[Quinny]

I'm fairly new to the forum, but feel that the system is collapsing all around us.

So to those of you who've been around for a few years.

Have there been similar situations before or is it worse now?

[Ludi]

Nah, people are mostly just freaking out more than usual. It certainly isn't the worst yet ---- YET!

[smallpoxgirl]

Yeah. This is certainly unprecedented, but I don't think the fan has been hit yet. Starting to look more and more like it could happen any day though.

[Cashmere]

I'm on the Titanic. I've been watching on deck for a few years. We hit the ice berg hours ago.

Some dude comes up from below decks. A bit of water splashes him on the leg. "Oh dear Lord, is the worst over yet?"

Sir - No. You can't even imagine the worst.

[Sys1]

I don't know if it will make you happy, but we have certainly not passed the "peak worst". We are even quite far from it...but I'm here since 2005 and I can easily affirm that things have never been so bad, even if oil is now under 100$.

[cualcrees]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cashmere', 'I')'m on the Titanic. I've been watching on deck for a few years. We hit the ice berg hours ago.
Some dude comes up from below decks. A bit of water splashes him on the leg. "Oh dear Lord, is the worst over yet?"
Sir - No. You can't even imagine the worst.

[ReverseEngineer]

It can't be the worst yet since the internet is still working and we can all still debate whether or not TSHTF

Reverse Engineer

[Bas]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cualcrees', 'G')ood analogy... How long before the ship goes down?

[HEADER_RACK]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ReverseEngineer', 'I')t can't be the worst yet since the internet is still working and we can all still debate whether or not TSHTF

[americandream]

No, not yet. These are the opening notes to a steady slide down the pit of barbarism as the system gradaully implodes under the weight of it's idiocy.

[Loki]

I believe the economic situation in my state was a fair bit worse in the early 1980s than it is right now. So no, it isn't "the worst yet."

That said, we are clearly in a recession, and I think there's a high probability that we are accelerating towards a Second Great Depression. Most of the folks here seem to agree, at least based on the poll I started in the Economics forum:

Is this the beginning of the Second Great Depression?

Yes, welcome to the Second Great Depression. 81% [ 101 ]
It's a rough patch, but the economy will recover soon. 9% [ 12 ]
The fundamentals of our economy are sound. 2% [ 3 ]
I'm rich, what's your freaking problem? 6% [ 8 ]

Total Votes : 124

Does that mean the end of the world? Of course not. Don't expect to see people dropping dead of starvation in downtown Seattle, or biker gangs taking over Interstate 5. But soup lines, mass unemployment, mass movement from middle class to poor, etc. could certainly be on the menu, sooner than we might like.

[aldente]

Follow the lines...

[Madpaddy]

I have to laugh really.

In Ireland, the current situation is the worst in maybe 15 years. Before that we had double digit unemployment and were a candidate for a take over by the world bank.

Go back a few years before that and half the population died or emigrated during the famine. A few years before that 50,000 rebels were hung on poles on the side of the road after the failed 1798 uprising.

To summarize, we are so so so soft now, that we think having to park our second car in the garage because we can't afford tax or insurance is the end of the world. I beg to differ.

What about the UK. My father grew up in a time where there was a very real chance that the UK and Ireland would be over run by the Nazis and every able bodied male was to be sent to labour camps.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')illiam Shirer (p. 782)

Shirer documents the Germans' detailed plans for Britain once she had been occupied. On September 9, 1940, as the Battle of Britain raged, the Commander in Chief of the German Army, Field Marshall Brauchitsch, signed a directive providing that "the able-bodied male population between the ages of seventeen and forty-five [in Britain] will, unless the local situation calls for an exceptional ruling, be interned and dispatched to the Continent."

[aldente]

[hubbertspeak7777777]

There is no "worst". No matter how bad things are, they can always get worse.

[AgentR]

Are we really so soft now that we have no clue about how bad things could get?

Typing on the net, A/C running, sodas/beer in the fridge...

Come on.
99.99999% of humans who've ever lived would look at what we have at our convenience and be completely astounded that the words "its bad.." could even be formed on our lips.

We have the luxury of royal households at our beck and call. Perhaps a decade ago things were even more posh; but boys and girls, we be living in pure luxury, even now.

All because of some incredibly cheap, black gooey stuff.
When that can't be bought with paper money; then we'll start to get a hint at what "its bad.." might mean.

[VMarcHart]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Quinny', 'H')ave there been similar situations before or is it worse now?

[hubbertspeak7777777]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR', 'A')re we really so soft now that we have no clue about how bad things could get? Typing on the net, A/C running, sodas/beer in the fridge. Come on. 99.99999% of humans who've ever lived would look at what we have at our convenience and be completely astounded that the words "its bad.." could even be formed on our lips.

[AgentR]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('hubbertspeak7777777', 'H')ow does the fact that we have more luxuries than people who lived in the past help someone who can't afford food, is about to be evicted or is about to lose their job? It doesn't.

[ReverseEngineer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR', 'W')hen, and it WILL happen, the streets of American cities are openly littered with people dieing of starvation and its associated diseases, then we can start talking about "worst". As it is now, you're more likely to be arrested for loitering, thrown in a box, sandwich and cup of water placed firmly in your hand.