Are we really better off?

For some of us, the Great Depression era brings to mind of what daily American life was all about in that era. The end of the first world war ushered in a period of prosperity and later on, the Great Depression era gave us mass unemployment worldwide and a rise in dictatorships that in turn soon gave us the continuation of the First World War.

Mass unemployment soon became commonplace after the first war. Talented people had to sell apples on street corners, and bags of potatoes for the idle was often the best government circles could do. The only upside of the era was the fact that nobody could afford guns and even gangsters that had them had little to steal. John Dillinger a notorious bank robber of that era was said to have remarked it was too risky to rob a bank for the small amounts that were at hand.

The only bright side of the era was that prices held steady. A loaf of bread was 10 cents, a gallon of gas 18 cents and a daily paper was 3 cents.

The ending of the Second World War was not to repeat the mistakes of the first. The Marshall Plan was ushered in to quickly aid both friend and foe. Economies and homes of both sides were quickly rebuilt. A devastated Germany rose from its ashes to quickly become a manufacturing giant. As for Americans, ownership of guns now had become too commonplace, Chicago is now a page out of the old Wild West.

The man of the house once made the living and the women made the living worthwhile gave us good results. It now takes a two-check household to keep going with the good life. The end result gave us a very low birthrate and not to forget a 50% divorce rate.

To quote an old sage: "Are we better off today?"

Walter Santi

Bloomingdale