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What Dreams May Come

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131–140 of 399 posts

Re: What Dreams May Come

#131

Kind of bizarre seeing someone else's value system which is completely alien to my own. If I was leaving my wife and kids with mortgage and car loan debt, I wouldn't spend $10-20k on a graveyard plot, that's for sure. I don't think I would in any case, I'd just get cremated or whatever the cheapest option is.

Right. I think this is what bothers me about this list. It's material driven. There's a saying that goes (paraphrasing) "don't wish for better circumstances, wish to be a better person."

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Mark 8:36 KJV.

Jonathan, you and your family must look to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is your judge. Through Him all things are possible.

Re: What Dreams May Come

#132
This really sucks! Does he not have any life insurance? I remember when I was working full time, I had a life insurance policy worth 5x my salary, which should cover the costs for the things he wants to pay off. After becoming a contractor, this was one of the first things I secured. I didn't want my family to be left with nothing when I died.

Re: What Dreams May Come

#133

Jonathan here. Being woke up by my wife crying because the donations just aren't stopping is both heart-breaking and comforting. For those of you who haven't seen the 'Bucket List' post, here's what it says at the very top: As I try to deal with the reality that is my impending death I can't help but wonder how many things I might have been able to accomplish given just a little more time. When I was diagnosed, I had…

Why the hell is this comment not at the top of the page?

Re: What Dreams May Come

#134
> Pay off our mortgage : $186,000

This is a little strange to me. Unless he was a freelancer, every tech job that I'm aware of has decent life insurance options that would easily cover this. If you add a few more dollars it covers college as well.

I definitely can't stress the importance of getting life insurance from a reputable company.

Re: What Dreams May Come

#135
Sorry if i seem to be rude, but even if you're dying, you're still a human being and i will respect you. So, i won't be full of mercy and so on, i'm just going to be genuine. Your story is sad, as the story for million of people dying from this shit. But, if i help you, maybe i'd be ok with my conscience but this won't change anything for the 999 999 people remaining. If i choose to give money to fight against cancer, it would be for research and not for a particular case (even if it's sad). That being said, i truly understand that emotion and love drive me to give you some money, but i have to stay efficient and fair.

Re: What Dreams May Come

#137

So the house you purchased and the van you upgraded to are not yours, disposing of your body costs more than a car, visiting family means you have to stay in a hotel, the basic survival needs of your wife and four children are not guaranteed and you want to visit Disneyland and meet celebrities before you die? Capitalism is beautiful.

What Capitalism? America is the largest welfare state in history. Total government expenditures are nearly the size of China's GDP. What we have is corporatism, plunder by a combination of bureaucrats + government protected corporations (see: Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, Exxon, Pfizer, etc). I wish we had Capitalism. All we have is an extraordinarily misdirected, poorly run welfare state.

- Total government expenditures are nearly the size of China's GDP

Total government expenditure of USA 2013: 3.45 trillion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_States_federal_budg...) GDP of China in 2013: 8.3 trillion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomin...)

If I am not mistaken, the federal spending budget includes military spending as well.

Re: What Dreams May Come

#138
The #1 reason I limited myself to 2 kids was so that I did not have to drive a mini-van. The #2 reason was my concern I could not adequately provide for them.

Re: What Dreams May Come

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Malthus was wrong. Hans Rosling, "What Stops Population Growth?" http://www.gapminder.org/videos/what-stops-population-growth... In Malthus's model, new people only consume food and breed. But we do this other cool thing, too, we also think about human problems and how to solve them. We all add resources to the computer of humanity. Some really cool, like Norman Borlaug, go around the world and teach people how to gr…

We've been saved by falling reproduction rates. First world countries have around 2 children per couple. If growth stayed exponential, then no amount of increasing crop yields would help. Exponential growth is a terrifying thing. After a few generations there would be more humans than could fit on the surface of the Earth.

[deleted]

Re: What Dreams May Come

#140
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're insured in the US (sadly, this is still a fairly big "if"...) the costs of cancer treatment will be covered, but unlike most of the rest of the developed world there are still a lot of caveats: depending on the quality of your coverage, you could end up paying very little, or quite a bit of money. It's not a simple question, unfortunately. That said, it sounds like he's not looking for money for treatment ,…

>If you've just bought a house and a car and had a kid you're probably in a lot of recent debt, with the assumption that you'll have a lifetime to pay it down Out of self discipline I bought a life insurance at the same time my home loan was approved; the insurance amount being same as loan amount. I have always wondered why don't Government have regulations in place that forces a borrower to purchase a life insuranc…

It is mandatory in Italy. If you die the debt is automatically payed.
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