QUESTION?? the DEPRESSION.

southern yankee · Post by **southern yankee** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 10:59 am

my parents grew up during the depression. What i remember from what they have told me. also what i have read. I am not sure. Would like to hear your comments. With theses bank failures, layoffs, and the economy in general. Do you feel we are headed in the same direction?? Could it happen AGAIN??

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 11:42 am

southern yankee;984527 wrote: my parents grew up during the depression. What i remember from what they have told me. also what i have read. I am not sure. Would like to hear your comments. With theses bank failures, layoffs, and the economy in general. Do you feel we are headed in the same direction?? Could it happen AGAIN??

It could but I do not believe that it's likely - the only thing that could push it down that far is a breakdown in GATT and the reintroduction of protectionist policies and the stupidity of that road is too well known for governments to walk it.

southern yankee · Post by **southern yankee** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 12:02 pm

Bryn Mawr;984544 wrote: It could but I do not believe that it's likely - the only thing that could push it down that far is a breakdown in GATT and the reintroduction of protectionist policies and the stupidity of that road is too well known for governments to walk it. i hope you are right.

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 12:06 pm

southern yankee;984551 wrote: i hope you are right.

Ask me again in ten years time and I should have a fairly good idea whether I am

southern yankee · Post by **southern yankee** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 12:27 pm

Bryn Mawr;984553 wrote: Ask me again in ten years time and I should have a fairly good idea whether I am

will be 60 then. old and broke, not good.

Lon · Post by **Lon** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 12:41 pm

southern yankee;984527 wrote: my parents grew up during the depression. What i remember from what they have told me. also what i have read. I am not sure. Would like to hear your comments. With theses bank failures, layoffs, and the economy in general. Do you feel we are headed in the same direction?? Could it happen AGAIN??

Recession for sure depression no.

southern yankee · Post by **southern yankee** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 12:47 pm

Lon;984602 wrote: Recession for sure depression no. hope so.

Hope6 · Post by **Hope6** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 8:54 pm

i've heard my mom tell stories all my life about growing up during the depression, about having no electricity and having to walk to school and all that stuff!

they were lucky though, living on a farm, they grew all of their food so they never went hungry!

but yeah she's on her soapbox a lot lately that us young folks don't know what it's like and that its gonna happen again, and we're not gonna know how to handle it!

southern yankee · Post by **southern yankee** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 9:29 am

Hope6;986009 wrote: i've heard my mom tell stories all my life about growing up during the depression, about having no electricity and having to walk to school and all that stuff!

they were lucky though, living on a farm, they grew all of their food so they never went hungry!

but yeah she's on her soapbox a lot lately that us young folks don't know what it's like and that its gonna happen again, and we're not gonna know how to handle it! my mom also grew up on a farm during the depression. but my dad grew up in the city, near Chicago. his parents had the 5 kids. plus 9 others (Mom's sister's kids) It was VERY hard on them.

Hope6 · Post by **Hope6** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 9:48 pm

southern yankee;986475 wrote: my mom also grew up on a farm during the depression. but my dad grew up in the city, near Chicago. his parents had the 5 kids. plus 9 others (Mom's sister's kids) It was VERY hard on them.

there were 9 kids in my mom's family and 9 kids in my dad's family, but they both grew up on farms so i think they had it a little better than some. i've heard some people comment that they sometimes didn't know where there next meal was coming from.

my mom always likes to say, if you own a piece of land, you can always grow you a potato! :wah:

sleepingbeauty · Post by **sleepingbeauty** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 10:19 pm

I hope not i was just talking to my friend about this earlier today kinda of weird with some of the banks and all.

Galbally · Post by **Galbally** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 11:56 pm

I think its more likely now than it has been since the 1930s. Whether it will be quite as bad (or maybe even worse) as then remains to be seen. Its certainly going to be a very difficult period from here on in.

In Ireland in the 1930s we were coming out of a War of Independence against Britain, and a subsequent Civil War. The country was already so impoverished at the time that apparently the depression going on in the world didn't impact them very much, as they had little to loose in the first place. Though this was not true of the rest of Europe and we all know what happened in Europe in the 1930s.

gmc · Post by **gmc** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 12:22 am

We've had a social welfare reform since then so you won't see people being thrown out on the streets or starving. In the eighties there were almost as many people unemployed as during the depression O.K. the population has grown since then but if you want to know why thatcher is still hated go to the old industrial cities and ask someone who lived through the eighties looking for a job. Being told it's your fault you can't get a job would radicalise anyone.

Patsy Warnick · Post by **Patsy Warnick** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 1:57 am

I have ration tickets/stubs/ stamp books from my parents

you needed tickets for any purchase/exchange and they were limited

Are we headed in that direction - possible - PRESIDENT will call it recession

not depression

depression - is for the poor - recession is for the RICH.. the PRES. won't be POOR.

This is and will be a Depression - because your SUV will be repoed - cable canceled and 1 egg in the fridge.

no manicures ... get real guys

scary - yes

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN REALLY REALLY POOR ?

I have - putting cardboard in my shoes when the sole was worn out.

wake up & CUT BACK NOW while you can

Patsy

Galbally · Post by **Galbally** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 2:18 am

In 1980 my family had to emigrate back to Ireland from England because Maggie allowed the British Car Industry (in which he worked) to go to the wall. (it needs to be said that British industry did have a lot of self-created problems and the writing was on the wall for years, a bit like the American financial industry now). When we came back first, my whole family had to live in one room in my Grannies house for about 3 months.

Then the local seminary college allowed us to move into the Gate house, it was a 2 room 18th century cottage, which was not really suitable for living in, the rooms were tiny, the walls ran with damp, and there were a lot of mice about the place. We had an outside toilet that you had to go out the front door to, and round the side of the house.

That was winter 1980-81. Then in February of 81 we got a house of the council, I remember thinking we were in heaven as we now had a house with proper rooms and working electricity and fittings. My dad had a couple of jobs, but he could never really get a long term job again, until he died in 1993, and we lived in fairly tight times, though I can't say it was that bad for me or my sister, as we were young and it was all an adventure.

mikeinie · Post by **mikeinie** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 5:16 am

I don’t think so; the global economy is so much different now with open markets, free movement of products, economies will shift and move around, the boom and bust is a cycle that will continue.

The very thing that makes a capitalistic system work is the same thing that causes its downfalls:

Competition.

In any competition there are winners and losers. Everyone cannot win all the time, and on a boom cycle that is what happens. With the opening of Eastern Europe and China there was a whole new market available. For years it has driven economic growth, more jobs, good salaries, more security.

With high employment, there is more disposable income around, so people take long term loans for houses and stuff, with low interest rates, it is possible to make more money on the market than it costs to pay back loans, so people extend credit and take bigger loans to invest to ‘get rich quick’. Businesses do the same, everyone has a scam, an angle a plan to make more and more with the belief that it will never end.

Then boom....

Like in a competition, once the losers start losing, they go and go fast, and take down those who are also losing with them.

But, there are also winners, they are just not in the spot light right now, they will wait and buy up what is left.

Buy Low, Sell High.

Now is a great time to have cash and low dept. Once you think the housing market is rock bottom, that is when you buy yourself that rental property you could not afford to invest in over the past 10 years because of the high prices.

I am sorry for those who will be impacted due to irresponsible behaviours of some companies, and yes people will lose jobs and it could get rough, but as bad as the great depression?? No, don’t let CNN scare you that much, they thrive on sensationalism.