When you pay someone by 1099 you have to submit a 1096 to the gov't showing who was paid and how much, ssn is a required entry on the form.

I'm just hanging tight, waiting to see if either Gypsy or Bay Gal mentions that they want to take someone to Paris for the weekend and, incidentally they just happen to have the money to pay for it as well.

I knew a gal once who said she was going to pay for her trip to Paris by growing really long hair under her arms, then she was going to cut it and sell it as an armpit wig for people who felt they really must fit in when they went on their own trip to Paris. She figures she could sell it at the Air France counter, no problem. Hopefully Gypsy and Bay Gal will have better plans as I don't want to be skulking somewhere in the lobby while they ply their wares.

Employers are motivated to not pay under the table, because that implies paying cash. If you pay cash then it has to come from somewhere, presumable your own personal income. The tax ramifications of that are ominous. Imagine for example paying 100 workers under the table. To do that your own personal income would have to be the equivalent of the 100 workers combined, plus your own income. Still I guess it happens some.

I think most of the time though they let the guys get paid from company accounts with a regular check and the tax collected is paid into the account of whatever ssn was given by the employee. I am guessing that except for a few short term jobs of moving furniture or mowing grass most illegals have to provide some ssn info and such.

Knox I don't see it that way exactly.

If you have a hundred dollars or ten thousand dollars, you are in the game one way or another. If you haven't got a dime you're just missing all possible opportunities that come your way, which implies that you are a lazy good for nothing bum with ho hope and no future. Would you want your daughter to marry such a guy, who spends all his time smoking pot and playing video games and asks your daughter to take him here and there and buy him this and that because he can't get off his sofa and do something for himself?

Ouch! Easy on the employers there guy.

Some of those illegals can be very clever at concealing their status. Besides that if you have a hundred acres of ripe squash and can not hire someone in a suit ant tie to pick them you will be doing anything you can to save your crop.

American boys would rather be waiters in a restaurant than drive a nail or shovel concrete or pick fruit.

If you crush business, business goes away.

If I hang my hammer on them I expect they will pop off and things will become more interesting.

Ok but those dangling brass snow cones are really making an impression on me.

Dale you make a good point when you say you don't care, but as for asking God who they want for you I'll remind you of an Italian general I read about once. The general said, "Prepare for battle by praying as if only the hand of God can deliver victory, then prepare for battle with all your skills as if God did not exist".

It is nice to trust God to make the right choices for you, but I suggest you might spend a bit of time thinking about them yourself.

Cherub, if money doesn't matter at all, isn't it just as easy to fall for a man who has a little as to fall for one who has none? And why should it matter more if you fall for a wealthy man than if you fall for a poor man.

I am seeing a lot of the popular myth that money does not matter. I wonder how that perception started. I imagine you can trace it back to the hippie days of the 60s and 70s anti-establishment movement. Free love and equanimity for all causes.

Suppose you meet a person, dressed nicely, fine clothes, hair combed or brushed, teeth polished, shoes shined. Then suppose you met another in grimy clothes, smells funky because of homelessness and no access to a regular bath, holes in shoes, greasy hair. Now suppose that the difference in the two people all has to do with wealth. One is well off and the other is poverty stricken. The current proper way to think is that these two are equal, they have equal rights and value. But one is managing life well, the other is not, or perhaps the difference in wealth for the two is entirely luck.

Would you not be more interested in the friendship of one than the other?

The futility of that question is that I know the answer given here by many will be that it does not matter. You would like them both the same. If you would take one home for dinner you would take the other just as readily. If you give such an answer I have to wonder about your veracity. Maybe I will wonder why you would feel motivated to prevaricate about the matter as well.

We all make choices in out lives.

Obedience has what to do with anything here? Gypsy succumbing to coercive aggression? I hardly think so. And what's up with those dangling brass snow cones?

Premarital communication. My favorite. I especially like the part where a man and woman sit across the table from one another and he reaches across and takes her hands in his and looks into her eyes and says "I love you with all my heart and I'm so glad you are a part of my life".

Men are never sexy, but women are.

I think it is similar, if someone manages their life well they will probably not be in money trouble. As for accumulating wealth, that is another step in a positive direction.

I hear Christians frequently use the expression "similarly yoked" which refers to their commitment to God and church. Its good if people match up in finances and responsibility. As for being yoked by religion, that can be a whole other issue. I don't want to mix that up in this microdiscussion.

I just notice a difference in the lifestyles for my friends who have money and those who do not. Usually those friends who have money made it the hard way, but some enjoyed a little benefit from their ancestors.

I thought it was a little over the top to compare muslims to bird flu. I do wonder why more people do not try to keep radicals out of their midst though. Hard to differentiate between radicals and muslims when they do radical stuff like flaunt their burkas in your face and such.

BayAreaGal I imagine guys are hollering out for you to marry them as you pass all the time. I think I may well be the most reserved guy you've encountered for a while. It looks to me like you are polishing up your irony with a soft cloth.

Hawaiigurl makes some of the point I was alluding to, that if you have no money you may have to spend all your time working, which is not good for a relationship.

If two people respect each other and trust each other and manage their funds well together it won't help much if the sum of their funds is 12 cents.

Flip side, since someone asked for that, if someone has tons of money but they have to work all the time to support their lifestyle, then they don't really have that much money in my opinion.

Gypsy are my odds going to improve if I change my name to Mathew? Because I really liked being Michael.

BayAreaGal in another topic someone was suggesting that the way to find a wife was to stand on a street corner and shout to ladies driving by "HEY LADY WILL YOU MARRY ME?" I think that idea is a little earlier in the relationship than you and I.

At this point I'm just covering the hypothetical possibilities. I haven't had a woman in my house in so long I'm not convinced of what advantage there might be in having one. But I'm willing to concede that there might be some advantage.

Maybe I should spend a little more time figuring out the finer details like how a man and woman can put their arms around each other without getting all tangled up, but somehow I think after a little awkward twisting this way and that, they can eventually figure out a way and work it all out.

So that just leaves the technicalities of qualifying the spouse. If I'm in love with a woman, I think it might be convenient if she just happens to have several millions packed away all nice and neat. If I'm in love with a woman and she owes more money than I can afford to spend I am certainly going to have some reservations.

Sometimes your success and your position in life is dependent on the choices you made as you were living. Did you go to school. Did you work steadily at a meaningful career? Did you save your money? Or did you drop out of school, work in a bar part time and spend all your money on drugs and booze?

Sometimes a person's wealth points to an element of their character as well.

Usually the process is to sue for peace. We could try that.

Since when you marry you promise to stay with her (or him) for richer or for poorer, should you hold out for richer before you get married just to give yourself that extra edge in life?

It seems to be so popular to proclaim that money does not matter, but as short as a century or two ago wealth was a major factor in determining someone's suitability as a spouse.

When you marry someone poor you may find yourself working two jobs and never having family time or vacations. When you marry someone wealthy you may find yourself working 8 to 5 and golfing on weekends, with vacations twice a year. Arguments over paying bills and housekeeping might diminish as well.

Why would you propose to one who you know would say yes. There is something a little frightening about that.

Now if you know its kind of 50 50, then there is always a chance it could go either way. Or even both ways, she could say yes then change her mind and say no.

If you know she will say no, then you don't have anything to worry about. You won't be getting married. The trouble with that is you won't be getting married.

Apparently getting married is no tough thing if you are Topcat.

Houston RAWKS!!!

Iran breaks promises like that regularly.