[Spanktron9]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('deMolay', 'P')eavey has a strong point. Trillions of dollars are circulating the globe on the internet.

[TheDude]

Wiki sez:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')rom the 1900s, into the 1950s, punched cards were the primary medium for data entry, data storage, and processing in institutional computing. According to the IBM Archives: "By 1937... IBM had 32 presses at work in Endicott, N.Y., printing, cutting and stacking five to 10 million punched cards every day."

[TreebeardsUncle]

Agree, that inflating the appraisals of houses, giving too much of the wrong kind of loans to unqualified borrowers, bundling and selling the mbs's to unwitting investors who were left holding the bag etc was largely responsible for leading to the current situation. Believe it was demand from investors in an environment with low long-term interest rates that encouraged the creation of these debt instruments as vehicles by which the investors could earn higher rates of return that drove the development of excessive leveraging in residential real estate at least at first.
g

[kpeavey]

Is the argument that punch cards were around or that they did some work? If there was a truckload of punch cards for every one on the planet back then and a machine to do something with them, it would be a drop in the bucket compared to what modern computers can do to really screw siht up fast.

[essex]

Plenty here too.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/fsahtml/fatop1.html

[ypct_george]

Horrible, but still prety civilized. Maybe it should've been less civilized. Something like lynching the FED, gov't & bankers.

I see nobody with a chair in those bread / soup queues, was it moving quickly?

[FloridaGirl]

What strikes me was how well dressed the people in the bread lines were. Makes me think that these were pretty properous people just before the depression.

[nobodypanic]

i am not sure this nation could survive something like that again with it's current power structures intact. this time around, we might see something more like this:

[IanC]

Great pictures. Haunting and forboding as well.

I've heard in mentioned here before that a second Great Depression will be nothing like the first, mostly due to the great damage that has been done to the social underpinnings of our society. There was conformity, dicipline, and structure back then that is completely lacking now. In the US, we are encouraged to blaze our own path, be a "Big Dogg", and be self serving before all else. The patience to stand for hours in a bread line with others and remain civil that flies in the face of this pervasive attitude.

Does anyone seriously think that modern Americans, who have been brought up to believe that they are special and entitled to the best will be so orderly in this type of situation? Consider how many guns there are on the streets, in closets and under beds. These days, I would fully expect queue jumpers to get shot along with innocent bystanders. This would do 2 things: encourage a police state to "protect" us from ourselves and keep people from going and getting help in communal settings. People will stay home and starve.

That's what scares me most about the coming collapse - we have no strong norms of behavior and civility to fall back on.

-IanC
PDX

[ypct_george]

@pstarr: I'm in fact against any violence...

@nobodypanic: but those people did not have to fight Blackwater and other military/paramilitary/private security bodies armed with today's technology. The civilian / military gap has widened a lot since then.

[nobodypanic]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ypct_george', '@')pstarr: I'm in fact against any violence...

@nobodypanic: but those people did not have to fight Blackwater and other military/paramilitary/private security bodies armed with today's technology. The civilian / military gap has widened a lot since then.

[ypct_george]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('nobodypanic', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ypct_george', '@')nobodypanic: but those people did not have to fight Blackwater and other military/paramilitary/private security bodies armed with today's technology. The civilian / military gap has widened a lot since then.

[nobodypanic]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ypct_george', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('nobodypanic', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ypct_george', '@')nobodypanic: but those people did not have to fight Blackwater and other military/paramilitary/private security bodies armed with today's technology. The civilian / military gap has widened a lot since then.

[gampy]

Some evocative photographs, to be sure.

Here are some other photos to gain some perspective.



I think people view the Great Depression as some kind of mythic time when times were tough, and people tougher.

Looking at a lot of these pictures makes you think it was some kind of horror fest. It wasn't. Many people prospered, and many people made out quite alright. These pictures tend to skew the reality of the time. Life always looks harsh and grotesque, in black and white.

You don't need to go far to see a soup-line nowadays, or homeless, jobless people. The Great Dpression is here and now for quite a few folks. It's always been here for a goodly chunk of the country.

Although the pictures are not sepia-toned, and the people are wearing jeans and sneakers, they are for the most part, the same folks. The bottom third of the socio-economic spectrum.

Not trying to rain on the parade here, just offering some perspective.

[flapjax]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('FloridaGirl', 'W')hat strikes me was how well dressed the people in the bread lines were. Makes me think that these were pretty properous people just before the depression.

[kpeavey]

Judging by the photos, the US is going to need a whole lot more hats than we have today.

[jasonraymondson]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kpeavey', 'J')udging by the photos, the US is going to need a whole lot more hats than we have today.