Day 84/365: I am a product of my WWII, Great Depression, and the Fall of Wall Street parents, and they made it through…
My parents would have been 23 when this poster was created, age 20 when America entered the war. Most know that we entered because of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, but in his speech, “Day of Infamy” President Roosevelt announced only going to war with Japan. My dad rose to officer status quite quickly in the Navy, and became a pilot, as well. He literally was on land, the sea, and in the air. His older brother, Donald, was killed at Midway Island because of the attack. He was a pilot, too, and his plane hit something as he was trying to take off, it flipped his plane and he died. My father, James, held an anger for so many years against the Japanese for causing the death of his brother. Donald was his idol.
America had not wanted to enter the war, instead, tried to stay neutral, until the attack happened. The American people felt that there was enough to deal with because of the Depression and stock market crash and the issues that caused, and did not want to go to war. The attack unified the Americans, and 12 million were sent off. The fall of Wall Street, or Black Thursday, October 24, 1929 was a cause of the Great Depression in America. 16 million shares of stock were quickly sold by panicking investors. They had lost faith in the American economy. World wide, it lasted 10 years, and millions of people died of starvation. It had already started in 1928 in Germany, Brazil and SE Asia, soon to be followed by Poland, Argentina, and Canada, then us. What started to lift the US out of the depression was, unfortunately WWII, and Roosevelt’s New Deal. The military spending helped end the Great Depression. President Roosevelt’s plan was to offer relief, recovery and reform. This was meant for those hardest hit.
Adding salt to that wound was the worst drought in North America in the Midwest. Farming practices weren’t that good which worsened the drought’s effects. Winds blew and raised large amounts of dust (hence, it is called the Dust Bowl and was a natural disaster). The crops dried up from the drought and there was nothing to keep the soil in place. No rain, nothing to hold the land, add wind, and you had mounds of dirt covering everything. It suffocated livestock, caused pneumonia in kids, and was even said to have covered houses. I can’t even imagine, and I hope that we never have to see that again. I have heard of new droughts being predicted…
Remember in earlier writings about TCM, I talked about how damaging the wind could be to us as an EPI. What was blowing around outside, entered the inside, and killed animals and humans. There was no getting away from it. Clearly, the Dust Bowl made the Great Depression worse. Banks failed, unemployment rose to 25%, economic contraction some of which was deflation, house prices dropped more than 60%, and homelessness was on the rise.
The New Deal boosted growth by 1934, but by 1938 the government cut back on it’s spending, which brought the depression back. Roosevelt was concerned about all the government spending and adding to our debt of 5 trillion. Now we are over 23 trillion from deficit spending, tax cuts, and expansionary fiscal policy.
Expansionary fiscal policy is when the government expands the economy’s money using tools to cut taxes, or increase spending. Deficit spending is when purchases exceed income. You know, like overspending on your credit cards, or other loans which could cause you to bankrupt. When the government lends money to itself, it is through the Social Security Trust, which is why my children aren’t believing that SS will be here for them. It adds to the debt, but not to the deficit.
Most of the people I knew who lost their homes in the 2008, the year the Case-Shiller home price index reported the largest price drop in history, was because many had taken out second mortgages on the homes, and now they had more debt on the house than it was worth. People were encouraged to spend their equity — why let money just sit there? Well, this would have been a good reason not to take it out. If you had an adjustable mortgage, or an arm payable in full, with interest rates skyrocketing, it was impossible for many to continue, and some just abandoned their homes, or defaulted on their payments and were foreclosed. During that time, I was either in contract work through homecare agencies, or self-employed. It saved me and my household.
What is going to happen to us now? A pandemic that is costing many people their work, their businesses, their lack of money, and ways to make it. Are we headed for a similar story? How much more can we put on our backs? Will there be transfers of wealth? Is this where, in Matthew 5:5 (3–12), it is said, “the meek shall inherit the Earth”? This is in the Beatitudes, where there are eight blessings (two parts to each one) given by Jesus Christ in His Sermon on the Mount. They are:
Blessed are the poor (in spirit), for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
What Jesus was saying on the Mount was meant to rattle the Roman Empire (Caesar Augustus) and the Jewish elite, a re-assessment of political and social affairs. He applied everything He said not to just the times He was living in, but for all of time. Jesus is saying that the those who stand up for the right things and do not retreat from it to those who have more power (if they are doing the wrong thing) that righteousness will prevail.. Sometimes what looks like it is a good thing, may not be. But, God knows everyone’s heart. And God will have the final say, no matter how rich you might be on earth (no one has a trailer full of things going to the grave with them), no matter how high in status you might be, no king, queen, emperor, president, monarchy or whatever… none will have the final say in God’s world. Bad things happen here because of succumbing to bad decisions and choices as we were born with free will.
Another saying says, ‘the bigger you are, the harder you fall’ and those that have authority and cause innocent people to fall, will answer to God on a bigger scale. I pray for His mercy on us, not the justice we deserve.
God’s not dead.
