Sometimes one faces a situation that is out of their control. These are times where one powers through, given the circumstances, because that is the only choice. In the past, the United States' economy has muscled through tough times. When the economy powers through, the people of the United States have to power through harder. The most historical tough time the United States went through is The Great Depression. From 1929-1939 more than 15 million Americans became unemployed (Bernstein). With the spike in unemployment, many Americans had to stretch every penny they earned to keep food on the table. Being one of the most adverse times in America, Americans responded to adversity in the best way possible. Adversity is something everyone will face in their life. Within the last nine months, the price of oil and gas fell affecting many families creating a whole new adverse situation. My family was one of those affected by the drop in oil and gas prices and recovering from this adverse position was difficult. .
Oil and gas prices fell because of turmoil in Iraq and Libya along with the United States becoming the world's largest oil producer (Lucas). This forced oil and gas companies to lay off more than 100,000 employees around the world (Molinski). Both my mother and step-father have oil field related jobs. Fortunately, they only received pay reductions and did not get laid off. Along with the pay reductions my parents received, every overtime hour was cut. The decrease in pay, along with no overtime hours recorded, amounted for an income of $1,500 less a month. Identical to Americans during The Great Depression, we had to pinch every penny we had in order for the lights to stay on and food to stay on the table. While there were families, such as mine, that were trying to pay all the bills, many Americans enjoyed the money saved at the pump. Americans are expected to save $750 at the pump in 2015 (Obama).
