gunderwood wrote:
IIRC, you work for yourself so that amount technically includes your benefits right as an employer would pay medical/401k/etc. on top of normal wages? Unless you get benefits above and beyond that from an employer, around NOVA that's just a bit above average.
I live in Roanoke.

We are very comfortable here. Incidentally I only pay 7k/year for my families quite good medical insurance, another 1k for excellent dental, and I really dont pay much in taxes. Also of note my income pre-recession was exactly twice as high (for some reason healthcare got hit later).
I don't think you will be getting any interviews from the WSJ or can quit working anytime soon.
I think i do good for a guy that works in his pajamas and only has a bachelors degree. Not all of us can have our Senator daddies get us a CEO position ya know.
The GI bill is a benefit of employment which really isn't any different from a company providing health care or a car or a retirement package. Others have the opportunities, no one is standing in their way to do what they wish (expect the socialists of course). If they want to join the military and serve they will too have the ability to use the GI bill. That's a far cry from free food, health care, and a house. It's just the government fulfilling their employment contract just like a company who also has a education package must (most do around here).
No, its another entitlement program. I paid $1200 into it and got I think $24,000 back. You know anyone else with contracts like that?
Opportunity doesn't mean free or without sacrifice to accomplish. When you legislate what I can and can not do you are restricting my liberty and opportunities, not promoting them.
All governments legislate,
You apparently don't understand the concept of this country. The people who came here from Europe did so to flee such slavery (it took many forms). They did choose freedom over comforts. Over and over again we made that choice. It's amazing how fast we subdued most of the continent after throwing off the British yoke, but it certainly wasn't because we expected an easy life where everything was provided to us. No, we went despite the hardships.
I understand the concept quite well-it all boils down to economics, not "liberty".
You also apparently don't understand freedom and rights since you are equating it with anarchy. Our government was only to secure our rights from those who would take them by force and to provide an third party arbitrator when disputes arose. We created a national defense to secure them from outsiders, we have LE/justice system to secure them from each other, and we have the Bill of Rights to put the government on notice it can not legally violate them either.
Yes, societies restrict actions to some extend or at least provide consequences for those actions. However, liberty is freedom of action so long as your actions aren't denying that same freedom to others. A free society is not anarchy. That's hardly an illusion.
How can one have
absolute freedom without anarchy? I am not denying the illusory day to day "freedm" we all have to go about our business by and large. Never was.
I'm talking true freedom. You can never truly be free unless you have no constraints, no hesitations. This is why I accept the idea of freedom is just that-an abstract idea unworkable in reality.
Consumption is what the government wants to replace the ideals which founded this country with. Its a distraction to the encroaching slavery. Isn't that exactly what you want? We'll trade you a house (consumption) in exchange for your liberty? We'll give you free stuff if you just give up a bit more freedom?
I would not equate the Doctrine of Consumption with government, but rather corporations.
All you socialists are offering is consumption in exchange for liberty...after all it is better to be fed and a slave than hungry and free, right?