LIFE IS HARD?
Of course, if you have never researched the past, nor lived it … the current stream of events seems “hard” (by which you actually mean “uncomfortable.”)
Some writers seem intent on telling us how “hard” things are. But I lived through Carter, Ford, and Obama. Things were much harder then. We were told under Obama that we should just accept the “new normal.” But it wasn’t normal and with determination we made it better. We had a “new normal” with COVID, too. We couldn’t go to church or visit one another, throw parties, or even dance alone in a empty farm field. Some of us did not accept that “new normal” either. And we made it better.
It is happening again. Some in the media are pointing out a TEMPORARY ISSUE here or there and making a big statement that “life has never been more difficult.” Well! That’s a lie. In fact most of the things they are telling us are BOLD, BRASH LIES (like inflation being above 4% … when it WAS higher than that just a few years ago under Biden, and decades before under other presidents. Some readers believe those writers because they have neither researched the past, nor lived it.
The truth is that life has been far tougher many times in the 250 years that the United States of America has existed. It was extremely tough during the beginning years of our Republic (it is not now, nor ever has been, a Democracy). Without support from Great Britain we several times came close to failing. Then we had to deal with the problems gifted to us by Great Britain, like slavery, and depleted soils from growing cotton and tobacco. There was a horrible civil war which killed Americans on BOTH sides. There was our involvement in World War I where thousands of our men came home damaged by mustard gas and worse (I knew a man who came home different than he left … he had shell shock and never had a normal life after the Great War). Following that was the crash … where millions of Americans were food insecure, lost their farms, and worse. Following that was World War II which was fought in two theaters (Europe and the Pacific, not Cinamark and AMC). Food and gas were tightly rationed. One uncle died in the war and was buried in France. Another was a POW. A sib’s father-in-law’s ship was sunk and he had to tread water for a day and a half.
Since then we have suffered shortages and high inflation several times in my lifetime. What we’re going through right now is almost nothing in comparison. Yet I read stories like this one from Bolde: “A 31-year-old told her boomer father she’d stopped contributing to her 401(k) just to make rent, and braced for the lecture — what she got instead was a long silence and a quiet admission that says more about the last fifty years than any economist could: ‘I didn’t know it had gotten that bad.’” I would have chuckled if it wasn’t such a bold lie. Things are NOT bad. No one born in the last 20 years has seen bad. The worst was COVID and that was only bad because many in government did the exact wrong things (and kept doing them even when the truth was known).
What is happening now is troublesome for those who don’t know. For those of us who KNOW, this is an easy one. We wish they were all this easy.
Instead of bemoaning our fate and accepting it as the “new normal” maybe we can realize that we’ve been through far worse and have corrected them with hard work and determination. When the next spring came we planted the garden again, hoed, raked, weeded, and then harvested a good crop. There were times it took all we had to survive just a few more days, weeks, or months … but we did and we grew strong.
If you expect everything to be peachy every day of your life you haven’t studied history. We’ve had highly moral presidents (like Carter) who made a mess and low moral ones (like Nixon) who made a mess. They all make messes, in fact.
Another issue which some continue to attempt to delude us is the thought that our past determines our present and future. We had slavery (before my time). We have improved more than was ever imagined. We have more blacks in political office in the United States than in ANY other country in the world. The USA has more black millionaires than ANY other country in the world. No one could have imagined those things in 1865, or even in 1965.
Others try to tempt you with the thought that we don’t have enough of the pie. How much do you NEED? That’s the only question we should be asking. If you are doing OK, why are you worrying about how much your neighbor has? As long as you have a home and food on the table you are better off than 80% of the rest of the world. I just learned that Mississippi is our poorest state … but the average Mississippian is richer than the average Canadian. In fact, most of our inner-city apartment dwellers have more financial resources than the average European. Our standards are such that the rest of the world’s “middle class” would LOVE to live in your house with your income (and shop at Buc-ee’s). How can life here be “so hard” when almost everyone else in the world would love to have your problems. How silly!
It is a matter of REAL PERSPECTIVE. Pull back to the other side of the media lens and view things with a wide angle and you will see there is almost nothing to fear, or criticize. Then use a telephoto lens to see what things are like for the average Brazilian, the average citizen of France, the average person from the Congo, or the average Russian. You would be stunned at the poverty and lack of choice. They merely want to feed their families. A new car? Pshaw! They’d be happy to have a bicycle with new tires. So, what is worrying you?
Don’t be fooled. Life in the USA is not perfect, but we have it far better than most in this world. I met a couple who spent several years in Honduras. There they slept on the floor planks (as did everyone else in the village). They ate mostly beans and rice with a little fish once in a while (as did everyone else there). They owned their own bicycles (their only wheeled transportation). They’d love to go back, but they wouldn’t be able to get jobs there … the people don’t need what they can do. No one there has electricity and he’s an electrician. There, like everyone else, they raised goats and chickens in order to survive. You have it tough? No. Almost everywhere else in the world life is tougher.
Is life so hard? Not here or now in America.
Copyright 2026 Donald Whelpley
[PLEASE NOTE that Don is always open to discussing the thoughts and opinions he shares here and welcomes comments as shared in the comment section. He doesn’t use other social media platforms and won’t see whatever you’d like to share with him if you post it elsewhere.
ALSO, Don is always open to offer his thoughts on various topics. If you have a specific request, you can let him know in a comment; he reads – and replies to – them all. ~ Sherry]
See more GUEST POSTS from Don
Comments