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Shhhh…It’s Even Worse Than The Great Depression

Dittohead not! said:
and yet, when you go into a store or a mall, you see people there shopping and spending money. Get on the freeway, and there are zillions of cars sharing the road, mostly newer models, all burning gas and taking their owners somewhere. Go into a grocery store, and you see food from all over the world in astounding abundance and great variety.

That isn't how my parents described the great depression, not at all. Rice for breakfast, beans for lunch, and leftovers for dinner, is how my father (born in 1918) described it. American citizens were willing to work in the fields in order to put food on the table. There was no illegal alien problem then.

Read "Grapes of Wrath", and you get a picture of a time that was vastly different from t he times we're living in right now.

The current recession is not the great depression, not even close. People are just spoiled.
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The current recession is a "coming" great depression: worse than the original. Deficit spending is just delaying it, that's all.
 
MaggieD said:
67132823d1345514860-shhhh-s-even-worse-than-great-depression-depression-1.jpg


67132825d1345514876-shhhh-s-even-worse-than-great-depression-depression-3.jpg
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Oh so standing in line is what makes a Great Depression. Well here you go:

grocery-store-line.jpg


**** are we slouches or what
 
sawyerloggingon said:
Yeah but are you working????
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Certainly not on your account. Roads that are new to you are familiar and well-worn paths to me. Pulling together what is already immediately at hand is really not much of a chore.
 
Matt Foley said:
The current recession is a "coming" great depression: worse than the original. Deficit spending is just delaying it, that's all.
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So when Republicans claim we need to cut spending, what they are REALLY saying is that we need to be plunged immediately into something worse than the Great Depression? Is that about it?
 
Cardinal Fang said:
So when Republicans claim we need to cut spending, what they are REALLY saying is that we need to be plunged immediately into something worse than the Great Depression? Is that about it?
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Entering into a Great Depression with massive debt is economic doomsday.
 
Matt Foley said:
Entering into a Great Depression with massive debt is economic doomsday.
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I would counter that entering into worse than the Great Depression would be a bad idea under any circumstances. But you seem to be implying that this is exactly what Republicans are calling for. Why would anyone vote for any of them given this Worse Than the Depression platform of theirs?
 
Dittohead not! said:
and yet, when you go into a store or a mall, you see people there shopping and spending money. Get on the freeway, and there are zillions of cars sharing the road, mostly newer models, all burning gas and taking their owners somewhere. Go into a grocery store, and you see food from all over the world in astounding abundance and great variety.

That isn't how my parents described the great depression, not at all. Rice for breakfast, beans for lunch, and leftovers for dinner, is how my father (born in 1918) described it. American citizens were willing to work in the fields in order to put food on the table. There was no illegal alien problem then.

Read "Grapes of Wrath", and you get a picture of a time that was vastly different from t he times we're living in right now.

The current recession is not the great depression, not even close. People are just spoiled.
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I find it ironic that one of the people IMAGEP who likes your post, is one who supports more govt spending, like it WAS the great depression....
 
iliveonramen said:
Maybe it's time for a counter-casual movement.
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Bite your tongue! In the generation before mine, expectations were that the man of the house would be attired in at least a jacket and tie whenever not sleeping. The Happy Homemaker was expected to be in hose and heels. While cooking and cleaning and doing the dishes. We lads were returned home to shamed parents if we showed up at public school wearing jeans and were suspended if our hair was deemed not suitably short. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad!!! Nobody should want to go back there.
 
Cardinal Fang said:
Bite your tongue! In the generation before mine, expectations were that the man of the house would be attired in at least a jacket and tie whenever not sleeping. The Happy Homemaker was expected to be in hose and heels. While cooking and cleaning and doing the dishes. We lads were returned home to shamed parents if we showed up at public school wearing jeans and were suspended if our hair was deemed not suitably short. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad!!! Nobody should want to go back there.
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Haha! Thank you for the perspective....growing up in the era of casual wear probably distorts my view on how good we really got it!
 
Cardinal Fang said:
So when Republicans claim we need to cut spending, what they are REALLY saying is that we need to be plunged immediately into something worse than the Great Depression? Is that about it?
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Considering we are 3+ years out of a recession by any technical measure, the question is why are we still spending like we are in a depression? Continued cuts in government spending are appropriate since we cannot afford to continue spending, and the current rate of deficit spending will make future deep recessions virtually impossible to overcome.
 
Cardinal Fang said:
How did Bush's steel tariffs work out? How did Reagan's?
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While they were in effect, they did what they were meant to do. Most of the steel companies in the US filed bankruptcy after the tariffs were found to be unlawful and thus lifted... The tariffs are/were no different than current one's on many items such as clothing and sneakers...
 
Missed AB said:
Considering we are 3+ years out of a recession by any technical measure, the question is why are we still spending like we are in a depression?
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Important Reminder: The end of a recession is the point at which things finally stop getting worse. It is not the point at which things are finally all better again. You are not back in the penthouse when the down elevator at last reaches the lobby. You have to get back on the thing and ride it all the way back up again. Capiche?

