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.
Imagine no Job and no prospects.
I’ve always liked Greenville, SC. Not many towns I can think of, especially on the east coast, that have a series of rapids and a waterfall in a downtown park.
The “McCafe” in Oak Ridge, that I mentioned, isn’t exactly a shrine, it’s very low-key and tasteful, as tasteful as a Mickey-D’s can be, at least. The “night skies” ordinance prohibits bright lighting, and the historic district prohibits the typical signage. It looks more like a higher end, one story, brick retail store with patios on two sides.
My grandfather told me several times about driving a herd of cattle to the rail yard and shipping them to Kansas City. They lacked $3 a head bringing enough to pay the freight. Therefore, he did not ship the corn. They built stills and cooked moonshine from it and bootlegged it and kept the family fed. He had to give one out of 5 jugs to the sheriff for protection.
Things haven't changed much, only now they have the Obama rallies for free entertainment.
That article is a rude awakening. I hope that we are not headed there, but I see a collapse as the logical consequence of rat control and unconstrained growth of government. On the other hand, maybe we are headed for a Soviet style economy with a lack of basic goods and services but a jack booted government that keeps the population in line. Another possibility is European malaise with the masses content for 12% unemployment, government handouts, and frequent strikes. We will see the form of our economic decline when the rats no longer are concerned about re-election.
Keep in touch.
We did not have an entitled gangster underclass in the thirties who sucked at the government teat.
Actually my family prospered during the thirties. Money was concentrated in the hands of the wealthy and they bought what my family sold. Tons of it.
Wow. That was a great a read, and a great thought of what a depression might look like in the United States. I feel so sorry for this guy, but I didn’t think that any of the stuff he might say would be applicable (college student, no space to store stuff, can’t own a gun for another 10 months)but the part where he told about working out... That struck home. I really do need to start doing that.
your last paragraph makes you sound like grandpa Simpson, and I still think you are wrong.
At that time they didn't count farm and ranch people that were forced to try to find a job due to the drought. Also older teens were not counted and many had to work to help out the family or leave home so the rest of the family could eat.
I once worked for a man that had a job in construction during the depression. He said every day around 50 men would gather outside the fence where they were working. The men knew there were no openings, they were gathering there so they would be there for a job if someone got fired or hurt. The man told me you have no idea how hard you will work and what a good job you will do if you know there are people waiting for your job.
There was no market for cattle and the government set up a program to buy the cattle from the ranchers. The deal was the rancher had to agree to sell them every head- could not keep any back for breeding. The government did not tell the ranchers what they planned to do with the cattle- but they sent men out to shoot them on the ranches and left them to rot with people starving in the cities. My dad was 15 and left home when that happened, he road freight trains around and worked odd jobs and didn't go home until he married my mother 10 years later. He knew his family could not afford him and there were younger children to feed.
Howdy neighbor...I just noticed today they’d completed the McDonalds. Looking around here sometimes you might not think anything was wrong with the economy.
so true, so very true.
My mother’s family had been pretty well off city folk, but my grandfather died in 1927 and my grandmother was wiped out when the banks failed. She moved the family to a small town and took in laundry for a living. They lived pretty much on oatmeal and corn meal mush and could fish, had some garden- they were city folks so said their garden wasn’t great until they learned how to do it all. My aunts got depressed at the idea of more fish and oatmeal for Thanksgiving and took chickens from the neighbors. They had no idea how to kill and clean chickens but had heard about it. They said those were the most aweful chickens and grandma was furious that they took them so they had to go work for the neighbors to pay for them- cleaning out chicken coops. They laughed about it, but when I always thought how horrible that must have been.
My grandad had a still too. Good old moonshine- there was jugs of it hid out all over the ranch for years. I think my dad found the last jug (that was found likely more weren’t) in the 60s.
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