raisins

It was Boeing and Airbus that ended it. Ironic.

Edit...maybe Pratt too.

OOfff

who is advocating for such a thing?

PineappleXpres

A society that encourages spending over hoarding is capitalist, not communist. Heirs don’t have to be descendants. It can be the food bank or the Mormon Church.

If money went back to the general fund, then nobody including your descendants would be counting on it and be off to the races minus any help you give them by way of Tuition or tax free gifts (limited).

Sliceback

What's your knowledge of living under, or near, Communism? I grew up in W. Berlin, surrounded by 'communism', and I always shake my head when people compare the U.S., in any fashion, to communism. One teacher in particular had been a people smuggler so the Stasi were after him. He had to fly in and out of W. Berlin as the DDR had an arrest warrant out for him. Listening to his stories was fascinating. As a kid you don't realize you're in the presence of a hero. Buddy and I used to head towards the fence (mostly a fence with mine fields and fields of fire, brick wall was only in downtown Berlin, concrete wall was in urban areas) and threw stones over the fence to see if we could set off any mines. Buddy "you choose a big double trunk tree for us to hide behind in case a mine went off." We had' the discussion about the DDR guards shooting at us. Yeah, where does that happen in the U.S.?

Previous posts commented about talking about passions and not shop. But shop can be fascinating also - "tell me about your background." A couple of young guys have *****ed "I don't want to talk about that." When the guy's story starts with "I grew up in behind the Iron Curtain. When they wouldn't let me fly I decided to walk through the mines fields to find freedom." Another guy - "I was a nation/international caliber small boat sailor (I forget the type but we had sailing to talk about since I did some basic stuff). 'They' wouldn't let me compete outside of the Eastern Bloc because they didn't trust me. Finally they decided they could trust me and I went with the Polish national team to London. They were right, they shouldn't have trusted me. Within 10 minutes of passing immigration I'd escaped. I went to the Equadorain embasssy because I figured they'd be watching the U.S. embassy closely. The Equadorians took me in." Holy schmooly. Talk about fascinating, courageous and bold, people. Walking away from EVERYONE they know, risking death and/or imprisonment, to go to a foreign country for freedom.

CX500T

My great grandmother died in a Gulag in 1984.

Her crime? My grandfather defected to the west and my great uncle was "Forest Brother" in Latvia who was executed in 1958 after capture and torure. Just being related was a crime

Soviet consul in Boston had the gall to come to our farm and demand money to pay for her final expenses.

I got to see my mom punch out a Soviet Bureaucrat. God I wish we had handheld video cameras then.

Sliceback

Yup. Just like the U.S. :-/

That's such a different world. It's insulting to your family history to compare the U.S. to that.

Sliceback

Flew with a guy late 1990's-2000 that made high end desks. $20,000 back then. That's $35,000 now. "For whom!?!?" Fortune 500 executives. They get promoted and often have a custom desk made. I did a couple and my name got out there. I do a couple a year.

Learned all about hunting down 'old' wood road tripping and looking at old barns. He'd leave a business card - if you plan on tearing the barn down call me. 'Tax write off' for my vacations.

He also built his own house. "Grab bars and foot pads in the master shower are custom designed. Dates get the house tour 'those grab bars aren't in the right place.' I just smile. They look at the bars and foot pads, look at me smiling....' At some point most of them get it."

CX500T

That said, my family and my wife's family (Educated Russian Jews who escaped the Stalinist purges in the 30s) are very anti anything that even starts to stink like communism.

nene

communism unfortunately goes against many faults in human nature and everywhere it's been tried around the world leads to authoritarian govts who become even more class stratified than capitalistic societies with even less economic mobility and less freedoms.

any system that seeks to make everyone equal in outcomes is doomed because everyone is not equal in effort, character or behaviors.

nene

Who/what is this "General fund" that you speak of?