If we did have another great depression ?

[blues90]

First off I have no idea of what it would look like but I imagine it would be quite different from the last one .

I have to wonder if people have the knowledge and energy to get through it . I seems to me people have become soft and much to dependant on the services we have gotten so used to after so many years .

Beside this we don't have the land and resources to grow our own food or build whatever shelter we may need .

I wonder if it would become one mad rush to hold up in abandoned box stores try to store what food would be left or would it just be one huge shoot out .

It's a whole new world out there .

[firefox_fan]

1. Without much of a social net...

Most people would be screwed. PERHAPS, they would develop social nets as the need arises... Neighbors helping neighbors kind of thing. But I worry that the individualism in our society may have gotten us to a point of no return.

[MadMaddie]

2. Yes you are right most people would be screwed...however;

Man has a natural survival instinct and we would survive....

Welcome to DU!:hi:

[truedelphi]

4. Yep, individualism is rampant. And I have found that among liberals

it is rampant.

And not just the individualism - but the property codes. During the 1929 and on Depression, people survived in my old neighborhood in Chicago because they built themselves tent cities - and the more well-off people would stop over on their way home from work and give food or such.

Can you imagine a tent city being allowed in your neighborhood? In the heart of suburbia?

[firefox_fan]

6. Hmmm... Good point... I wonder if people would soften up...

I mean, even wealthy people would realize pretty soon that having completely desperate masses of people nearby would be trouble for them as well. But perhaps they'd just go off to their private island.

[Mika]

17. When the cries of "eat the rich" start up, the rich will allow tent cities (with gates, of course).

[firefox_fan]

18. LOL, true. Unavoidable.

Especially, if the poor have plenty of guns!

[roamer65]

24. It will be much harder to have one, but it can happen.

By breaking the dollar's link to gold in 1971, the government is now able to stop a deflationary depression by firing up the printing presses. That is something they could not do in 1929, due to the gold standard. Japan stopped a deflationary depression in the 1990's by dropping their BOJ interest rate to near zero.
The one type of depression they cannot stop is an inflationary one, much like Germany in the 1920's. I expect our next depression will be an inflationary one.

[Sanctified]

23. Here in Oregon

We have Dignity Village.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dignity_Village

http://www.kwamba.com/

[lvx35]

9. I think they'll come back.

Give us some $9 gas and you'll see social nets spring up out of the woodwork. I think the death of the community is largely related to cars. When people are forced to operate more locally and work together on transport and such, community will come back in a big way.

Of course it will be brutally not fun getting there though.

[firefox_fan]

11. Probably right. After all, societies developed

Not out of love, but out of need. People needed each other to survive.

[jody]

3. IMO health care for most would be the first to go accompanied by near starvation and loss of many

government services.

Those dependent on government for their retirement check, e.g. retired military, would be shocked at how little they would receive.

Minority groups would be further disfranchised and those who have been trained by the military for combat would be sorely tempted to provide for their loved ones by whatever means available.

In short, what could easily happen is a complete social breakdown not unlike that portrayed in several movies.

[Wednesdays]

26. Indeed

"Those dependent on government for their retirement check, e.g. retired military, would be shocked at how little they would receive."

It'll be the 1932 Bonus Army crisis all over again!

[Selatius]

5. If we did have one, maybe Americans would elect another leftist like FDR.

Either that, or they elect a fascist who promises them a better future but intends to give them a nightmare of a future instead.

[Wiley50]

7. Totally Spot On except it's When, not If

Remember we owe China alone 350 billion

and as long as this murderous corporate oil grab continues
it's growing exponentally

[Marrah_G]

8. People would step up

Some may not, but the majority would. Life goes on, children need food and a roof. Humans can adapt easier then one would think. My grandmother raised 6 kids on her own during the depression. As an 1st generation Irish from Dorchester life wasn't easy and my mother slept on a mattress under the dining table for a good part of her growing up. If they wanted to see a movie they would collect cans until they had enough. You learn to live with what you have, you adjust. You get by and you help yur nieghbors to do so also.

A real economic crisis might do alot to make people rethink what is truly important in life. Funy thing is, those people who have alot now, have the farthest to fall and would have the most difficult time adjusting.

[firefox_fan]

15. But your mother never adapted, she grew up having nothing...

My grandmother's story is very similar, actually. People these days have had everything all their life. It's very hard to adapt backwards, once you've had it good. Perhaps not impossible, but very hard.

[Marrah_G]

20. My grandmother did though

People would adapt. If there was a horrendous event that threw us back to the dark ages, people WOULD adapt. Sure some would not, but I give people more credit then they often give themselves. In extraordinary events the most ordinary of people can do amazing things. The human spirit would push on and people would get through. Children would still be born and human instinct to raise them would shine through.

[davsand]

10. Large scale riots and other mayhem.

That is how the gloom and doom folks have been forecasting it anyhow...

There are entire encampments in remote places devoted to surviving the predicted societal collapse if we have an economic failure in this country. We used to laugh at these guys and call them "weekend warriors" and loonies because they all ran around with guns wearing cammies in their off time.

Frankly, I still think that they are a bit off the mark, but I also think that our country--especially the metro parts of it--is not ready for the chaos that wide spread hunger and panic will create. If our food supply is interrupted and the electrical grid goes out, I do not think that any law enforcement agency or even any national guard unit will be able to contain the violence and anger that will break out.

The rural areas will not be safe either, because the looters will roam as far as they need to in search of food and shelter.

I'm not packing for a mountain hideaway, but I have to admit, I have wondered about it from time to time in recent years.



Laura

[firefox_fan]

13. Man, just by seeing the chaos created by minor problems

In big cities, I'm certain that anything major would result in total breakdown of all systems. I have no doubts. The image that comes to mind is the traffic jam created by all the vehicles trying to get out of NYC in Independence Day. Remember that? Of course, they all end up dying...

[ComerPerro]

12. We could be having it. During the 1930s, the wealthy still lived very lavish lifestyles

and nowadays, since the media is geared toward these people, then all we see is how things are for them. That's why you can find people fawning over how great the ecnonomy is, even when most households are one missed paycheck away from homelessness.

[firefox_fan]

14. What do you think would happen to Europe?

They'd go into a recession too if the US goes?... My backup plan is to go there, since I have may relatives and friends there.

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. Wasn't our depression World Wide? I think we all would suffer from another depression.

:shrug:

[blues90]

19. yes it affected most of the globe

China did ok since they had a cheap labor source but everyone felt some effect . Now there was WWII to pull us out but we don;t have any place for rosy the riveter now days and we don;t need another war .

I imagine many people since the population has grown so much sinc e then would be in bad shape .

perhaps tent cities would sprout up or there is always life in your cars parked somewhere .

[SammyWinstonJack]

21. Well I own my car, it's small, but I guess I could live in it! Thanks for nothing, you

"value voting" republican morons! You have screwed us all!

[Igel]

22. Yes; and IIRC, the US was a latecomer to it. n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. People would survive

they always do, the worst of times brings the best in people