Texas Phil Peeno #50923 Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 NEWS FLASH! 9.1 Employment Rate, Double Dip Recession, Bad Economy I wonder how did folks in the 1890's coped with issues we are facing today? How did cowboys coped when there is no work? How did a town manage when the good times run out? Did they fare better than us today? The movie scenes that come to mind are 1) Santa Rio in Josey Wales and 2) Devlin Wayne asking G.W. McClintock for a job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 In times past, folks ate a lot of things we don't touch, or rarely touch now. Squab, squirrels, horsemeat. There was no "hunting season," or license for that matter. On average folks were a lot leaner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172 Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 In cowboy days, most of the work was manual labor. They did not have a lot of electrical or even steam driven tools. Farming was the big employer, and a fellow could usually get a job working for food and shelter. Government programs were unheard of, for the most part. And there was a lot of land that was open for those hardy enough to take it in. People tended to be open with each other and helped those in need. Not to say that they don't now, but I believe it was more widespread in times past. But there were some, that took what they wanted by gun or deceit. Same as now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 NEWS FLASH! 9.1 Employment Rate, Double Dip Recession, Bad Economy I wonder how did folks in the 1890's coped with issues we are facing today? How did cowboys coped when there is no work? How did a town manage when the good times run out? Did they fare better than us today? The movie scenes that come to mind are 1) Santa Rio in Josey Wales and 2) Devlin Wayne asking G.W. McClintock for a job. In an agrarian society it is rare that there is no work to be had. Pay might not be great, but there is usually something. When really hard times hit towns would just fold up. People would move on. Not as much regulation back then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rye Miles #13621 Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 Tough folks and there was NO social security, welfare, medicare or medicade, or food stamps. Wow how did they make it??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 And a lot of people literally worked themselves to death, no OSHA, no safety net, but people understood. Work or perish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Woodrow Cahill, SASS # 54363 Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 Self reliance and less dependency. "If I don't do it myself, it ain't gonna get done" mentality. Nowadays too many people think the government will solve all their problems, whether they're due to outside influences or their own screw-ups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Dan Troop 70448 Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 Back in those days, and days of our parents, they lived off the land. Providing food and shelter by working, helping each other as neighbors. Clearing the land, planting and hunting for their provisions. When a stranger came to camp, or homesite, they were greeted and invited to partake a meal and spend the night. Many of us have told stories about our grandparents and parents, and how they lived in simpler times, and brought their childrens up in hard times. Wonder if the future generation of children will tell tales of being given food, homes by the goverment, without having to work for it will be as exciting, or if the future generation would be able to survive without goverment aid. MT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el Gato Gordo - SASS #15162 Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 And people didn't make it. Some starved to death, some froze. My Dad told me of how shocked he was when a 'bo froze to death a block from his home during the Depression of the 1930's. My maternal grandmother was imprisoned in connecticut in the 1930's because she did not have the means to feed her kids; the kids (my mother & aunts) were fostered out, not in the best of circumstances. Don't tell me there was no welfare and people were "self reliant." Welfare was run by the States' and local governments, and charity by churches, the Salvation Army, and the Y. You all have seen pictures of folks lined up at soup kitchens.soup line Not talking about lazy people; these folks wanted work:Men outside employment agency Very easy to talk about self reliance when you aren't the machinist or other skilled worker and there are no jobs to be had. Even today I know good men and women who have been out of work for over two years, making do on unemployment, working anything to put food on the table, and some good people whose homes have been foreclosed. I am one of the fortunate ones: both Calico & I have good jobs and no debts, not even a mortgage, and sufficient funds for retirement. Given the state of the economy (still), it is a great load off our minds. Buena suerte, amigos, and may you and yours never know that kind of despair ~ eGG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438 Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 Henry David Thoreau, in the mid-1800's: "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." From Wikipedia: "By 1860, on the eve of Civil War, 16% of the people lived in cities with 2500 or more people; a third of the nation's income came from manufacturing. Urbanized industry was limited primarily to the Northeast; cotton cloth production was the leading industry, with the manufacture of shoes, woolen clothing, and machinery also expanding. Most of the workers in the new factories were immigrants or their children. Between 1845 and 1855, some 300,000 European immigrants arrived annually. Many remained in eastern cities, especially mill towns and mining camps, while those with farm experience and some savings bought farms in the West.[26] The devastation of the South (after the War) was great and poverty ensued; incomes of whites dropped, but income of the former slaves rose. During Reconstruction railroad construction was heavily subsidized (with much corruption), but the region maintained its dependence on cotton. Former slaves became wage laborers, tenant farmers, or sharecroppers. They were joined by many poor whites, as the population grew faster than the economy. As late as 1940 the only significant manufacturing industries were textile mills in the Carolinas, and some steel in Alabama.