Welcome to 1937. For those of you who weren’t there, or who practice revisionist history, let me explain what happened to our economy in 1937. But first, lets step back to 1932. After the Republicans managed to completely destroy our economy with “Laissez-faire Capitalism” and triggered The Great Depression (no, the first one, not the second one we are in now) unemployment hit 25% in this country. That’s right by 1932 the unemployment rate of American workers was 25%. This was before all of the “nasty socialist” programs brought in by FDR, so if you lost your job (which there was a 1 in 4 chance would happen to YOU), you were out of luck. You had to depend on the kindness of strangers. Hope that your church still had some food in the food bank, and say good-bye to your home, etc. People moved into “Hoovervilles” because they had nowhere else to go.
At this point, people had enough, and they elected FDR who implemented a lot of what the Republican called “socialist” policies and encouraged the Unions which frustrated Conservative even more. As a result of all this so-called “bad” policy the unemployment rate had dropped to 10% by 1937. In general, it took nearly a 5 years before the United States was pulling out of the Great Depression.
So, what happened next? For some reason, the deficit hawks convinced FDR that it was time to balance the budget. That the deficits he was running just had to be eliminated or our economy was doomed in the long run. So, FDR tried to balance the budget by cutting spending, and guess what happened? That’s right, the fragile recovery took a decided turn for the worse. Especially unemployment which climbed to 19% by 1938. Manufacturing output fell by 37% from the 1937 peak and was back to 1934 levels. Can you say “double dip”?
So, what lessons can we learn from this period in U.S. history?
1. You can’t cut back on government spending before the depression/recession is completely over with.
2. Don’t listen to the Conservatives in this country when they tell you that fixing the deficit is the most important thing!
3. If the people who caused the problem in the first place, want you to return to their policies before the problem is fixed, JUST SAY NO!!!!!
Now, all this seems like common sense to me. Yet here we are, refusing to learn the lessons of history, and trying very hard to repeat the mistakes we made in 1937!
What scares me a lot is the reaction of a good-sized segment of the American population to all of this economic upheaval. Again, take a lesson from history. When Germany underwent the same economic issues as the U.S. in the 1920’s and 1930’s what did they do? They listened to a small number of people who gave them someone to blame for the problem. They then swept that hate filled group into power, and allowed them to do horrible things in the name of protecting the Fatherland.
First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.
So now it’s the “illegal aliens”, and the “Muslims”, when do you think it will be YOU?!
