Most of what I know about the man, I heard from family talk. My father said he was the finest Christian man he had ever known. He was one of the oldest members of our country church, and when I was young many of the older men still drove a horse and buggy to the church.
Mr. George Best was one of the last men in the church to get a car. He had survived WWI, drove his nice horse and buggy to the church every time the church doors opened. One of the richest men in the county, he always wore the same black suit, the same shirt. I am told she only had one Sunday dress. He would buy every piece of land that came up for sale, or would go and ask about buying land from someone. I remember his death and my folks preparing for the funeral, someone saying that he was the county's largest landowner. They lived in an old house, inherited from his parents, never had children.
Mr. Best finally purchased a new car, was so careful in driving, always wearing gloves. Back then, you could order a house from the Sears & Roebuck catalog; he ordered a garage for his car. The very nice garage was installed on the main road, away from the home, (which was up a long path) where he had always intended on building himself a new house. So they had to walk a long distance from their house to the garage. It seemed so strange, that nice garage built in a beautiful area, away from everything else. His tenants started building his new house. He hired them to work on the house in the winter when they were not busy in the fields. Everyone always talked about his peculiarities.
He died before his house was completed, and she died shortly thereafter. Two of the largest funerals ever at our country church. Then it hit the fan. They left most of their large estate, today would have been in the millions, to the church and to several orphan homes. He had nieces and nephews who did not share his love for God, God's work and orphaned children. The long trial, trying to break the will, was the talk of the county. Orphan homes still use his benevolence.
The greatness of America is its chance for success, gateway for opportunity. There was a time, like Mr. Best, that one could buy real estate of any kind with the prospect that it would increase in value...especially as you developed, prepared, painted, landscaped and in every way made the property more desirable.
With the financial genius now in the White House, it is better just to rent. Forget the taxation, the insurance, the restoration, the constant aggravation of tenants, storms, unpredictable assaults by men and insects on your property. Like Obama's “Cash For Clunkers” program, the $8000 first-time home-buyer tax credit has been a disaster. One man, a new home buyer, received his $8000 home-buyer credit, but in two weeks the house had already gone down $20,000 in value. That is how rapid real estate property is falling! Almost 50% of new home buyers are underwater, they owe more on their house than their house is worth. Mr. Obama has paved the road to hell with what he thought were good intentions, but with unexpected consequences.
There was a time, like Mr. Best, Mr. Buffet, the Witch of Wall Street, that you could buy securities with full expectation (leaving out the unexpecteds) that stock prices would rise. It was not necessary to speculate on the high flyers. The seasoned investor knew how to ladder bonds and other holdings to minimize risk and make a decent profit. Year after year, the stock market investor could expect to make 5%-10% on his investments. Today, with a quirk of international problems affecting everything, symptoms of terrorism, disease of pessimism, unless you are smarter than most of us, you should stay out of the stock market.
There was a time that you could subscribe to investment newsletters, could put some dependence in financial advisors. Today, the greed of Wall Street, the manipulation of international bankers, the bribery of politicians has made the making of money a thing of the past. The small investor, the small businessman, those who made America the great financial fortress of the world, are staying at home nursing their wounds. Face it, you cannot compete with the big boys! You cannot do business when the government and the government's agencies are against you.
The greatest nonsense: our wonderful weak dollar. The weak dollar, higher crude prices, brings more inflation since everything is controlled by the price of gasoline. (Your groceries are trucked to you, your transportation, whether private or public vehicle). Our trade deficit continues to increase; with a strong dollar, the trade deficit goes down.
The salvation of America, the American farmer, businessman, taxpayer has always been, “produce more and save more.” This is so old-fashioned, move all industry to China and India and let slave labor produce everything there. American workers and young people do not want to get their hands dirty or bruised in any way. It is so simple just to take a government check to the bank or government credit card to the store, everything is now marked “subsidized by America”, about 2/3 of the population depends on an entitlement from the government. To date, the dollar has had an orderly decline. One terrorist strike, one bomb in America, and we will have one awful, disorderly decline.
Dr. W.C. George, anatomy professor at the UNC medical school, teasing me said, “you have had such a rough life: fresh well water, wild berries on the ditch bank, vegetables from your mother's garden, nice meat from the smokehouse.” I thought he was joking at the time, but now it seems very inviting. I could hardly wait to get away from that farm, the hard work, the hard times, to see the intrigue and indecency of the world. Believe me, it is not that enticing. At a time of peril, the family farm seems very exciting.
