A reader’s response on lasting effects of the Great Depression
Frugal Hacks
As the economy continues to slide and prospects for many look bleak, there has been a surge in frugal practices. Spending less and saving more has become the latest fashion, and everywhere you look, there are articles about it or people trying to be more frugal.
Is this a lasting trend towards doing more with less? Or is it just the latest fad and when things improve economically, it will completely go out the window?
What's your take?
One email subscriber had this to say:
I think for many people this will be life changing. Just like it was for those worst hit durring the depression. For other's it is just a blip in anotherwise blissful life, one that doesn't touch most of the world.
I think back to my parents, aunts and uncles and grand parents. They all came through tough times, and I never knew any of them to be less than prepared to take care of themselves and their families. They all lived on less than they made, stored what they could of extra supplies ( not just groceries), re-used, re-purposed, used it up, wore it out, invented new things they needed, repaired their own vehicles, grew their own vegetables, canned, then when freezers came in they froze some things as well. Some of my Aunts and Uncles, had chickens, and a cow, or goat, for eggs, milk cheese, and butter,cream. They needed very little. These were not farmers , just small 3 to 5 acres. They didn't have fancy houses ( if fact most young people today wouldn't even look at their houses to buy, they'd be " too small"). Their homes were smaller, only 1 bathroom, and relatively inexpensive to heat ( some even used wood from thier own place). They worked where they could, at what ever they could. Their income was usually low. But they did so much for them selves, and helped each other that in the end they lived well above many people who made much more than they did. I don't remember them mentioning thrift shops, so perhaps there weren't so many. IThey did mentioned church rummage sales a couple of times a year that they got most of their clothing from, and they passed things around to friends and families. They also had a lot fewer clothes, my Dad had 4 sets of work clothes, and 1 set of "Church, wedding, and Funeral" clothes Which much , much later then became work clothes. In later life we got him "leisure" wear, he didn't need them when he was younger. ( Do you think our Young people would like this? or put up with it? with thrift shops like we have now they probably will never have to worry about it) My Mother had 3 housedressess and 5 aprons! She later got a better dress for Church, but for a long time she wore a white blouse and dark brown skirt to church with her brown coat. Although later they did have more luxuries, they never had or expected what younger people ( 50 and younger) expect. My Children in their 40's wouldn't live like they did, they all work hard true enough, but they still have much, much higher expectations of what they should have. They also have much bigger homes. I have a small by todays standards home. and dare I say it??? 1, yes, that's right, 1 bathroom. Yet, even my home is larger than my parents when they were raising me.
Also we have many more saftey nets in place than they did durring the depression. Some people will fall through those nets, but many , many more will survive well because of them. We have become very spoilt, when in fact we are still living in a wonderful land, with many, many oportunities, they are just not sugar coated and served on a platter right now. We may have to get dirty, do meanial jobs, and help each other to get by. Sometimes you just have to grit your teeth and get on with it till times get better, then don't make the same mistakes, and prepare for your self. The old addage " don't put all your eggs in one basket" still holds true. Make sure you are diversified, not only in you money, but your whole life, your skills, your attitude, your friends, everything. Another addage they used to use was "moderation in all things". Seems these 2 could have helped the world situation a lot.
Well, you asked for it, but I will step down from my soapbox for now.
enjoy reading your posts.
Pat in Kitchener
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6 Responses to “A reader’s response on lasting effects of the Great Depression”
February 1st, 2009 at 10:24 pm
I think that Pat is completely right!! It is very sad, but true.
February 2nd, 2009 at 6:25 am
I agree with Pat. Her response was very eloquently and truthfully stated. I think we live in an immediate-gratification, buy now/pay later, bigger is better society. I think we are living in a society with folks (my generation in particular and beyond) who expect way too much to be dealt out to them…..almost that a comfortable life is deserved and not something to be earned. I think many people are too prone to buying a $4 cup of Starbucks coffee instead of brewing a pot for pennies at home. I think we’ve adopted fiscally irresponsible ideals and unfortunately live by them more regularly than as the exception.
I have spoken with my grandparents and my husbands’ grandparents of what it was like to live through the Great Depression. And you know what intrigues me the most? While they talk about the difficulties they endured and how times were so tough wondering if they would be able to eat, heat their homes, (some things that we can’t imagine having to wonder how we would make do without now)…I didn’t hear ANY complaints. Sure they said it was difficult, but they didn’t speak of it with whining and complaining about how it shouldn’t have been that way.
