Blast from the past

Today's post is brought about by a reminiscence that accompanied the morning walk.  It has to do with food, poverty, and still having a pretty good life despite not being of the privileged professional managerial class.  

To begin with, I am a Utah native, tried and true.  And that comes with a pretty intimate view of the Mormon Church.  Obviously, a gentile's view of this particular faith is complicated.  But one of the things that they do quite well is the "Bishop's Warehouse".  But what I find very interesting is how they use the Bishop's warehouse as a backstop to existing state and federal systems.  When I lived in Utah, the folks who applied for assistance from the Warehouse were required to make certain that they used and took everything that they were eligible for.  The warehouse topped things up so that the folks wouldn't feel too much of a pinch.

But in a sense, that attitude is really the correct one for folks like me who are approaching frugality as a lifestyle and moral choice.  The current regime has all kinds of programs and resources available to those of us who constitute the hoi polloi.  The issue is that the current system has attached a stigma on the use of these programs.  We have, as a country and a society attempted to make not being rich anathema.  But, you have to recognize that your don't have to drink out of that cup. 

So I am spending time researching the life of a committed proletariat.  My sister is claiming to be trying for the lifestyle of a peasant, which is acceptable, but since I don't have fond memories of farmwork, I am going with being a prole.  My thoughts here are that the self image that the society tries to shove onto people who use communal resources isn't who you are.  They are just resources, the only stigma that is attached to them is one that you create in your own mind.