And who knows that Black and Decker makes DeWalt? In the same factories in fact, just different specifications and models. And prices.

Rigid is the house brand of HD, but that some stuff with the Husky label, the other house brand, is made by the same companies?

And finally, unless you are talking hand tools, most warranties "for life" are pretty much useless. They change the products and "don't make that model anymore" as I have found out trying to get a "warrantied for life" battery replaced. Grrr.

Yes, I was wage slave at HD.

(Phone call from irate customer - "This here air gun doesn't work." "Well sir, what type of compressor do you have it hooked up to?" "Compressor??" True story)

(And on the IT side - sigh, worked for a hosting company - "My email won't work" So I shadow him typing it..."Uh sir, your email address is you@JoeBlow.com. You typed you@JoeBlows.com" Why should that matter? If my mail is sent to Smiths street instead of Smith street, I still get it!!?? Yikes)

“… perhaps the worst part of being poor is the continuous, soul-eating fear and worry. If anything, anything at all, goes wrong, a relatively minor illness, a broken down car, or any other unexpected emergency, you're toast, because you have no margin for error. Being poor means facing potential disaster every day.”

I’ve never seen it described better, Jeff.

Coming in late to this thread, it’s really fascinating to see all the opinions from people who have never been poor, who simply don’t have a clue. They don’t understand the domino effect of poverty, either. You can’t afford the internet to find a job, but you can’t afford the gas to go to individual businesses, and you can’t afford to do blind mailings at $0.44 per envelope, even if you could afford to get a new printer cartridge for $75. The car is still running (barely), but you can’t afford insurance on it; it gets you to your low-pay driving job, but if you have an accident, your license will be revoked for not having insurance, and lack of a license will also cause you to lose your job.

Employers just want young, dumb and cheap, and then complain that they can’t/don’t do anything. Some want trained and cheap, and then complain that nobody has those two particular assets.

So you think you don’t need a phone? Well, in the real world, employers won’t hire you if they can’t get in touch with you. Even a fast-food joint wants people who will be available on short notice when someone else is sick or quits or is fired.

Want to get a CDL? How do you intend to pay for it? Check with the trucking companies first – nobody is hiring, most of their rigs are parked, some companies are going under. If they aren’t hiring, they’re not giving away free training.

Start your own company? State license, county license, city license, register the name. Insurance? Bond? Business bank account? All cost money. Going to start a business without money? You need money to sell drugs on the street, why should anything else be different?

Got a line on a job? The competition can easily be 300-500 or more. Got long hair, big boobs and a cute butt? Maybe you’ve got a chance. Is the guy doing the hiring the 26-yr-old manager, and you’re 40? Forget it, because he sees you as a threat: you probably know more than he does, or he’s afraid you’ll try to tell him what to do. Back to young, dumb and cheap – they’re less threatening.

Got a line on a job out of town, but your car is pretty decrepit? You can’t get it repaired until you have some money coming in, and you can’t make the money if it breaks down.

A black man I once met said welfare is designed not to help, but to keep people in their place. He said the illusion of getting something for nothing is very powerful. I’ve never seen any indications that he was wrong. Native Americans mouthing tribal pride with their hands out are no threat to the government. Black people on welfare demanding their rights are just hot air, also no threat. Whites breeding like rabbits to increase their monthly assistance checks are hardly anything that government is going to worry about. Raise taxes a little and give them an extra five bucks and pat them on their little heads, and they’ll shut up.

But we don’t give welfare just to individuals. We have an enormous amount of money being paid out to businesses that don’t need it, but they’re getting it. It’s often referred to as “corporate welfare” ($92 billion in 2006, you know how much in 2009). We are subsidizing the growing of corn, wheat, sugar, milk, cotton, rice, and soybeans. We subsidize the tobacco industry and the tobacco-damage industry. We subsidize the oil/gasoline industry and paper mills. We subsidize Amtrak, Boeing, Xerox, Archer Daniels Midland, IBM, Motorola, Monsanto, Dow Chemical, General Electric and others. Despite the fact that all those companies are making record profits, money is still being taken from low- and mid-income people and given to these huge companies.

The little people aren't poor enough yet, raise the taxes so the funds can be passed on to big business.

Isn’t it great to have “cheap” food (heavily subsidized) that is paid for at the grocery store and again through federal taxes? Isn’t it great to shop for “cheap” goods that are paid for with outsourced jobs and slave labor? Isn’t great to have “free” education that doesn’t really educate?

Cheap and free, aren’t.

Sue

A bunch of years back I got a Rigid cordless drill. After a time one of the batteries died. Taking it to HD I was told I had to take it to an "authorized service center". The service center wanted to see the receipt, and really wanted me to bring the entire drill/batteries/charger in for service. I didn't know about that later part and they let me slide. They had to order the battery but I got a new one. So the 'lifetime warranty' isn't entirely useless.

A few months later other original battery died. Problem is the receipt has faded to a blank white sheet of paper. I will have to see what hey can do for me. Worse case I think I can get a duplicate receipt from HD or the CC company.

But my advice is that if you buy anything which might potentially need service photocopy your receipts because the thermal paper ones fade.

Actually a common misconception but not true. The same parent company owns both as well as Porter Cable and Delta but the parts are different, and made on different lines and factories.
There is a little overlap, the battery case for the new PC cordless is the same as the B&D with a small tab to prevent putting them in the wrong brand, but also the pinout is different and if you open them up the cells that make up the battery packs are different. I was hoping to use the nicer chargers and batteries from my PC drill set with the B&D lawn tools which hang on a simple trickle charger but I'd have to do a lot of rewiring to make it happen even though they look very much the same on the outside and filing off the tabs they will plug in.

