BUT HELP THOSE IN NEED
In continuing my theme from my last post, FEELING RETRO, I have been pondering about why we strive so hard to fit into someone else’s definition of who we should be. We are all unique in our own way and where we should be right now. But people want to work and do and achieve, and be recognized for their achievements. Sometimes that is a hard thing to do with all the competition out there for fewer and fewer jobs.

I am reading Kristin Hannah again. In the book I am currently reading, The Four Winds, she has researched the Dust Bowl thoroughly and the lands and people who were hit hard during the Great Depression. Her description of the protagonist and her family trekking all alone from the Oklahoma Panhandle all the way to California is a wake-up call on how things could get worse in this day and age. The successful post-WWI farmers lost everything, including all of the topsoil. They had farmed like everyone else who came out of the east coast, scraping the land of the prairie grass and planting wheat and corn, among other things without irrigation. And then the rains stopped. For TEN years. The dust storms not only buried everything that they owned, but people also became sick and died. During the Roosevelt years, they tried to help, but many of those didn’t want to be on the dole. They had been taught that it was wrong. And, they didn’t use irrigation like their current farming methods; and that is yet another subject that needs to be addressed.

When so many people left home and moved to California, they were turned away or shunned. They lived in horrible conditions, camps by the road, and were ridiculed. They had no money for gas or new clothes. The locals said they carried disease and treated them horrendously. Their life was incredibly difficult. (Grapes of Wrath is a must read if you don’t understand).

And even when these Americans worked their fingers to the bone for 10 hours a day, like the woman portrayed in the book, they were given a pittance salary, a handful of coins, which was not enough for gas, and not enough to move out of their situation. They all had hoped for planting or picking jobs, or any job that paid them a wage to move out of the camps. But sometimes they just starved to death.

So the reason I am telling you this, is in reality, this could happen again. The stock market could crash, and many of us on the margins could wind up in a similar situation, especially if there are no services provided by our government. The working class that are being ignored by the Silver Spoon Class will suffer like they have over the past 100 years. There has to be a balance between the upper 1% and those in the middle class and especially those at poverty level. They are not bad people. They just have bad situations. Why can’t we all see this?

We all want to be these entrepreneurs and hit it big! But cheap foreign goods cut us out of the market. Small businesses can’t grow because they can’t get the capital. The largest industry today is the financial or banking industry. Since 1980, the economy has shifted from making real products to making financial products. In other words, the working class suffers once again, blames the past democrats, because every president in office listened to Wall Street instead of providing stability and focused on balancing the government budget. Folks that lost their jobs reason they still shift to the people like you know who. In reality, he has created a situation that is absolutely worse than any democratic president in office. And who benefits? The upper 1%.

“According to the latest official poverty statistics, the poverty rate in 2023 was 11.1%, representing approximately 36.8 million Americans living below the federal poverty line.”
https://www.theglobalstatistics.com/statistics-on-poverty-in-united-states/

36.8 million Americans! Why?
Unfortunately, the government isn’t going to solve everything because they are cutting programs every day. They are creating new rules for the upper 1% to keep their wealth. Working class America will always suffer if we don’t help each other.

So today, I am asking everyone to think about how all of us who aren’t millionaires or billionaires are going to prepare for the inevitable changes to our economy. I am asking us to be prepared, but help out those in need, even when they say they don’t need your help. Don’t blame them for their misfortune or their poverty. Help them climb out of poverty. Give them a clean pair of clothes, and help them get off the streets. Most people are truly just trying to find work and a safe place to sleep. You can save lives if you just care. Give to support shelters, give to mental health centers and drug rehabilitation centers, give to education, and give goods to your local food banks. Help those who need help. Thank you.