Missed AB said:
Continued cuts in government spending are appropriate since we cannot afford to continue spending...
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What sort of strange logic supports a claim for our inability to afford spending? Is this some Suzy Orman thing borrowed from household economics or something? The public sector in this country spends a smaller fraction of our GDP than does that in almost any other country with an actually recognizable economy. We have lots and lots of room to afford continued spending and lots and lots of reason to (some would say "obligation") as long as so many people are having such a hard time around here.

Missed AB said:
...and the current rate of deficit spending will make future deep recessions virtually impossible to overcome.
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Please. The deficit as a percent of GDP reached 10.1% in 2009. It is currently at about 8.5%. From 1942 to 1945, it was 14.2%, 30.3%, 22.7%, and 21.5%. Did that make future wars almost impossible to fight? Maybe lay off all those unsubstantiable internet partisan rubbish reports a little bit.
 
Missed AB said:
While they were in effect, they did what they were meant to do. Most of the steel companies in the US filed bankruptcy after the tariffs were found to be unlawful and thus lifted...
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They were meant to lead dozens of US steel companies straight into bankruptcy? Somehow, I don't think that's the sort of outcome that Mr. Foley had in mind when advocating for tariifs! Meanwhile, the Reagan tariffs were a key ingredient in putting the term "Rust Belt" into the national vocabulary, and the Bush tariffs -- passed in early 2002 -- were found illegal (by the WTO, as you didn't point out) in March of 2003. It was Bush himself who finally rescinded them in December 2003.

Missed AB said:
The tariffs are/were no different than current one's on many items such as clothing and sneakers...
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LOL! Here's the current Harmonized Tariff Schedule. Among thousands of other goods, sneakers and clothing items are a part of it. The "harmonization" part of course comes about through international trade negotiations. Knock yourself out trying to claim that the Reagan and Bush steel tariff regimes were no different from any of these. By the way, the US has exactly one manufacturer of sneakers/athletic shoes.
 
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Cardinal Fang said:
LOL! Here's the current Harmonized Tariff Schedule. Among thousands of other goods, sneakers and clothing items are a part of it. The "harmonization" part of course comes about through international trade negotiations. Knock yourself out trying to claim that the Reagan and Bush steel tariff regimes were no different from any of these. By the way, the US has exactly one manufacturer of sneakers/athletic shoes.
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In March 2002 the US government imposed 30% tariffs on a range of imported steel products.
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States 401 Waterproof footwear with outer soles and uppers of rubber or plastics, the uppers of which are neither fixed to the sole nor assembled by stitching, riveting, nailing, screwing, plugging or similar processes: 37.5%


Cardinal Fang said:
They were meant to lead dozens of US steel companies straight into bankruptcy?
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Which steel company went bankrupt during the time of the Bush Tariffs? I said after it was lifted.

Cardinal Fang said:
the Reagan tariffs were a key ingredient in putting the term "Rust Belt" into the national vocabulary,
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I am no expert on the history of steel... Rust Belt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Rust Belt is a term that gained currency in the 1980s[1] as the informal description of an area straddling the Midwestern and Northeastern United States plus small parts of the Upper South, in which local economies traditionally specialized in large scale manufacturing of finished medium to heavy consumer and industrial products, including the transportation and processing of the raw materials required for heavy industry.[2] After several "boom" periods from the late-19th to the mid-20th century, cities in this area struggled to adapt to a variety of adverse economic conditions later in the 20th century, such as the movement of manufacturing facilities to the southeastern states with their lower labor costs, the rise of automation in industrial processes, a decreased need for labor in making steel products, and the deregulation of foreign trade policies.

Cardinal Fang said:
Meanwhile, and the Bush tariffs -- passed in early 2002 -- were found illegal (by the WTO, as you didn't point out) in March of 2003. It was Bush himself who finally rescinded them in December 2003.
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I didn't know I had t point out these facts which have nothing to do with the point. It doesn't matter if it was illegal, it would be countered with a fine. It was the EU which planned on taxing goods from key election states like Florida Oranges, Detroit cars... That is why it was removed. Aside from re-election prospects, if he wanted to continue the tariff he could have. He did not. THEN steel companies went bankrupt.
 
Matt Foley said:
The current recession is a "coming" great depression: worse than the original. Deficit spending is just delaying it, that's all.
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How disappointed will you be when the economic Armageddon turns out to be just a blip?
 
Moot said:
I think the point of quantative easing was to get the lenders to start lending again by buying up their debt securities to help get them off their books. Apparently, our economy is based on credit and so if credit and lending slows or dries up, then so does the liquidity and growth in the economy.
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That is why I said that QE1 was important. Banks now have excess liquidity, so that is why many feel that QE2 and operation twist are materially less helpful.
 
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