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Highlands Today

Don't expect the government to help

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By Raleigh Whiteman | Highlands Today

Published: April 23, 2009

Yes, the United States economy is in trouble and will eventually collapse.

It will, and how we will be able to overcome the hardships that it will cause is yet a mystery to me. We all have seen on newsreels and many have experienced the era of Great Depression that our mothers and fathers had to go through in the 1930s.

Somehow they managed to pull through that very tough time in their lives and raised their families, who are now seeing what may be the greatest depression of all depressions.

Full circle in 76 years
It was a Democratic president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who started the New Deal in 1933 and pulled industry and banking out of the depression.

The first days of Roosevelt's administration saw the passage of banking reform laws, emergency relief programs, work relief programs, and agricultural programs. Later, a second New Deal was to evolve; it included union protection programs, the Social Security Act, and programs to aid tenant farmers and migrant workers.

However, the New Deal may have been a failure for the American people as it primarily benefited the banks and industry, making them richer while the workers worked. Our families had to spend 95 percent of their earnings to buy the products that their bosses were producing with their labor.

But then again, Roosevelt had to do something, the soup kitchen lines were getting longer every day and more and more rich were jumping out of windows.
Losing retirement nest egg
On "60 Minutes" Sunday evening, there were many being interviewed who said their retirement was not going to happen because their 401K had been reduced to the level that it was not going to be enough to live on, and that they may have to continue working the rest of their lives. I say to them, "Welcome to the club."

After retiring 22 years ago with a small government annuity and no Social Security, the PW and I moved to the Smoky Mountains and bought a home that was affordable with the small income we had.

After one small snowstorm, we realized we could not cope with the cold and needed to move back to Florida.

It took three years to find a buyer but we managed to sell it for enough to put a down payment on a house here that needed lots of work. But I would have to go back to work to make the payments and have enough to buy groceries, gas and a few beers. Plus I needed more time at work to qualify for Social Security.

I put my experience as a photographer to work in the newspaper profession and have hence developed enough experience with the computer that I am now part-time employed in the newspaper and publishing field.

When newspapers become obsolete, I will have to do something else but I will find that something else because it will be necessary in order to live.

Find a job
There are too many out there who think the sky is falling and the government will have to take care of them. Well, you can bet your boots that this new president, with all his smooth talk and free money, is not going to come to your rescue. He may help industry but you will have to go to work.

Today's population is four times that of the '30s and a New Deal in today's world will not work. The way Obama is giving away money the little or even lots of money you may have saved may be worthless in a short while.

Raleigh Whiteman, of Lake Placid, is a contributing writer to Highlands Today. You can reach him on the Internet at rwwhiteman@comcast.net

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