[Christien]

My $0.02:

Yes, I think so, but not to the levels seen in the past. I think society is fundamentally different than 50 or 100 years ago, and some of the past "glory days" may never be relived, at least not in our lifetimes. I think a large part of that is that there are simply more people, which means more mouths to feed, cars to drive, money to spend and tax, broken bones to heal, etc.

I don't buy the doomsday prophesies that society is going to hell in a handbasket because of crippling national debt, lazy slacker generation, greedy corporations, too much self-interest, etc. I also don't buy utopian prophesies that whomever as pres will lead his people to the promised land, etc. etc. I think most of this talk comes from people who like to feel and talk important. I think in 20 years life will be very similar to today, save for typical advances in technology.

I think the American and global financial markets will recover from the current situation without a depression, 700B bailout or no bailout. I think gov'ts and the financial industry are sufficiently intelligent to avoid a true depression. I think that might be one instance where we've learned from our past mistakes. And comparisons to 1929 are really stretching things - the world is a fundamentally different place now than it was then.

I do think the US is in for a fairly major recession, not the least of which because of your national debt, but I don't think it's anything that's going to destroy society in any way. People will still get up, go to work, have kids, buy homes and cars and TVs, then take a dirt nap.

(edit: I tried to keep this non-political, and I think it's a good thread for the non-politics/religion OT forum, if we can keep it that way. I think that was your point Shaun - let's discuss this outside politics)