Are Some Haters Of Government Sensing The Looming Regeneracy?

[pbrower2a]

(03-17-2017, 11:35 AM)beechnut79 Wrote:

(03-17-2017, 11:15 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:

(03-17-2017, 04:24 AM)Kinser79 Wrote:

(03-17-2017, 02:15 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote:

(03-16-2017, 11:44 PM)TKinser79 Wrote: If I may interject here in your lamenting.  Perhaps a fresh perspective is necessary, and I'm the guy to provide it.


Actually no.  While I have no personal experience with the Great Depression I garuntee you that it was not the peak of American Greatness.  As for the Borrow and Spend Liberalism of the Regan/Bush I and Bush II eras were not the peak of American greatness either.

I think he was referring to the post Depression/World War II era (FDR to Carter). Tax and Spend Liberalism that I think he was actually referring to ended with Reagan. I guess the government could no longer afford to absorb the losses that were carried forward from the Vietnam and Korean Wars, the losses associated with the the recession that followed Vietnam, all the costs associated with establishing and maintaining our new position as a world leader and the costs associated with all the new social programs that were added by LBJ's Great Society.

Big quibble here.  Bob used the phrase "Borrow and Spend" not tax and spend.  Reagan did cut taxes but he kept spending the same, when he should have slashed spending.  Reagan, Bush I and Bush II ran up the debt (granted no near as much as Obama did) by either cutting or keeping taxes the same while continuing to spend.

Honestly the government needs to slash spending.  The new Budget Blueprint is a start...I think it should go further there's whole departments I want gutted but its a start.

You are correct.  I blew it.  FDR through JFK would be tax and spend.  Reagan, Bush Bush would be borrow and spend.

I'm more inclined to tax more than spend less.  We've been cutting taxes and services since the unravelling.  The younger generations just aren't into paying any price, bearing any burden and meeting any hardship as the GIs were, as everybody was before the National Malaise struck home.  It's all selfishness and privilege to them.

Which means that if we get to Great Depression II, the current society would have a far more difficult time dealing with it that those around at the time of the first one were. More people jumping out of windows, no doubt. Expectations of the good life have ratched so far upward, from a chicken in every pot to multiple smartphones and HD TVs in every home.

The alternatives to the sort of collectivistic action (like mass starvation and civil unrest) necessary in the Great Depression were obviously unacceptable. If we should get a Great Depression II we will take action in full knowledge that failure will be be even more insufferable. The geriatric leadership that we Americans now have (exemplified by Donald Trump) has never had the taste for paying any price, bearing any burden and meeting any hardship.

Even late-wave Silent, the oldest people to have influence in America today,  knew the Great Depression as it was abating. We as a people do not know the worst of the Great Depression unless we are very old. Sure, the technology is better... but smart phones and hyper-definition TVs won't feed us if the economy fails. Yes, the $2000 that one can spend on some TVs and the $700 that one can spend on a smartphone, or even the $500 that a family can easily spend in a Disney resort could buy plenty of rice, beans,  and evaporated milk. In truly hard times the rice, beans, and evaporated milk will natter greatly, and the hyper-definition TVs, smartphones, and resort vacations will be fluff.

You still need food, water, and a certain range of temperatures if you are to find any material goodies or spiritual enlightenment worthy of the struggle.

GIs created the consumer society  in which big-ticket purchases caused wealth to flow fast enough that people could take little bits and survive. But should we have leadership that dispenses with the consumer society so that all can be profit for an elite, then we will have an economic and social collapse that will make the Great Depression look like the Crash of '87. Cold, hungry people tired of hearing empty promises will turn on the leadership who makes such promises and fails to deliver for the masses while living like kings or sultans.