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.
Artist: Williams Hank Jr
Song: Country Boy Can Survive
The preacher man says it’s the end of time
And the Mississippi River she’s a goin’ dry
The interest is up and the Stock Markets down
And you only get mugged
If you go down town
I live back in the woods, you see
A woman and the kids, and the dogs and me
I got a shotgun rifle and a 4-wheel drive
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive
I can plow a field all day long
I can catch catfish from dusk till dawn
We make our own whiskey and our own smoke too
Ain’t too many things these ole boys can’t do
We grow good ole tomatoes and homemade wine
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive
Because you can’t starve us out
And you cant makes us run
Cuz we’re them old boys raised on shotgun
And we say grace and we say Ma’am
And if you ain’t into that we don’t give a damn
We came from the West Virginia coalmines
And the Rocky Mountains and the and the western skies
And we can skin a buck; we can run a trot-line
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive
I had a good friend in New York City
He never called me by my name, just hillbilly
My grandpa taught me how to live off the land
And his taught him to be a businessman
He used to send me pictures of the Broadway nights
And I’d send him some homemade wine
But he was killed by a man with a switchblade knife
For 43 dollars my friend lost his life
Id love to spit some beechnut in that dudes eyes
And shoot him with my old 45
Cause a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive
Cause you can’t starve us out and you can’t make us run
Cuz we’re them old boys raised on shotgun
And we say grace and we say Ma’am
And if you ain’t into that we don’t give a damn
We’re from North California and south Alabam
And little towns all around this land
And we can skin a buck; we can run a trot-line
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive
I’d survive it or die trying.
I’m doing it now.
Hank Jr is the best
Not only can a vast majority of Americans survive another Great Depression, WE SHOULD.
We should take the pain now to remove the onus from our children and grandchildren. If we truly cared, as a nation, about our children, we would bite the bullet, default and let the chips fall where they may. I daresay that we as a people would be better for it.
Unforunately, we have a bunch of “give it to me now; I don’t care about tomorrow” folks who can’t see more than 15 feet past the end of their own noses.
We, as a nation, need to man up and take the pill every generation has been avoiding. Until we do, we are no better than the worst of our countrymen.
Executive Order 13575
http://youtu.be/_juUVKKBw-k
Scraping by so far in the 0bama Depression hoping to hang on till January 2013 (sooner if someone demands a REAL COLB).
Take Back AMERICA!
FUBO GTFO 2012 !
Love that show!...................
As I recall my history, most folks did not live on farms during the 1930s. By this time the majority of people had moved into towns/cities. Maybe small towns of just two to three thousand, but town nonetheless. I can see folks during the Depression bartering, but the idea of everybody hunting, fishing, and gardening is questionable.
Thanks. You always post useful articles. I’ll share this one with my family.
***I got a shotgun rifle and a 4-wheel drive.***
Better to have a crossbow & a horse - when bullets and gas run out;)
I dare say we couldn’t.
Baked bread to sell...need a permit.
Grow vegetables to sell or barter...need a permit.
Clean houses, watch kids, etc. need a permit.
Get it. We wouldn’t survive because everything down to the smallest task requires permits and permission from the government.
one thing America would need to do to survive this depression when it gets real bad is rediscover family. Every depression story ive heard from my grand parents and parents and uncles and great uncles, tell me that that is the key, a good family with some land and skills that can work as a team.
Swamp people has been on all day today.
The brothers are great. They don’t need anything from town aside from gas for the outboard.
The neighborhood where I grew up in Pittsburgh was full of recent Italian immigrants in the 1930’s. The stories of how they were able to live were truly amazing. On tiny city lots they were able to grow grapes, make wine, grow tomatoes and a whole array of vegetables, make home made pasta sauces, and many other things which they bartered with local merchants for the other things they needed. My grandfather was a pharmacist and he would routinely be paid for medicine with a chicken or a basket of fresh tomatoes. As tough as life was here in the 30’s it was obviously far preferable to what they had gone through in the old country. Also, since almost no one drove, the community hung together much more tightly on a geographic basis, and everyone looked out for their neighbors.
I learned to can for this reason. Currently learning to salt cure our meat.
Even if most were self sufficient, back then there wasn’t as much expense. Even us who do know those skills couldn’t live like they did back then! DFCS, IRS, etc... prevent it. There has to be some means to income for property taxes, high cost of medical care, etc...
But no, most would turn to looting.
Which is also why I know how to shoot a gun. ;o)
The police even go after little kids who try to make some extra money selling lemonade and tell them they need a permit
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