The Great Depression... pictures of our own future...?

[FirstLight]

Take a look at the unemployment lines, the bread lines and the homeless who are selling the tires off their cars for food...

What happens when nobody can BUY the tires off your car ...?

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/photoessay.htm


This Photo Essay is powerful and prophetic. Look at the pics and ask yourself, what will you do when it goes from bad to worse? What WON'T you do to survive and kep your family alive and fed...?

(And another page: http://history1900s.about.com/od/photographs/tp/greatdepressionpictures.htm)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I may sound like a harbinger of doom & gloom...
But knowing our History is vital to understanding our future as well. And MILLIONS of people will lose unemployment in Jan/Feb 2010. And the next bubble is already getting ready to pop...and climate change will surely be affecting our crops in the next couple years...

Merry Christmas folks, be Thankful if you have a warm home, soft bed,and food in the pantry

....FOR NOW

[dysfunctional press]

1. "and climate change will surely be affecting our crops in the next couple years..."

really?

in what ways and to what extent, EXACTLY?

[FirstLight]

3. if you can't see the drastic changes afoot on the planet

I am not going to waste my time doing searches and offering you studies, etc.

get a clue, regardless of what YOU think about climate change being 'real or not'...the planet is in a big shift and the models are pointing to it happening much faster and more drastically than forecast even 3 yrs ago by the IPCC

[dysfunctional press]

7. "and climate change will surely be affecting our crops in the next couple years..."

that was YOUR statement.
i never denied that climate change is happening- but what makes you so cocksure that it "will surely be affecting our crops in the next couple years..."?
and since you ARE so cocksure about it-you must have some idea what those changes will be, and what crops will be affected in "the next couple years", so i'm simply asking you to elaborate, in order to help those of us who don't know how or when the crops are going to be affected the way that you do.

[FirstLight]

10. you can take your need to argue and stuff it, thanks.

there are plenty of people here at DU that make even worse 'cocksure' statements...whatever.
:wave:

[dysfunctional press]

12. what about your need to preach stuff you apparently know NOTHING factual about?

:eatme:

[gateley]

2. Looking at this pic the thought went through my head that if a family

today had pitched their ersatz tent in a field like this, they'd be made to leave. We don't even have the land, or apparently the right, to even be able to do this.

Bookmarking to come back and view the photo essay - I know it will open my eyes and hurt my heart.

[FirstLight]

5. yep, already happening...

think of the 'tent cities' being 'eradicated' in cities across the Nation (Sacramento comes to mind)

then again, it takes PAID cops and whatnot to kick the squatters out/off the land... I wonder what happend when even the cities go broke and can't pay the cops...and our "national guard" is in Iraq or Afganistan...

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. People DO NEED, and badly, a course in Econ 101

and actually in HISTORY. We were THIS close to an actual depression, and I mean that by the actual TECHNICAL definition of one. This recession is BAD... but a depression? Hardly.

So what happens when the depression does not get here?

Yes I know but PEOPLE are still losing jobs.

Yes... but a far LOWER rate than they were in January. Guess what? Before the numbers go positive they have to go DOWN... and numbers will start to turn into the black by at worst third quarter of next year. I am hoping, for political reasons, by the second at the latest.

They are ALWAYS a lagging indicator... ALWAYS, in any recovery.

Why is it that some people are betting on the abject complete collapse of the economy? Oh and spare me the failure of capitalism... given we are NOT living in a capitalist system or rather ours is as much capitalism as the USSR was actually communist. :sarcasm:

Oh and global weather change is real before the lecture... and will challenge all kinds of economies, but worst case, a depression is the least of our problems.

[FirstLight]

9. just because it doesn't look like this to YOU, doesn't mean it isn't already happening

There are people in desperation and the numbers are growing drastically. Jobs are not coming back. and I am not betting on this, i am seeing it unravel in my own town...

regardless of the 'economic definition' of depression... this IS what is happening to us ...AGAIN
except there won't be any soup or bread lines this time

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Here is an idea, start to look at the macro-economic picture

what you're looking at is the MICRO-Economic level. And at the micro level most folks are still facing many troubles. But things like GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT have gone positive... that is a core indicator. It was in the negative numbers... it is now positive. Usually jobs in the positive numbers lag positive GNP growth anywhere from six to nine months.

Rate of job loss has also GONE DOWN, significantly so at the macro level the bleeding has slowed down. And after a while yes some jobs will come back. In fact more jobs than people believe will come back. The mix will be different and that is a whole different conversation, but jobs in absolute numbers will come back.

As to the soup likes... care to go to any of my local food banks? The ones I give money to since they can make the money go farther than actual food? Yes, they have lines.

This is not a depression. It is a bad recession, a really deep recession, but not a depression. Now if GNP goes negative... then I will start shitting my pans. Double dips are never good... and then you could see a real depression... and that is a lesson I don't wish on the US. You think there's pain now... you have no idea how much worst things can get.

By the way based on how numbers were pointing to on the way down I was willing to bet on a depression. Trends were just accelerating to scary numbers. Perhaps it is this little ability to read macro economic indicators... and for the damn record I wish the White House ordered the reprinting of the M-3 money supply, far better than inflation to be honest.

