Well, my friends, this is one of those rare times when the last thing I want to talk about is the stock market. No charts. No retracements. No trendlines or arcs. Nothing. I’m just too damned disgusted with the entire affair. So I’m going to write about something different, and it’s from my personal life.
The majority of our family’s wealth is in California real estate, most of it income generating. Each month, we get a lump sum payment of the accumulated rent gathered from tenants, along with a report as to who paid what, what expenses were incurred, and so forth. Simple stuff.
When Covid hit, however, California decided to crank their Bleeding Heart level up to the proverbial “11” and, in a similar mindset as letting anyone steal up to $950 worth of stuff without consequences, they decided that renters didn’t have to bother paying rent. They couldn’t get kicked out for failure to pay. And, incredibly, if and when the day comes that landlords ARE permitted to kick deadbeats out, the landlord can’t even ding the deadbeat’s credit report by reporting, ya know, the TRUTH about what happened! So it’s a total bonanza for deadbeats.
Our own tenants, bless ’em, are fairly honorable people. But as I look through reports each month, it’s easy to pick out the deadbeats, like here………..
………….and here………..
Month after month, they just don’t bother paying. And why should they? It’s FREE, and there’s no consequence! It’s sort of like paying taxes as a Greek citizen. No one else does, so why should you?
So this has been going on for two solid YEARS now, and California keeps extending the “aid” and “assistance’ because of these terrible economic times. You know the times. I’m talking about. The times in which jobs are BEGGING to be filled? The times in which there are literally MILLIONS of job openings more than there are human beings in the country to fill them? THOSE terrible economic times. Just so we’re on the same page. OK.
So a glance at this morning’s paper set me off…………
The thrust of the article is that in just a couple of days, at long, long last, this free ride program is ending. Or, to be more precise, people won’t be allowed to APPLY anymore for this free ride. Because the poor dears have only had OVER 100 WEEKS to fill out a form online, and gosh, they’re busy what with their television viewing and shopping at Walmart and so forth.
And the California legislature, of course, is seriously considering extending it again, as always, Just For Two More Months, ya know, to give these terribly busy and important people a few spare moments to fill out the goddamned online form and get their freebies. Can you sense my sympathy?
I’ve tinted the final paragraph, which is a quote from – – have your barf bag handy for this name – –The Alliance for Californians for Community Empowerment – – which on their own website describes themselves……..
is a multi-racial, democratic, non-profit community organization that builds power to fight and stand for economic, racial and social justice. We take seriously our commitment to ground-up organizing to build a strong people’s movement that can create transformative community change.
There isn’t one word of that description that surprises me.
Anyway, as the quote tells it, they want to give people more time to apply (again, because they’ve only had two years to do so, and who has the time these days?). But here’s the kicker…………they say they are demanding an extension and that “Anything less would be ‘a landlord bailout that results in thousands of families on the streets.“
Let that sink in. Honestly. Let me break it down for you. What they are saying is that:
- If the common people don’t get more time to fill in an application………
- ………and therefore can’t blow off their rent………….
- ………and are expected to be responsible to pay for their housing………….
- ……..then it is a LANDLORD BAILOUT…………..
- …………and they will be roaming the streets, homeless and hungry.
Cry me a fuckin’ river. Seriously. I say again, jobs are BEGGING to be filled. If I can make a living running a goddamned bearish financial website is the most vicious bull market in human history, you can sure as hell flip goddamned burgers for twenty bucks an hour. Jesus!
And that’s all I’ve got to say about that.
