California Math and the 3.6% (Los Angeles: apartment, house, neighborhood)

[Fontucky]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Meanwhile we pay 17.3 cents tax per gallon for normal gas while Californians pay 48.6 cents for designer gas. So at the end of the day, CA is decidedly more expensive.

Decidedly? I have no idea exactly where you are, so I plugged Branson in for this short research project:

Cheapest gas, Branson: 3.11
Cheapest gas, Fontana: 3.49

.38 difference = I pay 7.60 more per 20 gal fill up. Not exactly "decidedly." Since I'm retired I avg one tank a month, except during the holidays when I'll fill up twice in a month. I'm assuming you don't suck up all that much gas these days yourself.

Tonight's low temps:
Branson 20°
Fontana 49°

I'm assuming there's going to be a heating cost there?

Since it's not Summer, I won't get into the cooling cost differences between living in a hot, dry climate and cooling with an evap cooler vs a hot and humid climate and what it takes to be comfortable there.

Just adding some of that perspective you are always on about.

[Social Democrat]

Originally Posted by .highnlite

Sunny, Curmie feels very defensive about moving to a flat state, he becomes incredibly defensive about it. He is the guy, that some time ago I had posted a link to a horse trip my wife and I took in France, the travel broker used many of the photos I shot (one every 6 minutes while riding, it turned out) so some incredibly "bright" poster found that site and accused me of using the photos from that site to lie about my having taken that trip.

Curmie jumped all over that, accusing me of being a lying cheating unethical etc etc.

He was wrong then, he has a history of being wrong, I don't pay much attention to anything he posts, I just imagine a Barcalounger, a double wide trailer in Missouri, and a half empty bottle of Jack Daniels.

You (and Nullgeo when he's around) have much more patience than I do with people that ignore all the information you post....sigh - but now, me being maybe not the brightest poster, where can we find the pics you took in France???

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by Fontucky

Decidedly? I have no idea exactly where you are, so I plugged Branson in for this short research project:

Cheapest gas, Branson: 3.11
Cheapest gas, Fontana: 3.49

.38 difference = I pay 7.60 more per 20 gal fill up. Not exactly "decidedly." Since I'm retired I avg one tank a month, except during the holidays when I'll fill up twice in a month. I'm assuming you don't suck up all that much gas these days yourself.

Tonight's low temps:
Branson 20°
Fontana 49°

I'm assuming there's going to be a heating cost there?

Since it's not Summer, I won't get into the cooling cost differences between living in a hot, dry climate and cooling with an evap cooler vs a hot and humid climate and what it takes to be comfortable there.

Just adding some of that perspective you are always on about.

Twice a month. The cost of being rural. $3.08 yesterday.

Heating costs relatively low and handily manageable. The cost of having four real seasons in place. But thanks for your concern. We can afford it.

Not all that humid, actually. The cost of living in a karst environment with our own, plentiful water sources and on the shore of a large lake.

Just keeping things in perspective!

[Fontucky]

I don't know much (as in nothing) about the Aux Arcs area, but when I see native-born lifelong resident Missouri friends on Facebook wailing about the oppressive Summer humidity in their area, I gots to wonder...

Actually I don't wonder, I'm simply thankful.

[SunnyTXsmile]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Ah. Your leader has spoken! Beyond that...

lol That's one of my favorite quotes (the image that didn't repost in my post). I say it often. And on that note...

[SunnyTXsmile]

Originally Posted by TVC15

Ah Sunny but that is the problem. As you have just been shown many really don't fully understand the problems in CA.

CA was already taking in more than enough in revenue before Prop 30. If people truly understood this they would not have voted for it. Well at least 44.88% of the people who voted no understood it. CA has a money management issue...for some reason the voters fail to understand this.

So it is important to help people understand what the real issues are so that they don't run to the polls and blindly vote on things that are going to further hurt this state.

Ah, very good points.

And I agree 1,000% that money management issues are at hand. I've offered my services, but CA hasn't called yet. Until then, I'll continue to watch the show.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by Fontucky

I don't know much (as in nothing) about the Aux Arcs area, but when I see native-born lifelong resident Missouri friends on Facebook wailing about the oppressive Summer humidity in their area, I gots to wonder...

Actually I don't wonder, I'm simply thankful.

We do get some but it's not a daily or even weekly event and it really depends on where in the state you live. Or maybe we're just made of sterner stuff. Either way, a small price to pay for the things we don't have or miss such as air, light, noise and people polution. But admitedly, there are trade-offs.

[Fontucky]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

the things we don't have or miss such as air, light, noise and people polution.

You didn't have to leave Calif to avoid those things and you know it. You left mainly because your $$$ will go farther in them thar hills.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by Fontucky

You didn't have to leave Calif to avoid those things and you know it. You left mainly because your $$$ will go farther in them thar hills.

Partially correct, but only partially. While the lower cost of living was decidedly a factor, it was not the overriding consideration. Back in the dark ages of the 70s, my wife and her former husband had spent seven years farming here in the Ozarks. She never wanted to leave, but life has a habit of getting in the way sometimes. Ever since then, she always dreamed of one day returning. As for me, I lived much of my misspent youth in five different southern states. I loved the culture, the topography and the weather. While I didn’t miss humidity, I did miss having four distinct seasons. I also missed such little things as cardinals, eastern bluebirds, red foxes and summer thunderstorms.

We spent our first year of retirement in California, making sure that our retirement income would support a decent lifestyle there. It would but it wasn’t where we wanted to be. After much research, a lot of questions and traveling back here, we decided that moving to this part of the Ozarks was what we wanted to do. It fulfilled my wife’s longing to return here (we’re only 40 miles from where she farmed) as well as being primarily southern which certainly satisfied what I was looking for. We’re just a few miles above the Arkansas border.

It's almost coincidental that the cost of living is significantly lower here than it was in California. But that’s icing on the cake rather than a major reason for having made the move. All that’s really important is that we love our home, our location and the society into which we have moved. Those are the most important factors. As for the other things I’ve mentioned previously, while incidental, they certainly don’t hurt. Besides, perhaps I've always just been a hillblilly at heart!

[.highnlite]

Originally Posted by Social Democrat

You (and Nullgeo when he's around) have much more patience than I do with people that ignore all the information you post....sigh - but now, me being maybe not the brightest poster, where can we find the pics you took in France???

I also had a couple of message requests for the photos, so I will link, but, to stay on the tax track. Taxes are actually high in much of Europe, Americans only think their taxes are high. Everyone likes to bash France, but, very few Frenchmen are envious of America, and as we found, they are great people in a great scenic country with the world's best healthcare, at a fraction of the cost to the economy of America's healthcare. As I am wont to do, I like portraying the beauty of a place, counterpoints the complainers.

Proof that a great society exists with truly high taxes.

Cathar Trail

If you turn the seconds per slide to 5 you can probably read all my captions