a credit card number stolen -- etc. -- Future Bug living in Cambodia

Every so often I have to cancel a credit card because the number has been stolen or I've lost the card.  Sometimes a credit card reaches its expiration date and is reissued.  When either of these things happen, it gives me a chance to reset the periodic payments tied to that card.

For example, do I really need this media subscription?  Do I want to continue this charitable or political donation?

I activated the replacement card on Sunday, and used it to pay for the new monthly animal shelter donation in memory of Dax.  I'm thinking from now on, I'm only going to set up a new monthly donation if I think the cause is worth $100/month.  Before, only 2 of my 18 monthly donations were for as much at $100/month.  Yeah, 18 monthly donations.  It's a lot to keep track of.  So, as each credit card expires, I'm going to replace all its current donations with a new set that are $100/month.

No one-time donations, and monthly donations have to be $100/month.  This will simplify things for me as I ramp up my donations between now and retirement.  Currently, my Green Communist giving goal would be met with just five $100/month donations, but this number will go up each year until I retire, at which point I'll have to reset downward to match my retirement income.  Overall goal is to steadily increase donations until 2050, at which point I'll subsist on an amount matching the per capita sustainable global GDP.  [Assuming I'm still alive in 2050, my goal is to live at least until I'm 85, but I don't control the outcome.]  [Right now, sustainable global GDP would be about $2,000 per person per year.  I'm not sure how I'll squeeze myself down that far, but I've got until 2050 to figure it out, one year's ratchet at a time.]

If all my cards were canceled now and I had to pick donations again, I'd replace everything with:

(1) Friends for Animals of Metro Detroit*
(2) Carolina Abortion Fund
(3) Dave Thomas Adoption Fund*
(4) Global Greens
(5) UN Population Fund*

*Current recipient

This is a difficult exercise, dropping from 18 recipients to 5.  I currently give to two abortion funds, I'd replace them both with the Carolina Abortion Fund because the cost of an abortion is lowest in North Carolina -- more bang for the buck.  I want to give to at least one international charity and at least one political group.  I already give to the UN Population Fund, I'd keep it.  Picking one political group is really difficult, I've spent a long time this morning thinking about which one, but Global Greens would get the nod.

Each year between now and retirement I will add two or three more $100/mo charities to the list.  Then when I retire -- I'd zero it out for the first year -- no donations the first year -- and then in 2029 start moving toward the 2050 goal again.

I haven't thought much or talked out loud with people about this ultimate goal of squeezing my consumption down to the globally sustainable per capita limit, but it is a huge reason why I will need to move out of the DC area and will need to retire from my job.  Just the incidentals of doing this job while living in the DC area will require consuming too much.  So first step is to let my personal responsibilities roll off as I approach retirement.  Next step is to move somewhere less expensive.  But I think ultimately living anywhere in the US I'd consume too much, just having to pay rent would push me over the sustainable budget.  I'll have to live in a poor country.  At some point, probably the medical interventions keeping me alive will be enough to push me over the budget.  I bet the drugs I consume daily for my various ailments are already >$2,000/year.

Heh, it occurred to me that if I include all the world's pets in the denominator, then I can increase my green communism household budget for each pet living with me, LOL.  There's maybe a billion pets for our eight billion humans.  Get a couple cats and we can live on $5,000 per year somehow, somewhere.

These final 30 years of my life are a final game, to see whether I can live a truly sustainable lifestyle by the time I give it all up. 2021 is Year One of Bug's Green Communism game.  This first year is easy, I can easily donate 3% of my take home pay, I'm already beating that.  But the year before I retire I'll be donating 23%.  If for some reason I delay retirement one year, 26%, two years until I'm 62, 30%.  But then my income will probably drop by more than I'm giving away, so I'll reset from there.

Ultimately, I'll be living a lifestyle like the average person in Cambodia.  I'd better start learning Khmer.

Maybe read a modern history of Cambodia as my next Book of the Moon?  I've been listening to a Cambodian history podcast, off and on.

Dark Compassion

T:  Sometimes when we talk about politics or history, you get too dark for me.

Bug:  I'm sorry.

T:  I know it comes from a compassionate place.  But I'm not always that strong.

Bug:  Yeah, I'm used to things like the Hardcore History podcast.

That was cool how he recognized that my dark side is actually my compassion.  I'm not depressed when I write about history or politics! I'm seeing what the world is going through and bearing witness to how fucked up things are, groping for either solutions or acceptance.  I'm the Prince of Dark Compassion, heh.

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I ran across something I wrote during January 2020, before the pandemic went global, back when I was struggling with the commute, the chores, the pets, the job, T always being at home, not getting enough Time to Self.  I was overwhelmed after B allowed his husband to move back in, which abruptly cut T off from their2 physical relationship.  I was so pissed off at B because his lack of boundaries with his husband made my own life more difficult.

The husband has moved out, thank Goddess, but B and his husband still get together for about one week per month, which is more manageable for T and me.

So the T responsibility is less.  And now the Dax responsibility is almost gone (still need to deal with the final bill and insurance claim).  There's still no commute, although working from home wasn't "better" at first.  Building the home gym helped, but ... sharing my "work space" with T and the pets on most days is distracting.

Anyway, perhaps January 2020 and the first three months of the pandemic were my period of peak responsibility, and maybe I'm starting to come down the other side now.

But these responsibilities, they also come from a compassionate place.

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