A Leap of Faith (Part 2)

Chapter 362 - Father's Punishment

1930

The world economy crashed a few months ago, at the end of 1929, they are calling it one of the biggest recessions in human history, with there being no end in sight for this. Millions of people, across the globe, have lost their jobs, and now are queuing up in their countries for unemployment benefits, food kitchen handouts, and other things, just to survive. Then, at the same time it's not like this economy crash hasn't been affecting the wealthy, as the US stock market crashed, which has meant that billions upon billions has been lost in the stock market, resulting in various people losing their jobs, and losing a lot of money for the companies that they work for. Some of these people have been so badly hit by this that they have jumped out the windows of tall buildings, committing suicide. However, this isn't to say that all wealthy people are being affected by this economy crash. I have read that there are many economy people who are either hardly affected at all, or are actually making a lot of money from this economic crash. The people who own the big companies that are losing money, due to the stocks their employees invested in, they are basically protected, as while they may not be making a lot of money anytime soon, they have more than enough money, due to the massive bonuses they have paid themselves over the years, for them not to be short of money anytime in the near future. Plus, instead of actually using their own money, or reserves of company money, to keep their employees on, they have been laying off massive amounts of employees, just to try and pinch as many pennies for themselves as possible. It's truly disgusting, and frankly, horrifying.

When I first read about this economic crash, which seems to mainly be centralised in the US, due to world's stock market being primarily driven by the stock exchange in New York, I had hoped that other countries, especially the smaller ones, like New Zealand, wouldn't be hit as badly, or at all, by this economic crash. I was so wrong. The economic crash is basically affecting every part of the globe, spreading from the US into Europe, and Asia, then just everywhere else too. Nowhere is safe. It is strange, the spread of this economic crash, it feels very much like the flu was spread, slowly throughout the globe, with nowhere being unaffected by it, and the world war was also similar to this. It feels like there are repeating cycles of events that occur and happen in the same way. Anyway, like I was saying, New Zealand has not been unaffected. Many people in this country have lost their jobs, and are now desperate for work. This has included Nyssa losing her job in the store, as due to rising costs the owners were not able to keep Nyssa on, and they have now had to work a lot more hours themselves, well over 60 hours a week, just to survive, as they can no longer afford to employ people.

Thankfully, in regards to Nyssa and I, we have been somewhat protected from the worst affects of this economic crash, which is mostly due to the farm that we have. Nyssa and I can essentially be self-sufficient, not needing to go out and buy any other food to survive. Buying other food is more of a luxury, rather than a necessity. Then, on top of this, seeing as Nyssa and I's farm produces far more food than we could ever eat ourselves, even if we were to store it in long term storage, we have been able to sell a lot of are excess food to other people, and due to the prices of food in general going up, we have made a lot of money from this. I have not been charging too much money though, as I am aware that a lot of these people are just desperate for food, as many of them just need it to survive. To the people that can afford it, I charge a slightly higher price, and the people that can barely afford it, I charge a bit less. Money is not really an issue for Nyssa and I. We don't really need money for anything at this point, and we already have saved up a decent amount, and now that Nyssa no longer has been working at the store, she is working full time at the farm, which has increased our production by a lot, meaning we are making more money, even if we are not charging a lot for it. We have even had people come to our farm actually looking for a job, rather than just wanting to buy food. A part of me did consider it, because I know I could afford to take on 3 or 4 people to work on the farm, as that would increase production even more, and make us even more money, but ultimately I know that isn't a good idea. I don't want to draw too much attention to myself and Nyssa, like what happened in Christchurch. The high amount of people buying food from us has already draw more attention to us than I am comfortable with. Fortunately though no one seems to question what Nyssa and I's situation is here, and I think that is mostly because they are far more concerned with surviving, and actually getting food to continue to live, than worrying about any social situation of two women living together. They can't afford to be choosey, or afford to potentially offend Nyssa and I.