Great Depression Online Archive Issue:

Celebrating Independence Day

Great Depression Online
Long Beach, CA
July 02, 2010

Inside This Issue You Will Discover…

*** Past is Prologue
*** A Most Agreeable Place
*** Celebrating the Independence of These United States
*** And More

[Editor’s note: Today we’ll rehash a GDO Classic, originally published on July 3, 2009, nearly one year ago.  We’ve made some light edits to bring it up to date.  So jumpstart your holiday weekend, and get in the 4th of July spirit, there’s still a lot to be grateful for in These United States.  M.N. Gordon]

“Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Past is Prologue

Today we’ll pause from our usual market observations to offer some words on These United States.  Sunday is Independence Day after all, and as many have already commenced their holiday festivities, we felt it particularly fitting to reflect on this great nation we call home. 

We’ve said it before…and we’ll say it again.  We regret to have missed the halcyon days of the great American experiment.  By the time we came to be Jimmy Carter was making a mess of things in the White House and Elvis Presley had just popped his last pill.

Gone were the days when you could pull over to the side of the road and relieve yourself without some overambitious prosecutor making a federal case out of it.

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So, too, long gone were the United States we learned about in grade school.  The Country we’ve never known…

…where people were free and the U.S. Constitution was the supreme law of the land…

…back when people prided themselves on their independence and actually cared about such things as individual liberties…

…when Congress – not the Federal Reserve – was empowered by Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution to coin money…and, as specified by Article I, Section 10, money was coined of gold and silver and could not be bills of credit – such as paper dollars…

…where the suggestion to use the public purse to bail out Wall Street – even for the greater good of all – would have been met with offense, outrage, and indignation.

Yet even though These United States are remarkably different than the founders intended, our purpose today is not to be a fuddy-duddy or curmudgeon.  For this is a time of celebration.  So we shall celebrate These United States, and we shall celebrate them with gratitude.

A Most Agreeable Place

To begin, we can’t think of a more agreeable place.  Our federal government is broke.  And our state government is issuing IOU’s as legal tender…it’s hard to believe, but they really are.  At the local level, our city is struggling to balance its books.  But what city isn’t?  Nonetheless, things still work wonderfully well. 

When we turn on the faucet water flows out.  We take hot showers every day.  There’s no sewage flowing down the streets as far as we can tell.  And the trash man shows up to collect our garbage every Tuesday rain-or-shine.

Within a short walk from our house are four different grocers.  The shelves are always full.  The produce is always fresh.  And the cost for most items is exceptionally reasonably.  This week we picked up several ears of fresh corn for just $0.59 a pop…practically free.

So what do we care if our government is broke and our leaders are imposters?

In short…we don’t.

Why should we when everything’s so pleasantly blissful and delightful?  And even if we did care…what could we really do about it?

Nothing other than what we already do…that is, we look on and ogle, and smirk with amusement and hilarity.

It really doesn’t matter one way or the other if we resist our leaders as they bankrupt the nation under the pretense of saving the economy.  For it was destine to happen…and who are we to stand in the way? 

Regardless, our wife will be just as fetching and beautiful, our coffee will taste just as bold or bitter, and our back will still hurt after a long day’s work.  The sun will still shine.  The birds will still sing.  And the flowers will still bloom.

Celebrating the Independence of These United States

So even as the economy sputters, and all the well intentioned tomfoolery in Washington fleeces us for our own good, we smile and are determined to celebrate it.

We’ll head down to the Long Beach Harbor with our wife and three year old son…and a million of our closest friends.  There we’ll munch on a funnel cake, or perhaps an ice-cream cone. 

We’ll bob our head to the soulful sounds of a street-corner musician.  And when the sun sets and stars twinkle, we’ll marvel at the brilliance of the fireworks show glittering in the sky over the vast Pacific Ocean.

We’ll point.  We’ll hoot.  We’ll holler.  We’ll howl.

And we’ll celebrate the Independence of These United States.

Enjoy your holiday!

Sincerely,

M.N. Gordon
Great Depression Online

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