#51
Posted: 3/7/09 at 3:50pm
yawper,
I think a key difference between that Depression and the coming one is that during the former most of the securities were held by wealthy individuals and homes were owned by folks that could actually afford them. The Dust Bowl was a double whammy. In the run up to the Great Depression less than half the population owned homes. And those that bought didn't take out 30-yr mortgages either.
Presently, the bulk of securities are held and managed by institutional investors doing the bidding of individuals nearly oblivious to dealing of their agents. I need not recount the sub-prime mortgage debacle. We are now very much an entitlement nation with many folks thinking of themselves as rich or well on the path. You know, the "everybody works for me" kind of folks.
I interact with a number of college students who are already bummed upon discovering that some folks who work in a "plant" actually earn more than their anticipated starting salary. One of them is my neighbor's daughter, a college senior, who is distraught over a recent job offer that would pay her less than her dad would who operates several mobile taco stands that partially put her simple azz through college. And daddy paid for her personal trainer at the gym with his "greasy taco money" while she was in college.
My grandma was a very simple woman who used to say "your grandpa and me survived the depression because po' folks know how to live po'". Generation PlayStation is not so well-equipped to deal with Doomsday.
The thought of having to enter a war to get us out of the present jam is unthinkable on several levels. First, not even silver-tongued Obama could sell us on the idea. Second, we no longer produce any sh*t of value to a war effort other than armament. And finally, we just don't have the fight in us of past generations.
My boss is fond of suggesting that 911 was a joke compared to the disaster that would ensue were we to experience a nationwide Blackberry outage for a week. Oh, the horror!
I think a key difference between that Depression and the coming one is that during the former most of the securities were held by wealthy individuals and homes were owned by folks that could actually afford them. The Dust Bowl was a double whammy. In the run up to the Great Depression less than half the population owned homes. And those that bought didn't take out 30-yr mortgages either.
Presently, the bulk of securities are held and managed by institutional investors doing the bidding of individuals nearly oblivious to dealing of their agents. I need not recount the sub-prime mortgage debacle. We are now very much an entitlement nation with many folks thinking of themselves as rich or well on the path. You know, the "everybody works for me" kind of folks.
I interact with a number of college students who are already bummed upon discovering that some folks who work in a "plant" actually earn more than their anticipated starting salary. One of them is my neighbor's daughter, a college senior, who is distraught over a recent job offer that would pay her less than her dad would who operates several mobile taco stands that partially put her simple azz through college. And daddy paid for her personal trainer at the gym with his "greasy taco money" while she was in college.
My grandma was a very simple woman who used to say "your grandpa and me survived the depression because po' folks know how to live po'". Generation PlayStation is not so well-equipped to deal with Doomsday.
The thought of having to enter a war to get us out of the present jam is unthinkable on several levels. First, not even silver-tongued Obama could sell us on the idea. Second, we no longer produce any sh*t of value to a war effort other than armament. And finally, we just don't have the fight in us of past generations.
My boss is fond of suggesting that 911 was a joke compared to the disaster that would ensue were we to experience a nationwide Blackberry outage for a week. Oh, the horror!
#FactsMatter...your feelings not so much.
