Monday, August 5, 2024

Leavin' on a U-Haul - Washington State

 


The cost of living in Washington State is among the highest in the land. Every time you turn around they're taxing some new thing you can't live without. I suspect it's going to keep on and on until one day, in the name of controlling obesity, the progressive Nazis will finally put a confiscatory tax on chocolate. That, I figure, since this is such an effeminate leftist culture up here, will be the last straw. One Hershey bar too far.

But I kid you not, this is the land where it can cost you three or four Benjamins just to put tags on your car. Property taxes are confiscatory, and grocery prices have more than doubled since Joe Biden swore on some sort of book in 2020. Some mainstream pundit recently opined that a hundred dollars worth of groceries only cost you $125 after 3 years under Biden. Well I want to know what store that is and do they put a limit on how many baskets you can buy at once?

Okay, my rent only went up 25%. My landlord is kind. That's about all that's only 25% inflated. Utilities? I had to sign up for an assistance program to be able to keep up with that. Fuel prices go up and down like a roller coaster. People are putting little stickers on gas pumps all over showing Joe Biden pointing to the price on the pump and saying, "I did that!" Thank heaven my Internet Company is based out of Louisiana and I'd already signed a lifetime no price increase deal with them back during the Trump administration. Everything up here is higher than a cat's back. We gave up trying to own a car and now are experiencing the wonders of old people on public transportation. I didn't realize back in East Texas when I was doing advocacy work for senior and disability transportation, that public transportation involved so much walking. Sometimes it's miles between where you need to go and where you can be picked up. AND the cab driver's union has negotiated new regulations with the cities that have driven up the cost of Uber and Lyft.

But one area where you can still get a bargain is on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and at local garage sales. Particularly, if you want to buy, say, used guitars, keyboards, refrigerators, recliners, sofas and such, hit Craigslist or FB Marketplace up here. We refurnished our living room in all leather furniture for $140, including end tables, 2 recliners, a leather sofa and my office chair. And if you're looking for musical instruments.....

I just saw a Takamine Guitar for $100. You can also find Taylor, Ibanez, Gibson, Fender, Martin and other prime condition guitars in that price neighborhood. I think rich Washingtonians buy their teenage boys guitars so they can attract girls and maybe make them grandparents. Trouble is you have to practice and that's way too much like work for the snowflakes growing up in Seattle and the guitars wind up shoved in closets or laying around unused and the parents, forgetting how much they laid out for the things, put them up on marketplace cheap so they won't have to stumble over them anymore.

The furniture and appliances go cheap because people are fleeing Washington for red states and a lower cost of living. Most are in a hurry to get out and find they can't get it all on the truck. I got a really good Maytag fridge with an ice-maker for $50. The people were leaving the next day so they just wanted it gone. Don't you just love preying on progressives? They voted for the people that are systematically wrecking the state's economy. They are leaving en masse, escaping the fruits of their history of voting for Democrats and fleeing to where voters have elected better stewards of their economies.

Don't you love karma!

© 2024 by Tom King