Posted on 07/21/2011 12:33:22 PM PDT by Kaslin
I just read two very interesting articles on the U.S. economy, written from historical perspectives. They compelled me to share my own historical perspective. And what I want to say is more about our changing culture than our economy.
One of the articles, by Julie Crawshaw of MoneyNews.com, notes that the "Misery Index"—the combined unemployment and inflation rates—made infamous under President Jimmy Carter, has hit a 28-year high. It's also 62 percent higher than when President Obama took office.
But that's nothing compared to Mort Zuckerman's article in U.S. News & World Report. Zuckerman measures the current situation against the Great Depression. He writes:
jobs, wiping out every job gained since the year 2000. From the moment the Obama administration came into office, there have been no net increases in full-time jobs, only in part-time jobs. This is contrary to all previous recessions. Employers are not recalling the workers they laid off.... We now have more idle men and women than at any time since the Great Depression.Zuckerman is a perceptive writer who looks at economies from a historical perspective. In my comparative politics course at Grove City College, I use his article on the Russian collapse in the 1990s, which Zuckerman showed was worse than our Great Depression.
I can't say we're teetering on that precipice, but Zuckerman's article got me thinking: Imagine if America today experienced an economic catastrophe similar to the 1930s. How would you survive?
I remember asking that question to my grandparents, Joseph and Philomena. How did they survive the Great Depression?
My grandmother, never at a loss for words, direly described how her family avoided starving. Compensation came via barter. Her father, an Italian immigrant, baked bread and cured meats in an oven in the tiny backyard, among other trades he learned in the old country. My grandmother cleaned the house and babysat and bathed the children of a family who owned a grocery store. They paid her with store products. Her family struggled through by creatively employing everyone’s unique skills.
What about my grandfather? When I asked that question as he sat silently, my grandmother raised her loud Italian voice and snapped: "Ah, he didn't suffer! Don’t even ask him!"
My grandfather, also Italian, returned the shout: "Ah, you shut up! You're a damned fool!"
Grandma: "No, you're a damned fool!"
After the typical several minutes of sustained insults, my grandfather explained that, indeed, his family didn’t suffer during the depression. They noticed no difference whatsoever, even as America came apart at the seams.
Why not? Because they were farmers. They got everything from the land, from crops and animals they raised and hunted to fish they caught. They raised every animal possible, from cattle to rabbits. They ate everything from the pig, from head to feet. There were eggs from chickens and cheese and milk from goats and cows. There were wild plants.
I was captivated as my grandfather explained his family's method of refrigeration: During the winter, they broke ice from the creek and hauled it into the barn, where it was packed in sawdust for use through the summer. They didn’t over-eat. They preserved food, and there was always enough for the family of 12.
When their clothes ripped, they sewed them. When machines broke, they fixed them. They didn't over-spend. Home repairs weren’t contracted out. Heat came from wood they gathered.
And they didn't need 1,000 acres of land to do this.
They were totally self-sufficient—and far from alone. Back then, most Americans farmed, knew how to grow things, or provided for themselves to some significant degree.
That conversation with my grandparents came to mind as I read Zuckerman's piece and considered life under another Great Depression. I realized: The vast majority of Americans today would be incapable of providing for themselves. If you live in the city with no land, you'd be in big trouble. Even most Americans, who have a yard with soil, wouldn’t know what to do.
Isn’t it ironic that with all our scandalously expensive education—far more than our grandparents' schooling—we've learned so little? We can't fix our car let alone shoot, gut, skin, and butcher a deer.
Think about it: If you lacked income for food, or if prices skyrocketed, or your money was valueless, what would you do for yourself and your family?
Americans today are a lifetime from their grandparents and great grandparents. God help us if we ever face a calamity like the one they faced—and survived.
bfl
Ran an experimental garden this year. Learned a lot. In my prior life I ran some cattle and had fruit trees, but I knew squat about gardening. Next year will be better.
Debt free (small-time independent) oil & gas stripper well + farmer/rancher-guy here. It’s a two hour drive to any town bigger than 100k people.
