Posted on 07/29/2009 6:06:40 AM PDT by Travis McGee
Longtime readers know my standard response to questions about the severity of the Greater Depression: It's going to be worse than even I think it's going to be. "Coming Collapse" books will undoubtedly accumulate into an entire genre in the next few years, as they did a generation ago. This time it's not just fear mongering, although things won't get as bad as in James Kunstler's book The Long Emergency and certainly not as rough as in the movies Road Warrior or I Am Legend. But it's a good bet that a lot more is going to change than just some features of the financial system. Let's engage in a little speculation as to the shape of things to come.
I've long believed that this depression would not only be much different but much worse than the unpleasantness of the '30s and '40s. In those days, only a few people were involved in the financial markets; now almost anyone with any assets at all is a player. In those days, there were no credit cards, consumer debts, or student loans; now those things are ubiquitous. It's true that nobody will lose any money because of bank failures this time around; instead, everybody is going to suffer a loss from a collapse of the U.S. dollar, which is much worse.
In the '30s and '40s, the U.S. population was still largely rural in character, including people living in the cities. The average American was just off the farm and had a lot of practical skills as well as traditional values. Now he has skills mainly at paper shuffling or in highly specialized technologies, and it doesn't seem to me that the values of hard work, self-reliance, honesty, prudence, and the rest of the Boy Scout virtues are as common as they once were. In those days, the U.S. was a creditor to the world and the world's factories to boot; now there are perhaps 8 trillion dollars outside the U.S. waiting to pour back in, and the country is all about consuming, not producing. Even with what the New Deal brought in, there was vastly less regulation and litigation, leaving the economy with much greater flexibility to adjust and innovate; today, few people do anything without consulting counsel.
Of course things are immensely better today than 80 years ago in at least one important way: technology. I love technology, but unfortunately, improvements in that area do nothing to prevent an economic depression or many of the ancillary problems that will likely accompany this one. In fact, it can be a hindrance in some ways.
So, accepting the premise of a depression, let's examine some of its likely consequences.
Civil Unrest
I've puzzled over who will go into the streets as the depression deepens and when they'll do it. Nikolai Kondratieff, of Long Wave fame, was of the opinion that the natives tend to get restless at economic peaks (like the late 1960s, when riots broke out all over the world) and at economic troughs (like the 1930s, when the same thing happened). His reasoning is not dissimilar from that of Strauss and Howe, authors of The Fourth Turning. At peaks, people are just feeling their oats, which can evidence itself domestically in riots inspired by rising expectations, and internationally in optional sport wars, like that in Viet Nam. Such peak-time disturbances are troublesome but don't really threaten society. That's largely because when times are good, people feel they have a lot to lose and they believe things can get even better. In prosperous times, people don't usually feel like overthrowing the government or transforming the basis of society.
Not so at economic troughs. People believe they have little to lose, they're eager to hang those they believe responsible for their problems, and they'll listen to radical or violent proposals. We're now just entering what will likely be the worst economic trough since the Industrial Revolution.
But why do humans tend to riot when the going gets rough? How can they think that solves anything? Do they believe it's going to make their jobs or money reappear? Perhaps I ask that question only because I can't see myself rioting. You and I might discount the thought of Americans going wild, because we wouldn't likely join them. But we're not, I suspect, the average American. People, throughout history, have always been prone to violence when times get tough. Is there any reason that should change now?
Recently, there have been -- really for the first time in this downturn -- reports of large, angry demonstrations all over the world. The UK, France, Eastern Europe, now China. If a place like Iceland, as placid and homogeneous as any in the world, can blow up, then any place can. And probably will.
A rioter is typically an angry person looking for vengeance because he blames someone else for his problem. So far, rioters seem to be directing their attention at governments. Correct target, of course, but they don't have the rationale quite right. They're not angry because governments inflated the currency, promoted fractional reserve banking, and nurtured all the cockamamie socialist programs that caused this crisis. Not at all; they rather liked all that. They're angry only because their governments haven't adequately protected them from the consequences of what they did. So as conditions worsen, we can expect governments worldwide to pull out absolutely all the stops to show they're "doing something." And round up scapegoats to satisfy the mob and divert anger from themselves.
I fully expect civil unrest to spread everywhere, simply because the depression will spread everywhere. It will be worst in places that have been most overextended, most debt leveraged, most urban, and have the largest numbers of unemployed workers -- the U.S., Europe, and China.
In the last couple of generations, most rioters in the U.S. have been students who basically just raise some hell on their campuses and inner-city blacks who burn down their own neighborhoods. Maybe the students who've wasted a huge amount of time and money in gender studies and sociology will get angry as they figure out they're not going to have jobs when they graduate -- forget about making $100,000 plus as an investment banker. Maybe blacks, who have apparently been hurt the worst by subprime lending and still may be the last hired and first fired, will take to the streets. Maybe. But I think it's more likely the turn of the Mexicans and other Latinos. They're the ones raided by la migra and stopped at checkpoints, whether they're legal or not. They're the ones who may be implicated in the wave of violence flowing up from northern Mexico. There is a real strain of revanchist nationalism throughout their community that hopes for the reconquista of lands the Anglos stole in the 19th century. And they have all the other problems you might expect with an ethnic underclass.
