The sad demise of the once grand United States of America, many say, began long before 1933, and they may be correct, but I’ll take 1933 as when it began with all the force one President, and one political party could muster. Why 1933? Because that’s the date on which Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) took office after running on a conservative ticket with all the promises of a Barry Goldwater, Ronnie Reagan, or Ross Perot. FDR turned out to be, in my opinion, the worst 20th Century President America ever had. Far worse than Woodrow Wilson, who got us into the First World War needlessly, and even worse than Lyndon Baines Johnson, (LBJ) who was merely following the path which FDR trod and initiated.
America was in the midst of a deep depression, caused by the Federal Reserve flooding the land with money, as has happened under Alan Greenspan. With all the money around, the stock market was the place every everyone decided to invest, a-la-1999-2000, and real estate in 2005-2007. The stock market was on everyone’s thoughts and conversations. Taxi drivers bought stock, as did waitresses and janitors. Most on ’margin,’ meaning that the banks loaned money to buy stocks. After all, wouldn’t the market go up forever? Needless to say, it didn’t, and when it crashed, it took America’s economy and prosperity with it. Roosevelt came on the scene at the beginning of the actual depression. The market crashed in 1929, but the actual depression didn’t really get under way till a couple of years later, when the full force of the bankruptcies, job losses, and factory closings really took their toll.
What was America like before Roosevelt? It was wonderful! America was the manufacturing capital of the world, the richest nation on earth, and the happiest as well. There were no abandoned houses and cars in wrecked neighborhoods. Schools turned out graduates who could do math in their heads without calculators. There weren’t any calculators! It you wanted to drive, you had to know how to shift gears, and if the wife wanted to prepare meals, she learned to cook, not defrost, microwave, or add water. Mom and Pop both working, was not even thought of, as the man of the house made enough money to support his family. Taxes were microscopic. There was no Social Security, Medicare, welfare, public housing, or handouts of any kind. You prepared for retirement by saving, and the dollar was as firm as a piece of granite. Not only were the coins made of silver, but the dollar was backed by gold, and people carried gold dollars in their pockets. We were the invention capital of the world. No nation had come close to out inventiveness and prosperity. There was no racism either, believe it or not. Blacks (a term which had not been invented then, as negroes are not ’black’) had jobs, lived in their own neighborhoods, and were pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps…successfully. No race riots, Martin Luther Kings, and other problems. Admittedly, there was discrimination, but it was gradually decreasing, and if the slow process had been allowed to continue, all would have been well. The term “mugging” had not been invented.
As an indication of the dollar’s strength, my parents bought a three storey, 6 bedroom, 4 bath, basement and garage house for $3300, in a fine neighborhood.. Cokes were a nickel, the Pepsi Cola jingle was, “Pepsi Cola hits the spot, 12 full ounces, that’s a lot. Twice as much for a nickel too. Pepsi Cola is the drink for you.” “White Castle” hamburgers were a nickel. A weekly pass to ride Washington D.C.’s trolleys and busses as often as one wished was a dollar, and individual ride tokens were three for a quarter. School tickets for kids to ride the trolleys and busses were three cents. A loaf of bread or quart of milk was nine cents, and other prices were the same. There were no ’white flight’ suburbs, and it wasn’t necessary to lock one’s doors, although most did it at night. Cars didn’t have hood locks, and homes didn’t have burglar alarms. People trusted each other, and nursing homes were something not really in the American lexicon. All cities had rail transport which was pollution free, and the air, even in Los Angeles, was clean and crisp. Lost Angeles had the Pacific Electric lines, with over a thousand miles of track, and hundreds of the famous ’Red Cars’ plied the area with regularity. (Most LA freeways are built on the routes of the old Pacific Electric Lines, which were condemned and taken to build highways). Life was good, schools were good, crime was infinitesimal, the air was clean, there was no welfare, public housing, muggings, car jackings, declining dollars, and America was the absolute envy of the world. It was really great. What happened to end all this? That begins in part two.