# An argument I think destroys the Conservative approach to the Great Recession

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-argument-i-think-destroys-the-conservative-approach-to-the-great-recession/634482>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [September 12, 2012, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-argument-i-think-destroys-the-conservative-approach-to-the-great-recession/634482 "2012-09-12T08:13:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Ruby\_Slippers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/94ad74/32.png) [@Ruby\_Slippers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby_Slippers)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2012, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-argument-i-think-destroys-the-conservative-approach-to-the-great-recession/634482/61 "2012-09-20T18:58:07Z")

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> [@Gagundathar](#):
>
> I think you and **Ruby Slippers** both have a good point (or two?).  
> Here in Appalachia, self-sufficiency is a given. Backyard gardens and chicken coops are as common as SUVs are in suburbia. If and when things ‘go south’, we are ready to handle it. At least, I hope we are. Winter is coming.
> 
> My father’s family in middle Georgia lived through the GD by the skin of their collective teeth by working the land that was owned by other people. They were called share-croppers. I imagine y’all have heard of the term before. Dad told me of days when they only had a few potatoes and a head of cabbage for their sustenance. They had long since killed and eaten the chicken. Their only cow was a distant memory. It was touch and go for a year or two until things started to stabilize. FDR’s programs saved my family (or more precisely, my ancestors) and reading a graph doesn’t validate that reality even when it matches the fortunes of my family.

I guess it didn’t occur to me that there might still be a significant number of non-farm families who still maintain backyard gardens and chicken coops. And this in spite of the fact that I live in an area of Ohio that still has lots of small towns and lots of people living outside of incorporated areas but not on farms. And in spite of the fact that at least one former co-worker talked about an extensive garden. My point in raising the issue was to say that I felt that a much greater percentage of people today have no way to sustain themselves without income from a job or social safety net services. That especially includes those whose low-paying jobs don’t provide much opportunity to save for bad times.

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