Economics and the Homestead

Unless you absolutly never venture out to the outside world at all, you have probably heard about the recession, the "bad economy", Occupy protests etc.
I really started thinking about the economy and impacts it has had on people we know and really just Americans in general and came to a conclusion. It really shouldn't impact us all as drastically as it has.
I understant that if you have lost a job you may not be able to pay for your car payment, or your home, or a host of other things. But then I got to thinking about what actually is a necessity.
Cell phones are not.
Home phones are not, our ancestors didn't have them.
The internet is not.
Television is not.
Newspaper and magazine subscriptions are not.
Really I think that if MOST Americans were to go through their monthly bills they would find a whole mess of things that are necessary and really they don't HAVE to have. I realize I'm preaching to the choir because those that read my blog realize this, but still....

I also started to think about this new found revelation everyone seems to be having regarding gardening and frugal living and such.
It's sad that it has taken many people losing a lot of money to realize how important agriculture is to our society. Many people are know growing their own gardens in order to supplement their grocery budget in order to get more fresh produce. That is great for them and I'm glad to see it, however it's sad that it has taken an economic recession for many to realize it.

I guess my point is that when thinking about my family , in good times or in bad times : we eat the same.
We are still going to forgo prime rib and pork chops from factory forms and harvest and process our own venison. It doesn't matter what our pocketbook looks like at the time, that's not going to change.
I could afford to buy $6 boxes of highly processed, sugar laden cereal for my kiddos, however a canister of steel oats works just fine.
Enough about food.

I often also see that people are trying to conserve energy by doing things like drive their car less and be aware of their energy usage at their home. People need to be doing that anyways!! Show a little love here people, a recession isn't the only reason you should be thinking about conserving our natural resources. Yes it may be saving you money but it's saving much more than that. We have been on a mission to use as little energy as possible for as long as I can remember, and once again, recession or not I am committed to recylcing, reusing and conserving our resources.

So not my typical blog post I know, but hopefully something to chew on.