I’ll be fine. Hit me with your best shot.
If it comes to that, nobody is gonna worry about permits, licenses, etc. including me. I’m gonna shoot whatever I want for chow whenever I need it.
And you better not put in a garden in your front yard!
And the rooster gets it.
Alas Babylon was a great Novel! I also recommend Dies the Fire.
The thing as I see it is in any scenario involving Massive Societal Collapse would be in surviving the first month then the next six months. Anybody who survived a year should be able to make it all the way through.
Also if the production of electricity is curtailed or even stopped then really all bets are off. Surviving the first month becomes problematical even the Amish I know would have a difficult time without electricity for their farms.
Their homes may be electric free for the most part. But their businesses? Yeah some of them, not all, are very electric dependent. It’s not a matter of preferences. It’s economic, machines using fuel or electricity are just more efficient than just straight unassisted man power.
Alas Babylon was a great Novel! I also recommend Dies the Fire.
The thing as I see it is in any scenario involving Massive Societal Collapse would be in surviving the first month then the next six months. Anybody who survived a year should be able to make it all the way through.
Also if the production of electricity is curtailed or even stopped then really all bets are off. Surviving the first month becomes problematical even the Amish I know would have a difficult time without electricity for their farms.
Their homes may be electric free for the most part. But their businesses? Yeah some of them, not all, are very electric dependent. It’s not a matter of preferences. It’s economic, machines using fuel or electricity are just more efficient than just straight unassisted man power.
“Could You Survive Another Great Depression?”
Now? Maybe. Gimme a year and it’s a definate yes.
WE do, and we have been. If you don't maintain a sufficient supply here to get by with, you won't be tapping any if outside supplies get cut off. It isn't a question of self-sufficiency--we're farther from that as things are than we've been in decades past. It is a question of having the people, the know-how, the tools, the equipment needed to drill for and produce what we have. There is some 'low hanging fruit' out there, locked away in Federally-owned proscribed areas, and we've developed the skills, tools, and ability to produce oil from formations elsewhere which could not be produced in years past.
With few exceptions, Americans are on the cutting edge in oil production technology, because of what we have developed here, and because of that, we have access to more fuels than ever before if we need them and the government opens up the areas it has closed.
If the dollar tanks, if our money isn't worth the paper it is printed on, we will still have the skills and tools and toolmaking capability needed to supply our energy, even at a reduced rate, which is far better than nothing.
One of my all time Bocephus favorites. CD is in my truck and I crank it when that track comes on ~!
I have a deep water well (over 100 feet deep) that I just put a hand pump on, water seems ok but there are a lot of suspended solids in it. Any idea on how to get those out of the water? My plan right now is to let the water sit in a primary fermenter for a few days. I think that would work but something quicker would be nice. Can’t really afford an expensive filtration system.
People will simply NOT listen to any government figure because respect for such will be GONE.
My grandfather had a car during the Great Depression and he used it to ferry people and supplies around, in the city and out into the country. He got paid a lot of times with foodstuff, like a bushel of corn or beans, maybe a hog or some chickens. He was always looking out for the odd job to do. That helped him and my grandmother to raise 10 kids, including my mom.
AMEN to that!
You know why the South never ran out of gunpowder?
Because they mined the saltpeter in WVA, right under the Union’s nose. Literally. For a few weeks, a Union Division was camped on top of the mine. Production never even slowed.
Sulpher and charcaol you can get anywhere - but saltpeter - well, either find a good mine, or get ready to go outhouse-crawling.
Still, lots & lots of americans have produced their own gunpowder for hunting, using nothing more than “night soil”.
And there is enought lead for balls around (Tire weights) to last generations.
” Can’t really afford an expensive filtration system. “
Plastic funnel (around $1) and generic paper coffee filters (4 or 6 at a time - around $1 for 150 or so) should easily handle suspended solids in otherwise potable water, for drinking water.....
Oh no, now you tell me!
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