| Blogs > mydogateit > My Blog |
|
Depression Obama had been said to be studying Roosevelt lately. Hmmm, he was the president around that helped to bring the US out of the depression. What's keeping the nation from falling from recession to depression? Well, our banks are FDIC backed, but is that enough? Thousands of jobs are being cut everyday in the news. Two of the top three car makers may go bankrupt because of corrupt practices. Foreclosures are everywhere. My own home is up for sheriff sale in February because I lost my job. So what is the difference now between a recession and a depression. Still alot though times seem bad. I remember hearing stories of how many of "The Little Rascals" died during the depression. These were even working, but they didn't have enough to eat. This was before the law set aside some of young actor's money so their parents could not spend it. So besides not having a home or a car I could be starving. Well, we how have welfare to prevent that, but what happens when all these now jobless apply? Will the government have enough money to pay for all this if we throw billions to the wind-like to car makers instead? I guess they can always print more money, but that then causes inflation and we can not afford things as they are. So what can we do as individuals to protect ourselves in case the country goes to depression? Well, having a savings account would help, but during the last depression, just about all savings accounts were depleted to stay alive. I've had to use mine already. The government won't help you if you make over three hundred dollars a month. That's not much with . So what then can we do? Well, having a garden would help. My parents had gardens to survive when they were young. I just had one this year to give my fresh vegetables. It helped though when I lost my job. I also made pies for fun from my apple tree. I can't imagine having to survive on those two sources of food for long though. If I can't keep my home the point will be mute anyway. In the old days, families would stock up on canned goods. Sure you can do that, but the lead, though minimal found in canned food is still there. Canned food also doesn't last forever. Well, what about clothing? Good thing I had sewing in middle school. I can make clothing. When I was a student teacher, I made a skirt out of a pillow case so that I could look professional. My own grandmother used to let in and out dresses when pregnant. She would never just throw or give away clothing the way we do now. What else can we do then? Hmmm, we could cut back immensely on spending. When I think about what I spend money weekly on, it seems difficult to cut back on any of that: food, toilet paper, and laundry detergent. I started buying super cheap powder detergent. It seems to work just as well as liquid and is 1/3 the cost. I now buy the cheapest food. As to toilet paper, people have forgotten how much a luxury it actually is. My mother told me that they used to use "The Wish Book"s from Sears and J.C. Penney's instead. I suppose women used to get a lot of yeast infections back then. Rags were also used instead of pads. Handkerchiefs were washed instead of being disposable kleenex. People depended on each other. Instead of whipping out the credit card, you went to your neighbor to borrow a cup of sugar. Baking soda was used instead of toothpaste. And let me tell you, baking soda goes a long way as toothpaste. I tried this when I was little because my mother told me that toothpaste had too much sugar in it. But yuck, my tongue recoils at the memory of the stuff. So can we live without the internet in our homes? I can go to the library to use it for an hour. Everyone can do without the fun of cable TV. Most of us forget it is a luxury instead of a necessity. Who of us will then be ready should the nation crumble into depression? I think those who have already lived it or those like me who have lived similar to it will be able to adapt to the new world quicker. I have already lived for a few days on my garden alone, used powder detergent, gone without heat, without my car, without the niceties of cable and the internet. It bites, sure I'd rather have all those things, but if it comes to it, I'll be more ready than most to cope. I don't even own an iPod. Anyway, after the depression, times got good in the 50's. Maybe Obama should also study this. People worked for corporations and then bought from them putting their money back into the economy. Now most of our goods are made overseas for cheap labor. America has become a service industry, but maybe the president can curb some of this importation of goods so we can make them here. Computers, better assembly lines and better robotics are taking American jobs as well. Again we are pushed into the service industries. We had unions. Workers were not fired "at will" as they are now. Corporations needed us. Now they need cheap overseas labor. In the 50's people kept one job all their lives. Now we are highly expendable. As more and more Americans get degrees even higher jobs are cheapend. Housing loans were low in the 50's because the governement regulated this. If they still had we we'd still be in a mess, but not as much as we are now. |
|||
12/21/2008 11:47 am |
the investigative thoughts you are probing, and the recall of realism, is what many in every nation may care to consider.. what we have all lost not by acts and actions solely our own, but by and thru the lives within the lifestyle of the "world".. some like to think it's only America but it's global. Mortgage companies have a very big part in the madness, I simply just let two houses go, after a year of trying to work out a suitable agreement, they value was not only gone, they raised the rate and many other things, and their cycle of gambit mechanism that go into it, and the tenants were paying top dollar, when all the surrounding rentals were hundreds less, and the mortgage companies answer was, "raise their rent"... I advised the mortgage companies how insane they must be, and they must be unaware of the nature of the economy and the fact the feds have adjusted countless time, but the only organization that was not, is the mortgage company, "there answer was "Policy", I reminded them that policy means nothing when the word foreclosure comes into play, it does not matter if it's rental property or owner occupied.. and they choose to speak of policy... this is the result of ignorance taught in the institution of education, where common sense was kicked out of the classroom many years ago. the country forgot that no nation can be strong without its own industry, this nations , many don't like to hear it but it's design is built on getting labor for nothing, and in the continual pursuit of that premise, it sold off its own industry, trying to get its good produced for nothing, but ignored that if people are not working to produce it in the country, they also don't earn money to buy what is imported, and over time the erosion of the system brings structural failure. We as a people fell for illusions over substance, the wildest criminals could put on a suit and the world yield to them all things, and do so with eagerness, and the sense of non suspect. We are a world of people, who watched television and claimed it to be the model of the ways to live, and material matter became our goal and advertisment directed class, in the expanse of the global world.. the hedonistic nature within mankind, dominate the landscape, but we as people claim to deny it but yet, embrace it's very essence in the designs of our dreams. if you can out think your boss, and out perform your co workers, and seethe broader paradigm, then you will not be able to maintain a job, because people function in small caption, under scripted cycles, and they resent thinking, they resent proactive engagment, and they will slaughter themselves to avert change. look at your skills and what your aims are, and how can you craft an interlink with community development, what can you bring to the programs they have, and how can you facilitate their stalled programs, and become their resource - as a contract facilitator, or maybe seek to engage them to embrace your skill as an employee.. the smart ones know they need change, and their programs need to get out of stall mode. what can be taught as life skills, to students, beyond the academia of scripted education programs, what churches that have youth educations programs, and how best can you provide them what they don't have of function and performance.. everything has to be re-structured, and maybe the cycle of broken jobs, has prepared your for something that you may not have thought of, look at what needs fixing and how might your skills best be structured to offer the effort to repair and improve what exist.. Best wishes... 
| ||
|
Touch, I think this is why many Mexican immigrants are going back over the border now.
|
