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DEL.ICIO.USDepression days brought to mind
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Elwood Hart lived in Canada during the Great Depression. He considers himself lucky. A Salvation Army was next to the family’s home in Hamilton, Ontario.
“Maybe it was a bowl of soup or a bologna sandwich, but I got something to eat,” said Hart, now a Lawrenceville resident. “If it weren’t for that, I don’t think we could have ever made it. We weren’t living in the United States, but the situation was the same all over.”
Comparisons and contrasts are being drawn between the current economic crisis and the Great Depression. Conventional wisdom says this is the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Generally, experts say the odds of a full-blown depression are nonexistent. Let’s hope they are right.
Not many of us were around between 1929 and 1939, so we can’t compare the impact of that period’s economic crisis to today’s turmoil. Hart is now in his mid-80s, so his take on what he saw then and what he sees now carries weight.
We met years ago at the Gwinnett County Veterans War Museum, where his military career is on display. He served with the Canadian Army in Normandy during World War II. With the U.S. Army, he saw two tours of duty in Korea and Vietnam. He received an honorable discharge in 1967.
As for the Great Depression, “I remember it well,” Hart said. “People don’t realize what it was like back then.”
He remembers people lining up at food banks to get a hunk of cheese and powdered milk. He remembers stuffing newspapers in his shoes because they were way too big. And he remembers a white pet rabbit that just disappeared one day.
“I got up one morning and asked my dad where my rabbit was,” Hart told me. “He said, ‘It’s down your stomach. You had it for dinner.’ You ate anything you could get back then. There was no waste of clothes or food. Today, when I throw out trash, wild animals won’t find any food. I don’t throw it away.”
But how does that compare to today’s economic woes, particularly among everyday people barely making it?
Every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning, Hart drives to a local Publix to load his car with day-old breads, cakes and pastries. When he pulls up to the Salvation Army, where the goods are doled out, people are waiting.
“It’s gotten so bad right now that there are twice as many every day as there were a couple of months ago,” he said. “In fact, it’s so bad that, a lot of time, me or some of the women in the church have to stand there. We have a sign that says everyone is to get two loaves of bread and a pastry. If you don’t watch them, they will fill up on all they can get. That’s why I say things are getting bad, similar to the 1930s, I tell you.”
As a brass collector, Hart routinely visits Goodwill stores in search of treasures. He said he’s seen a noticeable uptick in the number of people buying clothes. And at his church, clothes donations have fallen off considerably.
“It’s not that bad yet now,” Hart said.
“But it’s getting there.”
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By Cindy
October 24, 2008 8:35 PM | Link to this
I believe it too.
This holiday season is likely to be a slim one for many. Many who have recently found themselves jobless. Many who have recently lost thier homes. Many who live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to even do that. Many whose jobs are going under because the people they do business with have gone under.
Push come to shove, those deer and squirrels better be on guard…cuz before I sit around and starve, I’m gonna pounce. They’ll have to whoop my butt everytime they see me. And I loves the little squirrels too…but I’ll eat em before I starve. hahahaha. Hopefully, it won’t come to that though. I’m just glad I still have my job. I’ve worked there since the beginning of time…well almost.
By Michael H. Smith
October 25, 2008 1:53 AM | Link to this
Don’t forget “The Maestro” [Alan Greenspan] admitted he got it wrong when testifying before the House this week, Mr. Badie.
It will take a great deal more than “the audacity of hope” to turn this economy around. Unfortunately, Congress will do nothing until after the election. For the moment it is all about seizing power for the Party. Even after then, when that ole party in power takes total control they will likely do the wrong things.
Yes indeed, drill baby, drill, dig baby, dig and build baby, build because it is all about JOBS BABY, JOBS for U.S. Citizens to put money in their pockets and keeping that money here at home where it can do the most good for America.
Want to take on a gentleman’s side bet Mr. Badie that the next Congress will not commit $850 billion dollars to create “green collar” jobs for main-street U.S. citizens to achieve energy independence?
I have the audacity to say they won’t but I hope I’m wrong.
By The Forgotten Messiah.
October 25, 2008 5:51 AM | Link to this
Greenspan was right. The market does police itself. This is police brutality.
Once in a century, our pirates confound the regulatory structures in place and we get plundered, pillaged, and our women get stolen and our horses get raped.
Nothing changes. Ever. Men corrupt themselves the way bees make honey. it’s in our nature. If I coulda shaved a few million off the top of risky loan packages and sell them to foreign banks, then I would have.
This bailout is for foreign banks, people.
BlackWater Mercenaries are conspiring now to control our streets. They have a leader named Long Dong Silver. Expect Mayhem. No, wait, that was Anita Hill’s testimony that started our downward spiral as a country.
