Verum ops...

Funny thing about Latin... the older it is, the more like English it is.

Ryan's "ops verum" would read "power, but..." because the verum is read as a conjunction when following the predicate, but is an adverb when preceding it.  So, "true power" is "verum ops", just like in English.

However, the reason for my post is NOT to start a grammatical argument over the verbage used from a dead language in post titles...

Jake woke up REALLY early this morning... 5:00 AM in fact, and there simply is no sleeping when Jake is awake, so I had extra time to run through the news this morning.  While looking at the very cool images from the Mars mission, I found a series of pics from the Library of Congress dating back to the early 40's, all in perfect color and clarity (true Kodachrome images, in fact).  There were more than 60 of them, and they were images of life in America, un-staged and candid.

Looking at the images brought the thought that it doesn't look ANY different then than it does now.  Nearly 75 years later, and homes, buildings, factories, fairs and businesses look no different now than they do in the photos.  What is different is the manner in which life was conducted... and that really got me thinking.

Ryan and I have fought and fought about the era collectively known as the Great Depression.  The fight usually stems from what ended it, rather than what started it.  Without starting the fight again, I will say this:

New Deal changed one thing that is undeniable in the world of "small business" here in America... and that is it brought about the age of "zoning".  Prior to 1933, businesses run from a home were treated no different than businesses run from separate facilities.  Plumbing businesses were run out of homes, where the "shop" was located on the front or first floor of the building, and the "plumber" lived upstairs or in the back with his family.  These were the businesses that failed over and over again during the protracted period of the "Great Depression" and I am willing to admit that there is no denying that New Deal zoning laws, enacted at a Federal level to separate personal property from business property (for the assessing of value and usage in government subsidies), did keep small business from recovering at a reasonable rate after the crash.  It is difficult to find any other common factor that explains the failure of so many family businesses in such a short time frame. It wasn't Federal lending practices, or tax policies, or a disparity in distribution of Federal grants and funds (for better or worse)... so what else could it be?

Those images show small business working... but the vast majority didn't, and I think it is because of the added cost associated with maintaining and paying for additional space/buildings.

I wish I could link the images... but I can't find the site now.  If you find them, they are fascinating.