Is the sky really falling

It has been awhile, 79 years to be exact, since I've seen anything like it. I'm referring to the past couple of weeks when the wheeler-dealers on Wall Street and in Congress have been running here and there in a panic. It peaked yesterday when they began crying, "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!"
That earlier event in October 1929 came a few months after the photo above was taken a couple of weeks before an auto accident put that 4-year-old kid in the hospital for 30 days. So when everyone was talking about the Wall Street Crash I thought they meant one on the highway. Was poor Wall Street going to have to spend a month in bed?
My dad, the eternal optimist, kept saying, "It won't affect us." Eight months or so later he was out of a job. Three months after that my mother was out of a job. Another few months and we were living in a Model-T Ford with a canvas top and no side curtains. And it was winter in the Midwest.
Yes, the Great Depression was rough, yet all but the weakest survived. People came out of it stronger and with a better sense of values. When it began, however, those same people were much like those you'll find today. Not quite as self-indulgent because there were no credit cards, no ATM machines, but a plethora of stores with "easy credit" signs in the window. A few years later the signs were still there but credit had become a dirty word.
I'm no economist but as I understand it we won't merely be bailing out Wall Street, that place where people make money without actually working for it, but also the institutions that give credit. Today's economy is based on people borrowing money so they can buy stuff from merchants who borrowed money to buy stock. We borrow huge sums to buy houses while full aware we can't afford the payments, the taxes or the upkeep. We are paid by employers who borrow money to meet a payroll.
So we're living in a house of cards. Sooner or later houses like that come tumbling down. One economist says it will be 2015 before things return to normal. By then people may have wised up the way they did in the 1930s when you bought something only when you had money in your pocket to pay for it.
If the sky really does fall, the country and the world may be better off for it. If it doesn't fall it will merely postpone the day when that house of cards collapses.

Well said, Dick.
You may find my comments on "current events" of interest. People around the world are talking about the situation and they are affected as well.

Those who knew hard times know what it takes to survive. Others may take the easy way out (the cowards way) and jump off a bridge, or take their pistol and do it that way. It will take courage and lots of hard work to reverse things. How many will be up to the task?

I was thinking about this today. If, instead of bailing out the banks and Wall street with all that billions of dollars, they could send each or the 305 plus millions of people who live in the USA a check for 250,000 and still have money left over. I do believe that would help the economy more. A lot of people could pay off a lot of their debts, houses, and credit cards. Do you think we should send Mr. Bush a letter about it?

Love,
Betty

I don't believe he cares about ordinary people, Betty. He never really has lived among us. The fat cats are the ones he has always mingled with.
Back during the Depression a Socialist named Norman Thomas had a plan that would have given $250 to the head of every household. It might have brought the hard times to a quick end but the people in Washington scoffed at the idea. They considered Socialism a dirty word even if it might have helped end the Depression.

I thought that as a Canuck I would be relatively unscathed by the economic situation in the US. I mean, our economy often mirrors yours but is not tied to it, and we are not faced with the same kind of recession (I think). We are not having the same issues with mortgages, banks and housing starts, but there sure are other effects. My writing contracts, which were quite lucrative a year and a half ago right until this past Spring, came via the US through a company that has just closed its doors and filed for bankruptcy. I'd like to insert a big sigh here, because I really loved doing that stuff.
But is the sky falling? No, it isn't. Is the s#it going to hit the fan more than it has already? I'm thinking so. I am putting the house up for sale, but at least I am working somewhere else now (not writing at the moment ), but we'll make it through. I would, however, like to complain about it just a little bit.

Pam, I am sorry to hear your sad news. What a deal, our financial woes are so widespread, it is a sorry state of affairs!

Pam,
that is sad to hear but does confirm the plight of many.
You have previously posted about ancestors and how they weathered hard times. I'm sure you have inherited that grit and will survive. As talented as you are, how can you not succeed?

Pam, I agree with everything said by Abe. Hang in there.

Dick, I wrote a brand new short story that I intended to submit to Amazon Shorts, but of course they've been down since the first of the year.

The name is THE SKY IS FALLING, and it's a literal interpretation of the old Henny Penny/Chicken Little children's fable. In this story the sky actually is falling, and small pieces of blue are drifting to the ground. Most of the story takes place through conversations between the characters in a McDonalds while they are waiting to buy breakfast food.

I'm not exactly sure what I intended to convey with the story, but then again, most of the time I have no idea of that.

If Amazon doesn't open back up soon, I'll seek another outlet for it.

Sounds intriguing.
Any idea what is going on with Amazon Shorts?

Thanks for your messages of support Zada, Abe and Dick. You guys and these conversations are what I love about this place! We'll get through this I am sure, and with more to look forward to. In the meantime, if anyone is in the market for a fairly new fridge, freezer or a couple of other things, let me know.

Even in adversity your sense of humour is infectious Pam! Cool!

Shelagh I just can't help myself!

And we are all glad you can't!

Quote :

Any idea what is going on with Amazon Shorts?

That's where they want writers and buyers to take it.

Not sure what connection adorobooks has to the Amazon Shorts program, Lin, care to enlighten us?

I did read the bait on your new work, which I've posted here.

"IMAGINARY LINES
ENGINES OF DESIRE
Before emerging as a dean of gringo border-rat literature, Lin Robinson was an award-winning poet and journalist. Born and schooled in Asia, resident of Latin America for 20 years, Lin has incurred an expatriate outlook that gives his work and outside angle on American culture and readers."


It sounds interesting and might be something I'd read. Good luck with it. You might want to ask them to change the "and" that is between work and outside to "an" as it seems it would be the right word to use there.