Do I have to eat that?

Was discussing with a friend today 'another thing thats wrong with the world today.'

I'm 36 years old, and I remember as a child, spending much of my adolescent and teen years living on a farm, and the 'things' and lifestyle of farm life.
Yes, I know, it was the eighties and not like the OLD days, but, nonetheless, I have an experience from life that taught me and has engraved in me some extremely important aspects that ...

How many of the presently adolescent and teen generation know anything about survival without convenience stores, department stores, cell phones ...I remember using a party line in MN when I was a kid. The CB was the 'cell phone' of the day. Ham radio was the 'internet.'

If the proverbial dung was to hit the fan, but it didn't splatter everywhere -- one could still survive off the land -- how many could milk a cow, pluck a chicken, slaughter/butcher a deer or cow, filet a fish, bail hay; pick corn, cucumbers, carrots, peas, potatoes; dig a field; plant a tree; herd cattle; plant and harvest; cook?

Local communities were dramatically distant from modern atmospheres also, coinciding with the farm atmosphere of my generation and generations before me. People actually gave a shit about their neighbors ...community by definition. What has happened? Is it a democratic or republican problem? Can things get better, or returned to sanity?

A generational comparison? 2009, 1999, 1989, 1979, 1969, 1959 ...

The economy is fucked up because the 'community' is fucked up!