Maybe everybody says this, but my parents were "odd fish."

They were part glitzy socialites and your basic upscale "Conservatives," while they were also anarchist-leaning, alternative living progressives. Or Libertarians... or something else.

View across the bay...

We moved extensively when I was a kid, and when I was 13 we moved from very "civilized and socialized" Denmark to (at the time) to a fairly "primitive" backwater part of southern Spain.

My dad never spoke directly of the why, aside from the fact that he wanted to live somewhere where they wouldn't have to pay the (at the time) draconian Danish income taxes.

I took that story at face value for many years... even though — at least to my sensibilities — it didn't seem quite right that you'd live somewhere and expect to drive on the roads, use the infrastructure and so on... and not contribute to it.

Maybe I'm just a socialist at heart, but that approach seemed "sketchy" to me. Still, I knew better than to question it.

Calendula by the fence

Reading Between the Lines

With the wisdom of 40 years as an adult to look back over, I have a better understanding of my parents' motivation.

Sure, avoiding taxes was part of their motivation, but their greater motivation was — quite simply — that it was CHEAP to live there, at the time.

Which — I suppose — is a justifiable rationale, but it seemed like it was savings for some dubious reasons. Saving, so you could buy "swank shit" designed to impress other people who didn't care because they were also busy trying to impress people with their own "swank shit."

I think the thing that perhaps never sat well with me was the fact that my parents moved to this "cheap" place to get away from high taxes and government interference... and then spent an awful lot of time complaining about all the services, cultural amenities and social infrastructure they were missing.

Again... there's a core part of my personal values and sensibilities that say that "you get what you PAY for!"

They "wanted," they just didn't want to "pay."

A random post and water reflections...

Basic Human Nature? Or Cheapskating?

Part of the point of sharing these memories from my early life was as a reflection on life and society around us.

Everybody seems so wrapped up in "Getting a Rolex for a Timex Price." And then we wonder why everyone is struggling so much; financially, socially, emotionally...

Just as a point of reference, I'm as much about getting a "good value" for what I spend my money on. That's just good sense. But when all I can afford is a used Ford Focus, what good does it do me to go around bellyaching to everyone that it's not a Rolls Royce?

It makes no sense, and yet people do this, all the time, in various forms and expressions. Human nature? Bizarre entitlement? It's baffling...

But getting back to the core point here, I do understand my parents desire to move somewhere "cheap." I say that, as I contemplate the growing stack of unpaid bills that get later and later, because the cost of doing things keeps going up while incomes stay the same, carried by the "excuse" that "inflation is only 2%!"

Well, if inflation is "only 2%," then why did my monthly home insurance payment just go from $108.50 a month to $132.17 a month... even though we have have had zero claims? Last I checked... that's close to 22%, not 2%!

Maybe it's time we moved to Outer Snarkistan and started complaining about their shitty roads, militia government and lack of socialized medicine!

Thanks for reading!

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Created at 190429 16:50 PST
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