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I have noticed a definate nervousness in the people I know in the last year. I see a anger, frustration, and isolation from others that seems more visible than anytime in my life. I ask people about it and many friends say they see it also. It seems like people are scared to death about our country, its leaders, its economy, its safety and culture than anytime in my life time.
We have survived many things in our past, Two World Wars, the Cold War, the terrible economy from 1975-1985, etc. But today it just seems worse with a general feeling like something really big is going to happen.
Maybe an economic crash
Running out of gasoline (Peak Oil)
A huge terror attack that will make 9/11 seem like nothing
Social unrest
Do you agree with me that the number of potential crisises in America seem worse now than anytime in the last 50 years and people are edgy?
Under the best case scenario, we are entering an era similar to the Jimmy Carter years of the late '70s early '80s. It would not surprise me at all to see something rivaling the Great Depression in the '30s. A worst case scenario is we hit peak oil, and the social implications of that could mean 4 billion dead worldwide by 2020. So no matter how you look at it, we aren't headed for good times. Question is, how bad will it get? This is especially troubling for this generation that grew up in the '80s, '90s' and '00s and enjoyed the super bull market driven by mass abundance of consumer goods. This generation doesn't know hard times like the ones before us do. That is why its so scary.
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
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We will be fine. The reason people are nervous is because our last big recession was in 1981- 27 years ago! If you consider that most of the labour force today was not even in the work force then, they have known nothing but good times their entire lives. They don't know what a "recession" or "inflation" is. Nobody under 45 was even working then! That is why they are nervous. I am not though. We will be fine.
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bchris02
Under the best case scenario, we are entering an era similar to the Jimmy Carter years of the late '70s early '80s. It would not surprise me at all to see something rivaling the Great Depression in the '30s. A worst case scenario is we hit peak oil, and the social implications of that could mean 4 billion dead worldwide by 2020. So no matter how you look at it, we aren't headed for good times. Question is, how bad will it get? This is especially troubling for this generation that grew up in the '80s, '90s' and '00s and enjoyed the super bull market driven by mass abundance of consumer goods. This generation doesn't know hard times like the ones before us do. That is why its so scary.
Things will be fine. We may have a year of stagflation- slow growth with high inflation- but we will not dip into a recession and unemployment will not top 6% nationally.
If you had lived during the carter recession i the 70's you would not compare this to thiose times. Those were bad times with inflation based on same things they now base inflation in the double digits. Gas had tripled in just weeks. High unemplyment. Then I can't even imagine what the depression of the 30's wa like but my father and mother say that we have had good times evr since and the present problems are nothing comparable.
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
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Quote:
Originally Posted by texdav
If you had lived during the carter recession i the 70's you would not compare this to thiose times. Those were bad times with inflation based on same things they now base inflation in the double digits. Gas had tripled in just weeks. High unemplyment. Then I can't even imagine what the depression of the 30's wa like but my father and mother say that we have had good times evr since and the present problems are nothing comparable.
Well to be fair times were not great under Ford or the first few years of Reagan either. People tend to blame Carter for all the world's ills back then- and he does deserve his fair share of blame- but certainly not all of it. Ford did not exactly hand him a country in good shape.
But I remember how really stinky things were back then. I still have a relic of those days- a mortage calculator book that has the interest rate STARTING at 9%!
I don't know what planet some people live on, or is it that many americans are oblivious to things unless directly affected. Things are terrible and getting worse. I am 58 now and I have not seen this country in such a state of fear or so messed up as now, and if the USA were a person it would be diagnosed with depression. We have a country filled with the have and have nots like never before, people cannot afford gas and are stealing it from those that filled their tanks. The cost of food is way beyond what many can afford now. Cities that never bothered to even put in a bus system are not even bothering to do it now with gas approaching $5.00. Jobs are being lost, illegal aliens pouring in to every area of the country now. Who knows how many millions work full time and don't have health insurance. I would say things are not very good for many in the USA. To top it off a buffoon sits in the white house and when questioned about the high cost of gas just 2 months ago, the response was "I didn't know that". I wonder if he knows a war is on.
Except for having to deal with the effects of the Arab oil embargo late in his term, the Carter years were in economic terms a blissful island of relief stuck in between the rocky times of the late Nixon/Ford years and the early Reagan years. Right-wingers have made a cottage industry out of trying to reinvent the history of those times, but the records are still out there for those who care to go dig them up.
Meanwhile, I'd say yes, there is an edginess and an uncertainty in the air and collective consciousness these days. So many things have gone so wrong since 2000, or fallen so far short of expectations, that people have started to wonder whether any of the assumptions that they've held for years and years about this country are actually true anymore. When confidence is at all time lows, when 17% of people think that the country is on the right track and 78% think that it isn't, that's going to show up in just the way that people walk around...
I wonder if part of it is because we were doing so extremely well in the 90s, and we've just fallen so hard. (so we think). I'm in my twenties, so I can't comment much. But while it seems that things were economically worse in the 70s, there seems to be a stronger fear that we'll never fully recover again. Personally I'm not so sure about that, but that's what I observe. Maybe the malaise was the same in the 70s? or worse? I see some parallels
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