골이 깊으면 산도 높다

1996년 미국에서 MBA공부를 할 때의 일입니다. 재무관리 과목의 첫 강의시간이었습니다. 담당 교수께서는 수업이 끝날 때 다우존스 주가지수가 얼마까지 오를 것 같은가 물었습니다. 당시 지수가 삼천 대 초반에서 오르내릴 때이니 많은 학생들이 삼천 대 후반이나 사천 대 초반을 예상하였습니다.

한 걸음 더 나아가 각자가 예상하는 주가지수를 적어내고 십 달러를 걸고 내기를 하자고 말했습니다. 가장 근접하게 지수를 알아맞힌 사람에게 모인 돈의 전부를 몰아주자는 제안이었지요. 모두들 웃으며 기꺼이 참여하였습니다. 교수가 제안을 하는 데 감히 참여하지 않겠다는 이야기를 할 수도 없었겠지 만요. 어떤 학점을 받던 무관하다는 사람이 아니라면 말입니다.

개인적으로도 사천 대 초반을 적지 않았나 싶습니다. 치열하게 한 학기가 흘렀습니다. 강의 들으랴, 퀴즈 준비하랴, 리포트 쓰랴 정신없이 지내다 보니 학기 말이 되었고 주가지수는 까마득하게 잊고 있었습니다. 마지막 수업시간이 되어 학생들이 적어낸 주가 지수 예상치와 돈이 모인 봉투를 들고 들어오셨습니다. 그리고는 그날 주가를 열었는데 사천 대 후반인가 오천 대 초반이었던 것으로 기억합니다. 이후 주가는 하루가 다르게 올라가 어느덧 육천을 넘기고 칠천을 넘기더니 만선을 넘었습니다. 그리고는 2007년 10월 만사천선까지 갔었지요. 십 수 년 만에 주가 지수가 세배 네 배나 뛴 것입니다. 그동안 사상 초유의 큰 호황을 누린 게 틀림없습니다.

이렇게 하늘 높은 줄 모르던 주가가 오늘 칠천 선 이하로 내려갔습니다. 근 십이 년 전으로 되돌아 간 것입니다. 경제 상황이 십년 전의 상황으로 돌아갔다는 건 상상도 못했던 일입니다.  

문제는 이렇게 미국의 경제가 곤두박질치고 있는데도 원화에 대한 달러가치가 떨어지고 있는 것은 우리 경제의 취약성을 그대로 드러내고 있는 것이라 생각됩니다. 경제가 어려울수록 그래도 믿을 것은 달러화라는 생각이 이런 현상을 낳게 된 것입니다. 

현재의 상황은 1930년대의 경제 대공황 때와 비교되곤 합니다. 당시 미국인이나 캐나다 인들도 참으로 힘든 시기를 보내었습니다. 대공황을 거친 사람들은 당시에 비교하면 지금은 그래도 살만하다고 말하고 있습니다.

미국의 경제 대공황의 시기에 우리 한국의 상황은 어땠을까요? 우리 모두가 아는 대로 당시 우리 대한민국은 일제 치하에 있었습니다. 농업이 산업의 전부인 시대에 많은 사람들이 소작인으로 지주로부터 땅을 빌어 농사를 지었지요. 힘들게 일하여 추수를 해봤댔자 일제에 공출로 빼앗기고 지주에게 땅 빌린 대가를 치르고 나면 남는 게 거의 없었지요. 참으로 어려운 삶을 살아내야 했습니다. 농사를 지어 겨울 한철 나기도 힘이 드는 판에 봄을 지나 여름으로 가는 시기에 보리 고개를 맞으면 많은 사람들이 배를 곯아야 했지요. 참으로 가난하고 힘든 시기가 아니었나 싶습니다. 

그때에 비하면 지금의 상황은 견딜 만하지 않을까 싶습니다. 특히 우리 민족은 어려움을 당하면 오히려 더 강해지고 악착같이 견뎌내는 잡초같이 강인한 민족성을 지녔지요. 오년 년 역사를 살아오는 동안 수많은 침략을 당하였지만 꿋꿋이 견뎌낸 우리의 과거를 생각해보면 우리 민족이 얼마나 끈기가 있고 위기에 강한 민족인지 알 수 있지요. 경제학자들은 이런 측면을 고려하여 현재의 위기가 회복 시점을 맞으면 한국이 가장 먼저 회복되는 나라 중 하나 일거라고 예측하고 있습니다.

오마하의 현인이라 불리는 워렌 버핏은 이런 세계적인 경제위기가 2009년까지 계속 되고 2010년 경 부터는 회복될 것이라고 말했습니다.

어렵지만 조금만 견디면 좋은 날이 온다고 믿고 견디면 반드시 그 날이 오리라 믿습니다. 왜 골이 깊으면 산도 높다고 말하지 않습니까.