Nevermind.
By John Galt Jr.
October 25, 2008 8:29 AM | Link to this
My mother, still alive, remembers the depression. This is a far cry from the great depression. She also remembers people waiting very orderly in lines, all wearing suits and ties and the best they had, very politely waiting on handouts. She remembers neighbors sharing all they had with each other without stealing from each other. I wonder today if things get much worse, will people remain orderly, friendly, helpful to each other? Societies melting pot has a few more variables than 80 years ago to consider. Thank God I a trained in hand to hand combat and am armed to defend my family in case some people decide I must give up what I have for my family. I will and have shared what I have voluntarily but do not try and take from me. Lets hop if things get worse, which I doubt, people remain civil and do not go on the prowl, as it would be a very serious error in judgment.
By I'm Watching
October 25, 2008 10:30 AM | Link to this
Organizations like the Atlanta Housing Authority were created for a good cause and evolved to serve those who need some help. However,sometimes those with the best intentions run amock.
How come the Atlanta Housing Authority is spending $500,000 remodeling the executive conference room? How much money did they recently invest in new art? How come agency managment makes such high salaries when so many people are in need of shelter?
This is tax payer money directed to the Atlanta Housing Authority through HUD. I know I want my tax dollars to serve those in need.
Shame on you Renee’ Glover. You have done such good work for the community and now you are lining the pockets of your self interested managers with above market compensation and tax payer paid perks. I think it is high time that the Atlanta Housing Authority return to their mission.
How do others think the Atlanta Housing Authority should invest our tax payer dollars during these economically challenging times?
By The Forgotten Messiah.
October 25, 2008 5:36 PM | Link to this
The problem is fear. The problem is that people think they can save themselves.
they cant
By Steve
October 25, 2008 8:47 PM | Link to this
Allright, look, the title of this blog is “My Opinion” yet I am yet to find one. A more fitting title should be, “Storytime, with Rick Badie”. As for the depression, I really don’t know of anyone right now who is suffering. I’ve had friends layed off this last year, but they’ve had no problems finding new jobs, and well paying ones at that. GA is a sub-par state. Things are still growing here, and things aren’t that bad. You hear what’s going on in the rest of the country and always scream that the sky is falling, yet here in GA there’s been barely any change. The places hurting the most are the banking mecca’s and high technology areas. Places like Seattle, Los Angeles, and New York. Here in GA, it’s business as usual as of now. Sure, you might think I’m an idiot, but if you’re a native GA I don’t expect you to understand what I’m talking about. Continue to freak out over nothing.
By Cindy
October 25, 2008 9:29 PM | Link to this
Steve, I wonder how many people’s lives just improved drastically because you said things aren’t bad for them. It would’ve probably been helpful if you’d said that before several businesses went under, before several people lost their homes, before several people lost their jobs, before several people’s cars got repo’d…but since you’ve said it now, tomorrow i’m going to watch outside to see everyone marvel in the upturn, because you said nothing’s wrong. Thank you! :) I just wish you’d said it sooner. But you know what they say, “better late than never.”
By Stone
October 25, 2008 10:05 PM | Link to this
Tell us how you really feel, Cindy!
By Cindy
October 25, 2008 11:22 PM | Link to this
Hiya Stone…wondered where ya been. :)
I didn’t mean any harm. Was just trying to convey that just because some people haven’t felt the strain, doesn’t mean it isn’t real.
By BW
October 26, 2008 1:17 AM | Link to this
Steve, believe it or not, but the unemployment rate is higher here in the State of Georgia than the national average. One should always check their facts before opening mouth and inserting foot.
It will be a long recession no matter which party wins, but the really nice part about it is, Fearless Leaders legacy gets President Carter off the hook. My, my, what is a Republican to do.
Quick story about the Depression, my Dad told me he would go down to the tracks everyday when he was a kid and throw a rock or two at the tender, the fireman who would pretend he was mad and throw a few large clumps of coal his way. Those few lumps of coal used to heat their flat that night.
There is always that famous movie line from Rocky, “You gotta do, what gotta do”.
By The Forgotten Messiah.
October 26, 2008 8:10 AM | Link to this
That’s not a line from Rocky, Ebert. The line you are looking for, from the Rocky 3, titled, “The Brown Eye of the Tiger”, was “Go for it.”
That’s the only line that came out of all sixteen Rocky movies besides, “Yo, Adrianne.”
What you probably R thinking of is lines that came out of the Depression: “Buddy can you spare a dime”, and “You no good dirty rat, I’ll get you just like you got my brother, nyeh nyeh” (camera to tommy gun firing pell mell at the no good dirty rat).
