Not too long ago, our country was in a considerably good place financially and economically, and the talk of a recession seemed somewhat like a scare tactic. And if even a small fraction of our population is even half as stubborn as I am, the concerns and worries of the government were just brushed off. Fast forward half a decade, and here we are: one of the worlds most looked upon countries, now facing national crisis.
The same holds true for our country during the 1930s. Where people who had previously adorned their houses with flashy, ostentatious displays of wealth were sleeping under newspaper blankets and eating "salt pork" (which is really just salt, with a side of pork). Americans were unable to get jobs, food, or any form of necessities, let alone luxuries.
The citizens took a positive stand, however,creating beneficial agencies like Civil Works administration, Agricultural Adjustment, and the Works Progress Administration to name a few, in the hopes of reorganizing and restructuring American people, money, and resources. These people literally had to go days on end with no nourishment, clean clothes, or hope.
While the recession we're facing is certainly not good (can it actually be good?) we're under very different circumstances today. Even though we've definitely had to make cutbacks, here I am: in college, on a laptop, in my own rented house. These luxuries would have never even crossed someones mind in the 30s- its basically a real life example that things could always be worse.
This emotionally and economically pressing time in America would have made it hard for me, as I'm sure it was for the people living through it, to believe "the only thing to fear was fear itself."
No comments:
Post a Comment