The Great Depression

My father lived through this, hoboed around looking for work and finding little, got involved with unemployed marches and got nightsticked by the cops. A bad time, with governments that generally had no idea what to do, and reacted badly. My father (and to a lesser extent my mother) told a lot of stories about this, and while he undoubtedly romanticized it, this was clearly a tough time.

Some time back, while I was in grad school, I read the work of Richard Ely, an economist from the 1930's. He studied the causes of the Great Depression, and some of his conclusions were very interesting. His theory was that the rise of the Internal Combustion Engine during the 1910's and the 1920's was a driving (bad pun) force behind the Depression. The cause was simple. Gas powered farm equipment was coming on-line from 1910 thru 1925, which in effect ended the need to raise animals like horses and oxes to run farms and move goods around. This ended up leaving farmers with millions of acres that were formerly used as grazing land for these animals. The problem was that while the demand for draft animals was going down, the mortgages on those grazing lands was not going away. So the farmers tried to put that land to good use by planting extra crops thinking that if they worked more land that it would produce enough income to pay off the debt on the land. That didn't work... Read more

It's coming again, folks, in a home near you.  Save your $ now and plant a garden. The party is over.

Ready for the re-run?UPDATE:Yesterday, Our Glorius and Magnificent Fearless Leader said we're not experiencing a recession, just a slow down. WTF is a recession, if not a slow down?Based on the news that filters down to us from on high, and on my observations here in Florida, this mess looks nothing like any recession I've experienced in my nearly seventy years. That's why I've invoked the 'D' word.God help us if I'm not mistaken.

Economic depressions are sad and trying; but they are not tragedies.

The Great Depression was indeed terrible, but it was not (in the US) the apocalyptic catastrophe that it is often made out to be.  Even in the worst depths of the Depression, Americans maintained a higher standard of living than over 90% of the rest of the world; the Democratic system of government survived, and there was little violence (less than in the prosperous 60s, in fact).  This was not the case elsewhere.  Americans did not expericence foreign invasion/occupation, guerilla war, mass starvation, 'strategic bombing', hyperinflation, or despotic/totalititarian government.  Few countries can say the same (Canada, Australia, New Zeland...maybe Sweden?).  The Depression could have been a lot, lot worse.

Ended or shortened significantly millions of lives. Ruined many others, and a generation never fully recovered.

It was a tough time and a lot of people suffered. I don't know if I would consider it a tragic event, especially compared to other things on the list.

This was a tough time that none of us today can even imagine. And it was world-wide, not just something happening in America. People who blame Herbert Hoover for causing a world-wide depression only a few months after taking the oath of office, are either blind or crazy. However, let me mention one good thing about the Depression! A lady in our church died recently at the age of 100, and remembered the Depression real well. She said it was the best time of our lives! The reason: People really cared about each other then. Neighbors watched out for each other, and people helped each other. We weren't all material-minded. And for those who claim that poverty causes crime, neighborhoods were much safer in those days than they are today.

As bad as it was in this country (US), I've heard it was worse in other parts of the world. Some of the people I've known who lived through it tended to appreciate what they had a bit more.