Comment: The historical perspective is always useful/fascinating

I have both a 80 year old father in law and a habit of reading libertarian accounts of 20th century history, and it's always wonderful/bizarre to confirm this stuff with him.

He has a bar menu from when he served in Korean war (he was stationed in Germany though). Beer is a nickel, wine is a dime, a roast beef sandwich is a dime, a bottle of cognac is $1.50. "What has government done to our money!" I get to shout.

Was containing communism in this primitive backwater 10,000 miles away really the reason to have war with Korea? "Yes," he replies "sounds kind of silly now. But we swallowed it whole back then."

Did you hear about Operation Starvation in WWII? The US caused the death of 10,000,000 Asians! (and we thought the Nazis had a monopoly on murder/evil). He remembers precisely "Oh yes, it was news that we had to kill all of them"

I read that high schools used to have vocational AND college prep tracks for kids? That sounds smart. "Oh yes" he replies, "they actually had three tracks. Not everybody was supposed to think they had to go to college."

During the depression, did they really ration goods with coupons? "Yes, my father owned a grocery store. Everyone had to have government coupons to purchase goods."

It's good stuff. But usually I have to bring up the history and he confirms and then expands. Unfortunately it doesn't occur to him to just remember and tell it.