One of my favorite shows is The Waltons…which depicts the lives of the real-life Hamners who lived during that era. It is very inspiring to watch a family that worked hard and pulled together instead of split apart when times got tough. Sure there was some fictional plots involved in the series, but from talking with others who lived through that era, the show is pretty true to life.
I think all of what Pat stated in her response reflects sound stewardship. I think the ideals that she described so nicely that people lived by during the Great Depression (living within their means; saving up $/goods for worse times) are not only ideals that should be held during uncertain financial crises but throughout all of life. I believe these principles that she eluded to are derived from biblical mandates to be good stewards of everything God has given us.
Thank you for the post, Jaime, and for your response, Pat. I think you hit the nail on the head!
Blessings,
Katie
February 2nd, 2009 at 8:56 am
I enjoyed reading this response!
February 2nd, 2009 at 11:29 am
My mother is 85yrs old…she lost her mother at age 4 and was boarded out with her four siblings to relatives and neighbors throughout her childhood..when i asked her about her life and growing up through the depression and war years she told me that it was a happy time..and that she never went without…there were always someone watching out for them…if they appeared to thin or needed anything at all it just appeared. that is what neighbors do. her father was a sailor and a clam digger as well as a veteran and he always saw to it that his children were cared for when he was away and he cared for them when he was home. i learned alot from my mother about life and living….instant gratification is not a part of it at all and that is how i raised my son. i feel sorry for many of the last generation and i try to do what i can to help in any way i can…formost being teaching a young person that there are ways to live well in such economic times and the future and to look to the golden rules for guidance as well.
February 3rd, 2009 at 2:03 pm
I have a hard time seeing this as a lasting change, but it could be if the economy stays down for a long time. I guess I find it difficult to seeing this new-found fascination with frugality as a lasting thing because most of what I read as being frugal alternatives are still somewhat costly from my perspective. For example, I recently read a newspaper article, which was filed under their dollar-wise series, on organization, and the so-called experts consulted mostly gave advice that would be expensive to follow–buying organization tools from the Container Store and using mannequin hands, which aren’t cheap, to organize/display jewelry. If that’s dollar-wise, I’d hate to think what their idea of spendthrift is!
I think part of the problem is that we’re still dealing with the concept of image that is so ingrained in our society. Take a look at a magazine stand, and you’ll see what I mean. There is a glut of fashion magazines all touting the must-haves of the season. We have advertising telling us we deserve things. Everyone wants to look like they’re doing well, and no one wants to admit that they’re really just average. We have a culture of entitlement, and luxuries have become necessities. I don’t see this attitude going away quickly or quietly.
February 3rd, 2009 at 11:46 pm
My parents lived through the Depression (I’m 60), and in my youth I recall hearing many stores and how they scrimped and didnt spend, etc.
One thing that does strike me is to consider the age of the person[s] when they experienced the Depression (say, the years 1929 thru 1941).
My father was 9 in 1929, my mother slightly younger. So that was what they knew, that was how they lived, and their stories refelcted the hindsight of the affluence experienced in the post-WWII world in comparison with the Depression.
What I and many others never heard much of were the experiences of those who were already adults in 1929; those lived through the 1920s as adults, and then who were in their 50s and 60s in 1929. By the time I was old enough to hear those stories, they were mostly gone.
What I think would be of more relevance to all of us would be understanding the adjustments these older people had to make, from previously being wage earners and able to support their families to being reduced to unemployed and penniless.
The young children today will grow up and it will be the world they know.
Those of us who are not young, who face retirement in the coming few years, who have had our investments turn to trash, who have had our expectations of retiring without poverty… should this economic downturn last and deepen (as I expect), it is how we adjust and survive they will mark us. We are already damaged in so many ways, the wastefulness of the last few years–the unneeded war in Iraq, the unbounded financial and political greed, the surrendering of our economic capability as a manufacturing nation for short-term cheaper goods from overseas… all of these now combined to make us as a nation and us as individuals so much weaker and so supremely vulnerable.
They called the generation that fought WWII “the greatest generation”, but it seems to me those working adults who lived through the Depression are the great ones as well.
–Joe
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