True. And we did not have welfare programs, food stamps, Medicaid, disability insurance, Pell grants, agricultural subsidies, or social insurance programs like Social Security or Medicare.
In 1913, the military budget was $400 million. Today, it's $700 billion.
True. And we did not have welfare programs, food stamps, Medicaid, disability insurance, Pell grants, agricultural subsidies, or social insurance programs like Social Security or Medicare.
And a lot of people suffered because of it.
My father was born in 1905. He had to quit school in the 3rd grade and go to work as a laborer in a local shipyard after his father died in order to help his mother feed and provide for his 5 brothers and sisters. He was a smart man that could barely read and write because he spent his entire life working every hour he could work to provide for himself and his family.
My mother was 8 years old and her sister was 5 years old when both of their parents died in the flu epidemic of 1918,and they had no where to live and no one to provide for or protect them. The local chapter of the KKK put them in the house of a one-legged Civil War veteran who needed help,with the stipulation that he use his pension money to feed,clothe,and send the little girls to school in exchange for them helping him by cooking,cleaning house,and washing clothes.
The old man abused the girls,the KKK showed up one Friday Night and "read him the law" about what was going to happen to him if he continued,and they were ok again for a few years,but without options other than marriage. My mother married a WW-1 vet that had been hit with gas during the war,and who had nightmares and drank a BUNCH. She was 13 when she married him,and she married him because the Civil War vet had died and she had nowhere to live.
Her sister moved in with them,and was a little luckier. She married my uncle when she was 15 and he was in his early 30's,and they were married until he died in his early 80's. He was a good man that didn't drink,abuse,or neglect her or their children.
There were others that were not that fortunate.
How much talent and brain power were lost back then because so many poor children were unable to go to school and advance their educations or learn trades?
People need to be careful to not let their dogma bite them in their asses. What we NEED to do is rid the welfare and similar rolls of scam artists and illegal aliens. We also need to turn it into a system where healthy people are sent to schools of some sort to learn trades so that welfare is what it was intended to be,a TEMPORARY hand out to people who need help,NOT a career.
That post is a keeper. If you wrote a book, I'd buy it in a minute.
Amazing history. Great recall and observations, complete with links to "old school Americana" --- the one that may have a few blemishes, but is stone cold real. Stuff like this, those REAL struggles back when, is hardly ever told. That generation -- in which ever part of this country they lived -- had to endure some very different, tough times. They just sucked it up and kept going without complaining.
Now if you were "re-educated" today, you'd be told to consider yourself one of the biggest "victims" on the planet. (And most university "teachers" and attorneys would agree ;-)
I wish you were younger and I was younger. I'd help you document and submit just merely bits and pieces of your life experiences, past historical stories and observations to a publisher. It'd make for a heckuva fascinating book. AND movie...
Your only problem might be that the book would be a thousand pages long. Oh well -- you'd have to write two or three books. And work out a movie franchise.
" People need to be careful to not let their dogma bite them in their asses. What we NEED to do is rid the welfare and similar rolls of scam artists and illegal aliens. We also need to turn it into a system where healthy people are sent to schools of some sort to learn trades so that welfare is what it was intended to be,a TEMPORARY hand out to people who need help,NOT a career. "
Very good post Pete. We have too, too many people drawing from programs, that should not be drawing. They should be working. Those programs just make them dependent, and worthless. Now, I do understand there are a few people that are incapable of being productive and capable to provide for themselves. Fine, lets help them. But the majority on those programs are bums.
We also need to develop industry here in the US to provide jobs, and keep our nation strong. And we need to discourage companies from leaving the US, and taking those jobs overseas.
