Friday, February 1, 2013

When the Dust Settles

WARNING:  Non-Farming, Non-Homesteading, Non-Happy Rant to follow.

I'm not sure why I do this to myself.  I went to the library and picked up several books on The Great Depression (the depression from the 30's, not this one).  I have to admit that I didn't know much about it nor the Dust Bowl, probably just what I "had" to learn in school.  All I knew is that it was bad.  People where out of jobs, and it was really, really dusty.

I just finished reading the first book and I don't know what to think.  There are so many emotions that come with reading the trials, tribulations and disasters befallen those during that period of time.  And even though you all know me as a typical conspiracy-theory anit-government nutjob, I would find it hard for anyone to believe that the government didn't play a huge part in the creation of the Dust Bowl.  Not just the economic part, but the physical dustiness of the Dust Bowl itself.

****I had an insanely long rant post written about this.  Like rambling-on insane-mad kind of post.  Not mad as in crazy, but mad as in pissed.  There are so many things that went wrong, so much stupidity.   But I would probably have used up my Blogger memory space had I published it all here and I'm too cheap to pay Blogger for extra memory.  Or somebody would find out where I live and turn me into the State Insane Asylum for being kooky.  So you're only going to get the abridged version.****

When things finally collapsed (economy & the environment itself) in the 30's there were foreclosures, bank holidays, bank closings, massive unemployment, starving families.  Horrible, horrible things.

All those things that happened back then were terrible.  But we've learned, right?  Because we wouldn't do these things again:

1) Be a homesteader with little or no money down, regardless of the ability to pay!
2) Trust the Feds to determine the safety of agriculture in unknown territory!
3) Get rich quick in the wheat market!
4) Buy lots of stuff on credit!
5) Don't worry about your money, it's safe in the bank!
6) When things get bad, maybe the Feds will give you some food or a crappy job.  Paid for by other taxpayers who may be in the same situation as you, or worse, but refuse to rely on government handouts.
7) Don't worry about where the money is coming from.

So, did we learn anything, I mean ANY frekking thing, from our not-so-distant past?

1) Swap "homeowner" for "homesteader".
2) Replace "agriculture" with "GMO's" or "Roundup".
3)  Replace "wheat" with "stock market" or "house flipping".
4) No change here.  Except now we're buying iPhones.
5) No change here either, except the Fed's "guarantee" your deposits up to $250K.  Never mind the fact they'll just reimburse you with money printed out in the latest QE Scam therefore making everyone's money less valuable.
6) Same here.  But now you can get a free cell phone!
7) Don't worry about the $16 trillion in national debt.  Too many numbers to comprehend anyhow.  Nothing to see here.  Move along.  Turn on your reality show, eat your frozen meal & pay your taxes.

So now we're back to the foreclosure "crisis", the unemployment "crisis", the threat of a Bank Holiday.  But that would never happen here!  Could never happen here!

18 comments:

  1. Uhhh, ya. Sure we,ve changed. (sarcasm)

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  2. And still daily reports about how well the job market is turning around, and the economy is doing. Where do they get their numbers?

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  3. Carolyn,

    Have you ever had an opportunity to watch Ken Burns movie of the Dust Bowl? Great video footage.

    Things are going wrong now in this country, many (i.e. the news media & government) will have people believe nothing is wrong and broadcast distracting stories.

    ReplyDelete
  4. As a child, I scarcely comprehended the extreme hardships my parents and grandparents endured during those years. I did pay heed to their oft-repeated advice to learn to be self-reliant, and I try to impress that advice upon my children. They seem unwilling to accept that history CAN repeat itself. They do know those "stories" as told by their grandparents and relatives are true. I can only hope they have been preparing themselves, not believing that government will help them. We shall see.

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  5. But CR... I heard on NPR yesterday that the economy has recovered!!! Oh Joy! I feel like going shopping now...

    (BTW...That was my take on the 30's too "People where out of jobs, and it was really, really dusty." LOLOLOLOL)

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  6. I think the news will always try to tell us that the economy has "recovered" and some of us know it hasn't. It will get worse, unfortunately.

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  7. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (George Santayana)
    I have been very depressed lately about the direction our country is heading in.

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  8. ::big round of applause:: Valid points, succinctly put. You ought to print it out and mail it to the powers that be, all sides - sigh.

    I swear that I said these words to my 15 year old just last night. She had been complaining about learning AP history because she was "never going to use it again."

    I said to her "The importance of knowing our history and that of others is so we don't repeat it."

    Seems like quite a few of the good ol boys on both sides of the aisle forgot a little bit of their "United States History" -eh? And what's REALLY sad is our history isn't that long.

    That's the problems with some American attention spans - their attention span is tied to 128 characters on Twitter and the number of bars on their iPhone.

    Would've loved to have seen the full rant, but I like the way you were able to cut it to the most salient points. Well done.

    Thanks! Hugs to you. Now pass the Ambien ::wink:: thanks for the visit.

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  9. Love the rant! It is amazing the things that were glossed over in history class.

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