My brother Jon, who is almost six years younger than I, remarked that he has never found anyone who remembers making mattresses near the end of the New Deal. I remember it although I was involved only on a Saturday since I was in school. He remembers working under the table on which the mattress lay, pulling the needle through and pushing it back. It was less a problem for children than for adults, who would be in an awkward and stressful posture under the table.
I remember agreeing that making mattresses for the home was a better use of cotton than plowing it under. As a boy I was angry at seeing a field of cotton, white and ready to be picked, plowed under. The stated purpose was to reduce the supply of cotton and thus raise the price, all while people had few clothes to wear. I was most disturbed at the killing of pregnant sows and the destruction of cows while people went hungry.
Looking back, we can see how wrong the New Deal was. All of those alphabet organizations were based on making products scarce, while the problem was not over-production but lack of demand from people who had no money for food or clothing.
How does that have meaning for us today? The Obama administration is plunging ahead to force policies that are just opposite of what should be done to get the economy moving. Obama has had more than four years now and the nation is suffering with nine million fewer people in the work force than were working when he took over. Unless we get a dramatic change, this nation is headed for catastrophe.
I remember agreeing that making mattresses for the home was a better use of cotton than plowing it under. As a boy I was angry at seeing a field of cotton, white and ready to be picked, plowed under. The stated purpose was to reduce the supply of cotton and thus raise the price, all while people had few clothes to wear. I was most disturbed at the killing of pregnant sows and the destruction of cows while people went hungry.
Looking back, we can see how wrong the New Deal was. All of those alphabet organizations were based on making products scarce, while the problem was not over-production but lack of demand from people who had no money for food or clothing.
How does that have meaning for us today? The Obama administration is plunging ahead to force policies that are just opposite of what should be done to get the economy moving. Obama has had more than four years now and the nation is suffering with nine million fewer people in the work force than were working when he took over. Unless we get a dramatic change, this nation is headed for catastrophe.
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