I have a small farm of 24 acres. Although only a fraction is cultivated, the rest is open grazing, and it keeps me plenty busy. I grow squash, rabbits, plum, hackberry, rose hips, mint, sage, potatoes, firewood, furniture wood, and hay, using horse and rabbit manure (and wood ash) for fertilizer.
Each year finds me working to surpass the productivity of the prior year. Each day finds me occupied in scores of chores. I feel fit and capable (knock on wood) although I’m in my 70’s. And I’ve time to reflect on the problems of the day which find their way, somehow, into the media as well as those problems which seem obvious to me that don’t ever get mentioned.
I notice the nationwide birth rate has dropped to significantly below “replacement,” with about 40% of women eschewing motherhood, and the resulting slowdown in the economy and workforce hailed by environmentalists as relief on the pressure of global warming.
Yet. I also see what appears to be an enormous nationwide problem of “affordable housing” which numerous government programs and vast administrative resources have emerged to correct, long since discarding the notion of reducing regulation and relying on capitalism (a process that would breed Republicans rather than Democrats.) Part of the most recent spike in the problem was unchecked (even encouraged) illegal immigration which possibly was seen as a means to bolster the diminishing workforce (in lieu of increased wages) but as this measure did undermine the wage base by diluting the workforce it certainly fed the housing affordability crisis.
Another problem is skyrocketing grocery prices. Although my own food bill is about $30 a week, as I have a farm, I also have a five-bedroom house of which only one is occupied. Back in the day the farmer had a wife who had children and the children helped in the farm’s productivity while learning things like animal husbandry, equipment repair, a work ethic and individual responsibility, as well as the daily lessons taught by life and the satisfaction of the fruits of labor. Now all that is done by bigger equipment and smaller families or senior citizens with a work ethic or, in some cases, green card or illegal labor.
Far be it from me to suggest a more rural solution to the problem of economically disconnected citizenry, but maybe it is time for the brain trust of the nation to notice the decades-long population drift toward the cities and reconsider the supposed benefits of subsidizing it.
Thomas R. Anthony, Maybell, Colo.
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