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Heidi came out in 1881 [0], right around when the phone was invented and after Switzerland had a decade or so of political turmoil [1]. When things get complic

Heidi came out in 1881 [0], right around when the phone was invented and after Switzerland had a decade or so of political turmoil [1]. When things get complicated, nostalgia for the simplicity of rural life, without things like dirt or economic scarcity, tend to come to the fore [2]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi [1] http://history-switzerland.geschichte-schweiz.ch/timeline-switzerlands-history.html http://history-switzerland.geschichte-schweiz.ch/timeline-sw... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostalgia#As_a_political_tool https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostalgia#As_a_political_tool

giantg2 5y ago
Sometimes the economic scarcity is relatively less scarce than in urban areas. For example, at least during the depression those with farms had to ability to grow their own food. To be fair, sometimes the government would allow urban households to garden in a 1/4 acre or so plot in designated areas as part of a program to help people be more self sufficient. Although my grandfather said not many people took advantage of that.
- barry-cotter 5y ago
  > For example, at least during the depression those with farms had to ability to grow their own food. Those without farms overwhelmingly didn't need to. The only place in North America to have widespread hunger during the Great Depression was Newfoundland. If most people didn't take advantage of allotments it was because it wasn't worth it. After the fall of the Soviet Union lots and lots of urban ex-Soviet citizens grew their own food. They needed to.
  - giantg2 5y ago
    My understanding is that while they didn't need to, it did help. Especially with variety and specific items, like meat, or grain for making beer. But in general it would help provide more than the bare minimum. My grandpa remembers many urban people during the depression complaining about food, but unwilling to work a garden on a government plot.
  - kongin 5y ago
    Having grown up during that period no one needed to. You could survive quite easily on whatever you could buy in the stores. The diet you could get from growing your own food was much better than what you get even in the west today. The one thing people who haven't experienced it can't understand is the taste of the food. I don't know what price I'd put on a breakfast made with fresh milk, eggs, home baked bread and salted pork but it would be at least a few hundred dollars. If I didn't live in a region where any rural property is expected to burn down once a decade I'd have bought a weekend farm a long time ago.
- 7thaccount 5y ago
  My great grandmother lived on a farm during the great depression. They had plenty to eat, but she said that what hurt them the most was the city folks couldn't buy their produce or eggs, so they lost their ability to largely make additional cash for odds and ends.
  - giantg2 5y ago
    True. My grandpa worked in the mines and a quarry to help make money in addition to the farm. I think some farmers were lucky enough to have the government pay for food (or even the destruction of food) so that they could distribute the food and drive up prices for the people who did have money.
    - 7thaccount 5y ago
      I had no idea they were destroying food. Sounds so wrong to be doing that, but I believe you!
      - KozmoNau7 5y ago
        The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth. There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage. - John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath I think that sums it up better than I could ever do.

giantg2 5y ago

Sometimes the economic scarcity is relatively less scarce than in urban areas. For example, at least during the depression those with farms had to ability to grow their own food. To be fair, sometimes the government would allow urban households to garden in a 1/4 acre or so plot in designated areas as part of a program to help people be more self sufficient. Although my grandfather said not many people took advantage of that.

barry-cotter 5y ago
> For example, at least during the depression those with farms had to ability to grow their own food. Those without farms overwhelmingly didn't need to. The only place in North America to have widespread hunger during the Great Depression was Newfoundland. If most people didn't take advantage of allotments it was because it wasn't worth it. After the fall of the Soviet Union lots and lots of urban ex-Soviet citizens grew their own food. They needed to.
- giantg2 5y ago
  My understanding is that while they didn't need to, it did help. Especially with variety and specific items, like meat, or grain for making beer. But in general it would help provide more than the bare minimum. My grandpa remembers many urban people during the depression complaining about food, but unwilling to work a garden on a government plot.
- kongin 5y ago
  Having grown up during that period no one needed to. You could survive quite easily on whatever you could buy in the stores. The diet you could get from growing your own food was much better than what you get even in the west today. The one thing people who haven't experienced it can't understand is the taste of the food. I don't know what price I'd put on a breakfast made with fresh milk, eggs, home baked bread and salted pork but it would be at least a few hundred dollars. If I didn't live in a region where any rural property is expected to burn down once a decade I'd have bought a weekend farm a long time ago.
7thaccount 5y ago
My great grandmother lived on a farm during the great depression. They had plenty to eat, but she said that what hurt them the most was the city folks couldn't buy their produce or eggs, so they lost their ability to largely make additional cash for odds and ends.
- giantg2 5y ago
  True. My grandpa worked in the mines and a quarry to help make money in addition to the farm. I think some farmers were lucky enough to have the government pay for food (or even the destruction of food) so that they could distribute the food and drive up prices for the people who did have money.
  - 7thaccount 5y ago
    I had no idea they were destroying food. Sounds so wrong to be doing that, but I believe you!
    - KozmoNau7 5y ago
      The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth. There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage. - John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath I think that sums it up better than I could ever do.