 

<In the Depression, better off meant sharing>

 As Marjorie McLetchie tells it, her family was among the best of the worst-off in Winnipeg during the Great Depression. That meant, in summer, walking to Dell's ice cream shop for a banana cone after pay day. In winter, it meant knitting an extra sweater for McLethie's friend Evelyn whose dad walked out on her mother and six siblings. It meant having a phone and letting neighbours use the number on job applications.

"Mother was very good at taking messages," says McLethie, 88.

The family was willing to share what they had, but that wasn't much, she says. "We didn't get down to making out own bread" but they did ration food. Two pork chops fed five.

In 1932, Winnipeg's unemployment rate was one of the highest in Canada. Demand for welfare, called relief, drove the city into debt. The province was devastated by infestations of Russian thistle weeds and locusts that would last nearly a decade.(Entomologists reported swarms so massive the shores of Lake Winnipeg were covered in decaying grasshoppers, five to 20cm deep.)

The McLetchies lived within walking distance of downtown Winnipeg-which was good, since they didn't own a car. Jack and Madge had come to Canada from Liverpool in October 1919 on The Baltic, a sister ship to the Titanic. Jack joined the City of Winnipeg's assessment department. Madge, who had Oxford training as a teacher, stayed home to mind the three children. Marjorie was their first, born June 29, 1920.

"I think they tried to protect me up to a point, but I knew there was something very dastardly going on," she says.

McLetchie's recollection of the Dirty Thirties is wickedly sharp.

"(One day.) Daddy came home to mother and said, 'As of Monday, our salaries are cut 10 per cent." The next year, they were cut another 10 per cent. The following year, they were cut another 5 per cent."

Those summertime outings to Dell's - "it had the best ice cream in Winnipeg" - are etched in her memory. The banana ice cream was soft. "It was  heavenly," McLetchie says. Each cone cost 5 cents, making it 25 cents for the whole family. "That was a lot of money. Daddy probably had $5 for two weeks to do whatever he had to do."

Another treat was the movie. For an extra 10 cents on admission to the Saturday matinee, the theatre would give patrons a piece of Wedgwood china or silver ware. It took about a year to get a full setting for eight, McLetchie says.

The MeLetchies were one of the few families on their street that still celebrated children's birthdays.

One year, Marjorie's gift was rubber ball. "I was so afraid that one of the other kids would run off with it." she says. "Mother used to come out and play with us. She made sure that everybody got a chance to bounce it."

Particularly poignant are McLetchie's memories of her friend Evelyn. "She lived quite a distance from our house. She'd distance form our house. She'd pick me up to go to school. Mother would always have cocoa and toast ready when Evelyn came. She would arrive at 7:45 a.m. but we were often still in bed. she would come in with the milkmen.  

“We had a gas fireplace in the kitchen for extra heat so mother would sit her by the fire and let her get thawed out. She had big rosy cheeks and a little rosy nose when she was cold, little white pads on each cheek when they were frozen from walking into the wind.”

Since Jack McLetchie never lost his job, the family could afford to keep their children in school.

  After graduation, Marjorie put her skills in Pittman shorthand to work at an insurance office. She started at $30 a month - about $20 below minimum wage. The company’s excuse was that she was living at home. Jobs were scarce. “They knew it wasn't a living wage,” she says.

“One of my friends went through all sorts of medicals and typing tests for Great-West Life. All she got out of it was two weeks’ work.”

  McLetchie went on to establish a solid career in the insurance industry, first in Winnipeg and later, after World War II, in Toronto. During the 1950s, she was one of only two women in all of Canada working as surety underwriters.

  She spent the last decade of her career working as the executive assistant to Galen Weston.

  She never married. And, even with so much success, McLetchie tried to save where she could. She never bought a car. She has always cut her own hair.

  In the ’60s, frustrated with “throwing away” thousands of dollars in rent, she sacrificed a little more to buy a house in the Beach.

  Last year, she moved into a retirement home in the Beach when her legs gave out. “I can stand for maybe 20 seconds, that’s it,” she says.

  Her passions have been figure skating, Canadian football and travel.

 “That’s me on the elephant, making like the Queen,” she says of a photo. It was taken in Thailand more than 20 years ago.

 “I was still travelling until I was 82,” she says.

   Her favourite football team? The Winnipeg Blue Bombers, of course.

   As for Canada’s other sport, “I don’t like the fighting in hockey at all. I go back to the Charlie Conacher days when the Leafs were good Leafs.”

   Looking back, McLetchie is convinced her mother sacrificed more than the children knew.

 “She’d say yes when she should have said no,” McLetchie says.

 “In my heart, I know she wished we hadn't asked as much as we did.     She was just too proud to say we couldn't afford it.”

(Source: Toronto Star Feb. 19, 2009)