Things could be a lot worse

What are we willing to do without? That's a question many of us have had to ask ourselves over the past few months.

With businesses closing, governments claiming hardship and residents hanging onto their cash, we find ourselves as a society deeper in debt and fighting rising expectations.

Things used to cost less, people seemed to make enough money, health care was affordable, everyone was employed. That's the tale we hear again and again.

Yet none of those things was necessarily true. There were wars in the good old days and unemployment.

Things cost less after the rapid deflation of the Great Depression. That's because when a third of your workforce is out of a job, it's hard to find anyone with enough money to buy your stuff.

There was weather in the old days, too. The Dust Bowl devastated American agriculture.

They say those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. We say the lesson of history is that no matter how bad it gets, there is always a time when it was worse.

Over the next 10 months we will get to hear a lot about what's wrong with our country as candidates for office try to sell us their point of view in an effort to get elected.

Remember that we have a lot to be thankful for in America and getting to pick our leaders, no matter how obnoxious the process, is one of those things.