80+ year-old economic
survivor guide
by: Chuck Norris
Posted: February 23, 2009
1:00 am Eastern
© 2009
An old Spanish proverb says, "An ounce of
mother is worth a pound of clergy." I believe that value will
hold, in or out of a recession. And being that my 87-year-old
mother lived through the Great Depression, I think her value (and
those like her) will actually increase through these tough economic
times, because their insider wisdom can help us all.
Like in the 1930s, many today are counting on
government to be the savior, but thus far all that's resulting
from bailouts is a ballooning repayment schedule - just like back
then.
Fox News recently highlighted that the total federal outlays in
1929 were $3.1 billion (less than 3 percent of GDP). By 1940, they
tripled to $9.5 billion (10 percent of GDP). Worse still, the total
federal debt mushroomed fom $17 billion in 1929 (16 percent of GDP)
to $43 billion in 1940 (44 percent of GDP). And yet, unemployment
remained at 15 percent.
While many politicians avoid the schooling from
that historical 1929 market crash and subsequent total economic
collapse, we don't have to turn a deaf ear from the wisdom of
those who have survived it. Sure, President Franklin Roosevelt
posited the New Deal, but it would have been no big deal if there
weren't people like my mother and her family who walked through
and endured the fiscal valleys of despair back then. I believe
their experience and insight can truly help us weather our economic
storms today, especially if times get even leaner.
Mother was about 10-years-old when her large
eight-member family endured the thick of those recessive days in
rural Wilson, Okla., (only 1,600 population today). The recurring
droughts across the heartland during that period dried up the job
market even more in the Midwest. Over the years, Grandpa worked
multiple jobs from the oil fields to the cotton fields, and he was
even a night watchman. The family members did what they could to
contribute, but most of them were simply too young to play a major
part.
In 1933, when President Roosevelt took office, his
administration implemented the Emergency Works Act, through which
the Works Project Administration employed millions of Americans in
civil construction projects from bridges to dams and airports to
roads. My grandfather would travel about 90 miles for a day's
work to help build the Lake Murray Dam. But, with a far smaller
ratio of jobs compared to potential laborers, if Grandpa worked
five days a month (at $1.80 a day), it was a good month.
Like with most, Mother's family didn't have
running water or electricity. And Granny Scarberry did her best to
keep the outhouse clean, with Grandpa helping through his regular
deposits of lye to control the odors. (You can imagine how the hot,
humid Oklahoma summers turned that outside commode into one
small-closet-sized smelly sauna.) A "scavenger wagon"
would come by once a week and clean out the hole. It had a small
chair-like contraption over it with the hole punched out of the
center. (They once had a two-seater in there, which allowed for two
people to enjoy one another's company and conversation - mom
told me that she always felt a little upper class when she sat with
someone else.) By the way, and I'm not trying to be crude,
toilet tissue wasn't around, so they used a Montgomery Ward
catalogue. (And you wondered why the catalog was so thick?) No joke
- they preferred the non-glossy pages. I'll let you figure out
why.
Got the picture?
With that in mind, I turn to a recent conversation
I had with my 87-year-old mother, in which I asked her, "How
would you encourage the average American to weather the economic
storms of today?"
Here's her advice, in her words:
"
Get back to the basics. Simply your
life. Live within your means. People have got to be willing to
downsize and be OK with it. We must quit borrowing and cut
spending. Be grateful for what you have, especially your health and
loved ones. Be content with what you have, and remember the stuff
will never make you happy. Never. Back then, we didn't have
1/100th of what people do today, and yet we seemed happier than
most today, even during the Great Depression.
"
Be humble and willing to work. Back
then, any work was good work. We picked cotton, picked up cans,
scrap metal, whatever it took to get by. Where's that work
ethic today? If someone's not being paid $10 an hour today,
they're whining and unwilling to work, even if they don't
have a job. Today, too many won't stoop to scoop poop, but I
hear sewer work pays pretty well these days. The message from
yesteryear is don't be too proud to do whatever it takes to
meet the financial needs of your family.
"
Be rich in love. We didn't have
much. In fact we had nothing at all, compared to people today, but
we had each other. We were poor, but rich in love. We've lost
the value of family and friends today, and we've got to gain it
back if we're ever to get back on track. If we lose all our
stuff and still have one another and our health, what have we
really lost?
"
Be a part of a community. Today, people
are much more alone - much more isolated. We used to be close with
our neighbors. We cared for one another, watched one another's
kids and shared meals together. If one person had a bigger or
better garden or orchard, they shared the vegetables and fruits
with others in need. We used to speak to one another daily at our
fences - today, you can barely see over a neighbor's fence.
Society has shifted from caring for one another to being dependent
upon government aid and welfare - that is why so many today trust
in government to deliver them. They've forgotten an America
that used to rally around one another in smaller clusters called
neighborhoods and communities. We must rekindle those local
communal fires, and relearn the power of that age-old commandment,
'Love thy neighbor.'
"
Help someone else. We never quit helping
others back then. Today, too many people are consumed with their
own problems and only helping themselves. 'What's in it for
me?' is the question most are asking. But back then, it was,
'What can I do to help my neighbor?' I love Rick
Warren's book, 'The Purpose-Driven Life,' and
especially his thought, 'We were created for community,
designed to be a blessing to others.' If we help others, others
will want to help us too. But if we never reach out, and no one
else knows our needs, how can we help people or people help us?
Most of all, helping others gets our minds off our problems and
puts things into better perspective.
"
Lean upon God for help and strength. We
didn't just have each other to lean on, but we had God, too. We
all attended church and belonged to a faith community. Church was
the hub of society, the community core and rallying point. Today,
people turn to government the way we used to turn to the churches.
It's been that way ever since Herbert Hoover's promise of a
'chicken in every pot' and President Roosevelt's New
Deal. Too many have abandoned faith and community. We trust money
more than God. And maybe that's a reason why we're in this
economic pickle. If greed has become our god, then maybe we'd
be better off to view the recession more like a realignment. But
who will admit today to being off center? We all get lost
sometimes. We all need the Lord. I don't know how or why people
today try to live without Him. As the old adage goes, He's
always only a prayer away."
Now's that conventional wisdom that should be
shouted and posted in every corridor of government, every community
across America and every blog on the Internet.
Call me overly pragmatic, but I think a little
practical wisdom and encouragement is what we all need about now.
Mom has always been good for that. She still is.
