Great Depression 2

[Union Yes]

Rewind to the 1920's. The American dollar was backed by a gold standard. A restrictive currency that is as valuable as the amount of gold that our treasury owned. Combine that restrictive currency with a gigantic wealth divide. At that time the wealthy elite owned almost all of America's wealth. The wealthiest 10% of our population owned 90% of ALL wealth. Leaving 90% of our population nearly broke with almost NO purchase power.

Sound familiar?

How can a national economy sustain itself with nearly all of it's population broke?

Well, it didn't sustain itself.

Few could afford to buy much of anything. Inventories rose. Warehouses filled with goods that couldn't sell. Similar to modern day shipping yards on the Eastern seaboard. Filled with acres of new cars that won't sell. Few can afford to buy a new car. Inventories are rising as we speak. Not just the auto sector but all across our dieing manufacturing base.

As a result of rising inventories, a broke population, a restrictive currency, and the wealth divide, it all culminated on Oct 29, 1929. The stock market crash that sent America and our economy crashing into the Great Depression.

The Great Depression set the stage for a national call for change. FDR was elected on a platform of change. Sound familiar? FDR made change happen. FDR was also handed a gigantic shit sandwich, the GD, upon his election. Obama was handed a similar sandwich. FDR swiftly pushed the passage of the New Deal. A massive investment in America. FDR put the nation back to work. Unions rose up in the 30's and fought for and won wage standards. Wages rose and created the blue collar middle class.

The creation of this new middle class was so powerful that it built suburban America.

Today, the wealthiest 10% own 85-90% of all wealth. The wealth divide is growing. The remaining 90% of the population is watching their wages fall or losing their jobs due to layoffs. Unemployment is rising and combined with stagnant/falling wages, further sapping the earning and purchase power of the bottom 90%. As a result, inventories are rising and goods aren't selling.

Our modern day "gold standard" is the declining value of our dollar. A declining dollar restricts the power and value of our currency. Add to that, the massive interest payment on our $14 trillion dollar debt and our dollar is literally consuming itself.

A weak dollar, a massive and growing wealth divide, a broke population, rising inventories. WE'VE BEEN DOWN THIS PATH BEFORE, THE RUN UP TO THE GREAT DEPRESSION.

Add to that a catastrophic Health Care crisis and our $14 Trillion dollar debt, the cost of funding our war machine and the stage has been set for GREAT DEPRESSION 2.

And this time I don't believe we'll come out of it as a nation. Not with a $14 Trillion dollar debt hanging over us.

It's been said that if we don't learn from our history, we are doomed to repeat it. Well, we are repeating it and plunging into GD2.

Why can't America learn from it's past and change? GREED, IMPERIALISM, CORPORATE TYRANNY.

How can we change?

1. Health Care reform.

1a. Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. We unionized our way out of the first GD by creating wage standards. Rising wages created the middle class. We need our Unions now more than ever. A dieing and shrinking middle class is the proof. Record numbers leaving the middle class and entering poverty are more proof. We need our Unions and a living wage standard.

2. End Corporate person hood and Corporate tyranny. Severly restrict corporate lobbying. Change to government financed political campaigns instead of corporate funded campaigns. No more Corp money for politicians. No more lobbyist gifts for politicians. Heavy handed oversight of ALL politicians to ensure they stay corruption-free.

2a. Repeal of our disastrous "Free Trade" agreements. We sold our nation's soul when we gave away our manufacturing base.

3. Election reform. Hand counted paper ballots.

4. 75% reduction in all military spending. End of all foreign wars that we are fighting. Closure of most of our 700+ military bases worldwide.

Those topics are just the beginning of what we must do to change America and bring it back up the cliff that it is currently plunging off of.

We the people, elected Obama and a Dem controlled legislature to make that change happen. Where the f*** is our New Deal?

America, change or die watching it all come crashing down on top of us.

:patriot:

[Warpy]

1. FDR acted swiftly, but did a lot of the wrong things at first

For instance, he tried to raise farm incomes by dumping produce and creating shortages in an attempt to get prices back up. Unfortunately, that didn't work in a country where prices were rock bottom because few had the ability to pay anything.

He had to do the wrong things first, it seems, in order to find out all the old thinking wouldn't work, that supply and demand broke down when everybody was flat broke.

That's when he bit the bullet and became a traitor to his class by taking wealth off the very top in high taxes and recirculating it at the bottom in public jobs.

That's also the only thing that will work now.

