Values have been adjusted
by digby
GREENE: Another person who felt the economic squeeze in Atlanta, is Jason Palmer. When I first met him, he had just taken a new job with the Federal Reserve in Atlanta, after being unemployed for nine months. To make ends meet during that time, he searched the streets for scrap metal to sell. Now, since I first met Jason, he and his wife had a son. Jason told me last week that he has friends who are out of work, or struggling with homes that are underwater. He’s counting his blessings.
JASON PALMER: I think even if I get a lot of stability, I have a tendency to – it creates doubt. Once you’ve been shaken up, it’s hard to see stability and embrace it. It almost feels foolhardy to me. I know that sounds pessimistic, but that’s kind of the way I feel. But what it does do is, it makes me thankful for every day that I’m able to go to work and do what I do. I’m totally thankful for that.
GREENE: There was a time when things were very unstable…
PALMER: Correct.
GREENE: …for you. You had been laid off, and you were out searching for scrap metal.
PALMER: That’s correct, yeah. I still scrap metal occasionally. Again, I’m not afraid to roll up my sleeves and get some stuff done. Yeah, that was a tough time. I was. I was back looking for jobs. I would – I’d put on my Sunday best, go to some job interviews; and kind of fight the market that way. And if I saw some scrap metal on the side of the road, I’d just try to pick it up without getting my suit dirty. And it definitely – it definitely put food on the table, at times. And it helped pay utility bills, and put gas in the car, that type of thing. But yeah, that was a real trying time.
But I look back on it, and I don’t – it’s not that I necessarily pride myself over it. I just know when you’ve got to do hard work. I just know when you’ve got to be humbled. There’s merit in hardship. There’s new perspectives in times that aren’t easy. I’m not saying desperate is a way to go. I’m saying that when you only have a few tools in your life, you learn how to use those tools more efficiently. And you learn how to use a crescent wrench like a hammer, you know?
As reader Steve D pointed out: it’s the “Mellonization” of the nation:
“Liquidate stocks, liquidate farmers, liquidate real estate… it will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted.”
I guess they know when they’ve been humbled …
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