Feeling better about family finances in the face of high gas and food prices, layoffs, and falling real estate values is especially challenging these days. It doesn't help that cries of "the sky is falling!" appear
everywhere.
Not to minimize the real struggle many families are
facing, but compared to our grandparents and their parents, some of
whom suffered through the Great Depression, our woes don't seem as insurmountable:
1. Life Expectancy - In 1930, the average woman lived to 61 the average man lived to 58. In 2004 the average life expectancy increased to 80 and 75 respectively. Yes many of us have no health insurance, but we live much longer than our forebearers. Most of us would agree that this is a good thing.
2. Unemployment Insurance - By 1932, approximately 25% of the workforce was unemployed. Today that rate is rising, but still significantly lower than during the Great Depression (5.5%), and since 1935 most of us have access to unemployment insurance.
3. Child Labor Laws - The Industrial Revolution in the United States meant 18 hour days for factory workers, many of them as young as 2 or 3. Child labor laws as well as laws ensuring a 5-day work week/8 hour work day weren't proposed until the mid-1930s as a way to stimulate employment opportunities for more Americans.
4. Family Size - In the 1920s and 1930s in some parts of the country the average family had 5 kids. Think it's hard managing your family (today's average family has 2 kids)? Try handling that many kids. Likely they'd be more helpful around the house (or farm) and would call you "ma'am" or "sir" but this would likely fail to offset the added strain.
5. Weekends - In addition to employing children, factories used to require 6 or 7 day work weeks and 18 hour days. Thanks in large part to the U.S. labor movement, many of us now enjoy 40 hour workweeks and weekends. Americans still work longer hours than workers in other industrialized countries, but at least we can do so in spaces like this.
Also of note, we're less likely to spend as many years in states of pregnancy and lactation, have easier access to more nutritious foods, and are less likely to die in childbirth. See? It's all about perspective.
[Photo Credit: Dorothea Lange]
