In an Industrial Society We Made Things, and We Transported Things

I continue to wonder about the world I inherited in the Fifties. And how it changed into today's world. An amazing process, that we should understand - but, for the most part, do not.

We do have labels for the world of the early 20th Century - Industry and Capital. I grew up in a typical Industrial town, Ft. Madison, Iowa - with the Santa Fe Railroad on the West End of town - and the Sheaffer Pen Company on the East End. It had the two Industrial basics - Transportation and Manufacturing.

And one more thing, the Penitentiary - where the emphasis was on rehabilitation. And included a Farm where many older inmates spend the rest of their lives.

Safely in the background, but essential to its operation - was Capital, the money that made it all possible. And made possible all the jobs that attracted people, and kept them there. And kept them working. It wasn't too hard, back then - to start a company, and keep it going - and there were many small businesses. Including my father's - the Smith Studio.

There was one more essential ingredient - people who did not think about what was going on. And there was plenty of those.

---

People helped made this happen. But they were not important, as people. What was important, was the society they lived in. Or, as we say now - the Economy they lived in.

In the Neoliberal Economy, the Small Businessmen - were disappearing.

My Father put a huge amount of work into some new businesses - that went nowhere. Eventually, he just gave up and retired. My Uncle, Arnold Ourth, put a huge amount of work into trying to make his small fruit-growing farm survive (as it had for a hundred years before he bought it) - but he died. when he was only 53.