IMO, As someone who is successful at life with little to no effort, I'll say luck plays a HUGE part in my success, way more than working hard if that's even a factor.

I own my nice home and 3/4 acre yard outright, and 4 cars, a racecar, a pond I can swim in, solar power, orchard, etc.
Most of the money that bought these things came from the luck of being born into a fairly wealthy family and outliving a few. I broke my back at 31 and essentially retired.
I feel like I'm more successful than most Americans financially and elsewise, with zero debt, multiple assets, a long and stable marriage, etc....and I feel I've put less effort into achieving these things than most people. The only logical explanation I can come up with is luck, including the luck of my birth with decent genes and money for nothing.

When did you become a welfare queen like that? Like I'm just wondering what made you change your mind that you said "that's it im going to start being on welfare."

I thought you hated stuff like that, i still haven't gotten my check, but I believe in good government policy that uses socialized programs to help people in times of need. I thought you would be living in the woods or on Walden pond or something by now.

Instead you became a welfare queen. I never would have thought you were a welfare queen but I guess tha'ts the way of it.


WELL I'll look forward to you NOT giving people a hard time for taking needed help in the form of government handouts in the future since you're a welfare queen now too.

Lol. Oh Bob. I see you didn't get that help you are crying out for.

Schiff isn't the one saying it.
It's the over a dozen Trump administration officials, you know, like the people who gave him a million dollars towards his election campaign to then be installed in his cabinet with zero experience, people that he now calls never trumpers...them, and idiot Trump himself who released a heavily redacted call summary, called it a transcript, and inexplicably left in the parts where he insisted on investigations into political rivals (and no one else) in exchange for releasing congressionally approved aid.

If Trump drained the swamp, it was only to turn it into the world's largest and most ecologically disastrous sewage holding pond.

Great job? On what? Destroying our international standing and standards? There he IS simply the best. Sucking up and capitulating to our enemies while abandoning and distancing our allies? Yep, better than all the rest. Lying to the American people? Better than anyone else. Running a criminal administration for his personal enrichment? No one else could pass the test.

If you call his disastrous work a "great job", what will you call his removal? The best job ever? You are so delusional that just last week you claimed Republicans run the house and Democrats run the Senate so you could blame our badly flawed paperless voting system on those evil Senate Democrats. *facepalm

Wasted billions on 70 miles of new wall.....that's really replacement fence that can be cut through in under a minute with a reciprocating saw, and only where barriers existed. Great. Increased illegal immigration exponentially. Great. Tax cuts/government welfare for the rich but not the needy that exploded the deficit and debt. Great. Failed trade agreements that have cost tens-hundreds of billions only to put us in a far worse position than before he started. Great. Zero investment in infrastructure. Great. Total decimation of environmental laws.
Great. Abandoning our best allies against terrorism to cozy up to dictators. Great. Best of all, he's widened the divide in America more than all administrations in the last 150 years combined, and recently began calling for preparation for civil war if he's not re-elected. Great.

Um...if he's removing deep state operatives, why are they all his people being jailed? More than even any two term administration ever, beating Nixon's indictment and conviction rates in under two years, before the Mueller fallout. Indeed, in that time he has had more than twice the convictions of all Democratic administration officials since 1970....again, before most Mueller convictions. (It bears noting that Republican officials are convicted at a rate >91 times that of Democrats).

What you really meant to say.....No matter what Trump says it is guaranteed to be a lie.

It's amazing how many worlds there are on earth. The only lilly pad in the pond. The aliens we're looking for are all right here. Cleverly disguised as humans. One language is all that's needed.

Welcome to the Mos Eisley Cantina. Welcome to the Hotel California. Welcome to the machine. Welcome to OZ. Welcome to Hollywood.

Nice find eric. Phone home dude.

Your video, Snowboarder clears 60ft pond before somersaulting, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Your video, Deer walking through blue mineral pond, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

This achievement has earned you your "Pop Star" Level 350 Badge!

On our company campus on the shoreline they built a "Serenity Garden" with a koi pond and stocked it with some beautiful fish. Then the seagulls had a field day with them so they had to make a grid of fishing line criss-crossed across the top of the pond to protect them. Pretty much killed the whole serene effect.

I got up early and cooked a 22lb turkey for over 5 1/2 hours. Rosemary butter all over and injected in the breasts, and nothing else. Turned out great, flavorful and juicy.
Right after it came out, my new oven died, so I had to abandon the already made but uncooked apple pie. Not a big deal, as there were 4 half pies left over when everyone left.

My brother brought his corgie who immediately did a few full speed laps of the yard before performing a beautiful horizontal swan dive into my pond. I gave it an 8.7.

Happy roast a dinosaur for genocide day, everyone.

It's hard winning all the time.

Then again it is really easy to win all the time when the other side foolishly lies.

No blue wave just a pond ripple Nov 6.
RED Title wave coming Nov 6 .

#walk away and Blexit.

Arcata, being our college town, is the most expensive town here. I would consider other nearby towns if being cheap is important. Try Blue Lake, where I am (I'm outside town), it's more rural but under 10 miles from Arcata.
We moved here 25 years ago....back then, a 1000 square ft house with an acre cost us $800a month. I've owned my home since then, so I'm out of the rent loop, but poking on craigslist looks like around $1500-$2000 for a decent house, with some more, some less depending on what you get. Nice 2-3 bedroom homes seem to be about $500000 now with some property.

Our gas is the most expensive in the country consistently, over $4.

Beyond that, it's pretty cheap. Property tax is 1%, food is reasonable, entertainment is mostly nature and community, fishing, hunting, hiking, boating, surfing, diving, even back country skiing 1/2 hour up hill, so free, although there are paid events too, we even had GWAR play a few times in Eureka, but no opera or ballet.

My wife and I live on $30k....we have 4 cars, pets, vacations, a large pond, hot tub, etc. Because I have room, I grow a lot of our produce and we have around 40 fruit trees. We aren't putting any extra in the bank, but aren't depleting our savings either.

We are the marijuana capital of America, if you know the right people, it's maybe $100 an oz for A grade, $10-20 a gram for wax/oil.

All in all, it depends on your lifestyle. It would be easy to spend all you save living here on gas, or easy to not have a car at all if you're in town and will ride a bike in the rain. While there are certainly cheaper places to live, I'm not sure there's better. Our forests are gorgeous with skyscraper redwoods, the ocean is cold but clean here, the rivers unspoilt and full of fish, our air is some of the cleanest in the lower 48, water is too, and our summer daytime temperature is mostly 70-75 F, winter is low 50's- freezing, but we have very few freezing days.

Mckinleyville, just above Arcata, was (still is?) the largest town in California with no police, only highway patrol. They got a multiplex before police!

We have a ton of immigration from the bay area, but more often than not they move back because they miss the fast pace and abundant services and entertainment....I didn't.

Hope that helps. We love it here, but we're slow paced and super cheap bastards. If you are too, come check it out.

Reminds me of when i used to walk the aisles of Blockbuster and count how many movies had someone pointing a gun as the main image on the box.

Even on "On Golden Pond" ;-)

Thanks. And here I thought I worked hard on my pond. Granted, mine is 4 times as big and twice as deep, but I had shovels and concrete. Those guys are hard core.

Wet Persian? Wet Pond? Don't get it.
Oh wait - the Persian needs to be taken to the Vet. Clever.

I like that they've changed the standard orientation of the bill

I carry a 5$ Canadian bill that depicts kids playing hockey on a frozen pond and also has a poem on it

I wish the US could be more like CA