I was not poor growing up, but we raised all our own food, and cut firewood for winter (we burned 6 cords/year heating our house). We had a '49 Ford tractor in 1980, used a horse-drawn model hay rake, and built our own buildings, hay wagon, etc.
We harvested our food, our animals' food by hand. I also helped neighbors put up their hay when I had some extra time.
The result was a family that knows the value of hard work, that worked too hard to get into trouble, and grew close to each other and God based on our experiences.
Yes, there were some bad experiences (moved some bee hives one night and I received dozens of stings that night and the next day, I've had trees fall on me, I carried a new-born calf several hundred yards to the barn--because he mother refused to care for it after birth), but the overall experience was great.
What's not to like about early America? We didn't eat if we didn't work.
“What’s not to like about early America? We didn’t eat if we didn’t work.”
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Early America was fine in its time! The hard work and struggle I went through gave me a great advantage as an adult over those who had not done those things I had to do.
The point of my post is that most younger people now know nothing of all that and don’t have a clue what it all means. We cannot go back to that way of life without losing the majority of the population through disease, violence and starvation. Even though you may know something about it you refer to the tractor your family had in 1980 so you are not a twenty something yourself, remember that pre-1900 means no tractor of any kind, it means following a horse or mule or a team. Have you ever seen an adult who has never used an axe try to cut wood with one? I assure you that a healthy man can wear himself out before he goes through a stick the size of my arm, it seems so simple but it isn’t quite that simple. Recently I decided to buy a new pole axe and I couldn’t find one in a store worth having, apparently you have to order from Sweden or somewhere now to get an axe that has a proper bevel.
The amount of knowledge needed to live that lifestyle is far and away greater than most young people can conceive of, to live the “simple” life just ain’t that simple. I still have some of the old knowledge but nothing like what my parents had, they could, “make a dollar out of fifteen cents”.
We may wind up going backward but I am afraid that if it happens we won’t be able to stop at pre -1900, we may go back a lot farther than that.