Saturday, December 06, 2008

LESSONS FROM THE FIRST GREAT DEPRESSION











We had a Great Depression in the 1930s and now we are headed into the Great Depression II. Many are reading about the first great depression to hopefully glean some insight about what to do and what not to do. I have sent away for the book on the subject everyone is talking about: THE FORGOTTEN MAN: A NEW HISTORY OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION by Amity Shlaes.

The two depressions really cannot be compared apples to apples; there are many differences but some things remain valid for both.

The new Obama administration is moving in this January and everyone expects wonders to happen. Obama has already issued a plan to put millions to work fixing the nation’s infrastructure, schools, etc. Sounds very similar to what FDR (Roosevelt) did when he took over the government reins during the Great Depression.

We now know that most everything FDR did to get the nation out of depression really did not work and only the onset of WWII did.

Some of the things that were done in the 30’s that we now know PROLONGGED the Great Depression included the impeding of international trade through high import duties; designed to protect domestic industry but did nothing of the sort.

Obama ran with the support of labor and they now want to be repaid. The problem is the way they want to get repaid is through the impeding of free international trade through protection laws that make it difficult if not impossible to trade with countries that do not recognize labor laws similar to U.S. labor laws and pay their people what American Labor considers adequate wages. In a nut shell, they want to repeat the mistake made during the first Great Depression.

Obama did not appear that he was stupid enough to do Labor’s bidding even if he did make some veiled promises to Labor during his campaign. He has appointed moderate and intelligent economists to positions of power that one hopes, know the lessons of history and will not repeat them.

One good example is Labor’s call to repeal NAFTA which is exactly what I am talking about.

Another mistake in the 1930s was the promotion of labor unions through laws that favored labor against management. This led to companies that could no longer operate profitably and just closed their doors. The same is about to occur here with the infamous FREE LABOR CHOICE LAW which will stop “secret ballot voting” by employees as to whether they want a union to represent them or not. Now, union bullies will openly solicit signatures FOR unionization and just like in those 1930 gangster flicks, kick the shit out of those that refuse to sign.

These are just two (2) big mistakes made during the first depression that appear to be on their way to being repeated in the second depression.

Keep your fingers crossed that Obama has balls of steel to do what is right…

No comments:

Post a Comment

CONFEDERATE MONUMENTS: Stay or Go...

Another subject that I feel needs some clarification because it is so divisive among us is the issue of Confederate Monuments, why they ...