How soon we forget

I see all the posts concerning the cost of gas, the mileage different cars get and why, the jobs we are losing overseas, why the world is like it is in general,etc, etc, etc, and I just have to laugh. The general feeling I get from many posts is that all this stuff is happening for the very first time and that unless things change "the world is gonna end".

The funny thing is that none of what"s happening is really new. I"ve read articles in the paper from 1955 through the early "60"s where people are moaning and growning about the US losing way to many jobs to foreigh companies, too many imigrants coming in, and on and on. Then the other day I read an article in a magazine"s "yearbook" from 1976 and you wouldn"t believe how similar it all sounded to the whole gas, economy, enviromental mess that"s so prevailant nowdays. Heck there were experts having a fit about catalytic converters spouting off about everything from the fire hazard they were to the polutants they would cause. Then you had the other group that thought they were the greatest thing. There was the crowd that was really "onboard" with the small car idea that said there would never be any full size cars made again because we were "running out of fuel, and on and on again.

The more I read the more all of what"s happening nowdays and the predictions of gloom and doom it caused struck me as sorta funny. It just goes to prove that no matter what happens in this world there is always gonna be an ebb and flow of problems and ideas. We can worry about them til we die of worry or we can accept them for what they are and know that eventually things will eventually work themselves out somehow. Not to say that we shouldn"t do our best to make things work out in the best possible way but at the same time we have to realize that no matter what happens the world isn"t just gonna end tomorrow because there are problems. Just based on what I read much of what we see nowdays has been going on in some form or fashion anywhere from 32 to 52 years and we are all still very much here. Eventually no matter what happens thing will find that "happy medium" once again and the world will rock right on along for another 50 plus years with or without us....

I guess its not to funny if you lost your job and cant pay the bills

yaaawwnnn.....

I agree 99%, I picked up a Wallace Farmer dated 1939 and read in there that a farmer was complaining that his neighbor had bought a tractor and now was wanting to rent his farm away from him. A matter of survival is always in the back of the mind of all. Things change and will never go back to the latter years. I fought duals for a tractor 40 years ago just for the fact that it cost more and did not need the extra expense. Changed my mind and will not do with out them to day. Change is always dificult to except, but usually and I say usually it is better. Old saying "Two fools in the world today, the one that thinks the new is better and the one that thinks the old is good enough" I have heard the old saying what about our grandchildren, this was 40 years ago and before you knew it the deficit was paid and all was well, I dont know if it will happen this time around but who knows for sure. That is what future is all about.

Wayne,

My wife is a high-school English teacher who has a fetish for books. We have enough books to start our own Public Library.

She recently bought about a dozen original Reader's Digest magazines from the late 1930's and early 1940's. We have said over-and-over that many of the articles in those old magazines could be published today and would be every bit as pertinent.

There are articles about alternative energy production including windmills, difficulties in the auto industry, loss of jobs to foreign companies, graft in government, graft in financial institutions, disagreements over America's involvement in foreign wars, the failure of government programs to rescue the economy from the depression, etc., etc.

I agree with you that things just go on and on, only the players change.

Tom in TN

An editorial I was reading in a farm magazine from around the 1915 era had about the same subject line you were reading. The author also ranted about the lack of respect the kids had and their lack of desire to work. "What Goes Around Comes Around". Jim

If you want a perspective on how bad things COULD be, pick up a copy of [i:654c4848f0]The Worst Hard Time[/i:654c4848f0] by Timothy Egan. It's a history of the Dust Bowl. Both my parents lived through it, but neither of them ever said how bad it really was.

My dad told me the difference in ression & depression many years agao. Recession is when you lose your job, depression is when I lose mine.

Well I guess I have to look at the bright side of my current economic woes. I found out last week USST was cutting dark air cured contracts by 20%. Guess I will only have to look a little less for some of the good hard working people who need a job next year. I hear about how no on has work but come tobacco cutting time, they are no where around an I end up doing most of it with just me and my 78 year old grandmother.

Guess what I am say'n is, till I can find people who will show up when they say, not show up drunk, and not need to be paid every day at dinner just to not come back till they need beer money again, I am going to say the economy ain't too bad.

Dave

I agree, I don't think anyone losing their job is funny. Think about me though, I'm self employeed so "losing my job" , per se, isn't a problem. Thing is if you work for someone else and half their customers leave your still most likely drawing full pay (unless they let you go) so the number of customers just doesn't matter. You still pay the same for insurance, etc, basically nothing changes for you unless they lay you off. Then you can probably get unemployment, etc so your still "OK" to some degree for a time. On the other hand when your self employeed and half of your customers (or your one BIG customer) have no work then your work is basically in half too as a result of their lack of work. So not only do you have no work, your pay is cut in half too. Thing is the insurance still costs the same, the bills still cost the same, etc, etc., you just have half the money to pay for them, and this fact remains no matter how frugal you were or are with your money. Believe me I know about hard financial times now and in years past and it ain't "funny" funny, but you still don't see me on here touting gloom and doom because things are tight right at the moment. My point was that no matter what happens, it may get worse it may get better, in the end it's all gonna work out wether we worry about it or not. So why worry and make ourseles miserable, why not find something else to do to make ends meet, or whatever instead o setting around feeling miserable. I've found numerous places online for people looking to have this or that done for a few dollars or more cash and if the bottom dropped completely out for me tomorrow there is always somebody needing something done that has the money to pay me.

The more things you can do, are willing to do, or learn to do, the better off you are. One of the problems with this country right now is that few people really want to work, or when they do they want to do "one thing" and get paid alot of money for it and don't care to learn to do anything else. It's fine to be able to do one job and be the best but it never hurts to learn how to do many other, different things also. Myself I work on heavy equipment but I am also 'licensed' for mobile A/C, and can also weld and do fabrication, do manual machine work (portable and shop), carpentry, plumbing, both residential and industrial maintenance (including both single and three phase electrical), minor bodywork, sand blasting and painting, and just about anything else I put my mind to and really want to learn how to do. True I worry some about the bottom falling completely out, that's just human nature. If it does, personally I've got alot to fall back on. In the end, hard times or not I'm still happy and looking forward to things clearing back up just as they've done many, many, many times in the past.

Dave, there is so much "free" stuff out there provided by taxpayers that the folks you describe do not have to work. Too many people are becoming content to merely "get by" as opposed to being a productive member of society. Ironically, this is what too many in government want. It gives them more power and insures they will remain in office. Not doing what is best for the country is what is best for those in control.

the economy is bad. agree with jim, i can't find anyone to work cause they figure they dont need to. they "get by" on the programs that are available to them.

i have a steady job with a rotating 12 hour shift that allows me to be off 16 days at a time every month and i run a party supply rental on the side. i have tried since 2005 to hire someone to work Friday thru Sunday (30 hours at least) and offered to pay on Sunday night in cash the amount of $240.00, guess what? No takers cause they "get by". The people I do get to work on those days are already working regular jobs and are not "getting by" cause they dont qualify for the free handouts
just what i think
larry cook