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Forum Post: Rioting Across America - The Great Depression

Posted 12 years ago on Feb. 1, 2012, 6:28 a.m. EST by Matifesto (4)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

This is what preceded The New Deal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exuGv3HsV-U

42 Comments

42 Comments


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[-] 3 points by beautifulworld (23822) 12 years ago

Holy crap. What a great video. This is the reason why I pointed out what the unemployment rate is in Oakland (16%).

Economic insecurity, throughout history, leads to this type of thing. We should be much smarter today. Sad that we aren't.

P.S. I liked the "S.S. Hardship float."

[-] 3 points by Underdog (2971) from Clermont, FL 12 years ago

Ahem...taken from New American, Oct. 2011:

"Taking into account those without work, those seeking work but unable to find it, those working in positions for which they are over-qualified, those who have given up looking for work, and those barely scraping by at the poverty level, the “headline” rate of unemployment offered by the Department of Labor greatly understates unemployment by at least a factor of two and perhaps by as much as a factor of three. Unemployment and underemployment is pushing 25 percent and may go even higher as the economy moves into "another" recession (if the first one ever ended) and maybe even a depression."

[-] 2 points by beautifulworld (23822) 12 years ago

Can you imagine what it really is in Oakland?

[-] 1 points by nickhowdy (1104) 12 years ago

It's about 22% at this time...But whose counting...Definitely not the BLS!

[-] 1 points by ineptcongress (648) 12 years ago

see my above response to beautifulworld.

[-] 1 points by economicallydiscardedcitizen (761) 12 years ago

To paraphrase John Chambers CEO of Cisco :'American business should be ashamed that the crisis has come to this and the government should be ashamed as well.' This was on a video clip titled something like The Super Affluent Speak Out that was posted on a mainstream news site yesterday.

[-] 1 points by beautifulworld (23822) 12 years ago

Very Interesting. May everyone wake up before it is too late.

[-] 1 points by MattLHolck (16833) from San Diego, CA 12 years ago

worth bringing that float back

[-] 1 points by beautifulworld (23822) 12 years ago

Yes. Could you imagine if we could find it somewhere. How fun would that be?

[-] 1 points by ineptcongress (648) 12 years ago

nationwide unemployment is, de facto, 18-19%--and an unquantifiable percentage of UNDERemployment--which an "eyeball" estimate pegs at 15%. i present these stats. on very good authority from a high level person at a nationwide payroll processing company, one of the largest, whom i know personally. i don't mean to merely suggest gov't stats. in this regard are lies, i am TELLING you they are lies. and there is a reason, they want to boost moral, i get it and that is part of the govt's duty.

[-] 2 points by beautifulworld (23822) 12 years ago

Absolutely true, yet I always feel obligated due to folks like smartcapitalist and slammers to always state the facts as reported officially because they will call us liars. But, you are so right!!! We all know this!!!

[-] 1 points by ineptcongress (648) 12 years ago

glad you know it. my friend and others similarly situated are basically gagged on calling the media on this--there's little upside for those in the know, and the downside is that they would lose a top level job. and then the propaganda machine would make him look like a fool, and figure out a way to discredit the true number (arguing small sample size, establishing bias and other false statistical flaws).

[-] 1 points by beautifulworld (23822) 12 years ago

Exactly. Nothing wrong with pointing it out, however, in the way you just did.

[-] 2 points by nickhowdy (1104) 12 years ago

All because the supposed "Elite" animals had to take it all...Same thing today..

[-] 2 points by SparkyJP (1646) from Westminster, MD 12 years ago

One major difference between the Fed chairman of the 1930's and Helicopter Ben of today ..............................

Ben represents the 1%

Marriner Eccles (Fed chairman of the 1930's) - was a New Dealer

Looking back on those years, in his 1951 memoir Beckoning Frontiers, Eccles would do his best to explain the impact he set out to make. Mass production, he noted at the outset, demands mass consumption, but people can’t afford to consume if the wealth an economy generates is concentrating at the top.

In the years leading up to the Great Depression, that concentrating was accelerating. A “giant suction pump,” charged Eccles, “had by 1929-30 drawn into a few hands an increasing portion of currently produced wealth.”

“In consequence, as in a poker game where the chips were concentrated in fewer and fewer hands,” Eccles observed, “the other fellows could stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit ran out, the game stopped.”

Sound familiar? The decade of the 1920s that Eccles describes in his 1951 memoir comes across today as eerily familiar. Then as now, the U.S. economy was floating on a sea of debt.

Read the article here:

America’s Most Egalitarian Banker - http://toomuchonline.org/americas-most-egalitarian-banker/

Cheers!

[-] 2 points by zoom6000 (430) from St Petersburg, FL 12 years ago

good link!

