In addition to the promised gas price decreases (the cheap stuff is just $2.09 per gallon in Iowa!), I was surprised to see there is less e
vidence of the recession as I head into America's farm land.
In the small town of Merna, Neb., I chatted with six locals during their regularly scheduled coffee break at the gas station.
"If you want jobs, you can find jobs," says Bruce Brummer (right), who runs the fertilizer plant at the local farmers' cooperative. "We're not short around here."
"There's jobs," agrees retired mechanic Dennis Worth. "But if you're used to making $30 an hour at the factory, you're not going to want $10 an hour (to do agricultural work)."
Because food is such a basic need, agriculture provides a buffer of sorts against a downturn in consumer spending.
But there are other factors at play. Farmers learn to budget wisely because their 'paycheck' comes once, annually. With equipment that can cost a quarter of a million dollars, or more, they learn important maintenance skills. And they know to diversify their crops to buffer the whims of Mother Nature. Many have alternate professions.
"People have had hard times here. They just know it's coming and they plan for it," says Brummer. "They always told us, 'It ain't what you make, it's what you save.'"
But the midwest feel the impacts in one form or another.
A July 14 article in The Omaha World-Herald ("Recession jabs at Rural Nebraska, too") cites poll statistics from a survey of 2,852 rural Nebraska households indicating there have been job losses in 11 percent of homes and about a third of surveyed households have seen work hours cut.
Omaha residents tell me the casinos over the border in Iowa, where gambling is legal, are less busy these days. They also say wages have been driven lower in some industries, as out-of-region contractors move in to take advantage of continuous growth.
So maybe it's not all rosy. Still, several restaurants were full to near capacity when I visited them during weeknights in Omaha.
