People who think cruising will be lollipops and unicorns...

[LoudMusic]

Originally Posted by TooCoys

I think the bigger question is why do people experimenting with their OWN lives, affect yours? Why do you care so much what other people are doing?

I do agree with your sentiment on the whole, but in reality there is a certain amount of "ruining it for others by doing it terribly yourself". Having a bunch of miserable boaters flood a harbor and ruin a local economy and then abandon it a year later is very frustrating for the people who are making it a lifestyle to be there.

It also creates a stigma, or reputation, where the public views and treats everyone of a community the same based on the actions of a few.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by noelex 77

Yep, cruising is lollipops and unicorns.

Oh, and mermaids.

You should have mermaids

The best is when you are just sailing along and long off to the side sitting on a rock is a Mermaid. She's slowly flicking her tail back and forth while licking a lollipop while you that come here look.

Man those are the cruising days!

[softdown]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I think it needs doing again.

Seriously

No, not a revolution, but some reform is I believe in order.

The cabin has 4' of water in it with millions of parasites drilling holes in the hull. No need for a revolution.

On the bright side, the boat has over a million look outs searching for disgruntled passengers to toss overboard.

[softdown]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

The best is when you are just sailing along and long off to the side sitting on a rock is a Mermaid. She's slowly flicking her tail back and forth while licking a lollipop while you that come here look.

Man those are the cruising days!

I prefer mermaids in action whilst diving. https://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-f...-image35275248

[JanetGroene]

Mother Nature has the last laugh. Just when you thought you were free she'll rustle up a surprise for you, not to mention the inevitable tides.

[softdown]

Originally Posted by JanetGroene

Mother Nature has the last laugh. Just when you thought you were free she'll rustle up a surprise for you, not to mention the inevitable tides.

At worst, Mother Nature is malevolently homicidal.
At best, she does not care if we live or die.

Nature and geography....that is what worries me the most. They may seem to have a pact with Neptune at times.

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by softdown

At worst, Mother Nature is malevolently homicidal.
At best, she does not care if we live or die.

Nature and geography....that is what worries me the most. They may seem to have a pact with Neptune at times.

May all your Gods go with you ....

I would rather just study the science of weather and natural phenomena and hope I am prepared for the worst.

[Group9]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I want you guys to understand, this wasn't a rant, just with all the taxes being the way they are, if we didn't sell the house and land and go cruising, we would have to continue working for years, largely to pay the taxes.
FL doesn't tax boats, and I hope that taxes will ease way off on me now.

I have never shirked taxes, I did not play the games many do, I feel that is dishonest, legal yes, but dishonest. So as someone that lived frugally and didn't have a home loan etc., I believed I was being taxed unfairly as in I was paying more than I should have.
I believe the system if it is to be prejudiced, should reward people for living frugally and being debt free, but it is just the opposite.

So we sold it all, Retired early and have set out cruising.

By the way, don't think that we didn't pay taxes when we sold the house either, or when we bought the boat.

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the people discover they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy--to be followed by a dictatorship.”
― Alexander Fraser Tyler

I want to be out on the water when we hit that final stage!

[Stakaman]

There is a big deference between
Ancient Athenian direct democracy
and today's Representative "democracy" and we must not confuse them !!

[Group9]

Originally Posted by Stakaman

There is a big deference between
Ancient Athenian direct democracy
and today's Representative "democracy" and we must not confuse them !!

Not really. The most bizarre component of our representative democracy is that we have a certain percentage of our population, who have made such bad life decisions, that they depend on the work of others to keep them alive, and yet we allow these people to make decisions for everyone.

No doubt, there is a moral imperative to help those who can't help themselves. But, is there a moral imperative to let them make decisions that imperil the entire population, the way their personal decisions have imperiled their own lives? Maybe the founding fathers should have had that discussion one day.

Income tax is a great example. Forty seven per cent of the voting population pays no federal income tax. And, forty seven per cent of the voting population sees no need for federal income tax reform. Coincidence?

[Cottontop]

Originally Posted by Group9

No doubt, there is a moral imperative to help those who can't help themselves. But, is there a moral imperative to let them make decisions that imperil the entire population, the way their personal decisions have imperiled their own lives? Maybe the founding fathers should have had that discussion one day.

The founding fathers did have that discussion. They decided that only white men who owned property should vote. Wasn't the best part of their plan.

[meatservo]

Originally Posted by Scout 30

I'll go ahead & jump in here before this thread gets shut down. You don't pay property taxes for the privilege to live on your property. You pay property taxes to be able to call the police when someone breaks into your home or the fire department when your home catches fire or send your kids to public school or have roads to drive on or have libraries to get something to read from or building codes enforcement so that the school doesn't collapse on your kid or zoning enforcement so that your neighbor doesn't build a mine next door or a court system so that the guy that breaks into your home goes to jail and the jail itself... Everybody wants services but nobody wants to pay for them.

That's fine, the problem is it's not the government's money, it's our money...

If they would be more damn efficient with it, we would not have a 21 trillion dollar deficit that later generations will have to pay. It's the waste, fraud, and abuse that most of us get pissed off about. I don't mind paying taxes, but then we find out it's going to the families of palestinian terrorists who martyred themselves? WTF!


meatservo

[softdown]

Originally Posted by Group9

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the people discover they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy--to be followed by a dictatorship.”
― Alexander Fraser Tyler

I want to be out on the water when we hit that final stage!

I like this better: All governments seek more power. The corruption of power means they will, over time, become a crime syndicate.

Is this government a crime syndicate? Statistically speaking, the answer is affirmative.

Not everybody will concur. A large percentage are feeding out of the government troughs, some more than others, and feel that all is just fine.

Civil asset forfeiture: Where the police confiscate personal property, without due process of law, is legal in 36 states. Since 2014, police have confiscated more personal property than regular criminals. The margin grows each year.

[Group9]

Originally Posted by Cottontop

The founding fathers did have that discussion. They decided that only white men who owned property should vote. Wasn't the best part of their plan.

So, how deep in debt can we go? How much tax can we take from taxpayers? How few people can support how many people?

I guess we are going to find out.

[Lepke]

Originally Posted by Jdege

I've seen estimates that as many of 1/3 of immigrants to the U.S. between 1880 and 1910 turned around and went back home.

Wish that was still true.