[-] 1 points by Underdog (2971) from Clermont, FL 12 years ago

Below is paste off Wikipedia where I was reading up on laissez-faire capitalism. ~Ud~

===========

In his 1973 study of the economic principles established at the foundation of the United States, E.A.J. Johnson wrote:

The general view, discernible in contemporaneous literature, was that the responsibility of government should involve enough surveillance over the enterprise system to ensure the social usefulness of all economic activity. It is quite proper, said Bordley, for individuals to “choose for themselves” how they will apply their labor and their intelligence in production. But it does not follow from this that “legislators and men of influence” are freed from all responsibility for giving direction to the course of national economic development. They must, for instance, discountenance the production of unnecessary commodities of luxury when common sense indicates the need for food and other essentials. Lawmakers can fulfill their functions properly only when they “become benefactors to the public”; in new countries they must safeguard agriculture and commerce, encourage immigration, and promote manufactures. Admittedly, liberty “is one of the most important blessings which men possess,” but the idea that liberty is synonymous with complete freedom from restraint “is a most unwise, mistaken apprehension.” True liberty demands a system of legislation that will lead all members of society “to unite their exertions” for the public welfare. It should therefore be the policy of government to aid and foster certain activities or kinds of business that strengthen a nation, even as it should be the duty of government to repress “those fashions, habits, and practices, which tend to weaken, impoverish, and corrupt the people.”

[-] 1 points by ineptcongress (648) 12 years ago

this is what OWS needs to aspire to if it wishes to accomplish anything, starting peacefully was a great idea to garner support and expand it's membership and buy munitions under the radar, but it needs to move forward and mature at some point; otherwise, it's a relic.

[-] 1 points by Underdog (2971) from Clermont, FL 12 years ago

[Removed]

[-] 0 points by economicallydiscardedcitizen (761) 12 years ago

There are apx. 2-5 or more Veterans and enlisted for every block in the USA and many already support OWS as fellow 99%ers.

Watch this footage of Korea Vets going head to head with local police over back pay owed and tell me we couldn't see similar in the USA with our well organized militias AND non militia member Vets and enlisted fellow citizens acting as powerfully as those in the 1930's - Thanks for sharing, I had never seen that footage before having only seen photographs of it in my high school American and California History classes:

Most Daring - Riot Police v.s Ex-Military

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qhIZ8Px9Sc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Sent from my iPod

[-] 0 points by monarch (-5) 12 years ago

Here is the actual overall unemployment numbers that the gov is not telling us about

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/real-jobless-rate-114-realistic-labor-force-participation-rate

[-] 2 points by Underdog (2971) from Clermont, FL 12 years ago

Here is a humorous, yet sad, video about your point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulu3SCAmeBA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[-] 2 points by GirlFriday (17435) 12 years ago

That was a great video.

[-] -1 points by smelly (1) 12 years ago

And who again is the president presiding over this fucking mess?

[-] 3 points by Underdog (2971) from Clermont, FL 12 years ago

Are you implying that he put us there? W. and his ilk were the ones who were asleep at the switch and failed to keep an eye on things. Their hands-off fiscal policy allowed all those sub-primers to buy homes they couldn't afford and start a chain reaction that wrecked the real-estate market and wall street. For greater detail about what happened watch this short video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlvVumYdMGs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Obama was a man unfortunate enough to have to take office during a full-scale economic crisis created by poor oversight and slack controls of various sectors by the previous administration. Under the circumstances, he should be given credit for averting a full-scale meltdown of the economy at that point.

[-] 0 points by smelly (1) 12 years ago

I see....you're part of the "it's all Bush's fault" gang. Three years...2 trillion in stimulus, with nothing to show for it. TOOO LATE....the numb-nut is history. Worst president EVER. One and done.

Welcome back Carter

[-] 2 points by Underdog (2971) from Clermont, FL 12 years ago

If a watch is poor quality and falls apart, do you blame the watch or the watchmaker? If the economy fell apart while W. was in office, is it logical to blame Obama for it?

Just so I understand you better, if you were President instead of Obama, what would you have done to restore us to prosperity?

Economies are very complex. In comparing the Great Depression to the Great Recession, both were ushered in during Republican administrations (Hoover in the first case and W. in the second). Both Repub fiscal policies were similar -- essentially laissez-faire capitalistic principles. This resulted in a hands-off "wild west" approach to business, so people went wild and took a lot of chances, and look at the results -- a decade of depression in the 30s and who knows how long for us (2008 -????). Both were administered by Democratic Presidents and fiscal policy toward recovery (FDR in the first case and, theoretically Obama, if re-elected, in the second -- although this is certainly theoretical because we don't know the outcome of the 2012 election yet).

Here's what it all boils down to.

Repubs want hands-off business practices so that they can maximize profits, regardless if the economy gets wrecked or not, because the American Aristocracy is going to be well off whether the economy is functioning well or not. Dems want regulations on businesses to keep economies from spiraling out of control like some runaway car toward a cliff. People align themselves politically with one of those two camps.

