Brother Can You Spare A Dime…

The lyrics to a song made popular during the Great Depression.  Eerily enough, less than 80 years later, here we are, on the crest of another detrimental recession.

Many economists and our President dare not use the dreaded word recession and rather defer to the more “pleasant” phrase , economic downturn.  Get caught up in word play if you wish, but we can’t ignore the fact these are alarming times we are living in my friends.  Gas prices continue to soar, Americans continue to lose their homes at a climbing rate, unemployment is sky-rocketing on a national level, payrolls were down another 62,000 in June and globally, international exporters of basic foods such as rice and wheat have begun hoarding their supplies.

The government claims to downplay our economic conditions when addressing the American people in an effort to spare mass hysteria and grief.  Hello!! You don’t have to sugar-coat anything for me.  I know what time it is.  I just want to know someone is out there working to fix things.

Here’s a quick history lesson.  The stock market crashed in 1929 due to excessive selling.  Production and employment declined.  In 1930, there was panic in the banks.  By 1933, one-fifth of our banks had failed.  Franklin D. Roosevelt closed all the banks, calling it a bank holiday.  The banks eventually reopened after inspectors checked for their solvency.  The Great Depression persisted through the 1930’s and finally ended with Roosevelt’s controversial New Deal.

So here’s the question I pose to you, my esoteric nibblers of all things intellectual, where’s our New Deal?  Now I don’t know what you believe, but I’m a firm believer that if you don’t know your past, you don’t know your future.  And the history of the Great Depression sounds very similar to where we’re headed right now.  So instead of politicians and economists worrying about carefully crafting their words so as to manipulate the fragile psyche of the American people who are already on the brink to believe things aren’t .  How about a solution?

I don’t see it happening with the current Administration, considering President Bush has 196 days left in office and he clearly hasn’t done anything to help the American people the FIRST 2,000+ days he’s BEEN in office.  So I guess we have to keep our eyes on his successor, whoever he might be.  I’m guessing his name will rhyme with Mobama.

Looking forward to see what he does in his first 100 days.

Speak soon,

~ J

~ by www.blackgaygossip.com on July 7, 2008.