Wednesday, June 29, 2011

History repeating?

A reader sent this 1934 Chicago Tribune cartoon. Look it over verrrrry carefully (click to enlarge) and tell me we're not following the same course today.  Do we never learn from history?

Chicago Tribune 1934 Cartoon

7 comments:

  1. That is VERY sad...Praying for our country and doing all I can to protect my family in the days and years to come!

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  2. So true. Why cant we learn from history?

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  3. I agree that our current spending is not well thought out. But the cartoon message is misleading.

    The problem is that when they did tightened up again, the country collapsed back into a deep recession. That is the big dip you will see after 1933 in your various productivity, etc. measures. It did not come out of it again until the spending associated with the build up to WW2.

    But WW2 was a very special (bad) event that also destroyed a lot the rest of the world's industrial capacity. This kept all the spending from creating a massive surplus in capacity. In effect you can say that our coming out of a recession was paid for by the suffering of others. Not saying we are at fault for the suffering, just noting that it was not a free ride.

    The problem, is that they had had a huge debt issue left over from WW1 and a big financial bubble as well. You can spend, you can not spend; but at some point there is going to be a painful cost to coming out of this recession. Not spending is very painful in the short term, but gives a hope (not a certainty) that you can clear past the garbage much quicker and get on with life. Spending is like what Japan has been doing since their 1990 collapse, it keeps society intact, but you never really get out of your trouble without a freaky event like WW2.

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  4. borrowed and back linked.

    how many more times can we ride this crazy cycle?

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  5. Ecclesiastes 1:9
    New King James Version (NKJV)
    9 That which has been is what will be,
    That which is done is what will be done,
    And there is nothing new under the sun.

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  6. There's one thing that's changed - the Chicago Tribune would never question the policies of the current Spender-In-Chief. He's got 99% of the so-called news media in his pocket.

    Anonymous Patriot
    USA

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  7. The craziness as depicted in the cartoon is especially disturbing for many of us in southern AZ. What a time to be without a voice in the Congress! It's very frustrating. I wish our Congresswoman well, but if she isn't expected to serve for the remainder of her term, will we be expected to accept more taxation without representation? Can't turn to the 'honorable' Mr Grijalva next door to uphold conservative principles. Our districts are gerymandered so we have a slices of Tucson and Phoenix (70 and 150 miles away) to keep us from electing conservatives. I'm thinking of moving to Montana with my neighbors, who are packing as I write!

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