Wednesday, April 15, 2009
"The Great Depression" - Period 1
On Monday we read about the causes of The Great Depression. Today, we watched a documentary about this period of history. What similarities and/or differences did you find between then and now? Were there any lessons to be learned from how the government dealt with the economic problems that lead to The Great Depression? Do you think the government is correctly addressing the current economic recession?
10 comments:
]There are many similarities between the current recession and the Great Depression, such as failing banks, a stock market crash, and layoffs. In both cases, this was a hard blow for the entire world. This recession isn't quite as bad as the Great Depression, at least not yet.
The government has learned a a lot from how the Great Depression, mainly on it's role in the economy. It seems odd the similarity between the Hoover/Roosevelt and Bush/Obama distinctions, namely the Uncontrolled/Controlled Economy mindsets.
I don't think the government can get us out of the recession, but it's doing everything that it can to get us out. That's the right role for it at this time.
]There are many similarities between the current recession and the Great Depression, such as failing banks, a stock market crash, and layoffs. In both cases, this was a hard blow for the entire world. This recession isn't quite as bad as the Great Depression, at least not yet.
The government has learned a a lot from how the Great Depression, mainly on it's role in the economy. It seems odd the similarity between the Hoover/Roosevelt and Bush/Obama distinctions, namely the Uncontrolled/Controlled Economy mindsets.
I don't think the government can get us out of the recession, but it's doing everything that it can to get us out. That's the right role for it at this time.
There are a lot of similarities between the Great Depression and this recession. I don't think anyone ever saw the great depression coming, until it hit them. Same goes for the Recession, one minute we were financially stable, and then it all began to decline.
I think that with Obama leading the country, we will find a way to get ourselves out of this recession.
Like Sam said, the Government is doing everything it can, and that is it's best role at the time.
Like stated before the Great Depression is very similar to what is occurring currently. The Great Depression is the recession of our time.
History repeats itself, this is obvious, and I think that the government believed that this country was in a time of great economic success and progress however when the downfall did come the country wasn't ready. Like Lina said, it was fine one minute and then worse the next. The same can go for the economy during the Great Depression. The banks and stock market were booming but when black Tuesday happened the country no longer was stable and confident economically.
I feel like the government and president is trying their best however the turn out has yet to be seen!! The 'bailout' is helping for millionaires to get their millions and to pay for private airplanes and vacations. I think this countries priorities are not straight...its not President Obama's fault that giving money to the insurance and auto giants of America would turn into such problems but instead of just handing over a check, the government should implement proper use of the money. The recession is not going to get any better if greedy people and business who more or less caused this are back to their old ways and getting even greedier.
In terms of similarities I see the same things as Sam does. The stock market, layoffs, and banks are all failing now. I also agree that it isn't as bad as it was then. More people may be out of jobs, but it doesn't seem to be as bad because people usually have enough to support themselves in a way where they are not starving or anything as serious as the actual depression.
The role of the government now like Sam said is similar too, however it is not as extreme between Bush and Obama as it was between Hoover and Roosevelt. Roosevelt's approach towards government control of the economy was so different from previous ways, and changed the way the government has been involved since then.
I don't follow all the aspects of the stock market or even the economy much, but it seems to me that it is not going to be possible to fix the economy with just the government involvement. The government needs to be involved, but it must be a joint effort between citizens and the government to make anything better.
As Sam and most everyone else has posted tonight, there are many similarities between the Great Depression and the current Recession we find ourselves stuck in. Events like these show how we may feel like everything around us is fine and dandy until things change so drastically.
As our government looks back on what has happened, it is able to draw conclusions and ideas from the past in order to fight back at the current economic Recession. This was a hard hit for all of the United States, but I think it can be fixed. I generally don't watch the news or pay much attention to what's going on, but I feel like I know enough to understand that what many people have said is true. It's going to have to get worse before it can get better.
As Sam said, there are a lot of similarities between the Great Depression and the current economic collapse, such as it being based off of an economic bubble of investment bursting and then spreading through the rest of the stock market and global economy.
Similar to the Great Depression, as people have said, I think that government spending is important in recovering from this recession. Like Jason said, though, citizens have an important part to play as well, since the government is basically stabilizing plummeting companies and then restoring consumer confidence so that regular people will begin investing again along with the government.
Sam hit it right on the head. There are similarities to the Great Depression and the current issue with the economy. But... there is one big difference which I believe is going to determine the fate of our economy in the future. That is the lack of awareness among the citizens of the United States. In the Great Depression, people knew it was a serious event because people were litterly starving and being greatly affected by the collapsed economy. My grandfather who died 2 years ago lived through the whole thing. As a child, he was lucky enough to have a pretty average life. His family was able to maintain a good life for him. But he said when he went out, he couldn't help but notice that other people were in trouble. He said it was absolutely a horror to see homeless people. For this recent struggle, US citizens are going to have to be solution. It is said that the solution to the Great Depression was WW2. People had left the country to go to war and more jobs were opened up. This allowed Americans to get jobs back and the economy was able to recover. This economic collapse is different. One, we are dealing with a significantly higher population. So the amount of jobs are being out weighed by the population. Secondly, there really isnt a war right now, so most citizens are in the country so even making new jobs aren't going to solve the problem. It's almost the opposite as Obama is making an effort to send more troops back into the country. The bottom line is, it is going to have to be an effort by the people to solve this hardship. What that is, not many people can say, but the fact that this is a very large scale issue, US citizen involvement is going to have to be essential.
I agree with Sam in that there are similarities between the current recession and the recession then. People lost many things, including jobs and lots of money. Herbert Hoover obviously was a hated man, as he did not address any issues regarding the economy. When FDR came along, people felt as if he was a savior. I think this is the phase that we are going through right now as well. Many citizens despise George Bush, but they believe that Obama could be the one saving us from the struggles. Obviously, the process will take a long time to work, but in the end, America is looking at one similarity when it comes to recessions. We look at a savior and we build up lots of hope.
personally, i'm more of a "lassie faire" person and the fact we're in this mess is because of it. but never the less, i blame it on the bush admin for causing inflation for temporary gains and the subprime lending for easy money. you shouldn't do things that are obviously going to end up stabbing you in the back!
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