Posts by Samuel Collins

Look, you either buy it and own the damn thing, or you don't play. Period. Take the lesson. I’ve wasted enough time at the blackjack tables to know better than to talk nonsense without a point.

casualmoose14 said:Let me share my own experience... I have a loan myself and I’m acting as a guarantor for my brother. I walk into my local bank, and they reject us immediately—saying we don't meet the credit requirements. Fine. So, I go to a friend of mine who works at the bank... she tells me there's absolutely no way to get anything approved because you need to maintain a certain amount of liquidity, blah, blah, blah... Then, I go to a credit broker, and they manage to set up not one, but two separate loans for us... and I'm talking about big players like Sperber or Chase, not some small outfits like Kent or Imex.
It makes me wonder: how is it possible that my friend working right there at Chase tells me it's impossible, yet I take those exact same papers to a broker and suddenly I'm approved by Chase? Sure, I end up dropping about $300 on insurance fees... but I actually get the loan...

Either your friend doesn't know how to do her job, or that broker has a connection inside the bank where they're splitting commissions—someone's risking their neck getting fired if an internal audit catches wind of it or if the borrower defaults later.

Forget those credit brokers. They’ll just try to upsell you some useless extra insurance or pocket a fat commission for something you can easily handle on your own by walking straight into a bank. 😉

David Parker44 said:Yes, we are.
First off, if the people actually showed some teeth, this whole movie would be playing out differently. Just look at France... the second they tighten the screws, you've got riots in the streets. You can't mess with them. But here? Throw a tax hike at us—wrapped up in some "austerity" ideology or blaming the previous administration—and everyone just folds. Everyone just says, "Well, I guess we have to..." That's how it always goes. And don't even get me started on small business owners. Hit them with an extra 12% tax on profit distributions and not a single soul at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce even blinks.

Secondly, I’d implement penalties at the polls for anyone who doesn't show up... simple enough. $100 So don't bother voting then. You live in America, and that comes with a duty to the state and the people. If we did that, they wouldn't be playing games with pathetic 40% turnout numbers and letting a tiny minority decide the majority. The final result would look completely different.

The French eat soup after the "main" course. They're built different. Same goes for what you mentioned. I agree people need to revolt, but we're just wired to complain in forums, bars, and living rooms instead.

I also agree about penalizing people who skip elections without a damn good reason.

I’m sure the U.S. Chamber of Commerce blinked a few times before Mrsić came up with his "brilliant" idea that people with college degrees should be working for $533 a month. If you value human dignity, that's an insult.

There are honest employers out there, too.
Let the uninformed or the moralists pay the corporate tax; they clearly don't realize what kind of idiocy their money is funding.
$33333 It's way too easy to pull money out of a company. It's ridiculous. Renting space, leasing equipment from sister companies, etc.—that's old school and inefficient. Even if you rent massive warehouses that cost a fortune, you have to report it, the contract goes to the IRS, and you pay tax on the rental amount. There are solutions, but the government is run by idiots who aren't smart enough to see them. $33333 Money gets pulled out of a firm so fast the owner has cash in hand in a couple of days, and the government sees zero. I won't go into more detail unless I want to get blocked or banned or whatever they call it these days.

To anyone reading this from some office where you're basically a slave: don't criticize me. I’ve been there. In a 400-square-foot office, all alone, with my own master breathing down my neck. Never again.

Chris Long12 said:Good luck in the next life, 😉

If you want to slash government spending, you have to scrap a mountain of benefits and entitlements that the system is built upon (it’s all written in the Constitution regarding the social welfare state).
Any political party running on a platform like that is never going to get elected. So, we’re stuck in this loop where everyone is just trying to live off someone else's dime (both now and in the future).

And as long as government spending keeps climbing, even Samuel Collins is going to end up losing his shirt. 😁

The golden rule.
👍
Democracy on such a massive societal scale—and given everything it's applied to today—just doesn't work. There is no "one size fits all" policy; people and circumstances are far too diverse for that.

Not 😁

The government could sell off Wells Fargo and State Farm tomorrow, dump all that cash into buying shiny new SUVs for every low-level bureaucrat with a title, and my life wouldn't change one bit 😉 If they try to push me too far, I'm out of the US. I'll make the same money I make now because thank God I'm nobody's damn slave!

I've got property here, but I'd rather give it away for free than pay a single cent in taxes on it. I haven't stolen from anyone, I haven't scammed anyone, and I lost my mind working my tail off to build what I have. Now some guy with a nasal voice wants to tax my hard work just because he's too incompetent to fund basic state expenses?!!!! No way in hell!!! The mods can delete this post for all I care, but I am not paying a dime in extra taxes on my own assets!

