Americans getting softer? What’s your opinion?

[Whidbey]

Personal attack? If you say so, I apologize! I wish I hadn't gone as hard as I did at sports and I should have sat out games instead of playing every minute to be "tough". My body is worse off now because of it. I guess I'm lucky to live in a area where I don't see what youre talking/complaining about all the time. Or maybe I just look for the good in people instead of crapping on them because their not good at the same stuff I am. I've noticed that over time people start to think what they do is the most important and if someone is is good at something different they don't care because it not the same job/strengths they have?

Come on man. That came across as personal attack and a cheap shot. You obviously can do better than that. All the best

 

[Hay Dude]

All good thoughts, but remember if we want this thread to stay rolling, we have to avoid politics.
Im by no means in the shape I used to be in, but today it will be 95 and we are clearing overgrown woods with weed wackers with saw blades. I have (2) 20 yr olds helping me.
I have observed the literal disappearance of the American youth from the construction/landscaping worksite. They have been 95% replaced with migrant workers.
HenryIV, stick around and contribute. What you say is “the unvarnished truth” as my dad used to put it.

We were baling up some property last week and a young couple came out and started photographing us. It’s not unusual, as people are taking photos of the last of us doing a disappearing task of farming. I stopped some time later to get in my truck and the couple approached me. Both were ghost white and pear-shaped. They looked like they never physically worked in their life. They asked me what I was doing. I told them I was baling hay. They told me they had never seen that done before. They asked me what hay was used for. I was a bit speechless. That was one of those moments when I knew we were done-for as a country.

 

[Fixastuff]

Come on man. That came across as personal attack and a cheap shot. You obviously can do better than that. All the best

Sorry it's just what I was thinking, but I do try to learn from mistakes and will refrain from commenting or even reading these posts in the future.

It seems some people are getting "work smarter not harder" confused with being soft.

 

[Hay Dude]

84% of the U.S. population were against the U.S. entering the war in Europe. Only after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and a few days later Germany declaring war on the U.S., did the U.S. enter WWII. Then, 62% were drafted. They didn't volunteer. They were drafted. Did that make them less tough? No. Did they step up in a national crisis even though they were against it? Yes.

If there were a large enough war today that the draft would have to be used again, I'm guessing the numbers would be the same today as they were back then. 84% against it.

Moss, you are a walking statistical encyclopedia.
Do you begin a statistical analysis of everything you do in life?
Military draft statistics can be deceptive. Comparing the life & benefits of a soldier in WW2 are quite different than those today. Pay, housing, benefits, GI Bill, etc. Mortality rates a bit different too.
Look around chief. America has grown soft. We couldn’t even build our own border wall without foreign labor. That’s pathetic.

 

[Hay Dude]

Sorry it's just what I was thinking, but I do try to learn from mistakes and will refrain from commenting or even reading these posts in the future.

It seems some people are getting "work smarter not harder" confused with being soft.

I completely agree we work smarter, using machinery and other technology to work smarter! Totally agree! I am a living, breathing example. I don’t farm with a scythe and an open station farm tractor. Lol
The downside is that has made us softer, less tolerant of physical and mental pain & stress. We are fatter, we require more pampering, more air conditioning, etc. We are less tough.
I will say one thing in your column-our women have become tougher! There’s some women I wouldn’t want to compare myself with! We have taught our women to be just like men.

Where you went off the rails is causing me of hating my country or it’s people. I don’t. It’s just a simple observation I made. We are softer and it’s getting worse.

 

[Moxie 15]

I doubt that. It would take you weeks of brutal labor to do that. I could do it with a ditch witch in an hour and not much longer with my mini x.

Do not doubt it too much. I dug a two foot deep ditch 70 feet long by hand because I could not afford to hire it out and without it I would not have propane. I am just about finished with a fence that took over 2000 feet of barbed wire to make a pasture for my cows and goats. I cut the fence post, hand dug the holes in rocky New Hampshire ground. and ran the wire by hand with the help of my wife. That was after cutting down the trees and cutting it into firewood with a chainsaw and a lawn tractor to clear the land.

Not because I am tough, but because I cannot afford better and have to find a way.

In fact that is what we call our place "Find a Way".

