to have their share of my money for the ease of doing it all at the bank. Usury at its finest.

The Medici would have been appalled -- "Those are fighting words!" Nowadays, bankers do not care about how people view them. Usury is the usual, the norm. Bakers do not care how people view them as long as they get their money, especially if they take their money from poor people. Usury at its finest -- or worst.

The same is true of insurance brokers. They will get their money, no matter what they do for you. It's all about money. They will take your money for doing something for you as long as you pay. No matter how you look at it, you will have to pay, as long as they get your money, you will get their services. It is all about the money as long as the money goes from your pocket or savings account to their pockets. More usury. Taking money from the people who can afford it the least to line the pockets of those who make promises to you. Think of gangsters. highwaymen, thieves. That is all these people are who take advantage of their service for your trust and your money.

Thieves, confidence men, highwaymen, gangsters, pirates.

People taking advantage of others is still wrong and we, the poor, trusting, lazy, or those without the means are always behind the eight ball.

That is all. Depart.