The More Things Change
[Recently in going through some old boxed-up papers, I ran across a really rough draft, replete with typos, of the following letter which I had typed in the Fall of 1974, on a portable Remington typewriter. As you can see, it was never quite finished, it seems I could not think of a good closing, and of course it was never mailed. So now I had to do some google searches to be sure of the background for the letter. President Gerald Ford had taken office in August when Nixon resigned, and was continuing Nixon’s austerity program. He even devised some buttons that said “WIN,” for Whip Inflation Now. It seems the government was suggesting ways we could save fuel, and I was responding to their suggestions. While I have retyped the letter and corrected typos, I have made no other changes except a couple that are enclosed in brackets. For background I should mention that I and my daughters had moved from Virginia to Montana the year before.]
Hi Prez,
Just a little note to let you know how we’re doing out here in Montana, which ain’t so hot, the living, I mean, not the weather, because that’s been pretty nice, compared to what one might expect out here in Montana; but that’s a digression, of sorts, I don’t know how I always get off on the weather when I write letters, just a compulsion toward small talk, I guess, but now of course I am really supposed to be making large talk. Now I have found most people aren’t too interested in talking politics or government or foreign policy. Some will just stop their ears up and refuse to listen or to talk, and you can’t get anyone to argue, because what’s the use of arguing about something you can’t do anything about? Like Watergate (where’s the Di-Gel?), and sending arms to Turkey, and how to have honest elections. But when you start talking about economics, of course, you really hit home. And not that people don’t get sick about that (talk about depression, it’s here now, in everyone who ever gets to talking about the economy). But it concerns us all. I mean us middle-class, who don’t have huge bank accounts to fall back on (At least, we don’t have to worry about being wiped out by the stock market), who own only the roof over our heads and a car or two to get around in, who live from paycheck to paycheck, paring expenses to the bone, and now we’re being asked to pare still more for the sake of the nation’s economy. Now what I’m thinking is, people don’t mind paring to the bone if they can see something in their future for it, a savings account, or a new home, (for those of us who are only renting); scrimping and saving is great, but when it’s all scrimp with no save, then that’s depression.
Now take us, for instance. We are a family of six, a woman with five school-age daughters. (I’m not counting the five who are already grown and gone). Now we have a total income of *******, which once upon a time we would have thought a handsome figure, boy, what we couldn’t do with that much money, we thought, but here we are, and what can we do with it? We wouldn’t mind eating beans every night in the week, and oatmeal for breakfast, and walking ten miles to work and back, if we knew we were really salting it away, and would someday own that farm of our dreams. But no way, it takes every penny just to buy the beans and oatmeal, and the gas for work (well, we’ll just have to be realistic about that ten mile walk). Just when we think we’re getting ahead, the car throws a rod and the horse throws a daughter, all in the same weekend. Not yet having paid off the repairs to the car, we need realignment, snow tires, new gas gauge, new thermostat, brakes adjusted, something every month. In fact, it takes half my month’s pay just to get to and from work. Now you talk about economizing, we know what we can do on a farm, because we rented one for six years. Raised and preserved all our vegetables, raised all our own meat--pork, veal, chicken, ducks. And it didn’t cost much in transportation to do it, either. And since I wasn’t working, I had plenty of time to save money by sewing for the children, and I didn’t need the clothes I need for work, either. Actually, I haven’t bought many clothes since I started to work, but those I have just aren’t going to last as long as they normally would, since I have to dress up all the time. But now how does one do that [buy a small farm] without the money for a down payment? And how does anyone acquire that?
Now, to get to some of the points you and other economists have suggested. We can lower the thermostat and save fuel. Well, we’ve always done that, because so much of our lives has been spent living in big, old, drafty houses we’re used to a cool house. Of course, we wear our thermal underwear and an extra sweater or so. Who doesn’t in Montana? But now, realistically speaking, if everyone in the country rushes out to buy thermal underwear and extra sweaters, do you realize the effect that would have on the pollution, all those factories working overtime to make underwear and sweaters, not to mention the demand on cotton and wool, which would drive prices sky high and then up would go the prices on underwear and sweaters to where nobody could afford them and would have to turn their thermostats up again. Now I would be glad to turn the furnace pilot off during the summer, except I have been told it is better for the furnace to leave it on, but I don’t remember why, so if someone would clarify that point for me, I would be glad to comply with your request. But I have to leave on the pilot on my stove, because I consider it dangerous for my daughters to be lighting the stove, and have had some potentially serious mishaps myself. Now as to lowering the thermostat on hot water heater, I haven’t decided that that has any value; if I lower the heat, I shall simply use less cold water, and therefore more warm water, which will probably make the heater work oftener, and I’m not sure that would be a saving at all. Yes, I wash my clothes in cool water-- I have to, or I will run out of hot water.
You can bet I drive at least 5 per cent less than I might, I’m not about to drive all the way to town when we run out of bread, I’ll make some first (how much does it cost to bake bread in a gas oven?) Now you say to use public transportation and carpools, but out here there’s no such thing as public transportation, and all of us at work live at too great distances from one another to form car pools, except in case of emergency.
It’s hard to see how one can reduce the use of the stove and still save money on food, if we want to do our own baking and such like. And beans may be cheap, but they take a long time to cook. The refrigerator has to keep running, we don’t have a freezer, nor a television; we do need electric lights, but it doesn’t take many to light up a little trailer. As to the washer, well, you can guess it’s running a lot to keep five girls in clean clothes.
Reduce the use of nonessential appliances. Now I’m not sure what you mean by nonessential. Do you mean, electric percolators, frying pans, roaster ovens, and the like? Because if you don’t use these, you will have to use the stove, and I’ll bet statistics would show that the smaller appliances are more efficient users of electric power.
Adding insulation and storm windows is a praiseworthy idea to save fuel, but how much fuel is it going to take to produce all that insulation and storm windows, not to mention other natural resources it would take. Another example of suddenly escalating prices, too, I would expect.
