Posted on 10/25/2008 3:13:58 PM PDT by klimeckg
What would another great depression look like anyway?
The great depression was way before my time and whenever I hear the words "great depression" the black and white documentary photographs by Walker Evens run through my mind. I can't relate to it, it's a thing of the past in history books. Unemployment, agriculture, industry & labor were all affected and this brought in the New Deal.
Ok, so today I was with my family in our 5 mile radius subdivision which ranged from incomes of 40K - 350K. We sat in a fast food chain for breakfast. Just 1 mile west of us, were mansions with 5 car garages and just 2 miles south of us were what some people would consider the white trash area. The cars that came through the drive through were minivans, Lexus', Nissans', Chevy Colbalt's and Escalades. It was a big mixture. Observing my surroundings, I asked myself, "If we were in another "great depression", what would it look like? How would I recognize it? How could the banks reposes all the cars that people can't pay on? What would happen to all the stuff on the shelves at Wal-Mart and Target? What happens to public safety if the citizens can't pay city taxes? Will the police and fireman and hospitals only protect and serve the wealthy? Will the public school teachers continue to teach, or will they only teach the children who pay for it? And what about energy, yea, energy, if we all are unemployed, who pays to keep the lights on?
If it's on the horizon like the socialists in Washington are screaming, where are the signs, because I just don't see people batting down the hatches! I mean, if the radio warned us of a category 5 hurricane coming our way, people would be boarding up their homes and evacuating the area. Aren't we in a crisis now, unemployment is high and we are just starting read about the major businesses reducing their forces (RIF). Yet, we seem complacent and untouched by it, as we reach for our wallets and pay the bill at our local restaurant. I just got home with $150.00 less in my wallet because I had to buy clothes for my kids. Maybe I should return them and tell my family that we are going to have to learn to live a little bit differently for awhile until things improve. If something does happen, or if it's already happening, it has a different face on it and the majority of us are not paying attention. We are Americans and we come out of things stronger, that's our nature, our culture.
This financial crisis happened because of the socialists in power, i.e. Pelosi, Reid, Frank, Dodd, and Schumer, and Obama (unfortunately, Ted Kennedy is missing out and fighting for his life with our money). This financial collapse was inevitable and I don't think any politician can fix it, McCain or Obama. I do feel in my gut, that Obama will only make it worse, seeing that it was brought into fruition by his party and they seem to want another "Great Depression" .
The Great Depression came during an analog time with hardly any innovation. In today's digital world, in THE Country of Innovation, whatever comes on us due to the financial crisis we are facing, it will not be recognized until we are deep into it and I can't fathom what the environment around me will be like.
>We do have one advantage: in many areas the woods are overflowing with excellent dinners. Deer were not so plentiful back in the thirties as they are now.
Well, I know for a fact that the guns have improved and the hunting grounds are much more accessible with modern vehicles than in the thirties. I don’t think I’d count on living off the land for too long. Everyone and his brother will be thinking along the same lines.
On the other hand, my Dad was a child in the depression and they lived in a very rural area. He said the only thing that was different other than the news reports on the radio was an occasional hobo stopping to ask to work for a meal or shoes occasionally.
They had a garden of their own and canned their own food just as generations before them.
My parents were small children during the Depression, with my father being on a rural farm, and my mother living on the trolley line in a city, with her father (my grandfather) being a barber. Both of them say they didn’t have much of anything, old clothes, Christmas was an orange and a peppermint stick. But, my father never went hungry. There were near misses with my mother’s family, as far as being able to put food on the table. Neither of them really realized they were poor, since nobody they knew had any money, either.
Years ago they didn’t count welfare as employed, today they do.
It used to be that 6% unemployment was full employment, now that they consider welfare cases as employed 6% is a whole lot more.
Oh...and that “one end to the pride” in our leaders...? ...”long pig time,” as you mentioned. But until then, they’re very proud citizens of the world—invincible.
My great grandfather had left the backwoods of southern Ohio in the early 1900's and had become a successful businessman, in the railroad and grocery businesses. His ne'er-do-well relatives would come to his house asking for a "loan" but granddad always told them it wasn't a loan. He never expected repayment.
I wonder how we will treat each other today if we're faced with the same situations.
At the same time Monopoly (formerly Landlord) became very popular ~ the game of choice, and movies all had sound tracks.
Live theatre almost died.
Young artist of our acquaintance just called and said "Guess what, I just now did an animation of a man I'd drawn walking in an environment. Now I am employable."
He knows where this is going. Ever cheaper movies and entertainers. That young man has the talent and now the command of the most advanced technology to bring out custom drawn main stream "live" animation on a shoestring budget. He's going to have Douglas Fairbanks versus John Wayne before it's over. We'll think up a story line for this stuff eventually.
My family heritage always worked hard. My Grandfather was also railroad (Burlington). Hard times were all the way to the 60’s. People complain but have no idea.
Same with my parents. The depression didn’t hurt as bad as the drought. Luckily, they had canned and had smoked meat. I remember Mother telling us that one year they were all sick and no one even mentioned Christmas.
The Real World, in the depression
Everything listed doesn’t count welfare, they changed the rules in the early 50s where they included welfare as employed.
They arwen’t looking for work, available for “work”, and have a job, it’s called welfare.
Before they changed it when unemployment hit 6% there wasn’t anyone to hire no matter what the pay scale because there were that % moving or between jobs.
Apparently you aren’t old enough to know anything about that or the depression, only the total lies and distortions taught in the government schools and their totally bogus text books!
That’s good work and good thinking on the part of your acquaintance. ...agreed that lower-cost entertainment projects will have the potential to go far. My teens and I have been working with 3-D stuff here, too (only animates well with graphics cards that do direct rendering), but our software will be for small businesses and other uses.
No. It's been in the toilet and last week the government nationalized their equivalent to our 401K. Their market crashed 28% this week. It's only getting worse.
They just built a brand new Micky Ds here on Wade Hampton, Greenville, SC. It looks like a shrine to fast food.
Good point. It’s gotta be a snow job. I’m from Iowa, so had a passing knowledge that he was born in West Branch.
Except, all my teachers in school said he was a bad man, and it was because of guys like him we had to go through the “Great Depression”. When I started digging around though, I discovered it wasn’t quite like that. Add a little deductive reasoning and, compare todays “news” and it starts to make sense. The again, Henry Wallace was from Ioway, and they named a building after him. He might have been a spy??? EOS.
They had a roof over their heads, they had food to eat (most of the time at least, for my mother’s family) and their families were together. If they had a concept of “poor,” it was the people who had to go to the county work farm, or the ones begging on the street or riding the rails looking for work.
If there is any lesson in this, a paid off, modest farm is the place to be, if the wheels fall off the economy. It’s hard work, dirty, and you won’t have much else to speak of, but you’ll be well fed.
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