 

[Hay Dude]

What part of this earth did not have land "seized" by one civilization from another? And where the "conquered" did not conquer the same land from some other civilization prior to being conquered itself by the last civilization that conquered the land? This has been going on for forever everywhere and only recently has moved into an economic arena of conquering that we all need to address and pay attention to. We are all going to be conquered economically if we do not wake up and smell the coffee.

Interesting to me on ”conquering” is in the many history classes I took, I learned all about Spaniards, Italians, Portuguese, Greek, Roman, etc. conquerors, but almost nothing about the Moors and the conquering they did. I had no idea of the vast territories they conquered….
Why are the Moors largely left out of the ”conquering“ parts of history?

 

[Hay Dude]

Do not doubt it too much. I dug a two foot deep ditch 70 feet long by hand because I could not afford to hire it out and without it I would not have propane. I am just about finished with a fence that took over 2000 feet of barbed wire to make a pasture for my cows and goats. I cut the fence post, hand dug the holes in rocky New Hampshire ground. and ran the wire by hand with the help of my wife. That was after cutting down the trees and cutting it into firewood with a chainsaw and a lawn tractor to clear the land.

Not because I am tough, but because I cannot afford better and have to find a way.

In fact that is what we call our place "Find a Way".

I like the way you roll. I know you wish it was easier, but I appreciate how you used the downed trees for heat.

That’s like about 2 of the 7 days a week of work for us. We are farming about 4-5 and laboring the other 2-3. I clear cut 8 acres of 15’-30’ tall brush by hand, by myself every year on one property we farm.
”Why”? you may ask? Because it’s sensitive marshy land and no machinery other than hand held weed wacker and chain saw is allowed on most of it.
****So it’s not always “stupid” to do work by hand. Sometimes there’s no machine that can cut swamp except for a “human machine”. ****
All the brush must be cut and dragged away. In my mid 50’s and it’s hard work. Fortunately it can be done in the fall, when it’s cooler. Can’t find anyone who wants to help me except my son or the Amish. I usually just do it myself. It’s like a test to myself to make sure I can still outwork these softies around here being praised to wear nail polish and make money with their Iphones.
We are going to need to change this and it needs to happen soon or we are headed for heap big trouble.

 

[kantuckid]

I still say we are softer, much softer. Ok so my sports analogy may not make the mark. What about on the battlefield? We had teenagers coming from the cities and the hills alike to volunteer to save the world from dictators, communists and the like.
If there’s a war, I mean a real war, Im not sure this generation has the cahonies…

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Look at the railroads, built mostly with picks & shovels, by people eating far less healthy diets and sleeping in cabins with no AC and little comfort.
Farming was incredibly difficult before balers and modern tractors.
The examples are endless.
We are wussified.

Tell that to our oldest son who pulled 6 deployments? or his younger brother who pulled only two? -that their version of war wasn't real... No, they were not gone until nearly my 4th birthday like my Dad in WWII but they missed much of life during those shorter deployments-I find that whole senario of real war vs. not so much a poor argument.
The railroads were built mostly by a combo of slaves/ex-slaves and Chinese/Mexican labor-they paid with their lives in many cases. Cabins-more like pissy tents?
Farming was obviously more labor intensive and fewer fat bellied farmers no doubt.

 

[Username Taken]

Yeah, so?
My point is that I don’t think the teenagers now would volunteer at the levels they did before.
Just saw a survey of young people that found only 36% are “proud to be an American”.
Think that’s the way it was in the early 1940’s?

I don't blame the young people for that. I blame the 'educational' system and the media.

Most of those young people only know what they're told and the people telling them are despicable.

Sorry, but it's the troof.

I saw it coming 50 years ago.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a flag-waver. I believe in our Country, in our Founding Documents but I do not believe in War. Neither did our Founding Fathers. They hated it with a passion. They hated a Standing Army. I hate Wars designed for certain people to make money at the expense of our troops. Then, when they've made as much money as they can, they desert the people they were supposed to be fighting for.

One side is no better than the other when it comes to that these days. Nixon tried to do the right thing and he was run out of Office by the Media-leftist-Industrial Complex. That's what it was all about. Not that Nixon was a butt-head. He was but he was no worse than his predecessors. It was about a power grab.

Whatever. There's nothing we can do about it anymore. America is dying and certain elements are just trying to pick at her carcass while others want to stand on her corpse trying to grab power. They don't care who they rule over, they just want to rule. It's about the ruling class these days, not We The People. Been that while for a while.

It's over. It was fun while it lasted but America is done.