"I don't care about losing all the money. It's losing all the stuff."
- Marie Kimball Johnson ("The Jerk")
WASHINGTON – Anxious to jolt the economy back to life, President-elect Barack Obama appears to be zeroing in on a stimulus package of about $850 billion, dwarfing last spring's tax rebates and rivaling drastic government actions to fight the Great Depression.
And we all know how successful last spring's tax rebates were, don't we? How much of your $600 do you have left?I know the economy is in trouble because it's all I hear.
I guess they figure they'll do the same things that Roosevelt did during The Great Depression. But it has to be difficult for our government to compare, since almost nobody who was an adult then is alive now. All we know is what we read, and to me it seems different. That was when people stood in bread lines because they didn't have enough money for food. During The Great Depression:
13 million people became unemployed. (Approximately 11% of the U.S. population) By 1933, over 24% of Americans were unemployed.
Industrial production fell by nearly 45% between the years 1929 and 1932.
Home-building dropped by 80% between the years 1929 and 1932.
From the years 1929 to 1932, about 5,000 banks went out of business.
Industrial production fell by nearly 45% between the years 1929 and 1932.
Home-building dropped by 80% between the years 1929 and 1932.
From the years 1929 to 1932, about 5,000 banks went out of business.
We're not an industrial nation any more. Now, we're a service-based economy, so that's out. Unemployment is around 6.5% (roughly 10 million Americans) so people are still working. Most heavy industry takes place overseas. Home-building has been dropping for the past 5 years or so, and the banks ... well, there ya go.
Anyway, there are similarities for sure, but it seems that now, it's about The Stuff. We like our stuff. By comparison, there wasn't a lot of stuff to be had in the 1930s. You had a radio, and if you were lucky, you had a car. People didn't even bathe every day, so their stuff didn't smell very good, either.
In the 1930s, the hole was dug for us with the collapse of the financial system, stock market and industry. Now, we've dug our own hole with scads of personal debt.
We've cluttered our lives with stuff, and now that "the economy" is tough, we might have to give up some stuff - and we don't want to do that. Even Roosevelt didn't hand out stimulus checks. He built roads, bridges and buildings because that was "the stuff." Now, we need a check so we can buy the latest cellular phone, big-screen TV, personal computer or iPod because ... that stimulates "the economy."
But whom does it really stimulate?
6 comments:
well I'll tell you that a great fitting pair of jeans stimulate me :-P
anyhow.... we as a generation couldn't handle a great depression, i hear the stories my 84yr old grandmother tell of those times and i think, i couldn't imagine this nation doing that again, we've become too lazy and spoiled. so well whine and expect the government to fix our spoiled ways so we can continued to be spoiled, i mean that's where happiness lays, right? in the stuff. heh.
:D
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Look no further than our dimwitted President who, in the wake of the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01 told Americans to go shopping.
As a generation of people, we're a lot weaker than our parents and their parents before them.
I think it's related to the loss of industry and the conveniences we enjoy.
Where I work, people take an elevator to go up one floor.
i'd love to open my box of cereal and find me a piece of yellow depression glass.
a nice bowl. in my cheerios. that's all.
wonder if we'll go back to A&P stamps again to get dishes.
you probably dont know what the heck i'm yammering away about do ya?
Sure I do. We had the S & H Green Stamps here. Mom used to get them at Acme, and she'd save them in a paper book until she had enough to get something from the stamp store.
Those kinds of things have been replaced by the "frequent shopper" card or other such thing that isn't as much fun.
We also got a set of Funk and Wagnell's encyclopedia from the Acme - one book a week.
see my momma use to get them at the a&p store here.
the a&p store happens to be where my life of crime first started. i stole my first pack of crayons there when i was like 8 years old. those big fat crayons that came 5 in a box. i stole 'em. got busted stealing them so "technically" i didn't steal them...i tried to steal them i should say.
but yeah, we had that book. i'd have to lick that damn stamp and i'd get so excited if i'd fill a page cause that meant something new was coming.
such simple times.
My grandmother talks about that period as well. I'm actually getting rid of all my stuff. Not that I have much. Books. I'm rich in books. Too bad that doesn't equal money. But that's ok. I got myself in my own situation I admit, it's a struggle, but I'm managing. My problem is after I got laid off, 3 years ago, I went to finish school. And now I find myself in a horrible job market. I live in a house that's heated by wood stove on a dirt road, I drive an old beat up pick up, I (temporarily) work 5 minutes down the road (without traffic) and we have an acre garden. Now if we get chickens, maybe a goat, we won't have to go to the grocery store. We are working on it. My happiness is more important than all my stuff, and at the moment happiness eludes me. I'm sick of seeing all these Hummers and Escalades, I just wonder, how on earth can they afford it. Oh well.
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