When Life Was Simple

That seemed like a great title until I thought more about whether it was ever simple. The more you allow maturity and reality to creep up on you, the more complicated it looks.

In 1910, my parents lived on a farm. They had no major utilities to pay, no income tax, no insurances, and if you became ill you more likely to die than not. Did that really make it simple? The work to survive was incredible. No income tax=little income for the majority, even then. The really rich benefited with ability for excesses, many of which have become today's museums. No insurances, simple; without insurance people suffered with every catastrophe. However, there were more children and extended family to take up the slack, so more people managed to make it through crises. The rest starved, or became ill and died. More kids were due to no birth control. Nutrition was less an issue because there were more farms, fewer urban areas without access to fresh products, better absorption of vitamins and minerals from foods because those weren't all killed waiting in warehouses to be brought to stores.

I could go on with comparisons but haven't really thought too much about everything in detail. What it has shown me is that everything is relative. We had the rich and the poor, even then, but it seemed to be less visible than today with the media we currently have. Buying a $100,000 diamond studded dog collar...if anyone even made one then, wasn't shown to all the hungry people in society.

I'd welcome some feedback on this subject since I am shocked by all the "Wasn't life great back when..." emails circulating on the Internet.