How bad is it going to get?

[FormerRepublican]

I see how bad things are in this country - much worse than the government lets on, in my opinion - and I wonder how bad things are going to get. I had found this first person account of the Great Depression online a while back, and I refer to it from time to time as a reminder of what we have endured. It's also a reminder that the present Republican stupidity is merely a continuance of a longstanding problem. If we leave them in power, then what we have endured is what we will once again endure. It's a powerful motivator.

I can't help but think as I view current events that we are reliving our past history - some of the worst history of our nation, unfortunately.

Here's a link you might find interesting:

http://www.rinfret.com/depression.html

[Skittles]

1. pretty bad

that feeling we have now - that things are bad, getting worse - and we still have three YEARS of this thievery and incomptenece? It is very depressing indeed.

[FormerRepublican]

2. What I don't understand is why people keep voting for Republicans.

It should be clear to just about everyone by now that the Republicans in power are both incompetent and clueless. So why do people still support them? Why, when people can't afford health care and the government supports employers no longer offering insurance, does the public still support them? Why, when people are paying through the nose for gas while Bush, Cheney and his cronies line their pockets, are people still supporting them? Why, when Bush threatens to use the military against us instead of proposing increased funding and support in the even of a flu pandemic, do people still support them? Why, when Bush balloons the deficit to astronomic proportions with nothing to show for it except money lining the pockets of the (small number of) rich, does the public support them? I could go on and on with the blown policies of this administration. But why, oh WHY, does the public still support them?

[Rambis]

8. Abortion, gay marriage and scared shitless to change horses mid stream

Not good excuses to support the POS they vote against every interest they have to support them on these issues.

[HughBeaumont]

10. Them GOOD OL' WEDGE ISSUES!!!

Think the ones listed in the post above, and think WHY they'll be chided and framed against us as much as possible . . . but never actually made illegal.

See, they lose these wedge issues and there goes their golden bait. There goes the wad of cash dangled in front of the proverbial tramp. It's like "Yes we suck ass and can't do a damned thing right to save our lives - BUT JOHN KERRY IS PRO-BAYBEH KILLIN!!!"

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. 'uns, gays and God

I don't get to eat, but them gays don't get to marry...

Unfortunately our leaders have not been able to frame this for what it is... CYA

[Skittles]

17. my boyfriend says most Americans are very stupid

I resisted that notion for some time but post-Katrina and in light of the mess in Iraq, when I hear the feeble excuses conservative coworkers are STILL making for bush inc, I cannot help but think Tom may be correct

[CrispyQ]

3. Thanks for the good link.

It is sad that so many in our society do not recall the Great Depression. I only know of it through tales my grandparents told, but those stories stay with me to this day. I doubt many of today's youth have a clue just how bad it really was. It was not doing without the latest video game or latest designer clothes, it was doing without food, heat, the basics of survival. The bigger you are the harder you fall & if this country goes the route of the Depression again, there are going to be millions & millions of disillusioned people who won't know what hit them.


snip...

Every tear I saw my mother shed was over the lack of money. All we seemed to do was to, literally, count the pennies in the house among all of us. We fought over money almost all the time, my mother would go into a panic if she could not account for every penny. Not one cent was ever foolishly spent and not one cent ever went for anything that was not vital to life.


===

I liked this quote too:

"There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor. The poor can think of nothing else." Oscar Wilde

[bumblebee1]

6. To most of today's youth

Depression is a disorder that you take Zoloft or Paxil for.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. RLOL

soon they will learn that they won't be able to play with the play station, or afford a new game, mostly afford bread will be difficult... it might be good for them, realize what is truly important

[Tesha]

4. Did you read "The Stand"?

That bad. Only Flagg will probably win.

Tesha

[renie408]

9. That well, huh?

Jeez Louise. That was the creepiest, most depressing book ever.

I just can't get that depressed.

[halobeam]

5. Thanks for the link...

I read the whole thing. Well worth it.

[ChiciB1]

7. I've Been Getting That Feeling Myself More & More These Days!

I have finally decided that my husband and I are going to sell our 5 acre plot of land down in North Port, Florida BEFORE we go "belly up!"

I hope it's not too late! North Port is the fastest growing city in Florida right now and I have my signs ready to post!

My next dilemma will be is where will I put my money?? I'm so afraid to put it with any institution even though I have a current IRA! We are newly retired and I'm afraid I don't have enough financial knowledge, nor do I have the shrewdness to know which way to turn.

I consider myself LUCKIER than many because we bought the land back in 1989 for a steal and stand to reap 12 times the amount we paid for it, but still taxes will get a lot, and then where to put it???

I put this link into my favorites to refer to on occasion! Thank you so much!

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Many of us have been getting that feeling

and to be honest, when they say we only have 5.1 unemployment I laugh, why? those not receiving assistance are NOT counted

Inflation... well when yuo don't take into account the basic basket, easy... anybody care to tell me how hard and fast chicken gone up?

[rhett o rick]

14. This 250 year experiment called democracy was fun. The founding fathers

wrote the Constitution to protect the common man from the rich and powerful. Well, they are back. They are raping the environment, sucking cash out of middle class taxpayers pockets, using middle class men and women to wage a war for their profiteering purposes, violating the Constitution right and left, and now the SC won't even stop them. I see George suspending the 2008 vote pending the end of the war. Who is going to stop him? Bring out the guillotines. Republican thy middle name is greedy, thy last name is ________ (fill in the blank).

[StopRoy]

18. There's another view on the founding fathers

Some feel that the Constitution was written to protect the rich and powerful from the common man. I don't agree with all of this, but it's an interesting read:

http://www.beyondplutocracy.com/chap03.htm

[cassiepriam]

15. Very bad. nt

[EVDebs]

16. The whole tax cutting policy of the Repubs is disingenous

While at the same time they support the corporate welfare programs and tax policies that make it easier for multinationals to offshore capital and jobs, leaving the middle class to make up the difference in taxes. Commondreams did a story on Warren Buffett urging an increase in corporate taxes

www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0306-01.htm

with this quote: "Corporate income taxes in fiscal 2003 accounted for 7.4% of all federal tax receipts, down from a post-war peak of 32% in 1952. With one exception (1983), last year’s percentage is the lowest recorded since data was first published in 1934. Even so, tax breaks for corporations (and their investors, particularly large ones) were a major part of the Administration’s 2002 and 2003 initiatives. If class warfare is being waged in America, my class is clearly winning."

And now we find that 'capital repatriation' is what is keeping the US economy afloat this year, according to the American Shareholders Assn :

ASA Repatriation Scorecard: $200 Billion Repatriated Back to America On Track for $350 Billion Total
http://www.americanshareholders.com/news/asa-repat-08-19-05.pdf

If that isn't a slap in the face to the Bush 'outsourcing is good' policy and to all the globalization is good claptrap I don't know what is. All the Republican TABOR initiatives being put out all across the country (as with Colorado in 1992 and now in California with Prop 76 next month) ... they all need voters to become aware that unless Capital Repatriation becomes PERMANENT that the middle class will continue to make up for the lost tax revenues that the rich and the multinational corporations, all making over $3 million per year, should have been paying but were allowed by Republican tax policy to offshore and write-off, sticking those taxpayers 'left behind' with the government's bills at all levels, federal state and local !