Learning From Our Past to Deal with the Current Crisis

I started small, buying old milk cans and selling them as antiques. Then I made an eye-opening discovery. In those years, America was transitioning from permanent to disposable packaging.

Do you remember the wooden Coke cases and oak milk boxes that were used to transport these products from the manufacturing plant to the supermarket? Or the sturdy wire baskets made to carry ice cream quarts and gallons?

These exceptionally crafted boxes were rapidly being made obsolete by cardboard and plastic containers.

I bought them by the thousands and sold them to antique dealers and department stores. I even opened my own shop. They flew off the shelves as wine racks, flower pot holders or pieces of Americana. The lessons I had learned from my dad about recycling used objects had helped me create my first business.

2009

Today’s crystal ball forecasts increasing unemployment, more foreclosures and tighter credit. Families face stricter budgets and financial stress.

The prognosis is for a severe contraction in consumer spending that will shrink the economy – further impacting jobs and incomes. Housing foreclosures continue as old loans come due on properties that have declined as much as 50 percent in value.

The bright light is a promised federal government infusion of as much as a $1 trillion on infrastructure projects to substitute for the wounded consumer.

What should we do? How can we cope?

If we are truly in the worst recession since the Great Depression, why not learn from the last generation of Americans who actually lived through that time, thrived as adults and literally built the modern Bay Area into a global economic powerhouse?

They are in their late 70’s and 80’s, but they can still teach us.
Let’s make it our New Year’s resolution to ask them.

Clint Reilly’s initial foray into political consulting at age 23 developed into a successful 26-year career in politics, during which he founded the nation’s largest political consulting firm of its time. Reilly managed winning campaigns for a wide variety of high-profile candidates, including current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, and former California State Senate President Pro Tem Dave Roberti. Recently, Reilly has led the battle to preserve media competition in the Bay Area via two landmark anti-trust lawsuits (Reilly v. Hearst and Reilly v. MediaNews, et. al.). Reilly was chairman of the board of Catholic Charities/CYO from 2002 to 2006 and is active in a variety of civic and charitable causes. This article first appeared on www.clintreilly.com/ and is republished with his permission.