Of course this leads us to the most quoted group of men in our history, of course I’m referring to the Knights Who Say Neh.
My grandmother used to say neh. Honest. It meant many things, but mostly, “nuff said”, or “enough”, or “stfu moron”.
I hated my grandma. She was mean but she had a right 2B mean. UC, she lived through the German occupation of Belgium in WW1. She used to steal potatoes from railroad cars just to get caught and jailed by the Germans who then would have to feed her. Her mother tried to stop her from continually getting arrested for food, (will get arrested for food), but to no avail. She was 18 and quite a babe then. I look at old photographs of her, and she coulda been the VP, okay?
Now, my grandma told me once of an incident that occurred when the German actually were quartering in her house. It was about 3AM and she went downstairs to the kitchen for a glass of milk…milk that the germans provided as consideration for them sleeping all over the house. (take those boots off you clods! I just waxed the floor!) She had opened the ice box, and it was an ice box, not an electric fridge, and a young german soldier approached her in stealth. He stood next to her and grabbed her wrist. She said he was shaking. A moment passed. Grandma was about to find love in all the wrong places. But at the last moment, when all seemed lost, the commander appeared and scolded the boy, he let go, and all was well. I asked what the commander had said, and my Grandma said that she didn’t understand it, but she remembered the words like it was only yesterday, “Ixnay on the ussypay, umbkaupfday”. I smiled.
Then my grandma said something like, “Now, I dont know what he wanted”. I said, “Grandma, he wanted sex.” She nodded and shrugged and said, “Ya think? Maybe. I dont know.” “No, Grandma, that boy woulda forced himself on you. You were in trouble, deep trouble grandma….”
“Neh.”
By Yes Steve I think you are an idiot
October 26, 2008 2:11 PM | Link to this
Steve,
Because in your circle of acquaintances anyone who has lost a job has been able to find one, that equates to things being not that bad and even growing? Try paying attention to things going on outside your own little world.
By The Forgotten Messiah.
October 27, 2008 5:56 AM | Link to this
Neh.
By Stan
October 27, 2008 11:00 AM | Link to this
I find it intresting that the only people who are bring the Great Depression days to mind are the media. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying things are peachy, they are not. They are however not nearly as bad as the main stream media are saying they are. Every one I know that WANTS to work is currently working except for one. My sis-in-law just got laid off but she was working for a house builder and maybe she shoulda been looking for a change before now anyway.
Stan
By Michael H. Smith
October 27, 2008 6:22 PM | Link to this
A plot to kill Obama. About the last thing America needs at this moment is for some hate kook or hate kooks assassinating Obama.
Get over it hate mongers. Nowhere in the constitution is the White House guaranteed an occupancy by only White people.
By Steve
October 27, 2008 8:03 PM | Link to this
The unemployment rate for GA is at 6.5%. But if you look, the employement rate for GA is always considerably higher than elsewhere regardless of recession or not. So GA’s precentage didn’t rise as much as a lot of other places. You can’t just look at what it is now, you have to look at how much is recession caused. Face it, you just have a lot of dopes here that can’t hold a job no matter how the economy is. You’re reactions to my initial statement is nothing more than propaganda. HAH!
By BW
October 27, 2008 8:36 PM | Link to this
“kooks assassinating Obama.”, 10,000 votes screwed up in Gwinnett County and finally Sec of State (next candidate for Governor) Handle gets her butt handed to her in Court about challengeing even before “The People” even attempted to vote.
Today I was going to cast a early vote. In my district, along with the majority of Gwinnett, it shouldn’t have been a problem, today the line was so long it went into the surrounding neigborhood. It is wonderful to see this kind of turn-out. I’ll try again tomorrow, bsd knee, can’t take the slow pace and if I jog for several hours waiting, people will have to carry me in.
Living in the reddest countty of the one of the redddest states, I never worry, I hope and believe it will not be a party line vote, too much is riding on it.
PLAY BALL!
By Facts over Fictions
October 27, 2008 8:53 PM | Link to this
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm
By Steve
October 27, 2008 8:58 PM | Link to this
I guess the states drop into the bottom what, 4 states in the country, in test scores has nothing to do with unemployment here in GA? It’s not exactly bursting with intelligence here.
By Twynn
October 27, 2008 9:27 PM | Link to this
So what brings you here Steve? Like-mindedness?
By LT5000
October 27, 2008 10:47 PM | Link to this
Leave it to Blubbering Badie, our resident blogging moron, to make another stupid comparison.
The unemployment rate during the Great Depression was 25% lardass, now it’s 6.2%. As a matter of fact, it was higher in the early 90’s. Was that a Depression Fat Boy? Oh yeah, a Democrat was in the White House.
