"Shoot im, 'Lizbeth! Shoot im!!"
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.
A reloader will keep you in ammo for a good while.................
I grew some good tasting vegetables in my back yard. But the heat and drought burned it up. I didn’t even get enough to can or freeze.
In another great depression only the strong will survive in the cities. And they will have to take from others. The best chance for survival is to get out of the cities. I hope to be able to do that next Spring. There’s no way I can do it today.
One notes that the cities would buckle in less than two weeks and collapse in less than a month despite Dem attempts to the contrary. Urbanites know this at some level. Our problem would be the million people fleeing greater Boston that would be coming west on the Pike. Would be nasty. Ironically, no one in greater Boston is allowed to own a firearm. I believe the greatest danger of this is Obama doing it purposefully so he can declare martial law.
I am surviving this one... not well but I am still here!
LLS
I believe by the 60s 80% of the people had moved to the cities. The big difference today is there are a lot more people and a lot less land for them to farm and hunt.
The job of the next President after 0bama is fired on January 20, 2013 is to make every executive order that arrogant pos gave, null and void
The problem with reloading is it’s simple assembly of complex parts. Most can’t take slabs of lead, brass, & copper and turn them into useful forms, much less make the powder or primers. If I’m going to pay someone for all those pieces shaped & mixed, I’ll pay a bit more for mundane assembly and spend the time saved on making what I can from raw materials.
I’m staying right here in Michigan. Others will flee west and south.
"Shoot im, 'Lizbeth! Shoot im!!"
You ok?
“One notes that the cities would buckle in less than two weeks and collapse in less than a month despite Dem attempts to the contrary.”
Or much less. We have New Orleans as a practical experience of the breakdown of civil society to go on, now.
The LAST place you want to be when the starving masses start fleeing the cities is anywhere near a major outflow artery, such as an interstate, or a divided highway.
And if you are bugging out, make sure your egress route doesn’t go across, or over ANY of these. That may very well be the last mistake you will ever make.
Per my sainted Granny Oleta, who weathered the Depression with my grandpa on a small central Illinois farm: “The only thing we needed money for was kerosene, coffee and sugar. We made, grew or shot everything else we needed to get by.”
My grandfather, also Italian, returned the shout: "Ah, you shut up! You're a damned fool!"
Grandma: "No, you're a damned fool!"
Nope, no marriage certificate needed to prove the marriage here. :>)
We’ll find out.
Because of moms stories, and her warning that it could easily happen again, I became as self sufficient as possible after we bought our home years ago. I've been working on gaining knowledge ever since then. I planted fruits, nuts, syrup trees, and firewood. We've also planted fruit bushes, culinary and medicinal herbs. We bought heirloom vegetable seeds we use every year. We have a hand pump if the electric is lost, and a rain water storage tanks.
There's also soap making from ash and fat, deer skin from ash and brains, brain pelting, rocket stoves for heating and cooking (and a large wood stove for bigger pieces if we can haul and chop them with a tree saw), making and using cobb, learned what weeds are edible, and how to spin fibers.
Oh, and we're bee keepers for wax, propulous, and honey.
I studied solar to save on fire wood and tricks to stay cool. We've also built a root cellar in the basement.
I suppose if we missed anything, we could barter. If there's something new to learn, I'm all over it!
Because of Obomanomics, we're working overtime to make sure we have all we need and how we can hide it ( We have kids).
This time, the depression is going to be worse, because back during the last depression, they didn't have the entitlement parasites to deal with. They'll still want everything for free. They're going to be stealing it (so stay armed).
Looks very bad on paper. Yet, in a Depression/collapse, I feel sure that government goons coming to take your farm would be met with violence, after which they would crawl back to DC. There will be continued communications among Americans, even if by radio, locally printed newspapers, or “criers” that would travel between towns.
“My mother used to tell me stories of the depression when I was little.”
It was far, far worse in Germany in the late 20’s/early 30’s, where my grandparents came from.
As the predicted “Y2K disaster” began looming, I described the worst-case scenario to my father. When I finished laying out the TEOTWAWKI scenario, he shrugged and said “so I’ll throw another log on the fire and go back to my book.” And he was right - nothing short of Judgement Day would disrupt his self-sufficient lifestyle. Ok, maybe not being able to read the daily Citizen Dog online might irritate him...
Of course.
You’re speaking of today’s world.
We’re talking of tomorrow’s world where there won’t be any stores to go to and buy your needs. You’ll have to do it from scratch.............
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