If it becomes a deep depression 1930's style,

[shraby]

the powers that be are going to see a different reaction to it. In the 30s, people were relatively resigned to what was happening and just tried to survive and helped each other when they could.
The people of today are a whole different kind..they are used to getting what they want when they want and get very angry when things don't go their way and we even have terms to describe the events..road rage and going postal are two.
It might just get pretty ugly if things continue to go downhill.

[TheCowsCameHome]

1. You are right. Today's attitude is me first, to hell with you.

Things will be ugly.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. 180... the people took to the streets in the depression

labor organized and took to the streets

Hey vets built a hooverville in DC and got shot at by regular army troops under the command of Chief of Staff McCarthur

They stood passively is another myth

[shraby]

3. That was vets, not the general population

and they had a grievance with the government about benefits. The mass majority of people did nothing but try to survive, (just checked at wikipedia) you're right..there were Hoovervilles all over the country, but they weren't violent unless the authorities got violent against them.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. The mass majority did take to the streets... the riots were not pretty

and have been mostly suppressed... like the national strike of 1953 iirc...

[Terran]

5. You're right--1930's saw a huge rise in Labor unrest

and American socialism. I don't think it's quite accurate that people just took it all passively. *Some* people, at least, became very radicalized and tried very actively to do something about it. The government was scared for a while there that there would be a revolution in the US, such was the high profile of the radical Left.

I wrote my thesis on John Dos Passos and the USA Trilogy, and he was a good example of the how people were attracted to leftist causes during the Depression, and how a lot of artists depicted it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. And that is the major difference between then and now

We do not have an organized true left....

But that doe snot mean people are not getting radicalized... or that this will not emerge "overnight"

[remember2000forever]

6. Ask Any Hurricane Survivor. Tensions Run High, Especially When Confronted With Our Comforts!

[Mother Of Four]

7. Things are already ugly-

Talking with a VERY close friend of mine, we were venting about what we think is to come. (We are both EMS)

She told me of a call a cowoker went on where a mother smothered her infant, because she couldn't care for her. Abuse calls are on the rise, neglect as well.

You just aren't seeing it in the news as much because this horror is becoming commonplace.


As money worries get worse, stress levels go up, horrific cases go up as well.


It's going to turn into a sad world soon.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. That was my reality as a Medic in Tijuana

make sure the city gets you vests... soon people will take it out on any uniformed person.

Oh and DUCK