[28] Panic of 1873 had New York Stock Exchange closed for ten days, of the country's 364 railroads, 89 went bankrupt, a total of 18,000 businesses failed between 1873 and 1875, unemployment reached 14% by 1876, during a time which became known as the Long Depression. The end of the Gilded Age coincided with the Panic of 1893, a deep depression that lasted until 1897 and marked a major political realignment in the election of 1896." The history of the economy in the US is a roller coaster of ups and downs, and probably always will be. Some folks get hurt when there are rapid or lasting changes; others get rich. Overall, it seems to me that folks do best when they work hard, save, and take financial risks commensurate with their ability to cope if they lose. The hard part is when things beyond their control sneak up on them, and destroy their ability to earn. A local bookstore went out of business this week; to paraphrase the disillusioned owner, decribing how on-line book sellers were putting him out of business: "It's like you wake up to discover that you own a slide rule factory on the day the calculator is invented." The older I get in this economy, the more I feel like Monte Walsh - watching the world change around me into someplace I just don't belong anymore. LL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Shadow Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 NEWS FLASH! 9.1 Employment Rate, Double Dip Recession, Bad Economy I wonder how did folks in the 1890's coped with issues we are facing today? How did cowboys coped when there is no work? How did a town manage when the good times run out? Did they fare better than us today? The movie scenes that come to mind are 1) Santa Rio in Josey Wales and 2) Devlin Wayne asking G.W. McClintock for a job. Actually that would have been: Devlin... Katie/Kathryn: "Wallace" G.W. & Drago: "Warren" Sorry, another subject. Carry on. SS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Shoer 27979 Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 And people didn't make it. Some starved to death, some froze. My Dad told me of how shocked he was when a 'bo froze to death a block from his home during the Depression of the 1930's. My maternal grandmother was imprisoned in connecticut in the 1930's because she did not have the means to feed her kids; the kids (my mother & aunts) were fostered out, not in the best of circumstances. Don't tell me there was no welfare and people were "self reliant." Welfare was run by the States' and local governments, and charity by churches, the Salvation Army, and the Y. You all have seen pictures of folks lined up at soup kitchens.soup line Not talking about lazy people; these folks wanted work:Men outside employment agency Very easy to talk about self reliance when you aren't the machinist or other skilled worker and there are no jobs to be had. Even today I know good men and women who have been out of work for over two years, making do on unemployment, working anything to put food on the table, and some good people whose homes have been foreclosed. I have been a carpenter for 25 years and a horseshoer for over 20years I have been technically unemployed for 3 years for construction. I am one of the fortunate ones: both Calico & I have good jobs and no debts, not even a mortgage, and sufficient funds for retirement. Given the state of the economy (still), it is a great load off our minds. Buena suerte, amigos, and may you and yours never know that kind of despair ~ eGG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Okie Sawbones, SASS #77381 Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 And life expectancy in 1890 was 42.5 years, and that is not a typo. Disease, accidents and harsh life lead to premature deaths. The 'good old days' were not all we make them out to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 Folks in the 1890s who were city dwellers and needed employment didn't fare well at all. Country denizens who were less dependent on society and could subsist on their own weathered the economic downturns better. Some fared better than some do today. Some didn't. Not much has changed as far as that goes. That's the price of civilization and progress I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 And life expectancy in 1890 was 42.5 years, and that is not a typo. Disease, accidents and harsh life lead to premature deaths. The 'good old days' were not all we make them out to be. If you were male and made it past the age of about 3 you had a good chance of making it into your 70s. Women the same, if they could avoid death in childbirth. So, yes, it was a harsh life, but take out the infant mortality and life expectancy takes a huge jump. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 And life expectancy in 1890 was 42.5 years, and that is not a typo. Disease, accidents and harsh life lead to premature deaths. The 'good old days' were not all we make them out to be. That averaged in a lot of infant mortality. As much as folks didn't live long lives, many made it into the sixties and seventies but they were not as portly as many of us are now and that might have helped in their longevity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rye Miles #13621 Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 That averaged in a lot of infant mortality. As much as folks didn't live long lives, many made it into the sixties and seventies but they were not as portly as many of us are now and that might have helped in their longevity. Yer right Marshal and also they ate food that was pretty much natural, not as many preservatives ,hormones, steroids etc. as today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Okie Sawbones, SASS #77381 Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 Even taking out infant mortality, life expectancy in 1890 was between 58 and 60 y/o, depending on which source you use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocDisaster # 45431 Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 I bet it was alot cheaper to live without electric bills, gas bills, cable bills, cell phones, TV's in every room, a vehicle for every member of the household, water, sewer and sanitation bills, etc...... My GGG Grandfather passed away when he was 38 and I cannot find out from what. "Mr. Heitfeld passed away in 1867, at the age of thirty-eight years, and his wife died in 1892, at the age of sixty-three years." Doc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apache Hawk 60642 Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 NEWS FLASH! 9.1 Employment Rate, Double Dip Recession, Bad Economy I wonder how did folks in the 1890's coped with issues we are facing today? How did cowboys coped when there is no work? How did a town manage when the good times run out? Did they fare better than us today? The movie scenes that come to mind are 1) Santa Rio in Josey Wales and 2) Devlin Wayne asking G.W. McClintock for a job. Alot of cowboys signed up wif cattle drives. Den some became outlaws, lawmen, farmers, hunters, hard rock miners, ect,ect. As fer farin' better den us, considerin' da times, then and now, IMHO, I wood say, bout da same . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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