This is was one of the last wisdoms I heard from my grandfather.
In life money is most worthless!
To me family and friends are everything together with freedom. What would be most worth to you.
Money
All posts tagged Money
Monday Moaning: Life’s Worth!
This is something that an each of you would answer differently. Particularly since it has to do with the time and where you are at this very moment. Naturally answer will change when we do or our surroundings who influence our way of thinking and feeling. It is a heavy thought at the same time.
We pay nothing to live, it is free but we talk about it and hold it as if it is the most precious. There is only one life after all, it is given to you.
Answering its worth would always be an abstract and virtual view on the past and how it has been so far. The very philosopher in me has been standing still around death. It has been almost a week since I carried my grandma’s coffin to her final resting place.
Life’s worth isn’t possible to be captured in a single answer. But that last bit of the time where the body is still above ground is pretty damn expensive for starters. And sure you can make it as expensive as one feels fit. But who has the last call when one is so silent and cold.
Crows will change to the cheapest to have more money to hold ion the end and these kind of hyenas do exist. I met them shook their hands out of respect but my heart screamed for hell.
A life’s worth can’t be made up from numbers though we try to accumulate as much of it in the currency of preference during our life. Is that the price and again different for each and everyone? How can one judge whether it is worth it or would that always be whether it was worth it? We always look back if we want to grade it with never an eye towards what could be.
Which is pretty simple to understand as we can’t see what will happen. We can only speculate.
The thoughts are pretty dim or dark, but it just been that kind of week.
Would one say that our spending becomes its worth we will see that a life is costing much to maintain. This is just to eat and have something we can say is a respectable life. And here to we see different answers because we all feel that life’s standard is different.
In some parts of the world a life is worthless or just barely enough to breath in the back of a house hidden behind curtains. Wars make life’s less worthy in the eyes of an attacker, though the defender will think no different when they see life being devalued. A price of nickel and a dime.
Not to mention as said last week we consume the money like water. The spending has changed and so our value of life.
One of the last conversations I ever had with my grandparents was about money and the fact things stopped to last. And with my mom today going for a new phone I cringe like the Grinch seeing the prices.
All the money we spend would it make life’s worth any better in the end when we stare into the tunnel of light or a stairway to heaven? Will we burn in the flames of hell? And we spend more and more often than we once needed.
The conversation was about the fact that there was a time we build things to last as these days things being build to break down. Making life worth it.
I might be confused but I am staring at a plaque of my Nonna and the dime in my hand. How long will it last. Whether it is my life or the plaque either one of them will break down at some point as life for sure was not build to last no matter how much we spend to prolong it. But this dime and plaque will end in the same way. They will disappear.
Was it worth it all. This moan and the upcoming bike ride. It may not hold much worth in the long run but for the moment it is everything I wanted and needed.
So if one will excuse me, I will change clothes and get ready to roll and be free which is precious in a life where most things bought are worthless.
Best wishes
Ranting Crow
This one thought might be a pun.
Money never gets our fill or satisfaction!
We can eat it, but won’t do us much good. Food prices have been going up or have subjected to price fixing. We need to consume money to even feel alive but it never satisfies us. We want more, better and always bigger to show off, status. Does it not make you think of what has become of us?
Monday Moaning: Money Consumption!
The two words from the title are related to one and other though my thought today may differ from what goes around as the common view on how they are connected. Since we invented money or came up with the concept of making a piece of printed paper worth something, it has become the centre of our lives. For whatever reasons we come up with, we can’t seem to do without it anymore.
Its effect is one that ripples and dies a quiet death when it reaches a certain top. Would the image of a lake or puddle be accurate if we are not the ones swimming in money.
Sitting down and just taking on a view based on some events that have happened here it may not be as strange as it sounds.
Am I to explain what has been going on, it may well be to much to lay out here, but in short my Grandma has passed on last week. So it comes with a lot of stress and sadness while handling some of the money issues that are occurring. Like the moment we have to let town hall know she passed away. Yup being dead means you need to pay a fee to get scrapped from the list of residents of your town. Talking about stealing from the dead.
