Reply #20: Would likely be much worse, since the amount of small, family-owned farms [View All]

in the US is miniscule, compared to the 30s. My mother lived in Michigan's Upper Peninsula as a young child during that decade, and they did "okay" , mainly b/c they could grow crops, and eat them. and live on canning them for winter and eating farm animals, pigs, chickens, eggs and the like. The winters were harsh, however, they had to have many cords of wood chopped up and ready by mid-fall for their wood stove in their kitchen to cook and to heat water to bathe, and the fireplace to keep the farmhouse warmer. She said that their bedrooms were unheated and quite cold in the winter mornings. Her father also augmented their income by chopping down and cutting up trees in the vast forestland, for the local sawmills, dragging logs by horse to them. Most people knew how to make and repair things by hand, such as furniture, clothing, and the like. Clothing was sturdier and could be washed and scrubbed by hand. They had many places to go to hunt and fish.

Most of the much larger population of the US lacks those basic skills, and is much more dependent upon store-bought food, and have fewer places to go to be able to hunt or fish, that is,. if they even own a gun and ammo, or bow and arrows, or fishing rods and tackle, or a boat. and most are not experienced hunters or fishermen.