The Great Depression was a time that most of us can’t remember because we weren’t there. Some of us have heard first hand accounts via parents or grandparents, but we were not part of one of the worst times in history. While we are very careful about the word right now, one can’t help but think we might be entering the second Great Depression. With joblessness and homelessness at a record high, what makes it any less of a depression than the last one?
The government passed a few laws that would bail out the stock market should another depression threaten us, and there are a few other laws that are set in place to help stimulate the economy to prevent another depression. But the feeling in the air and the looks on the faces of the unemployed is a modern version of a depression. We want the government to fix it and we want them to fix it fast. The tipping point, according to many experts on the Great Depression, was that this depression was started over the summer with fuel prices that cut into every single industry imaginable. Who said war was good for the economy?
As we look around at our neighbors and we watch homes go one the market and sit empty for months on end, we all have the same depression like fear that hit in the thirties. For our fear we have been caught by a government that is trying but can only do so much. The real strength lies in our humanity. The real strength of the Great Depression wasn’t in the economic loss but the way people had to turn on each other. Our choice for this depression is: are we going to do the same or are we going to learn from history?
