Quote:
Originally Posted by milt
In today's society things won't play out as they did then. What you will have is total anarchy in the streets. There will be wholesale crime and murder. Anyone with anything valuable (especially food) will face the real fact that they may be killed in their homes for very little.
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Probably a pretty accurate assessment of what a "great depression" in our society would look like.
In the 1930s there was a lot stronger attitude of "self-responsibility." Today, there is a huge percentage of the population living with an "entitlement" mindset.
When people think they have some "right" to the property of others, they are only one small step away from violence. Most are reluctant to commit the violent acts themselves, but are more than willing to support some thug (like a dictator) to carry out the actual theft.
From what has already been done with our monetary system, there isn't much that can be done to avoid another "great depression." It is just a question about how, and how fast, the "house-of-cards" financial system will collapse.
The government cannot stop what will happen, but its actions can "direct" the meltdown to a degree. Based upon what we've seen so far (like the Bear Stearns bailout) we will be seeing hyper-inflation in this collapse.
The government likes the "inflation route"; that way the government officials can attack the business people (just like they are doing now with the oil companies and futures traders in the oil markets) and divert all attention away from themselves regarding their role in causing the economic meltdown.
Look to some of the past decades hyper-inflation economic meltdowns in South America to get a rough idea as to how our society will react.