Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it...

“The stock market crash of 1929, which marked the beginning of the Great Depression of the US, came directly from wild speculation which collapsed and brought the whole economy down with it. But, as John Gailbraith says in his study of that event (The Great Crash), behind that speculation was the fact that “the economy was fundamentally unsound.” He points to very unhealthy corporate and banking structures, an unsound foreign trade, much economic misinformation, and the “bad distribution of income” (the highest 5% of the population received about 1/3 of all personal income).

A socialist critic would go further and say that the capitalist system was by its nature unsound: a system driven by the one overriding motive of corporate profit and therefore unstable, unpredictable, and blind to human needs. The result of all that: permanent depression for many of its people, and periodic crisis for almost everybody. Capitalism, despite its attempts at self-reform, its organization for better control, was still in 1929 a sick and undependable system.

After the crash, the economy was stunned, barley moving. Over five thousand banks closed and huge numbers of businesses, unable to get money, closed too. Those that continued laid off employees and cut the wages of those who remained, again and again. Industrial production fell by 50%, and by 1933 perhaps 15 million (no one knew exactly)- ¼ or 1/3 of the labor force- were out of work. The Ford Motor Company, which in the spring of 1929 had employed 128,000 workers, was down to 37,000 by August 1931. By the end of 1930, almost half of the 280,000 textile mill workers in New England were out of work. Former Pres. Calvin Coolidge commented with his customary wisdom: “When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results.” He spoke again in early 1931 “The country is not in good condition.”

Clearly, those responsible for organizing the economy did not know what had happened, were baffled by it, refused to recognize it, and found reasons other than the failure of the system. Herbert Hoover had said, not long before the crash: “We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land.” Henry Ford, in March 1931, said the crisis was here because “the average man won’t really do a day’s work unless he is caught and cannot get out of it. There is plenty of work to do if people would do it.” A few weeks later he laid off 75,000 workers.

**There were millions of tons of food around, but it was not profitable to transport it, to sell it. Warehouses were full of clothing, but people could not afford it. There were lots of houses, but they stayed empty because people couldn’t pay the rent, had been evicted, and now lived in shacks in quickly formed “Hoovervilles” built on garbage dumps.”

Excerpts from “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn


** Does anyone recall within the last 2-3 months when dairy farms were in the news reporting that they were dumping their cows milk in the ground because milk prices were so low they couldn’t make a profit to keep their businesses open? This is reality in 2008.

I am sharing this with you all, not to scare you but to recognize this is the problem of capitalism…yesterday and TODAY. It is a system that destroys itself if unregulated and left to its own devices. If it weren’t for socialism, capitalism couldn’t survive. I am certain of this fact after seeing bailout after bailout in my lifetime. Chrysler Automotive, the S&L Savings bailout, Amtrak, US Airlines, United Airlines, Fannie May, Freddie Mac, AIG, and early next year in 2009 we, the people will be giving $25 billion to the “BIG 3” auto manufacturers and on and on and on it goes folks…..it is NEVERENDING how much of our tax dollars flow out of our pockets and into corporate hands. I encourage you to buy historian and former professor Howard Zinn’s book to re-introduce you to your country’s history. It may be the most important book you will ever read!

Namaste’

Emma