August 7, 1942

As an additional antidote to the current gloom, which primarily would manifest itself (at least at first) as a modest decrease in Americans' standard of living (from wildly affluent as a historical matter to only slightly less wildly affluent), it's good to recall that earlier generations had it much, much rougher.   Today is the 69th anniversary of American Marines landing on Guadalcanal.   The fight there would be long and hard, and would cost over 7,000 American lives.

 
In other words, we don't really have it so bad.  Lest we forget.