Another Depression like the 1929 one? Is this possible ? How about one thats worse? Gloom, doom, no more vroom

Question

(petrol)how would that effect the world or countries like Australia? Could we have a world homelessness? Food shortages? How does a depression effect government pensions and benifits? would a war get us out of a economic collasp?

Any ideas?? Any views?? Any ideas? and how low would housing prices go? Someone said my house (currently valued at three hundred thousand) could decrease 90%. How real is that? Or credit cards being stopped and the money being demanded? Could it really get that Bad?

Answer 1

I think that, sadly enough, war and famine are needed to bring people together.

Think about it:  Before an energy or food crisis, we are all going about our lives, wrapped up in our own selfish interests.  However, when our friends and family members are suddenly jobless and hungry, things change.  We begin to look at the big picture...paying attention to our politicians, our energy policies, our government.

For too long, the corporations have been buying influence.  We are seeing the result.  There is a huge gap between the people who control the money and the Average Joe.  When the Average Joe starts going hungry, he starts to ask questions...like "Why is that politician giving the oil companies a tax break in the same year that they are posting record profits?"

Answer 2

It could happen.  The Depression arose because of singularly stupid government policies -- which policies are being proposed by Democratic candidates today.  Specifically, impediments to free trade (higher tariffs, "renegotiating" NAFTA, and the like), and higher taxes.

Answer 3

One thing you and the other answers do not state . The larger population now then in the 1930's . All mostly in the cities . With a depression will come civil unrest . this will bring down the structured societies we now have . Disorder and anarchy  will rule the streets .

Answer 4

Yes, it is possible, especially if we ship more jobs overseas.

Economic output here determines personal income and tax revenues here, and if output drops there is lees money to go around for everybody. That's why "globalization" is actually a bad idea. It's great for multi-national corporations and shipping companies, but bad for the country as a whole.

The value of your house is a good example of the effect of inflation,,,,,if the dollar is worth less next year and the price of your house stays the same, then the value of your house has dropped. Over time the value of your house could drop 50% while the price stays the same.

Answer 5

1)  high petrol cost will hurt countries such as australia due to the fact that the country has a low population, is very spread out, and overall hasn't invested much money in public transportation.

2)high petrol cost will also lead to high food prices and possibly shortages because governments will invest in ethonal  and because many farmers use chemical fertilizers and pesticides biproducts of oil.

3)depression in most cases won't affect your pension and benefits because governments save for isssues such as this and also because governments will just borrow the money to keep pensions and benefits going. they only thing that could interfere with benefits and pensions is stagflation streching over decades.

4)No, a war wouldn't get us out of economic collapse becasue today with globalization the world is interconected and fighting a war will bring about sanctions on the aggresser country and destruction to the country trying to defend it self. in the case of attacking a oil rich country like suadi arabia it will send oil through the roof and destroy its oil producing Capacity (like iraq).

5) it depend where you live if you live in a brand new sub-division then your value could go down alot cause everyone brought their houses at the same time and the chance that everyone took out the same sub-prime loan is high. overall though your home will not go down much further cause the amount of available houses is going down which means the price of yours will go up(classic supply and demand).

6) i have no idea about a world homelessness i think its unlikely though.

Answer 6

Yes its possible and very likely we are in the beginning stages of it. Read this report to understand what is happening. http://www.grandich.com/docs/alert_07-09...

And listen to this audio download from a couple weeks ago. http://www.kereport.com/audio/0628-02.mp...

There is no quick fix to this. Once you read this material and you get past the denial stage you will see how bad this truly is.

Answer 7

i don't think it will get that bad.

but i think it will get worse than it is now.

Answer 8

Another depression is def a possibility but it won't be like the one in 1929. People will be very angry and not as understanding. Chaos will break out. Look what happened during Hurricane Katrina. That will be the whole country.

Answer 9

I think personally, that it could be far worse. One BIG factor is that a lot of farms have been bought out, the land made into subdivisions or contracted to solely raise corn for "ethanol" (which costs more per gallon to produce than to get oil) that also depleats the soil. (Good farming in the 70's through 80's taught that rotating crops was essential to maintaining the soil-dustbowl anyone?!) A lot of our food is now imported, rather than being grown on our own US farms. Other than the seasonal farmer's markets, most of our produce in stores comes from other countries, even if it CAN be grown locally. Importing takes transportation=gas. Food is a basic necessity and we've outsourced it. There aren't enough farms left to feed our population, but the media isn't talking about that.

In regards to jobs; in the depression, the government created jobs for people. Today, the government is equally outsourcing jobs and combining jobs as any other company would to cut costs. We don't see statistics on it, but I wouldn't be suprised if 1/3 of the usual government jobs such as basic call centers are actually offshored (aka: answered by someone in India).

With NAFTA, there were and are a LOT of tax incentives for companies to offshore their jobs. The premise was (initially) that it would make the cost of goods so much cheaper for our American consumer, and new jobs would be created. But, that was in a day when a former welder COULD get a job as a network administrator or robotic programmer for twice of what he earned (pre 2000) The reality was, there were 25+ welders displaced by one robot, needing only one programmer.

As a semi-computer literate person, I can tell you first hand, I saw my first endeavor into the office scene as a receptionist in my early 20's with some computer skills (including network administration and database) to seeing companies jumping on paying a receptionist to also take care of the network and some database....on the side. I could almost vomit at the number of companies that simply eliminated necessary positions and redefined the responsibilities to a minimally paying position (hey, how often do you see "receptionist/accounting" positions just lumped together?). Plus, for the first time, I had to COMPETE with people who had degrees and huge resumes!!  Workwise, we as a country are screwed. The average consumer is too broke to buy the now "cheaper" goods, and people are being forced to move into positions simply to pay the bills. Why do you think our country's level of production is so low? People hate what they're doing, they're simply doing what they have to do.

In regards to credit cards, they won't stop.

In regards to the big foreclosure rate: I'm only SLIGHTLY sad about that. It's a simple fact, people wanted to live beyond their means--have a house NICER than the Jones'. They cared more about affording the house and the lifestyle than raising their kids and being a family. A stay at home mom was a luxury, not just something that was part of the family plan (then every parent looks for some diagnosis or pill to make their child fit into THEIR lifestyle...but that's another topic).

The biggest thing is how can we bring these jobs back home? There's no incentive for companies to do so. The companies don't have to worry about unions jacking the wages up unreasonably (my late Dad was a bricklayer and in his case, the unions did wonders, but I also worked for a large dental group that had unionized workers, and the union workers barely had to work 20 hours a week for "full-time" benefits, that cost the company a fortune and the company couldn't fire certain people who would only show up occassionally because it would cost more money for the company to go to court than fight the union)

We, as a country are going down. The last 20+ years were built on credit and having more, but where do we go? The current "baby boomers" have already used up all of the social security taxes anyone under age 60 has paid their entire lives (I've paid since I was 14). My Mom is 66 and still works full time because she can't afford to retire. I have a friend who's filed bankruptcy twice, with a combined amount of $50,000 at least ALL credit card debt. I've never had a credit card in my life, but I've had hospital bills and had to file bankruptcy. The thing is, people were never raised or taught that a credit card is nothing more than a library card with interest and they just see it as a golden key to go buy whatever they want, whenever they want. I'm truly ticked off that I didn't have a credit card to at least furnish my house nicely and get everything I wanted before filing bankruptcy. Instead, I'm stuck with the garage sale furniture that I could afford.

So, with our food supplies gone, not enough farms/farmers to meet our needs, more jobs being offshored regularly, no one able to pay back their "plastic debt" or mortgages that took real money from others, where do you think we'll end up?