It is this kind of money spending that I see as consuming money. It changes hands for no real apparent reason or visual or tangible evidence. The heart can get pretty angry over such cold situations. The burial is pretty expensive too, these days. Just having a insurance for 6.000 Euro’s won’t cut much bread.
One simple casket, an hour or so inside a chapel to hear people speak their hearts, and say a final goodbye. Coffee and or a drink after with a slice of cake. One car to move her from her home towards her final resting place.
All in all it becomes a reality when you see the figures being put down on paper. No bad word about the undertaker. He takes his time and is very adequate when explaining everything around the choices the children are making.
But in the end it is still a lot of money for being dead.
These are changes we have made. Not wanting to pay for a parent who had died so they would not get buried or were buried in an unmarked grave if not getting a towns funeral. The most simple paid by the residents of the town and its taxes. We came up with insurance. Letting money exchange hands with no real knowledge you will or can get what you want.
Enough about this as it is the last wish of a person and should be listened to.
Back to the reason and my view on the consumption.
We have started to consume money instead of consume materials or what not was bought with money. The fact this feeling is only growing stronger is because of all money becoming virtual. Spending money like water every two years for a new phone, tablet, laptop and what not. Lucky to have a TV working for more than 5 years.
The items in the list have all become a common good and the most normal thing to own. It isn’t even seen as a consumers product anymore, but more as a part of life. This kind of money consumption is making the companies pretty fat.
Each of them are sitting around the pond with a rod in their hands, making ripples by pulling us fish in to try and take a bite.
Was there not a saying that said; Money makes the world go round.
It is outdated as money is the thing that is going around while each of us is standing still. We consume money like it is food instead of eating actual food.
Okay that may have sounded strange but the fact is that we do not know what we are eating and buying with our money. We have started to see it as a survival tool. Without it we would die, just like water.
Prices keep on rising as we earn more. But how precise is that assumption? Just asking for a raise is no guarantee we can afford a new TV.
To give another reason on why I say we consume money is what is going on here in this country.
Last year or it may have been a couple of years schools and other organizations opted for a new way of teaching, through tablets. I for one do not agree with this but it is for that reason people call me old and obsolete.
I plead for good education for each and every child and that includes the less fortunate.
Schools demand parents to pay up to 400 Euro’s for an Ipad so these children can be educated. The common good and assumed part of life is the so called tablet in this case. And no, another tablet would not be compatible with the new schools education.
Pasts have been ruled by books also paid but with help from governments. Now it is the parent who needs to have money if one wants the best education for their child. Taking away an equal chance for everyone.
This is the kind of society we are becoming or creating, thinking that money is like water and can be consumed on will. Saying that one has to consume in order to progress and be able to produce.
Was there not a time we needed to produce before we could consume. And to think these things break down or ned renewal after two years.
Being alone while writing this story it is still to have someone read this and have them think about their own situation. One does not have to agree but at least come up with their own idea how the title of today’s moan works.
Living in a consumers market and being a consumer I look at the changes from the bottom up. It is blurred and veiled by layers upon layers of rules and what not legal terms to hide the hooks we gladly bite in.
We are the fish in the pond and we swim in money, but it has become our habitat. Every brick, piece of paper is made from money to make money and with the digital age it becomes even more obscured on how we consume or use money.
Truth is; we need it, and always to much of it.
Best Wishes
Ranting Crow
I am off spending some more money on god knows what for the sake of having a chance to become the worm on a hook.
Monday Moaning: Paid Work!
Last week was about how we sell ourselves to the highest bidders and pretty much never have enough or how we are working for that little pay we do get with fear of losing that little we do have. Work ethics have changed ever since that big crisis in the bank sector that effected all of us. It is not to say it will stay this way, though I would like to add we do get accustomed to situations as the generations grow up.
It is going on everywhere in the world where new generations get used to new rules or other general ideas that have been implemented throughout time. Whether we talk work or even religion we see people change and wanting different times because they see it could have been done in other ways. Once the people get enough of the exploiting we surely will rise once again.
But for now we just do as is said for the sake of having a job.