Who gave me the right to be typing this at this hour without having to report to some corporate overlord in the morning who pays me a salary that gets half-gutted by spendthrifts? ME! Who built what I have today? ME! And who's going to take it from me? NOBODY! Not a single cent!

America needs an honest dictator!

Maybe we've already missed the boat, but we’re definitely heading the wrong way. Back when we actually owned stuff instead of just watching it get stripped bare, we should have just pulled up the drawbridge and isolated ourselves. That's my take, anyway. Not gonna sit here and write a thesis on it because, frankly, I don't care. You reap what you sow, and I hate being beholden to anyone.

As I’m typing this, I’ve got the radio on in the background and the Republican Party is whining about the privatization of Wells Fargo and State Farm. IT DISGUSTS ME. Look, I’m against the privatization too, but at least I have the guts to say it. Those hacks who sold off half of America and looted the other half don't get a seat at the table to complain.

The people in power are useless. The Republican Party showed their true colors ages ago—they're a bunch of scum through and through (shout out to the rare exceptions, wherever they hide), and there isn't a decent alternative in sight, so we're basically screwed.

I happened to skim a few letters from Mr. Lesar addressed to some big shots—doesn't matter who—and his views wouldn't be half bad if I hadn't seen the rest. He’s asking for nonsense and clearly doesn't grasp the basics of how an economy actually works.

So, all I can say is: every man for himself.

Henry Hernandez7 said:Look, if you want to know why the economy is circling the drain, look at the tax code. It didn't just glitch out by accident; it was designed specifically to DESTROY everything we have, all to serve the interests of third-party mega-corporations that don't give a damn about national pride, faith, or any kind of actual identity.

Once most people finally wake up to this, we’re looking at the perfect storm for a massive revolution—probably some kind of World War IV that leaves a trail of bodies in its wake, only for a new regime to step in and aim for the exact same goal: ANNIHILATION.

This isn't some conspiracy nut theory. I was actually just talking to a buddy of mine the other day about how much I suspect this is the case.

Look, I'm not claiming I know for a fact it's 100% true, but honestly? It wouldn't surprise me one bit if it is.

If you aren't an idiot, you can see we're headed straight for the cliff. Pushing taxes even higher is just another nail in the coffin. I don't think we're being led by morons; I think we're being led by puppets. The ones in charge now, the ones before them, and whoever takes over next.

Only a moron thinks hiking taxes actually fills the coffers. You grow a budget through tax breaks and cutting red tape—that’s how you jumpstart the whole economy, from the guy running a taco truck to the massive corporations on Wall Street. The smart money knows that.

Honestly, I couldn't care less what they decide to do tomorrow. I stopped relying on the whims of corrupt idiots a long time ago.

Look, don't overthink it. If you're already using PayPal, just fire off a PayPal Invoice to the buyer and call it a day.

Otherwise, just whip up a document in Word or even scribble it on a piece of paper with all the required info. It works just fine for them to justify the expense.

This whole law is just pure stupidity. A few deadbeat parents shouldn't be punishing everyone else who actually follows the rules.

Try heading down to NASA downtown and see if you can talk some sense into them. Honestly, if you run into someone with half a brain, you might actually get approval. Tell them straight up: if you don't pay this, your kid is the one who suffers. Between the interest piling up, frozen bank accounts, and all those legal fees from collections, you won't even be able to afford a decent life for your family.

Otherwise, there's some limit on how much you can withdraw monthly without needing a green light, though I can't quite remember the exact number off the top of my head.

Look, from what I’ve seen, you can't beat using PayPal or Neteller. When it comes to cards, my take is that you should stick with a Visa from either JPMorgan Chase or Bank of America linked directly to a foreign currency account. And here’s the kicker: make sure the base currency matches whatever you’re actually spending online most of the time.
If your account is set up in USD but you're trying to buy something in dollars and you've got $5,000 sitting there, you're fine—but if you have an account where the base currency is something else, even if you have plenty of cash, things get messy. Say you have $5,000 in a different currency and try to pay $100, it might work, but it’s a disaster waiting to happen. You end up getting hit with a double conversion. First, they convert your money into USD at the bank's lousy buying rate, and then they charge you again at their even worse selling rate to finalize the purchase. It's a total rip-off.
Bottom line? If your base currency is USD and you're buying stuff in dollars, you dodge all those useless conversion fees.