Thomas Jefferson said:

"Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties: 1. Those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes. 2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the most wise, depository of the public interests. In every country these two parties exist, and in every one where they are free to think, speak, and write, they will declare themselves. Call them, therefore, ...Whigs and Tories, Republicans and Federalists, Aristocrats and Democrats, or by whatever name you please, they are the same parties still, and pursue the same object. The last appellation of aristocrats and democrats is the true one expressing the essence of all."

[-] 1 points by nickhowdy (1104) 12 years ago

Lydon B. Johnson, Dick Nixon, Gerry Ford, Jimmaay Cartier, Ronny Reagan, Bush Sr, Clinton, Bush Jr, and Obama...

Sorry you haven't had many good choices since JFK and look what happened to him....

[-] -1 points by owsleader2038 (-10) 12 years ago

Well guy's, I don't want to pee on the party, but get your passports and get out and quick, ... cuz if you wait, they'll not let you out.

They're already locking down the money on exit.

[-] 2 points by nomdeguerre (1775) from Brooklyn, NY 12 years ago

We're American patriots and we're going to take our country back.

If you choose to flee, please flee this forum also.

[-] 0 points by owsleader2038 (-10) 12 years ago

Read HL-Mencken, ... he said "Everytime I see a 'patriot' wave a flag, ... I expect to get a bill"

Run like hell, when you see a guy call himself a patriot, ...are you sure you didn't mean parasite?

But this guys a BOT, ... Why not call yourself a Canadian Patriot?? It would correct the Locale?

[-] 0 points by nomdeguerre (1775) from Brooklyn, NY 12 years ago

No, we patriots are taking our country back from the parasites. Hellooo, . . . it's called Occupy Wall Street -- the home of looting bankster parasites. The financial sector is supposed to serve the larger economy not milk it into the ground.

[-] -1 points by owsleader2038 (-10) 12 years ago

A 'patriot' is a flag-waver, thus by definition they protect the 'status-quo'.

Only revolutionary's will bring change to ameriKKKa.

Mencken was right back in the 1930's and he is right now.

56% of the US public get's a check from the gubmint every month, those are the parasites, ... yes Greek Austerity is coming to the USA.

[-] 2 points by nomdeguerre (1775) from Brooklyn, NY 12 years ago

You so funny.

A patriot stands by the principles of the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, etc. And we are returning to them.

We don't need you. Flee.

[-] -2 points by owsleader2038 (-10) 12 years ago

Your 'patriot' has NEVER read the US Constitution. He's a single digit IQ hairlip. Illiteracy in the USA it what it does best, the US public school system is a symptomatic failure before the worlds eyes. Patriotism, is only practiced by the 56% of the USA public who get a check from the Government every month.

Never read the Bill of Rights.

I have homework for you today, go find the actual documents you profess to be the basis of an "American Patriot Whore", and read those documents.

[-] 2 points by nomdeguerre (1775) from Brooklyn, NY 12 years ago

Fuck off, asswipe.

[-] 1 points by reckoning (53) 12 years ago

Im sorry i dont u americans to infest my homeland Peru.

Stay away from my land! and fix ur own!

[-] 1 points by ineptcongress (648) 12 years ago

great point on locking down the money, however, i have some clever ways around that. btw: if you know anything about argentina circa 2001, the government basically stole everyone's money and locked down the banks. it's something worthy of learning about. guess what? the oligarchs got out before hand, they shipped their pesos by truck to uraguay--argentina btw: has been an oligarchy for the better part of it's history. do i think the US is so noble it wouldn't do anything like this.... ummmm,,, i'm older than 18.

[-] -1 points by owsleader2038 (-10) 12 years ago

I 100% agree with what you just said, that's why I tell people here to read Marc Faber's book "Tomorrows Gold", a book about how city's and nations have collapsed in the last 4,000 years and he has a chapter on Argentina, ... as well as many other recent hyper-inflationary collapses, and there will be one in the USA in the next 1-2 years.

Today Marc Faber lives comfortably in Thailand, far from the USA. He's swiss, but spent much time with Jim Rogers and Soro's. All billionaires but all guys that came from poor family's. Thus they have used their money not for themselves but to help people.

Money was locked down long ago, last year the USA closed the gold market for citizens, last year the IRS banned foreign accounts, ... yes the smart got their money out of the USA over 10+ years ago.

Jim Rogers bailed to Singapore over 5+ years ago, cuz THEY stole $300M from his account. 'They' as in the wall street crooks and 100% protected by USA law enforcement, as they have long been working with criminals, as such our government is a criminal government. Just like FBI founder/chief GAY-EDGAR-HOOVER worked with MAFIA

[-] 1 points by ineptcongress (648) 12 years ago

awesome--thanks for the new read... i lived in argentina for 4 months and made a concerted effort to learn about their disaster. fleeing is not a bad idea at all--i am no conspiracy guy, but i see what's going on and what the most probabilistic outcome is--we're spending recklessly without regard to your paycheck or mine. well... hmmmm... i would expect mass emigration out of the us, frankly... and like you say, it's the smart, talented people who will leave... jon galt (atlas shrugged reference) is calling.