[OneGrassRoot]

31. Honestly, a micro level is the only we most of us.....

CAN view it, as it is what we are seeing and experiencing in our daily lives. All things are a matter of perspective, but it's hard to put suffering into a micro or macro context, IMHO. It simply is, and it's frightening as it increases.

[RKP5637]

6. We went through this once in America, any thinking it can't happen again are

rationalizing it away and not seeing the big picture, that being SH** happens. We are a very young country. And we did quite well until greed and excessive capitalism took hold.

[Blue_In_AK]

8. Phenomenal photos

The one of the farmer and sons in the dust storm -- wow...

[FirstLight]

11. ya...and each one has the story or explanation

very eye opening indeed.

[JDPriestly]

13. Sign of the times.

A building I know of used to house garment manufacturing businesses in downtown L.A. A few days ago I got a request for donations to renovate that building into a women's homeless shelter. I don't know whether the shelter will be on all floors or just one, and I recognize that the offices of a homeless service were in that building years ago, but there we go: from jobs to a cot and a hot (meal) as they used to say.

[RagAss]

15. By this time next year we'll be cooking our fucking pets on a grill !

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. No we won't

but that's ok.

[Deja Q]

23. No, we won't - I agree.

Life is what we make of it - these gloom'n'doom wankers can live that way if they want, but they really needn't spread it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. I understand the fear, and trust me on the way down

I was all for joining them. All macro numbers and trends pointed to a depression... but so far it's worked to prevent one.

Again, readying the macro stats...

[Hannah Bell]

27. pets? we'll be bbq-ing grubs & crickets, i tell ya! weaving blankets out of cattails

& & eating clay for the mineral content.

dirt cookies!

gloooooobal warrrrrrming gonna get your mamma!

[mamaleah]

28. So you are saying I am screwed because I fail at crochetting and knitting?

Damnit.

[Arctic Dave]

17. I found this picture odd. Look at the flyer on the wall from "True Story"

[jwirr]

21. Not so odd. True Story was a magazine that women read about

"love" stories and related issues. That they would have a story about Hitler does not surprise me. That is a very good picture with the culture of the times visible in many ways.

[Arctic Dave]

22. The fact that he was in the early stage of of WWII and people wanted to know about his love life

seems a bit funny. Imagine if Cosmo had a cover for Osama.

[jwirr]

25. Either the pic is later issue or it is doctored. I did not think of that.

[Hannah Bell]

26. doubtful. the picture is sourced "1940". True Story Magazine didn't start as a women's magazine.

In 1919 the eccentric publisher Bernarr Macfadden began publication of True Story Magazine. According to Macfadden the magazine was inspired by personal letters of "confession" sent to him in his capacity as the editor/founder of Physical Culture.

Sensing a widespread interest in the changing social/sexual codes of modern America, Macfadden put out a new magazine filled with first-hand accounts of social problems such as pre-marital sex, illegitimacy, adultery, unemployment, social relations, and crime (alongside ever-so slightly risque movie-stills of each story's most dramatic moments—the kiss, the temptation, the horrible realization)...

Over time True Story evolved into a magazine that told mild tales of women's sexual misadventure, tempered by strong doses of normative moral sermonizing....By the 1930s True Story was a tamer version of the original confessional concept, and a decidedly less exciting one. Although True Story lost its male readership along with its male confessions, the magazine did continue to offer one of the few working-class voices in the marketplace.

In the 1920s, the period in which True Story shocked middle-class Americans into a series of renewed (and somewhat successful) efforts at censorship, the magazine was an innovative, raunchy, working-class pulp that purveyed an eclectic range of stories designed to appeal to both a male and female audience.


http://www.bookrags.com/research/true-story-magazine-sjpc-04/

[Delphinus]

18. Wow.

Thank you, FirstLight.

Very powerful stories.

[Warpy]

19. I'll get through the way my grandmother did

She owned her house and so do I. She had a small portfolio to provide income and so do I. She survived by eating oatmeal 3 times a day. I'll do the equivalent if I have to, I've done it before.

My other granny was married to the superintendent of schools, my grandfather. She kept a pot of soup on the stove for any hungry person who showed up. If my grandfather wasn't home, they didn't even have to weed the flowerbeds for their supper. I'll do that if income allows.

I've long been fascinated by hobo solutions to problems, like starting a fire with a dead battery and bit of steel wool or boiling water in a paper cup. I know the rationale behind Mulligan Stew. If I don't fall that far, I'll teach folks who have.

[FirstLight]

20. well put

I hear tales of my grandmother who had to sell eggs and take in sewing to make ends meet, but was always able to find some more dried beans or something to add to soup to feed a neighbor who stopped in.

If you have the ability to have your house and keep your house and make it work, good for you..many don't have that. Thanks for being willing to help others, it's what will get many of us through the tough times...

[blues90]

29. Iv'e seen the photo's many times , but you know.

I can't imagine it being quite the same now. Not that it can't or won't happen but now someone owns every damn scrap of land so you can't just make a shack. There are so many more roads and building now and car all over the place.

It may very well happen but it wil not look the same or be the same. I feel it may be much worse since now many own guns.

[cutlassmama]

30. Great pics. Thanks for posting.

[Postman]

32. We'd like to thank you Herbert Hoover, for really showing us the way....

You made us what we are today....