But will ordinary middle-class Americans riot? I don't expect it until later in the game. Union members will be treated well by the Obama regime. And most whites live in the suburbs; it's tough to get people who live in detached houses out into the streets. Ozzie and Harriet just don't seem likely to burn down their house, even if the bank owns it. Besides, a lot of the parents are on Prozac and their kids on Ritalin. Of course, on the other hand, most of the people who perpetrated mass murders over the last 25 years were on some type of psychiatric drug.
Is there a catalyst that could turn your neighbors into a mob? Two possibilities are gun control and higher taxes, discussed below. But my guess is that riots will be headed off by the police, who are far more numerous, militarized, and better equipped than ever before, and by the military itself. You may think the cops and the military (and today most cops are exmilitary) would never turn on their fellow citizens, but you'd be wrong. Cops and soldiers are far more loyal to their colleagues and their organizations than they are to either some constitution or, absolutely, the mob that's throwing bricks and bottles at them. They are also among the forces pumping for gun control.
Gun Control
This issue is potentially explosive. Although, sadly, gun culture in the U.S. isn't nearly what it was even a generation or two ago, it's still pretty strong in some regions. Most states make the open or concealed carrying of handguns a simple matter, and there's evidence lots of people are taking advantage of it. Personally, I find it hard to fathom the psychology of people who want to disarm society. From a strictly practical point of view, the idea of having to engage in hand-to-hand combat, half naked, with an intruder in the middle of the night is most unappealing. Especially since the odds of that happening are going way up in the near future. Everyone should have a gun in his nightstand, at a minimum.
But that's only a fraction of what gun ownership is really about. A free person should have the right to possess whatever he desires. End of story. And only slaves, or those with a slave mentality, comply with no thought of resistance when they're told what they can or cannot own, especially if compliance means disarming themselves.
I've often wondered what would have happened in Germany after Kristallnacht if every Jew had been armed. None were, of course, because strict gun control had been imposed shortly after Hitler came to power, and like good little lambs, the population complied with the law. But my guess is that few would have defended themselves against the Gestapo anyway. Partly because they would have figured they were certain to get into serious trouble if they resisted, and partly because they couldn't imagine the fate that actually awaited them. It wasn't until the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1944, very late in the game, that people could finally read the writing on the wall and summoned the courage to fight.
If you follow these things, you'll note that there's been a lot of buzz about severe firearms regulation since Obama's inauguration. Bills are being discussed about things like a national firearms registry, reinstituting the so-called "assault weapons" ban, requiring secure locks on all weapons, prohibiting the import of ammunition, and levying a substantial tax on ammunition, among other things. No outright prohibition, because they know that would catalyze gun owners. But they keep dialing up the pressure, moving toward a de facto ban.
I'll guess there are at least two to three million Americans who adhere to a couple of succinct mottos: 1. You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers, and 2. It's better to be tried by twelve than carried by six. This is a group that could catch fire at some point. But I don't think it's imminent, simply because the chances of outright prohibition of gun ownership are slim. The analogy of the frog in a gradually heating pot is apt. The taxpayer must also feel like a frog.
Tax Revolt
This is what happens when retards get access to the internet.
Obama= “Gun Salesman of the Year” (2009).Gun shops in Arizona have reported sales increases of 50-350% this year.
Would you be referring to the original story or your post?
By “This” do mean your own post?
The poor do not have a real motive to riot, as their sad state remains unchanged: they are still poor. It is the middle- and upper middle classes that are about to get economically cornholed, and I predict the unrest will start qwith them.
A police acquaintance of mine made a drunken, off the cuff comment about how there will be a day will the police do not come, and that day is fast approaching. He also said something about how every woman has a vagina and is thus a target for rapists, and that rape will spike with the coming hard times. He advised me to get a gun for my wife and train her with it.
Scary!
Great minds.
bfl
Is that anything like your brain on crack?
Man, if you haven't done that by now, you're waaay behind the power curve.
Who'da thought I'd ever get a call from the excited spouse saying, "Honey, I was out shopping and found some .45 hollow points for you AND some nine mill for me, all at the same store!"
Bfl
To paraphrase the Clinton gang: "It's the philosophy, stupid." One can avoid reality, but one cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.
The number of gun owners in just my neighborhood of 105 homes outnumbers the entire Village police force by a factor of 2.
I suspect it's this way in most towns. And it's my bet that once the rioting starts the police will melt away just like they did during the Rodney King riots leaving people to fend for themselves.
The dead will be the lucky ones.
You chose well!
“So far, rioters seem to be directing their attention at governments. Correct target, of course, but they don’t have the rationale quite right. They’re not angry because governments inflated the currency, promoted fractional reserve banking, and nurtured all the cockamamie socialist programs that caused this crisis. Not at all; they rather liked all that. They’re angry only because their governments haven’t adequately protected them from the consequences of what they did.”
Nailed it. Absolutely nailed it - the sheeple aren’t pissed that their government did stupid things, they’re just pissed because the government didn’t protect THEM from the consequences of its stupidity. A purely selfish reaction from a populace becoming increasingly selfish and dependent. Argh.
Colonel, USAFR
Precisely! So please disconnect right away.
How ironic would it be if it suddenly was safer where I’m headed?
My disagreement with the article is the author’s belief that firearms confiscation will be willingly carried out by local law enforcement.
Most of the locals I know are acquiring those evil black guns off the records (legally via private sales) and figure to protect themselves and their families.
They are on record as stating they will not participate in wholesale firearms confiscation.
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