Economy’s
Effects: An Interview with John Miller
Born
on the January of 1936, John Miller classifies himself as a post-depression
baby. Although John didn’t personally experience the tribulations of the
worldwide depression, it had an impact on the earlier parts of John’s
childhood. Half a century later, John is now retired from his profession as a
photographer in a small store in Glendale known as Ernie’s. At the age of 68,
John is now involved with the Kiwanas Organization and is constantly working
around with younger people. Working with younger colleagues has enabled John to
see the effects that economy has on different generations. John believes that
the economical situation that he lived through had an impact on his life, while
the economical situation that his colleagues are living through are having an
impact on theirs.
Money.
They say that money is the root of all evils. That word, m-o-n-e-y, can be the
downfall to a lot of things-relationships of people and friends. Sure, you got
to have money to live-no-to survive. But too many people put too much emphasis
on money. Money! Money! Money! It’s wonderful to have, but in my book it
won’t buy you happiness, friendship, and the love of our god.
Basic
economical situations? Um…I was born on January of 1936; I was a
post-depression baby. Now let me start right after…in 1929 we had the stock
market crash and the economy went boom and died. So we didn’t have a lot, I
mean you had to have shirts where you had to wear over and if you had a brother
you would hand them down. It’s not like you wanted them that way, but things
were real bad after the d
epression.
But then, WWII came, and then right afterward the economy boomed and really
started going again. I don’t know if it was the war or something, but it gave
people jobs. And now-I never remember the economy this high before. But we need
to have the economy grow, it gives jobs to people, allows people to prosper, and
people are working and are comfortable in their life style.
Well,
I never in all my lifetime ever remember the economy this high before, and I
also never remember the state of California being in such debt. Debt can happen
at any age. I mean, You hear about celebrities that are in debt because they
overspent their millions of dollars and are down the tubes. But in my day, not a
lot of people were in debt because after the Great Depression, people were
always trying to save more. I remember that my mother-in-law used to always
chase after my wife and I. Why don’t you save? But now, our government has a
15 million-dollar deficit or whatever. That’s interesting, that’s very
interesting. Why did it happen in the first place? Mismanagement? Is the
government wasteful? Just like a person can be wasteful? Or are we just having a
tremendous influx of people crossing the border illegally and getting all the
benefits, while I have lived in this country for um-teen many years and am still
not allowed to get them. For example, I’ve been on unemployment for the last
six months and I don’t if I’m going to have an extension or not. It’s a
scary feeling..it’s a very scary feeling.
Now,
there are a lot of people out there who drive Mercedes and have lots of money,
probably more money than I will ever have. But did you know that they’re on
welfare! They come out of the check stand with stamps. Why? Why are they allowed
to have stamps? Now…that’s cheating the government! Now there are people out
there-white, black, yellow, pink, and orange- there are good ones. I’m not
saying that everyone from the border is crossing illegally, but there’s the
old saying: there’s a rotten apple in every barrel. And the rotten apple is
making the economy go bad.
Personally,
I’m not an ATM person and I hate to use the ATM things. One reason is because
I have a little dyslexia and have pushed the wrong buttons and got into trouble.
I would personally like to go talk to a person. I never depend on the ATM, if I
need money for the weekend, I would go on Friday. Planning ahead; I plan ahead.
I
really don’t know when credit cards came out, but when I first got one..I was
like, wow! I think the big mistake with anybody today-young person or adult of
any age- is that they overuse the credit cards. I mean, it’s so easy. If I
don’t have enough money to pay the bills, I’ll just use my credit card. I
can walk into Macy’s and buy a pair of pants. What? I don’t have
money…{whistles} put it on my card. And as a result, that credit card bill
comes due every month and if you don’t have the money to back all this stuff
up, you can get into a heck of a lot of trouble.
Interviewed by John Lee