The 8008 was: Blinky lights WAS: The SR71 Blackbird was designed ENTIRELYwith slide rules 619

into

People can't eat money. If they're that hard up for food (hard to believe for farmers), they should be cooking their eggs instead of selling them.

Side income is still income. All income is either put into savings or used as additional working capital. As I said, some savings is prudent, but it needs to be balanced against increasing future earnings (and, back then, against bank failure).

Well, my 20th-century response would be "Of course!" If one spouse is hiding income, the other sees less income available for saving, possibly thinking they're barely making ends meet for the family farm.

Since none of my ancestors for a couple hundred years were farmers, I'll have to take your word for it that farming men were incapable of saving even at a minimum level. But I'm not terribly comfortable with that, since you present such a one-sided picture (understandable given your family history). My family has always been patriarchal, and it was the men who were responsible, not the women. People tend to marry into families similar to their own, so both systems are self-perpetuating.

*shrug* I buy "toys that make loud noises", but I've got enough socked away to live for a few years without income, so I feel that's justified. OTOH, one of my sisters is on an allowance from her spouse despite being the primary wage-earner because she has no ability to control her spending. She put them through bankruptcy once already. My other sister wasn't financially responsible either until she became a single mother.

I love my female friends to rest, but I'd never trust a single one of them with access to my bank account. Despite making similar money to me, they're constantly broke, constantly asking to borrow money, constantly buying new toys and clothes and new cars every couple years. Different priorities, yes.

S

-- Stephen Sprunk "Those people who think they know everything CCIE #3723 are a great annoyance to those of us who do." K5SSS --Isaac Asimov