Way Too Much for Way Too Long
When was the last time you experienced hard times? I don’t mean life’s daily challenges. We all have days when we wonder how we are going to make ends meet. How are we going to pay for the new furnace? How are we going to pay for our retirement, or our kids college education, or for the car repair?
When was the last time you actually had to make a sacrifice? I don’t mean the annual church “every member canvass” where we are told to sacrifice for God, or giving up a new television so we can take a vacation, or writing a check to the local food bank, or buying a less powerful computer.
I believe that there isn’t one of you reading this that can really remember true hard times and sacrifice. Because in the United States, we haven’t had any for a long, long time. If you CAN remember times of true hardship and true sacrifice, you are at least 70 years old, and then it's a stretch.
Throughout our history, America has faced times of severe hardship that helped build the character of the nation. From the time of pilgrims, when most of the colony died during the 1st winter, to the soldiers in the American revolution, through the bank runs of the early 1800’s, through the Civil War, through the small “d” depression of the late 1800’s and World War I and the big “D” Depression of the 1930’s to World War II, Americans have always had to scrimp, work harder, and sacrifice our blood and treasure at some point in time in any given generation.
That is until the late 1940’s. At the end of World War II, we were the only industrial power left in the world, and we made a ton of money rebuilding it from the ashes. The United States was the only game in town. The Federal Reserve, after its failings in the 1930’s, learned how to manipulate the economy through interest rates and money supply. Unions demanded high wages and better working conditions to which big corporations readily complied to keep the money faucet open. The role of government rapidly expanded into the business of social safety nets. And we built our military might so we would never again be drawn into a conflict as horrendous as World War II.
Yes, we had wars. Korea, Viet Nam, and both gulf wars. But Americans weren’t asked to sacrifice buying sugar or rubber or nylons or meat. We experienced no rationing. We learned that it was possible to have guns and butter big time. Notwithstanding how tragic military losses were, and still are, to individual families, the modern day supreme tragedy has been experienced by only a small portion of the population, and those sacrifices made have lost their stature and importance among the general population.
Yes, we still have recessions, but at the end of the day, they are over quickly, and the country moves on. The only rationing I have ever experienced was the gas rationing in the 1970’s, and that represented a failure of American foreign policy more than any catastrophic event. I got to buy gas on even days. But it didn’t stop me from driving home for the holidays.
Social Scientists know the difference between “absolute poverty” as in Africa, and “relative poverty” as exists in the United States. Nobody is starving to death here, living in huts covered with flies with bloated stomachs.
When was the last time you actually had to make a sacrifice? I don’t mean the annual church “every member canvass” where we are told to sacrifice for God, or giving up a new television so we can take a vacation, or writing a check to the local food bank, or buying a less powerful computer.
I believe that there isn’t one of you reading this that can really remember true hard times and sacrifice. Because in the United States, we haven’t had any for a long, long time. If you CAN remember times of true hardship and true sacrifice, you are at least 70 years old, and then it's a stretch.
Throughout our history, America has faced times of severe hardship that helped build the character of the nation. From the time of pilgrims, when most of the colony died during the 1st winter, to the soldiers in the American revolution, through the bank runs of the early 1800’s, through the Civil War, through the small “d” depression of the late 1800’s and World War I and the big “D” Depression of the 1930’s to World War II, Americans have always had to scrimp, work harder, and sacrifice our blood and treasure at some point in time in any given generation.
That is until the late 1940’s. At the end of World War II, we were the only industrial power left in the world, and we made a ton of money rebuilding it from the ashes. The United States was the only game in town. The Federal Reserve, after its failings in the 1930’s, learned how to manipulate the economy through interest rates and money supply. Unions demanded high wages and better working conditions to which big corporations readily complied to keep the money faucet open. The role of government rapidly expanded into the business of social safety nets. And we built our military might so we would never again be drawn into a conflict as horrendous as World War II.
Yes, we had wars. Korea, Viet Nam, and both gulf wars. But Americans weren’t asked to sacrifice buying sugar or rubber or nylons or meat. We experienced no rationing. We learned that it was possible to have guns and butter big time. Notwithstanding how tragic military losses were, and still are, to individual families, the modern day supreme tragedy has been experienced by only a small portion of the population, and those sacrifices made have lost their stature and importance among the general population.
Yes, we still have recessions, but at the end of the day, they are over quickly, and the country moves on. The only rationing I have ever experienced was the gas rationing in the 1970’s, and that represented a failure of American foreign policy more than any catastrophic event. I got to buy gas on even days. But it didn’t stop me from driving home for the holidays.
Social Scientists know the difference between “absolute poverty” as in Africa, and “relative poverty” as exists in the United States. Nobody is starving to death here, living in huts covered with flies with bloated stomachs.
Therein lies the problem. Not only do most living Americans NOT have a collective experience of sacrifice and hard times, it is being deleted from our collective memory by our school systems and left leaning media. If one has experienced a time when one wondered where one is going to get one’s next slice of bread, then one would tend to not worry so much about whether Christmas is too religious, getting Santa Claus out of the schools, or whether Santa should be banned from saying "Ho Ho Ho" because it might offend someone, or whether it’s fair Johnny has an iPhone while little Judy only has a cell phone, or eliminating class valedictorian because it emphasizes "too much competition".
American left wing issues are born in our success and excess. We don’t appreciate what we have, or how we got it. Political Correctness would fade into oblivion if we were to have a war in which millions were killed, or our population experienced 40% unemployment. We have had way too much for way too long, and we will pay for not appreciating it.
Just a thought for this Thanksgiving.
Comments
Very thoughtful blog, and it should be published some where for more people to read!
SK