One, many of us already have cut spending to the bone, given up anything superfluous, and deprived ourselves of every pleasure that might be bought. Many of us are already baking our own bread, raising and canning our own vegetables, hunting our own meat. And we're still having a very bad time.
Two, I too have had conversations with survivors of the Great Depression: my 99-year-old mother-in-law and a 97-year-old cousin. Both of them emphasized that they were farm girls, were very poor in the sense that they had no money to buy objects, but they could eat because the family raised its own food and did not have to pay for food, water, or electricity.
Their expectations were lower: they didn't have central heat, and merely chopped wood to feed the woodstove or fireplace. This was free. Water was free. Health insurance was unheard of and medical care unsophisticated, so there was no money slated for it: if a child got scarlet fever or dad got a heart attack, he simply died. One didn't get bills for electricity, gas, car insurance, car registration. Property taxes and income taxes were minimal. Neighbors bartered goods for services.
Today, few people can do any of this. Our houses are often too big or too full of windows to be heated with a woodstove, even if we could afford to go out and buy one, even if we could find the constant supply of wood. We can't get our own water. A quarter-acre lot can't raise enough food for a family. We can't keep chickens, goats, or pigs in the suburbs or cities. Most people can't hunt, and mark my words, there are going to be a lot of ugly hunting accidents when ignorant suburbanites take their shiny new rifles out to hunt in the suburbs for their first-ever deer.
In addition, we have millions of dependent, helpless poor and illegals here, sucking up resources. We didn't have the huge population of illegals during the Depression.
Forgive my negativism, but I see that this situation could be far worse than the Great Depression.
good post.
These people are used to having tax payer slaves support them. When the slaves are gone and they have to work on their own, there's going to be big trouble, especially in the liberal cities. They'll feel they have the "right to steal" those things they're used to getting for free. This is where the social unrest will come from.
You make good points, but refer to my post 21. "...when they think that where they are is where they will always be, it is."
Last I heard, there are even places in this country where you don't have to pay car insurance. (New Hampshire and Wisconsin? I am not the human almanac in our house but I think that's right; plus Alabama isn't burdensome, and maybe Tennessee...) Also, if you don't want to pay more than the legally required amount of insurance and your record is good, you probably won't pay more than $20 a month for car insurance. Ask your agent.
You are right to be pessimistic. There are a whole lot of people who don’t know the first thing about hunting for food or dressing it once they kill it - or how to grow their own vegetables, or God forbid not have a tv, computer, air conditioning, etc. Wonder how many people don’t even have a tent? So much of being prepared for the worst is plain ol common sense -
Fireplaces now illegal in many places. Cutting wood highly regulated and costly in most national forests, and completely illegal without the proper permit even on private land in a lot of places.n
Water was free.
Wells now regulated and controlled by government. Irrigation water for farming must take second place to saving the fish of the delta.
Health insurance was unheard of and medical care unsophisticated, so there was no money slated for it: if a child got scarlet fever or dad got a heart attack, he simply died.
Health insurance mandatory in some states, and all must pay taxes for the health insurance of others, whether or not one can afford it himself.
One didn't get bills for electricity, gas, car insurance, car registration. Property taxes and income taxes were minimal.
Neighbors bartered goods for services.
All barter is now subject to income tax taxation. Lost your home and must live with relatives ? Subject to taxation . Lose your home to the bank ? Now you must pay income tax on the debt forgiven !
Truly we are slaves !
Add this to your list: people didn’t feel as poor because everyone around them was poor. My mother (born in the 1940s) talks about this. They had nothing, but no one else did either, so they didn’t really feel bad.
Never in all of history do we have visions of ‘wealth’ thrown at us constantly via the media. Many people feel poor, even if we are not.