The major cause of the Great Depression was England’s return to the Gold Standard.
Those are the facts. Something Blubbering Badie will never provide in his AJC funded Obama infomercial.
At least Badie is doing his part to help the economy. He consumes 4 Denny’s Grandslam Breakfast’s before 10am daily. Which could explain the permenant egg on his face.
LT5000
By BW
October 27, 2008 11:38 PM | Link to this
Steve I’ am a New York Yankee, I would be embarrassed by the schools donw here, great stadiums with a drop-out rate at 56%! ?
The area that I have serious disagree mwould with is that “The People” are stupid and lazy. It is the super intellgent managers that have screwed it all up, yet you need some else else to blame, sad as it.
Steve, I retired with a great pension, twenty ysars and out, but I care about what is happening aroubd me. I still cannot understand how a person could have his head up his butt so far he cannot understand what is happening in the real world, yet kisses one all day at work?
Hey Steve KMA my friend, KMA.
By Sally
October 28, 2008 5:59 AM | Link to this
Market could climb fifteen percent today. Lots of sideline cash. Bottom is certainly here.
Good housing numbers. The worst is behind us.
If not, we’re finished. Buy today.
ISAIDBUY!
By Terrance
October 28, 2008 9:17 AM | Link to this
I relocated my business out here from Arizona about a year and a half ago. I needed to layoff 300+ employees to accomplish this. The prices out here in GA were uncontestable compared to the those on west coast. I was paying over 150,000 a month for a lease on a building that was twice as small as the one I have here and pay 10 times less for. I relocated about 20 employees with me. Since then, I have constantly been hiring. I’m trying to do it in waves and I am keeping the salaries at the exact same they were in AZ. I still have over 100 positions to fill. Last month I had 120 applicants. Out of the 120, about 30 of them failed background checks. I will not allow convicted felons to work for me. The rest, except for 1 could not pass a simple aptitude/IQ test. This is the same test I’ve used for the last 20 years and I have NEVER had any issues with not being able to pass it. If you were to see how rediculiously easy it was, you’d scratch your head. The one woman whom did pass it, took a position as a receptionist. I offered to pay her 68k a year. She then failed the drug test, and now I am back to starting over again this month. A friend of mine who convinced me to relocate here has had the same problem, and ended up hiring out of state and paying relocation fee’s to fill the positions. I’m almost at the last straw where I will start doing the same. I am completely beside myself. One option is to completely drop the test but that goes against all of my personal rules. I refuse to lower my standards and my businesses reputation, so instead I will probably end up forking over the money I payed on my old lease just to move quality folks out here.
By hireme
October 28, 2008 9:42 AM | Link to this
Hey Terrance, if what you say is true hire me. I need a job and I guarantee will pass the aptitude and the drug test. For that matter so can my daughter who is a receptionist at her job for over 2 years and makes about half of what you claim to pay the one who flunked the drug test. Are you for real???
By Cindy
October 28, 2008 11:00 AM | Link to this
Terrance I missed the part about what kind of business you’re running. Maybe your target employees aren’t being accessed because of the way you’re marketing your business. There’s tons of ad’s that look suspect and your regular career-minded person doesn’t seek out things that look iffy; they look for employers with verifiable backgrounds as well.
By Peanut Butter Lover
October 28, 2008 11:39 AM | Link to this
”*..took a position as a receptionist. I offered to pay her 68k a year. *”
I find that hard to believe! (No disrespect intended)
I assume these are blue-collar jobs, by the way…right? No wonder all the failed drug tests.
But good luck. I’d rather not take a chance on hiring junkies either. Plenty of those on Jimmy Carter Blvd!
By Ajamu
October 28, 2008 12:21 PM | Link to this
Terrance: I run a program for fathers in Gwinnett and DeKalb Counties which helps them get jobs and get into Technical College in order to get better jobs. I can screen them for you. These are Dads who want to work and support their children. Call me. 404-297-9522 X2554 (DeKalb Tech).
By Badie
October 28, 2008 1:27 PM | Link to this
Poor LT5000. Poor, poor LT. Pitiful human being.
By LT5000
October 28, 2008 5:59 PM | Link to this
Hey Blubbering Badie, since you are responding to this blog, you could take the time to correct your ignorant article from months ago claiming there was a Recession.
Or you could just compare today’s economy to the economy prior to the Great Depression. And point out how there is absolutely no comparison.
Of course, I don’t expect you to have the journalistic integrity to do that. It would go against the inbred culture of the AJC.
Why let the facts get in the way of your moronic musings? Right Fat Boy?
Try writing something worth reading, as opposed to your usual Obama infomercial. Climb your chunky butt into a Norcross police cruiser and do a ride along.
LT5000