The ignorance of the average American about history and economics make me feel like a genius.
UPDATE: Several people in that thread, which I've stopped commenting on have insisted that their relatives accepted no government help during the Depression. That would have been impossible if you were any kind of a less then wealthy family or individual, they would have almost not been able to have gotten by without some sort of government help. Farmers of course got price supports, workers got unemployment insurance, everybody got Social Security. People lower down the income level got to live in the subsidized housing here. The WPA built the auditorium that is still in use in this town and the baseball field, also still in use. So we know that people who lived here in the 30s were employed by the government in construction projects (which would of course include the subsidized housing which is still in use).
Once again I guess I shouldn't be so disgusted about people believing the idea that we can't spend ourselves out of a recession since almost without exception that appears to be what the governments and the opposition parties all over the world now believe.
There were a couple of comments that disturbed me greatly: first, people who said that we didn't spend ourselves out of the Depression because we didn't get out of the Depression until we we started spending on WWII. Spending on war doesn't count as government spending apparently. Second, that G.I.s coming out of WWII got busy without help to speed the economy forward, completely ignoring the G.I. Bill.
2 comments:
Let's do some math here. Anyone who was old enough to understand whether he or his family was getting help from the government was probably in his teens back in the early 1930s. Otherwise, how would he be able to remember the circumstances? What his parents told him ought at least comport with the realities he experienced. That makes these people in their late 80s or older.
And they think they remember that long ago? I suppose they'd remember having to ask for assistance, but it was probably their parents who did that, not they. Assuming their parents didn't want to talk about it, the signs would be pretty subtle.
Other funny thing - yes, people think defense spending is somehow different, and in a way they're right. It doesn't contribute much to the economy later, in contrast to money spent on education, research, or infrastructure. At best, it's one of those things that make growth more likely, thanks to fewer disruptions due to, shall we say, outside influence? In many ways, though, it's one of the least helpful ways government can spend money.
The time fram is an interesting thought. I actually wasn't thinking about it. Everybody commenting about the 30s on that thread would have heard about it from someone else, their parents or in all probability, Fox.
Also since many of them went to the same catholic school my wife did, they would not have gotten a particularly good education, according to her.
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