[Union Yes]

3. Obama did some things wrong at first too..

Geitner, Burnanke, "too big to fail", increasing our presence in the Afghan war, just to name a few.

I hope that Obama will see the light and change his policies. I think he is at that crossroads now. He knows if America doesn't change that our nation is doomed.

I think Ted Kennedy's passing will cause Obama to reflect deeply and see the need for change and see the light.

That's my hope anyway.

Hope is all I got left.

Peace

[debbierlus]

2. It will have to break. It seems nothing short of total catastrophe will wake up up enough people

There IS no economic recovery - it is a lie.

They have bought some extra time, but they have not fixed any of the underlying causes.

Hubris is always the downfall of the powerful.

People think we are waiting for the upswing...we haven't even truly fallen yet (not to disregard the people who have already suffered severely from this economic devastation, my point is that it will be much more widespread the next go around and pretending will not be an option).

[Union Yes]

6. Sad but true. It may need to collapse in order to wake people up.

[earth mom]

19. Totally agree. nt

[RoccoR5955]

4. K&R. We need a new FDR to work for WE THE PEOPLE! n/t

[Union Yes]

7. Damn straight.

[rhett o rick]

5. BUT, BUT, isnt the bubble back. Just look at Wall Street. Ignore the poor slobs out of work

look at Wall Street. The bubble is back. Maybe this time I can hit it big, maybe this time.

[Union Yes]

9. Yeah aint rollercoaster economics great?

:sarcasm:

Highs followed by crushing lowpoints in our economy. People starve to death during the lows.

Free Market capitalism is the bestest!!!!!! Oxyrush says so!!!!!

:hi:

[rhett o rick]

10. Some how the wealthy get richer and the rest of us get screwed. But we keep going back

to the roulette wheel called the Stock Market. When will we ever learn?

[Union Yes]

12. Never. The ponzi scheme known as the stock market has somehow become embedded in 'Murika's dna.

America is genetically predispositioned to believe that we can't survive without the stock market.

We simply can't be this fuckin stupid can we? It's gotta be genetic.:shrug:

[rhett o rick]

14. You wish it can be blamed on genetics. I believe that since the comfortable 50's

the American public has become totally fixated on materialism. The need to buy, buy, buy has ruined us as a people. People will work themselves to death to be able to buy a bigger boat than their neighbor. They are unwilling to share because it will cramp their life style. They go deep into debt to obtain the goal of more toys. And with this of course is the desire for the big win, at Las Vegas, lotto's or the stock market.

Too much comfort has corrupted us, and made us vulnerable to the get rich quick artists like the stock market. We believe the "investment" lie. Putting your money in the stock market is no more investing in business than betting at the horse races.

[Union Yes]

16. Testify! I'd have a hard time saying it any better.

Some of us don't buy the lie that 'murka's economy is driven by the stock market.

"They go deep into debt to obtain the goal of more toys."

And that's when they enter slavery and servitude. The American economy is one gigantic fucking ponzi scheme. Meant to distribute the wealth to the upper 10% and enslave and starve the serf class.

Take care

Peace

:hi:

[rhett o rick]

18. "The American economy is one gigantic fucking ponzi scheme." Says it well. nt

[NeoGreen]

8. Soon to be known as the Greater Depression... (nt)

[Union Yes]

11. That could easily describe it too.

:hi:

[lunatica]

13. Well, to put it in understandable terms

I and my entire administrative unit in UC Berkeley are waiting for our already announced lay off letters which give us a 60 day notice. That means that we're out of a job in 60 days. So we're not even counted yet, but we're certainly joining the unemployed this year.

The conversations at work are very much about seeing the facts of what this means in the bigger picture of whats happening to the country as a whole. We're trying to think outside of the box. It's a struggle when you know your familiar way of life is not coming back, because you simply don't know what's coming, yet the future isn't clear either.

[Union Yes]

15. My heart goes out to you.

Sad that we choose to warmonger rather than educate our populace.

What's wrong with America can be summed up in that simple sentence, and it sickens me.

I hope by some miracle that you don't get laid off. And I hope our nation will one day pull its head out of its collective ass and wake the fuck up and see what we are doing wrong as a nation.

Hope is all I got left.

Best of luck to you in the future!

[lunatica]

20. Thanks for the support

We try to be philosophical about it because we all believe our old way of life is gone now. For all Americans. We're in the midst of a revolution as profound as the Industrial Revolution.

[WonderGrunion]

17. Electric Bugaloo?

I hate sequels. They're never as good as the original.