New Year's Day

It’s nine o’clock in the morning and the house is uncharacteristically quiet. Last night was New Year ’s Eve and we stayed up to watch the ball drop on tv. My eight year old granddaughter was with us and she really wanted to see it drop, but we all fell asleep and woke up at 12:04. I have never felt so little promise at the beginning of a New Year. True, we have a very promising president who will take office in three weeks and I really believe he will make a big difference, but he has been left with bigger problems than even FDR faced. That’s the way it always goes. A progressive is elected to clean up an idiot’s mess and is given only so much time. Then, if he is blamed for having to raise taxes, etc. for money to clean it up and the Republicans start heckling. And if his efforts to reform and change are not completely successful, they will point their fingers. But the rest of the world has been heckling and pointing fingers at us for decades since we have the dubious distinction of being the only industrialized country whose government does not think its citizens deserve decent affordable health care, whose environmental policies have been laughable. To me the cause is two things—greed and war. We are so greedy that we allow rich people to deregulate our economy and we allow idiots to borrow huge sums of money for a war for his/their egos. Can you imagine what good that war money would have done? Why do we never borrow that kind of money for peace and good, only war and weapons. The vast difference between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ is increasing. The futility of capitalism was brought home to me in a big way two days ago. My oldest daughter lost her job. She and my granddaughter have a tiny house with a mortgage 4 miles from us across the river in a 5 block country village. The nearest town has around 4,000 people and it is only four miles from her, but there are no jobs there. The two factories that have supported that town, one for over 100 year and one for around 50, are beginning to shut down. The residents there look to Danville, Illinois and to Lafayette, Indiana for jobs and there are no new ones, in fact 800 people just got laid off at a truck trailer factory. The unemployment office is flooded with applicants as the economy gets worse and worse. Her unemployment will not give her money for at least 4 weeks. In the meantime, there is the mortgage, heating bills, electricity, phone bills to pay with no money. In 9 days she will be able to get food stamps, if she has the gas money to go get them (county seat where the office is 10 miles away) and the gas money to go to a grocery store. We will help in many ways, but what of those without family around? My husband and I have pretty secure jobs (we think) at the nearby University. Between us, we’ve been there over 40 years! But we are sure my salary and his wage will be frozen for awhile and we have bills to pay, too. We wonder how many people we can support with just 2 jobs, but we may find out. If my daughter and granddaughter have to come to live with us, the house is small, but we’ll make do. If daughter #2 loses her job and must also live here, we’ll make do. Anyway, right now we can clean out the pantry to make sure daughter #1 has basics and we can give her some gas money. Some system, huh? And there is no level playing field. Those who have lost a great deal of money had more money than most to begin with so even though they will moan, most will still be ok.
A problem overall is that many people have an interesting definition of ‘want’ and ‘need’. It is so blurred that to make a distinction is very difficult for them. To suggest that all the high tech gadgets are not necessary can send some into shock! To suggest that they actually use their stove to cook every day because it is better and cheaper to eat at home is quite different from their usual way of life! To suggest that there is more work they can do for themselves when they get home from ‘work’ causes a blank stare. To suggest that more family members should be living in those McMansions and that we all don’t need as much indoor living space as we think we do is unthinkable to some! Slight exaggerations? Maybe, but not too far off target.
My husband and I have a strategy that we are working on/have done that hopefully will benefit not just us, but our entire extended family. When early spring comes, my husband and I will plant three very large gardens so that we can sell vegetables at the local farmers market and so that everyone in the extended family will be able to eat well. We normally sell only eggs, noodles and baked goods, knitted items, but with our acreage, we are beginning to develop even more. Our newly planted fruit trees won’t bear for a few years, but in time those will factor into the farmers market sales, too. Chickens are laying and look healthy, so we have eggs to sell. Hopefully, there will money for people to buy what they need at the farmers markets in my area this year.
Happy New Year! May we all be here next year to tell about how we survived. Good health to all.