# The Grapes of Wrath



## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

So what are you doing about it, how are you living today that will make your life easier in the event of a financial collapse, if you lose your job will you lose your home or vehicle, is there an alternative way to put food on the table, you have any skills to put food on the table, how much are you spending now on non-necessary items for daily life living, have you cut back on anything like the electric, water, fuel, useless trips, do you have a budget or meal plans, eating out a lot not taking lunch to work, making more meals at home, lower your thermostat on the water heater,etc,etc,etc.I turns out that during the great depression many well-to-do families loss everything because everything they own was on credit to include the many that committed suicide and the dirt poor farmer with the few mason jars and chickens survived.The financial crisis of 2007–2008, also known as the Global Financial Crisis is considered by many economists to have been the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930`s many also committed suicide even killed the whole family ,so in retrospect is good to remember history and live a few degrees lower than your present income and put the savings in those good old mason jars, there not just for jelly.


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## LastOutlaw (Jun 1, 2013)

As I've said before... once I became awakened my priorities changed. no more buying crap. .... For those who still are... anyone interested in a 1972 Pontiac GTO project? Matching numbers lots of new parts!


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

readytogo said:


> The financial crisis of 2007-2008, also known as the Global Financial Crisis ... the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930`s many also committed suicide even killed the whole family


I never heard any of those stories. This last round wasn't as bad as the "Great Depression", but set wheels in motion for when the next time it happens, it WILL be bad!


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

Gold and silver went down today - -buy buy.


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

Several years ago I was at the Half Price Bookstore near A&M and came across *"We Had Everything But Money"*- _Priceless memories of the great depression from strong people who tell in their own words what it was like when banks closed and hearts opened._

I went back the next day and had the foresight to buy it. It's just an excellent book I still pull out and read about once a year. I just found it on Amazon: We Had Everything Except Money

On a similar note: We live in a small rural community so the stories stay alive because the families who lived through them have been here for generations. When the banks were ordered closed during the depression, a local banker did as he was directed and locked the front door. Then he opened the back door and did business as usual. As far as I know he kept his bank open the entire time.

This is probably just one of the multitude of reasons rural communities do better in times of crisis.


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## Balls004 (Feb 28, 2015)

My wife's Great Grandmother used to save and reuse tin foil, all because they had lived through the Great Depression. They were a cotton farming family in the Miss. delta.

We have always been frugal when possible, and there are times that I've wondered, should we take a tax hit and cash out our 401k's and buy gold, silver, or more prepping supplies. The obstacle I keep hitting, is that if it really gets bad, I don't value gold or silver. Supplies yes, but then I will have to try and defend it against those who want those supplies without compensating us.

It's a Catch-22. We're not completely self sufficient on our small farm, maybe more so than most, but not to the point that I feel comfortable. We're too close to a southern large city to believe that if things get as tight as they did during the GD that we won't have roving bands of gang thugs, marauders, etc. eventually entering our area. I'm sure not looking for the sheriff's dept. being able to protect us, because they can't do that now.

Value is always in the eyes of the beholder, and I'm not sure what is going to be valuable if everything crashes.


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## zimmy (Aug 17, 2012)

*We had everything but money.*

Thanks for the tip, just bought a hardcover first edition off Abe's Books $3.88 shipped to the door. http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&tn=we+had+everything+but+money


Country Living said:


> Several years ago I was at the Half Price Bookstore near A&M and came across *"We Had Everything But Money"*- _Priceless memories of the great depression from strong people who tell in their own words what it was like when banks closed and hearts opened._
> 
> I went back the next day and had the foresight to buy it. It's just an excellent book I still pull out and read about once a year. I just found it on Amazon: We Had Everything Except Money
> 
> ...


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## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

The Grapes of Wrath? How did the conversation go from a book written about the Dust Bowl days to the Great Depression? The Dust Bowl was about Easterner people buying cheap grass land in Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma and tilling it up to make farm land, then a drought hit the area and with out the grass to protect the soil moisture the dirt turned to dust. 

The desperate farmers could not feed their families and this was the biggest problem. Most of the farms had no debt, but the ones that did were foreclosed. The bankers did not want the land because it was worthless and preferred that the farmers stayed and attempted whatever they could to help.

The only connection to the Great Depression is that grain prices collapsed causing the farmers into desperater times. But even without the grain prices collapsing it still would have been desperate times. The "Okies" (name for the farmers that moved from the dust bowl area to California) loaded up their jalopies and made the torturous trip through the desert and mountains to the promised land.

Because this was going on during the Great Depression, the two get conflated together. I understand how this can happen, so never mind.


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## airdrop (Jan 6, 2012)

I'll start out this by saying if there was a collapse that things would be very different , people then were more civil and great in lending a hand not so much anymore . Self reliance is almost a thing of the past .
The Depression and dust bowl overlapped and made things worse . My family were farmers in northwest Oklahoma and it was ruff but they made it through . My Grandmother lost her money in the bank but they gave her a house outside of town with maybe 1 acre of land lol . I would imagine it didn't help by food or stuff for the farm but at least it was something unlike a lot of people who got nothing when a bank folded . 
There are a lot more people now and thinking how hard it was to feed folks back then what's it going to be like next time . You have to look at the past to get some idea what it might take to make it through the present . It took about 10 years to pull out of the Depression and only then with the help of WW11 , how long will it take the next time with the USA being in debt 18 or MORE trillion dollars . Now that's scary !


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