Credit Card companies usually don't get an itemized receipt, they get a much simpler receipt. Some stores you get two receipts, NAPA auto parts for example, go buy wiper blades or something and you get the itemized receipt printed on the dot matrix printer and a tiny credit card receipt stapled to it. The credit card company only gets the info on the smaller receipt and therefore can't tell what you bought. Granted there are exceptions to the rule, some banks do get more detail but don't count on it.

Part of my preps include scanning any receipt for durable items so I have them inventoried and the original receipt goes in my 'Blasts survival binder so that if I ever had to leave home and make an insurance claim I have the documentation.

Well said Susan.

I've been poor, not desperately poor, but poor. Many a day I skipped lunch and worried that the gas in the car might not get me to work near the end of the month. I've put off repairs on the car, medical care (I've dug glass out and stitched up my own lacerations), dental care (I once installed my own temporary filling), and patched holes in boots and clothing. I've got by without heat when it was freezing out, and AC when it was over 100F. But no, I've never been really poor.

The fact being that educated and knowledgeable enough to know what I needed to do get by and being able to scrape enough cash together to buy needles and thread, filling and suturing supplies I was lucky. Far better off than many others.

Fortunately without kids I was always able to slide by. If I had kids. Or if my luck had failed, I would have been in desperate straits.

Money is freedom. Having money in the bank means you have options. The poor always pay more.

I don't think we will ever eliminate poverty. I'm not sure we should even try. I do think that as Americans and human beings we should do whatever is practical to knock the worse of the rough edges off extreme poverty. IMO there will always be poor, but poverty needn't involve suffering and degradation.

It is interesting to see how different people think about poverty. Some people see it is primarily a moral failing. A lack of will and drive. Others, particularly those who have been poor, or near poor, don't see morality and drive making much difference.

For those interested in how conceptual thinking about poverty and wealth, success and failure, shape the arguments and policies one of the better books covering how the two main communities think:
http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Politics-Lib...1687&sr=8-1

I agree that poverty probably won't be eliminated under any social or political system we can envision today. The best we can do is, as you say, take the rough edges off. While I don't think we need to ensure every poor person has a plasma TV and a Wii, I think we should try to make sure no one starves to death or has to sleep with their children in the rain or under an overpass. Any system that allows an individual to amass a $50 billion fortune while children starve across town- well, that system has some bugs that need to be worked out.

BTW, major kudos to the 2 American gentlemen who have that much money, namely Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. Both of them use massive amounts of their wealth for philanthropic endeavors. Good on them!

I agree with you 100%!

Now it just comes down to the most prudent and effective way to accomplish that.

I am reminded of a great experience from my youth. We were doing a hiking expedition and were told to bring the supplies we would need to get by on for a week. Coming from a background where I was understanding of what such an endeavor might require, I assembled a cache of supplies and equipment that, while spartan, would allow me to make the expedition in relative comfort.

Our leaders for the expedition were not prudent enough to check everyone's outfit, and so after we set off for our little hike, we discovered that a few of the members were not as prepared as they should be. Instead of packing appropriate gear and consumables, they brought things like books to read, canned foods, and walkman steros with cassettes to listen to. As the journey progressed to what would be the more rugged parts of the trail, those who were improperly equipped began to complain about the weight of the packs, the cold from the rain that was soaking them, how thirsty they were getting, etc. About half way into the week, they were unable to continue at the pace we needed to keep, and so our leaders decided we needed to reallocate our loads. Those of us who had planned properly would have to take some of the canned food and books in our packs and give the others some of our backpack grub to carry instead. We would also have to give up some of our raingear because the others' packs were getting waterlogged. We would also have to take turns sharing sleeping bags because some of the less prepared didn't have warm enough bags and were getting too cold at night.

So I went from a pack that was just right to one that was too heavy, giving up a spare poncho that was later ruined by the recipient because they didn't know or didn't care how to use it properly, and spending a night with a thin, soaked sleeping bag while someone else slept in mine. It also turned out that the people we "shared" our supplies with preferred to eat the food we had put in their packs as well, so I ended up eating a cold can of tomato soup and wet, crumbled crackers instead of a freeze dried stroganoff because the leaders said we all had to eat enough to keep going, and if the others only ate what they brought, they wouldn't make it. By the fifth night, I was ready to quit and go home, but we were stuck on the trail and the shortest way out was to finish the hike. To top it off, the people who had come unprepared and to whom our stuff had been given were still complaining!

Charity is a great thing. Forced redistribution, in any form, and for whatever reason, creates resentment and destroys motivation. You cannot achieve anything durable by taking from those who will and giving to those who won't or can't. Asking is one thing, demanding is another, but misappropriation is just plain evil. Any leadership that imposes a collection for one reason, then uses that resource for another purpose without consent are thieves. What our leadership should have done was to make sure that everyone knew up front what was needed and expected of them. Some people might not be able to make such a trip, but at least they won't be a problem for those who are willing and able. Not everyone can. That is the facts of life. Others can help them, but they should never be forced to do it.

Well said Ben. The leaders did nothing to teach or prepare the primary lesson of the hike: be responsible and prepared. The leaders showed absolutely no forethought and leadership. Brings to mind this: Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part. Not a popular outlook, but true all the same.