We’re learning as we go
February 25, 2009 (Wednesday)
Once again I am reminded that I am a part of an “in between” generation. My parents were young adults when the Great Depression hit in 1929. My children are in the same age group as the President who has been elected to get us out of another fine economic mess. My generation saw the Great Depression as children, and now we are seeing this recession, or whatever it is, as grandparents. I’m here to say there were lots of good times “in between.” And bad times. Happy times and sad times. Life progresses or retreats from one stage to another, retracing its steps as it moves along.
I saw a comment after the president’s speech that said, “He is trying to move us from being the ‘Me Generation” to becoming the “We Generation.”
Other responses were not so approving, as the Governor of Louisiana, the first native-born American citizen in his family, called the massive spending bills “irresponsible.”
Inflation changes the picture. When I moved to Rockport in 1964, a million dollars was worth $1,000,000. When I moved to Houston last year it was worth only a little more than $150,000. The proverbial “millionaire” is easy to find today. The new term now for the rich is, “Billionaire.” The word being used a lot lately in Washington is “Trillion,” which is a thousand billion, or, if you like, a million million. And we are casually talking in terms of more than one of those things.
We all remember Senator Dirkson’s famous speech in which he said, “A billion here and a billion there, and the first thing you know we’re talking about a lot of money.”
If you don’t like inflation, stick around. Some say it will soon be replaced by deflation. Some of us remember the “good old days” when pennies and nickels were treasures. Those were the good old “deflation” days, otherwise known as the Depression.
It’s a whole new ball game, isn’t it? “Who’s on First?”