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.
This is true.
Use hardwood sawdust for smoking your meat. It smokes without blazing and gives a really good flavor. The salting comes first. Hams cured with way are the best thing in the world.
Sorry 'bout that!
B.S.
Tell that to the members of my family who struggled desperately to try to figure out how to feed those who viewed food as free because they were farmers (not considering they needed every bit of their crop to sell because nobody could afford to pay much for what they could sell)...and how they often went hungry on the farm so the children could have enough to eat...
When the other kids laughed at my old traps that had been passed down to me, I looked down on theirs because mine were ones that had saved a family. (Hunting came naturally to me, but I must admit that they'd have died if they had to rely upon my fishing skills--or lack thereof! Fortunately, I am descended from far better than I.)
So, yes...those things allowed survival...but it didn't mean they were unimpacted by The Great Depression. Unfortunately, Dr. Kengor is falling prey to a bit of myth. Don't let anyone fool us into thinking that farming and hunting/fishing/trapping/sawdust-and-iceboxes will get us through.
Even if people knew those skills, it still would be much more difficult than then to support today's population with today's lack of easy-to-tap domestic fuels (the more we drill here, the worse we make it for ourselves...if we cared about our children, we'd be using up foreign oil FIRST). Many would die from lack of heart medication, etc., but still we'd have to disperse the cities into smaller inefficient farming plots. It would not be fun, even with those skills.
People always make a plan to “go somewhere” but those of us in flyover country are better off to stay right where we are. Its a good idea for useful urbanites to look at a bug out plan but they really do need to be useful if they intend to stay somewhere.
I’ve got liberal cousins who are finally realizing that there are serious problems looming and are looking to me to learn to be self sufficient. I’m willing to help them but have explained that fantasies they have about organic gardening and living in harmony with the earth have got to go.
I think that we are at the very least in for a collapse much like that of Argentina’s ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yerKMQc7-w&feature=grec_index), but as a armed society with a very large entitlement minded population our collapse will be much more violent and I see many many small business wiped out by flash mob looting, and large scale violence (look at what happened just this past Memorial Day and 4th of July weekends)we are seeing these mobs grow bolder and bolder like:
Chicago’s CBS 2’s Jim Williams reports, the problem of mob attacks downtown is much bigger than the weekend beatings, according to beat cops who wanted to remain anonymous.”
And it’s not just Chicago, but Washington DC, Las Vegas, St Paul, Philadelphia and on most major big ‘Blue’ cities are increasingly reporting such flash mobs and gang muggings. Look what happened just this past weekend in Peoria, Il:
http://peoriachronicle.com/2011/06/25/peorians-living-in-fear/
Teenage Flash Mob Robberies on the Rise:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/06/18/top-five-most-brazen-flash-mob-robberies/
Rash of violence isn’t flash mobs, it’s wilding
http://www.suntimes.com/news/roeper/5826624-417/rash-of-violence-isnt-flash-mobs-its-wilding.html
Teens in a mob assault and rob Center City patrons
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20110629_Teens_in_a_mob_assault_and_rob_Center_City_patrons.html
Milwaukee Police Go Barney Fife On Mob Attacks
http://www.620wtmj.com/blogs/jeffwagner/125017329.html
Milwaukee Mob Victim Recalls Beating ... ‘Oh, White Girl Bleeds a Lot’
I see what I call ‘Pocket Pogroms’ taking place in many big ‘Blue’ cities and if you aren’t a ‘0bamamite yute’ or one of ‘Holder’s People’ it’s going to get Reginald Denny bad for you very quickly.
For those who are just starting or are old hands at prepping you may find my Preparedness Manual helpfull. You can download it at:
http://www.tomeaker.com/kart/preparedness1i.pdf
For those of you who haven’t started already it’s time to prepare almost past time maybe. You needed to be stocking up on food guns, ammo, basic household supplies like soap, papergoods, cleaning supplies, good sturdy clothes including extra socks, underwear and extra shoes and boots, a extra couple changes of oil and filters for your car, tools, things you buy everyday start buying two and put one up.
As the LDS say “When the emergency is upon us the time for preparedness has past.”
Or as the bible says: A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.
NIV Proverbs 22:3
“There is no greater disaster than to underestimate danger.
Underestimation can be fatal.”
It describes a small, fictional town in Florida after an atomic war. The book takes place in the late 1950s, but 99% of it still applies today.
This book is one of my all time favs.
Even a useless lib can be taught to use a shovel, a hoe, pull weeds, scoop manure, split wood, etc.
Those of us with useful skills will then be freed up to use them.
I agree CC. We live in a small town community surrounded by farms and we know everybody. We have some Amish also living nearby. We an learn from them too. Though we live in downtown in one of those old main street houses, we have any number of friends on those farms who would be happy to share what they have with us. They already do. Hubby came home from church last night with Zucinni, squash, cucumbers, banana peppers and sweet peppers. Tomatoes will be coming next week.
Like others have said and thought...
I am doing it now!
This particular DIL has taken a country boy and changed him into a complete and total city guy, and both of their careers have them in the extremely liberal higher education setting. They’ve basically never left college since college. Nearly 20 years of it and they are completely helpless in hard times and show no interest in self-sufficiency. :(
If they’re willing to learn, I’m willing to teach. Its not their fault they were raised in the city.
Rule number one. Mr Chipmunk is not your earth brother who shares your garden. Mr Chipmunk is your enemy and if worse comes to worse, he’s food.
The peddler would always be running from an IRS ghoul these days.
It's a good idea to have an old smoke pole around, preferably a flintlock. You can get lead from batteries and wheel weights, you can make black powder. Flint (or any quartz rock that can be chipped to shape) is one of the most durable natural rocks, and can be found in most gravel. Good flint isn't as easy to come by, so laying up a few spare flints and a little extra powder might be a good idea. At any rate, now is the time to do it, whatever you are going to do.
I'm not suggesting the flint rifle for a short term solution to marauders, either, but just in case the problems last longer than we think they might.
For the money, .22 long rifle will take most small game up to and including Whitetail deer, if in close and well placed. A couple accurare .22s and plenty of ammo will handle the subsistence stuff, and a good pellet gun will bag squirrels and the like.
My “lived in a city all her life” wife is going to be amazingly surprised at what I know how to do from being raised on a farm...
Don’t worry about your son not remembering his roots.
It all comes back.
I’ve been working on that here in the neighborhood. Funny...a lot of “neighbors” are following that lead to establish relationships.
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