“Anyone who claims we’re not in a depression is deserving of an officer slot in the Ostrich Brigade”
I will say this, we are nowhere near the depression my grandmother went through, a 50 year old widow with 5 children, and that my father grew up in. If we don’t return to sound business practices and compendent governmental policies we may get there. Does this make me delusional?
I agree.My grandmother,who survived the Great Depression,says these are great times in comparison.We may get there,yet.She told me that she and my grandfather had to walk the rail lines,in search of coal to heat with.They couldn’t afford to buy any.
Hey! There will be NO rationality on this gloom-and-doom thread. Remember that if it weren't for bad luck, we'd have no luck at all.
Geez, I just read through the thread and you'd think that that we were reverting to medieval times. Things aren't especially good right now, but it ain't the end of the world. What's going to happen if things actually get bad?
They were no where near it before it got that bad too.
They didn’t wake up one day and it was that way.
I keep wanting to point out that Hitler didn’t jump into office and start killing jews either. It was a slope he slid down and took Germany with him.
History tends to condense things and you can’t compare Depression in the 30’s five years into to it to the Depression now, less than a year into it.
I don’t believe we will see anything as deep as the 1930’s in terms of unemployment, and no matter how low our living standards may get they are better than when our grandparents grew up. That being said, January 2009 is 3 months after the stock market crash & 1 year after the official start of the recession. That is almost identical to January 1930 when (even though official numbers are sketchy) unemployment and GDP contraction figures were pretty similar to today’s. Q3-1929 to Q1-1930 looked pretty similar to the last several months (except that bank runs were more common and of a more primitive flavor), and the depression didn’t get “great” until Smoot-Hawley & money supply contractions & idiotic tax increases.
Not at all. It seems that you're recognizing that we're in the beginnings of something quite bad, and following a similar path on our way there.
Not at all. The Great Depression took a decade to play out and ended up with WW II!!! These things take time and are cumulative. It doesn't effect or affect you until you are unemployed and you lose your house, savings and wealth. Then, you become angry because you are the victim. Then, you will begin to blame the REPUBLICANS because this all happened on their watch (just like last time). Then, you realize... you have become a serf.