It's tough being an observant person in this day and age. This morning my daughter got to watch the national news story about increasing violence on jet liners and in airports. Scene after scene shows people getting in melees before getting on flights and while tightly packed in jet liners. One thing I noticed - every person involved was African American. Must be a lot of frustration boiling over. Sad.

Then, here's the latest that I think I may have mentioned in the past - but I mention again because it's getting worse. In the past year I've been dealing with two estates: my dad's and my mother-in-law's. In one we have a trust and in one we don't even have a will. Contrary to popular belief, having a trust is actually worse. Why? Because people are stupid and confused and use the trust as some sort of starting point for adding all kinds of requirements that have no meaning and aren't actually legally required. For example - If you walk into a bank and want to get on your mom's accounts as per the directives in the trust most of the bank staff will just stonewall you because they don't trust you. Oh, you can have your ID, doctor's letters saying your mom's got dementia, the directives in the trust, etc. Doesn't matter. They'll add new requirements on the fly just because. The latest has to do with the sale of a home. Now the title company may require that the account where the check goes must be in the trust. That wasn't the case a few years ago. It's just one thing after another. This legal document that was intended to make things easier, by having all the hard work done early by a well-paid attorney, actually makes things tougher because stupid people are inserted into the process. This is in contrast to the one estate I settled with no will, trust...nothing other than names listed on assets as beneficiaries. I could walk into a bank (even criminal Wells Fargo) and just hand over my ID and the death certificate and walk out with the money. Granted, that wasn't in California where everything seems to go into probate ASAP.

I just find this as a major irony and another sign that we're coming off the rails as a society. It seems like we're just getting dumber and dumber. I'm tempted to transition to having almost no assets at all. I've been debt free for a long time and it's like I'm living outside the bubble from everybody else - like I'm beyond the wall in that movie "The Giver", haha. Back in the day we called it "traveling lightly" - having no assets. I could go into what I've seen with ethics and strange negotiation tactics by realtors...but that's worthy of another thread.

Sorry for the long rant. I'm just curious of the thoughts of my fellow Gulchers...