MyDD :: Unfortunately, most of us don't remember the Great Depression

Unfortunately, most of us don't remember the Great Depression

by btchakir, Sun Mar 23, 2008 at 12:37:16 PM EST

I don't know if you've noticed this, but during this week, for the first time that I can recall, the news stations focusing on the story of our suffering economy started mentioning, at albeit a minimal amount, the possibility of having another Depression. I sat staring at the television for a number of minutes unable to fully ascertain what I had just heard.

It had gone beyond the argument about whether or not we were actually in a Recession (had their been 2 quarters of negative growth?) for that one little scary word to come out.

It has been over 2 years now since I went from a $90,000.00 a year job, through a full year of unemployment and job searching, to my part-time, low pay job as an adjunct instructor (read part-time employee without benefits) at a Community College. I was in the first wave of losses brought on by the Bush Administration... and my wave has gone so fare as to no longer be considered among the un- or under-employed.

Now there are tens of thousands of us, no longer able to collect unemployment so no longer counted in the ranks of the jobless.

My wife and I have cut down on so much of our lives... the number of movies we see, the amount of food we buy, etc., that it is unbelievable. We've sold down our properties as well as we could (we had to rent out Elly's former townhouse in Hagerstown because the prices were going down so fast that it wouldn't be worthwhile to sell it right now... we were lucky with my Greenbelt townhouse and her other one on th other side of Hagerstown - that got sold just in time) and bought into a lower-cost part of the country in West Virginia.

The retirement funds I have had invested, some for almost 45 years, have started to go down because of the dwindling stock market, and I have no where else to re-invest right now. I can only hold out and hope that TIAA-CREF crawls back up before the year is over.

So... what would we all do if a Depression did hit? Would we get around the phenomenal debt that the Bush Administration has built up on it's Iraq war that will be cursing our children and grandchildren for years to come (and continues to suck what is left out of our economic future)? Will our food supplies get so expensive that potential workers forced into breadlines? Will corporations and banks continue to get federal support while individual citizens are considered rubbish?

It sometimes seems that it could actually be so. And to hear the words discussing it uttered on TV hits a new and frightening low.

Under The LobsterScope

Tags: Economy, Depression, Recession, Bush Administration (all tags)

Permalink :: 9 Comments :: Post a Comment

All the more reason (2.00 / 1)

To put a Democrat in the White House.

I feel your pain, btchakir; I was un or underemployed for a couple of years awhile back, and my current job is probably well under where I should be with my education and age.

We get so caught up in the primary race, we forget that there are key issues at stake that McCain is certainly not going to help. The conservative party, the party that's supposedly about the economy, has betrayed us and plundered our valuable resources, exploiting what's left of our good will.

Every day I walk through downtown Minneapolis and lament how many stores have gone out of business since I started working there. Where once there were baby clothing stores, art galleries, bookstores, and ecclectic gaming and magazine shops, there's now just empty spaces and "For Lease" signs.

I think our next president absolutely must create another New Deal: we need to have Americans invest time and effort in rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and creating new reserves of renewable energy.

I think, in the end, Democratic voters will see what's at stake and remember our prior failures and start to fix this thing in November.

Thanks for reading.

In this avalanche, the pebbles get to vote.

That One/Another Fella '08

by Dracomicron on Sun Mar 23, 2008 at 12:51:21 PM EST

The Great Depression (none / 0)

My parents came of age in the Great Depression. It dominated their lives even into the 80's. Grew up with story after story from those times. Most with memories of it are gone now.

Know where you are coming from. Looking at my last unemployment check in a few weeks. Over 2,000 applications and no job.

Suspect there will be a revolution if things get worse. Thanks for sharing.

by DaleA on Sun Mar 23, 2008 at 12:53:24 PM EST

The Depression and today (2.00 / 1)

I had posted a few comments comparing this election to Roosevelt/Hoover, another poster compared it to Hoover/Smith. There is so much going on now reminiscent of the late twenties before the crash; my question is only how soon before the collapse are we now?

I also had posted this piece on a Frontline show "The Long Demise of Glass-Steagall" the legistlation enacted by FDR to separate the banking/investment sectors that was repealed by, of all people, Bill Clinton, late in his adminstration. The repeal of this is partly at the base of some of the instability going on now.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ shows/wallstreet/weill/demise.html

My parents lived through the depression and the New Deal and I grew up hearing all their stories. It takes courage and desperation both to set up programs that cure this kind of economy and support people through it. I think it would be very helpful if the candidates started focusing on remedies for what may be coming. It takes a certain boldness and telling people what they may not be ready to hear, to do this. No one has come through yet, although Edwards had more than most with his economic populist message.

All of the candidates should be addressing this. If we do crash, no one is prepared for it.

by mady on Sun Mar 23, 2008 at 12:57:14 PM EST

That's Coolidge Smith....... (none / 0)

That's Coolidge v Smith in my post above, not Hoover.

by mady on Sun Mar 23, 2008 at 12:58:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: That's Coolidge Smith....... (none / 0)

Actually is Hoover v Smith. Worked very late last night, no coffee yet, too much blogging. Sorry.

by mady on Sun Mar 23, 2008 at 01:32:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Unfortunately... (2.00 / 1)

My father grew up during the Depression. His Dad had work, but times were still really tough. I've known a lot of people who lived through that time and virtually all of them do things like hoard food and save money like fiends. It's a stark reminder of how bad it was.

I'm really worried about the economy right now. My company has never laid anyone off, and I hope they remain committed to that. Still, I save everything I can, drive my old paid-off car, and am being much more careful with my money that I was the last few years. And I fret over my 401(k) every day, even though I have a good 30 years until retirement.

by mlr701 on Sun Mar 23, 2008 at 01:02:32 PM EST

Partying Like It's 1929 (none / 0)

This article reveals the harsh, scary facts we are faciing now!

Partying Like It's 1929

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: March 21, 2008

"Contrary to popular belief, the stock market crash of 1929 wasn't the defining moment of the Great Depression. What turned an ordinary recession into a civilization-threatening slump was the wave of bank runs that swept across America in 1930 and 1931."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/opinio n/21krugman.html?em&ex=1206417600&am p;en=4f9f34d7a7f3fb32&ei=5087%0A

by mcctx on Sun Mar 23, 2008 at 02:27:37 PM EST

Grow your own food this summer (2.00 / 1)

If you can. We got out of NYC 2 years ago and moved out to Vermont and now we have some land that this year we're going to start farming. Nothing major, but everything we grow and eat ourselves is that much less that's trucked from somewhere else.

We need to study what got people through Hard Times and bring it back. Yes the hoarding of money and food happened, but people also got very clever about reusing and recycling and re-purposing things.

by wasNYnowVT on Wed Mar 26, 2008 at 12:24:25 PM EST

Re: Grow your own food this summer (none / 0)

It helps if you have already lived in poverty.

Where I live, in the mountains of Arkansas, the old timers said they didn't even know there WAS a depression. They were dirt poor, and just continued to be dirt poor. They said this with a smile on their faces. I think they were proud of not being affected by the city folks that were so worried about money all the time.

Many of the people around here are very self-sufficient, growing gardens and putting up food every year. Making money wherever and however they can, and reusing and recycling as much as possible. They really taught us how to stretch a dollar.

We don't throw away much of anything unless it's completely unusable. You just never know... String, wire, old clothing, old appliances ... just about anything can be used for things they were not intended. We use our old freezer, for example, as a saw table/horse. Doesn't look great, but it does the job. :-D

by splashy on Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 04:07:00 AM EST
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