And you must be wondering where this is going again as last week was all about this crap. Just let me tell you it is only getting started as the story that is unfolding is even weirder.
The title can be read in two different ways. You ether get paid for work or as I will address in the next case you have to pay to be at work. Did your mouth just drop t the floor?
You read it right. Pay to have a job or be at work.
Now the job in this case is mailman or woman. So walking down the street delivering hand mail and these days’ small parcels. There is no weight limit that your own bike can hold, so it will be pushed to its limits until breaking down, bending wheels as the rims can’t hold the load. Grinding down your shoes with every mile you walk in wind, snow or rain.
This just get you some compensation after all the bike and shoes and pants are your own. They need washing and maintenance and thus the boss will pay you about 16 bucks a month. This so much is fair don’t you think? Still getting a shirt, that is the uniform or a coat for the wet and cold days may be included, you still need to wash it yourself. That would be one coat and 2 shirts.
Working 4 days a week would make it possible all thanks to the new mail and internet systems at work hand mail has gone down by what, 50%?
Bills are send through email as well or can be checked online. This is assuming each and every one even has internet. Go figure how it has become a part of our lives.
Going back to the mailman story.
This is a two part rant. As above how we assume we all have internet we also do so with smartphones and the worst thing is that there is the assumption we all have the latest model as well. Just this way of thinking coming from regular people might be considered okay. After all the phone has become a part of society a common good we all fiddle with day In an out. Having each year renewed with a new phone is a norm for the younger generations. They pretty much do not know any better anymore. (See how the first part came back here)
So despite the new generation finding it perfectly normal to walk around with the most expensive and newest of phones there is an old generation that is okay with an old phone and even a cheaper contract as they do not call so much or use less internet MB.
But the moment a boss assumes each and every employee has a new phone, to me falls in the category of harassment or stupidity. Not to mention that the few contracts for employees is only for a select few and of the older guard. Other youth are hired per hour from the agencies.
Back to paying to be at work.
My age is one that falls in between generations and I am appalled by what is happening.
Think of this.
Age 40, working 4 hours a day 4 days a week. Phone is an old windows phone.
Job prescription. Mailman.
Contract for phone is a simple 100 minutes call/text and a 500 MB. Can’t help it, since I hardly use the thing to begin with. Price 3 and half bucks a month.
Nothing special right. Though here comes the kicker.
New job requirements. Android version 5 or up or Iphone to install an app to scan parcels for delivery. With eyes on to the future also might become the person to collect the numbers of the water or gas meters and maybe become the neighbourhood watch. (2 hours max per neighbourhood with a 4 hours max per day). Contract with enough MB (1000 at the least).
That might become an issue. Though they did think of this, the company that is and it is even considered okay. They will pay you an 8 bucks a month compensation for the phone contract. If you do not have the required phone to install this app you can get a new contract at blabla dot com.
Restrictions are as told with the versions and no Windows phone allowed. If one is unable to comply the company will see if relocation for another job is available. We are still mailman right and sorting is done automatically for the majority of the mail and parcels. SO basically they are saying. Go with the program or get lost.
So care to do the math with me.
For now I am paying 3 and half bucks. I get an 8 bucks for compensation so a total of 11 and a half bucks could be spend. But my boss forces me to use a phone I do not want. One way of looking at that might be to have a second phone just for the job but that will only cost extra just like getting a new contract with a phone that easily get you to pay a 20 bucks at least.
In the end the calculations shows me that I need to pay at least an 8 bucks extra a week just to be able to do a job.
Sure the new generations is fine with this, they all have the newest model and biggest contract, but not that middle aged man/woman who doesn’t care about a phone.
This kind of intimidation, having to pay just to do a job is even seen as normal.
Does this mean I am losing the plot here, am I the crazy one who is not willing to pay to hold my job.
I have seen most of them give in and to be honest, I wonder why the company could not just make a scanner. I guess there is a new norm established that says we all have to bring our own tools to work.
Best Wishes
Ranting Crow
PS I am slowly getting used to the new situation, so I am hoping to be back like I used to be.
Ranting Crow 