Newscoma

Zen of Jazz writes at All That’s Evil an interesting post that touches on rural America and the changes in the landscape of this country in the past 70 years.

I had someone ask me how serious I thought the current fiscal crisis is, yesterday. I said, “it depends. How big is your garden? How full is your freezer? Did you pick up that backup generator?” And his answer was “Why? Do those things matter?”

Here’s the thing. The last time the economy was in this kind of shape, around 70 years ago, we were a mostly rural population, with small family farms. That meant that when there were no jobs, you still had your crops, and your livestock. You may or may not have had electricity, but you probably had a fireplace, and a acre or two of firewood growing. Your farm equipment mostly could be pulled by a horse, or a mule. If you were in the city, you were likely in a manufacturing job. If you had money, odds were fair that at least some of it was tucked under a mattress. If you heard about the problems soon enough, you could get at your money, in the bank…

Today, the population is urban and suburban, with very few people having as much as a garden, much less livestock. Your money is so many binary digits, in the memories of the computers at your bank, mortage holder, credit card companies, etc.

It’s a compelling read. The one thing I can say living in rural America is that the small farmers who grew food for their families don’t exist like they did in the past but that’s starting to change as small towns have felt the economic effects due to increases in costs because of transporting items to our humble area. There are more corporate farming operations now.

Oh, and my county has been placed on the ag disaster list that Gov. Phil Bredesen sent out on Tuesday.

Updated to add that Sadcox posted about this as well.