A young city couple are driving down a country lane on their way to visit some friends. They suddenly came to a muddy patch in the road and didn’t stop in time, so the car got bogged down and stuck. After a few minutes of trying to get the car out by themselves, they saw a young farmer coming down the lane, driving some oxen in front of him. The young farmer stopped when he saw the couple in trouble and offered to use the oxen to pull the car out of the mud for £100. (It’s cheaper using a tractor but oxen are more culturally appropriate.) The couple accepted and a few minutes later the car was free.
Afterward, the farmer said to them, “You know, you’re the tenth car I’ve helped out of the mud today.”
The husband looks around at the fields and asked the farmer, “When do you have time to plough your land? At night?”
The young farmer says, “Oh no. Night is when I put the water in the hole.”
Nowadays we call that diversification. But still over the years there have been trends in farming that have been paralleled in life around us. I remember back in the late 1960s my father commented that we’d build the herd up to thirty milk cows and it would support us both. Now ninety milk cows on the same farm would struggle to support one family. At the same time, the number of people employed in farming has fallen. Indeed looking back to the early 60s, my Grandfather, on this farm and the next, had three men and a lad. He was supporting four families at least. Now the same land would struggle to support two.
There are two reasons. One is that food prices have been driven down over the years. Cheap imports and government policy have combined to ensure that the proportion of their income a family spends on food has fallen. Back in 1957 a family spent 33% of the family budget on food, by 2006 it was 15%.
In agriculture it’s been interesting to watch. Rather than mechanisation driving people away, it looks as if it was a case of mechanisation coming in to replace the men who’d left. First during the war, but then when they came home, a large proportion of men who had worked on the land decided that they’d move into the towns and enjoy the far higher standard of living.
The problem with mechanisation is that it lacks flexibility. The robotic milking stall can replace a cowman, but it cannot drive a silage trailer which the cowman used to do when he wasn’t milking. It cannot put in a couple of hours a day hedging or fencing. So the tasks which ought to be done for the look of the thing and the good of the environment don’t get done because there’s nobody to do them.
Generally it looks as if fuel and clothes have got comparatively cheaper whilst housing, transport and ‘leisure goods and services’ have become more expensive.
The problem is that money has been sucked out of other sectors to fund housing.
But the effect of housing costs has had an impact on the rest of society. When I was at school some of my friends had mothers who worked, mine did, she was a teacher. But the proportion of families with two people working has increased massively.
This has advantages. Some men and women now in the workforce have fulfilling jobs or careers they enjoy and they get immense job satisfaction. Unfortunately for a fair proportion, the job is just a way to earn money to ensure that they can pay the mortgage and feed the family, and roll on weekend.
What society did was totally undervalue the contribution of those who decided to prioritise child-rearing instead of employment. The ‘stay at home’ parent rarely ‘stayed at home.’ These people were the ones who brought the new blood and enthusiasm to so many village and community institutions.
So now in village communities we see communities struggling to survive. Ignore those blighted by second homes where the house could stand empty for months at a time, we now have the villages which are reduced to dormitory status. Both parents leave first thing in a morning and return late at night. By the time they’ve managed a little family time with the children there genuinely isn’t the time (or energy) left to take part in planning the village Christmas party or concert.
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There again what do I know? Tell you what, cheer yourself up with a good book.
As a reviewer commented, “Benor Dorfinngil learns new skills in this story. He sets out to help a friend and he definitely gets into deep water. I always enjoy these little tales which sometimes take a surprising turn. If you’ve not read any before I think you could just dive straight in.”
Tagged: dairy farming, housing costs, the price of food, working parents
Oddly enough, I was thinking about this on the way home from work yesterday. In ’75, when I was first married, a third of my £20 a week wage for working full time covered all the household bills, rent, food, rates, the lot. Today, the basic costs take over 90% of my wages…and that’s before I eat or drive. And I know I’m not alone in that. Food has been pushed well down the priority list…which has to impact those producing it.
Yes, when you think of all the stuff that is essential now that didn’t even exist in 1975. How much do people pay for mobile phone contracts? Also how much for the sky dish or whatever?
And then there are so many more white goods that people probably need as opposed to just want.
My home is pretty simple. I don’t need much… apart from the computer. I’ll confess that it is mostly wall to wall books here 😉
Yes, I’m sequestrating carbon as books, I’ve probably built a small coal seam 🙂
Ah…I knew there was sound reasoning behind it 😉
You’re an example to us all 🙂
That’ll make a nice change 😉
absolutely 🙂
So much of what I need is provided by someone else – and there’s nothing I can do about that. I’m benefiting – without being able to change it, physically – from a lot of low-wage jobs.
This was not the plan. When I was young, I was positive I would be the one taking care of other people! I managed to rear good children – but they’re not in a position to help us because they don’t live near enough. I’m so glad we never even considered a second home – we wouldn’t be able to take care of one!
I don’t know how to change things – I wouldn’t last a week if all the supply chains broke down. It’s a daunting thought. I’m grateful to farmers, but I would never be able to be one. Or a factory worker. Or an Amazon warehouse worker.
I was useful thirty years ago – but I’m eating now.
It’s a cycle we all go through
I’m not sure how we manage, considering the cost of everything, but we’re still here!
Well I’m glad you are 🙂
Same here… although the next crisis might do us in…
Hope not 😦
Reblogged this on anita dawes and jaye marie.
Glad you found it interesting 🙂
Scary graph, that first one. 😦 … because we’ve planned ahead I reckon we’d be better off than most folk on our little island, but still, the coming decades are going to be rough, very rough, if you’re not either one of the 1% or able to live with very few outside resources.
I’m wary of trying to predict the future, I’ve done it too often in my life and been wrong 🙂
To be in the top 1% of all adults (or the top 540,000 people), a pre-tax income of at least £120,000 is required. ( https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/14303 )
A lot of the 1% are actually public employees or senior employees of large companies. How long will tax payers be happy to ensure that their PM and the leader of the opposition are in the 1%
The 1% live in a very delicately balanced position.
There is an upswell in community projects and initiatives, Jim. Thank goodness. There is certainly a shift in the balance, so I feel you are right about the 1%.
there is an upswell, I get the feeling a lot of busy people just got busier because they realised that somebody had to do something
Exactly, Jim….at grass roots level and action was needed, rather than waffle.
No shortage of waffle out there at the moment 😦
Isn’t there just…!!!
We’ve got a slurry pit to keep it all in 🙂
And a tractor 🚜 with a shovel blade I am betting… Ohh, yes, Jim. 👍
One has to do what one has to do 😉
‘They’ always say ‘if you want something done, give it to a busy person’….
It’s the rule I work to 🙂