There very well may be some good that will come out of this coming depression.
I occurs to me that this coming depression may end up not being all that terrible in the long-term. Could it be that tough times make people change in ways that they wouldn't when everything was bumping along just fine?
My parents both grew up in the last depression. My mother once told me that her favorite most vivid memory of that time was getting a fresh juicy orange as her major Christmas present. An orange! Can you imagine if we gave one of our kids an orange for Christmas? Child Protective Service might just be compelled to make a visit to our homes. But haven't we all become consumers more than anything else over the years? We keep buying the latest gadget, flashy trinket or new product falsely thinking that getting some more stuff will make us happy. Perhaps, we will return to doing simpler, healthier things in life. Maybe will we all become a bit less mesmerized with material goods and more interested in living a more disciplined simple life. For evidence I present mashed potatoes.
You go to the store and buy a sack of potatoes for a few bucks. You peel them, boil, drain and mash them. You add a little cream and seasoning, steam a vegetable and you have the start of an inexpensive, healthy, filling meal. All it took was time. You do this a few times and McDonald's, Taco Time and the other fast food places lose their appeal. You start figuring out that the 15 bucks you drop at a single visit at one of these places for greasy food with no taste isn't worth it. You start comparing how much real food you can buy for that same amount. You start changing daily habits. Your start serving meals again to your kids rather than throwing bags of fast food shit at them. Maybe you even talk while eating! What a concept. Maybe some progress will be made on reducing the 30% of our kids who are overweight.
I can visualize our roads being free of the ridiculous fleet of vehicles that GMC and Ford kept selling us. Maybe the Chevy Luv pickup will make a comeback, they were perfectly good little vehicles in the '80's and if we had just kept moving in that direction of smaller more efficient modes of transportation this entire thing could have been avoided. Perhaps we will remember that a car's purpose isn't to impress or glorify one's status but a vehicle for getting us from place to place. Maybe will will learn to suffer along without heated car seats and such. I saw two Smart Cars in one day this last week. This cars are little two seaters but designed beautifully and get over 40 miles to the gallon. There is already a two-year waiting list for getting one. I suggest that the our automakers get serious and get these type of autos out on the road.
The upside of everything being more expensive is that it makes alternative energy sources more affordable and cost effective. Hence, I am more able to see a time in the near, not distant, future when nearly everyone heats their home water with solar panels. When wind power becomes a real and serious power source, when natural gas run and electric vehicles dominate the roadways. We may have just been forced into really making the changes needed to solve global warming as we all drive less and watch our energy use due to increased costs.
Obama will have to put in some infrastructure projects in place to put people back to work like the government projects of the Great Depression did. This will have great benefit to our society as a whole as we have put off these projects to the point that many are nearing crisis stages. This will improve our daily lives in many ways. We will have safer bridges, better highways and freeways, better water and sewer projects. Maybe this is the time when our leaders will put into place government programs to insulate all our homes, clean up our environment hazards sites and make a modern rail service for transporting goods and people a reality.
This depression could possibly make people more liberal which would be good in many, many ways. This time could signal the end of the classic false right wing nonsense about how great business is and how terrible government is. Maybe it will awaken these red state idiots into facing the facts about how conservatives have been the big spenders not the liberals since the 1980's. The deregulation bullshit may just die its long overdue death. Issues like privatizing Social Security will be done forever. It doesn't take much convincing to show the public what would have happened in this latest stock market crash if people would have had their precious SS funds on the casino table. We could have had millions of our elderly in poverty if those funds would have been gambled in the stock market. This fact should signal the end of this particular issue permanently.
Maybe this depression will make us a bit more human. Make us more aware of those around us . Perhaps the concept of us all being in this together as presented in Barack's 2004 speech and all during his campaign moves closer to a reality.
The coming depression gives us all an excuse to say no to things that have entered our culture as valid rites of passage like all our kids thinking that renting a limo for prom night is a birth right. Or that Sweet Sixteen parties are mandatory. Perhaps Christmas doesn't have to remain the sick orgy of meaningless gifts that it has become. Maybe we can learn to struggle by with a home in which rooms serve multiple purposes and get away from thinking we have to have a separate computer room, sewing room or arts and craft room in order to be truly happy. Perhaps we will return to my grandfather's world in which he told me that there are two people you never want to address on a first name basis--your banker or lawyer. Maybe we will start visiting and supporting our libraries. Maybe we can get the Christian nuts to spend more time on the Now Times and not the End Times. Maybe it will become harder to pass a crippled vet on the street and not acknowledge his existence or give him a buck or two.
I don't mean to ignore the real suffering that will continue to take place during this depression. Families will be under even more stress, crime rates will increase as they always do in bad times, good citizens who played by the rules and tried to save for the future by investing in 401K's and such will watch with anger, fear and bewilderment as the funds have just disappeared. The least among us will suffer the most but at least they won't be all alone this time. Changes are being forced our way and if things settle down in a year or two we may just make it out of this mess and become a better people and nation.