According to just about every talking head, including the president of the United States of America, the U.S. of A. is looking down the long barrell of a shot gun, a barrell not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930's when a quarter of the workforce was unemployed, buisnesses, banks, and farms were closing daily, the Midwest was sufficating in an ecological distaster refered to as the "Dust Bowl", and millions of American were homeless, starving, and squating in shanty towns.
So what is wrong with the economy and how did we get into this mess?
To begin with, view this short film about the causes of the great depression from the Discovery Channel.
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/hsw/13433-american-history-causes-of-the-great-depression-video.htm
Here is also this short clip that you gives you a real sense of the misery that pervailed during those 11 years (Oct 1929-December, 1941).
Next, view this 60 Minutes news report that does an excellent job summarizing the sub lending practices and greed that are now currently rotting our financial market from the inside out.
Finally, review the previous blog entry that gives a brief run down on the War on Drugs, which has been a money sucking waste of time that individual states and the federal government have been pissing away billions on for 30 years. You should also refer to the notes you took on the episode of Freedom Files: War on Drugs that we watched in class.
Consider how people factor into this scenario. Is this crisis a failure on the part of people to work together to prevent another Great Depression, or is this crisis a result of people working together for the prupose of individual enrichment at the expense of the domestic and global community?
Your task is to construct a thoughtful position on the interconnectedness of domestic policy(policies that regulate markets and private sectors and policies that determine what and where the various state and federal governments funnel tax dollars), the state of the US economy, and the individual priorities of the American people.
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As I travel around the city I see shiny things everywhere. I see people driving large cars with shiny rims and people without these blinded by the glare hoping that one day they can be the blinder. I watch television and see rappers emulating lifestyles that they themselves nether live or would let their children live. I see cops wasting their time searching people for drugs that they themselves probably use. I watch the news and feel anger build as a war rages on that cannot be won because the foundation of the war is built on lies. The latest thing is that we are going into recession and honestly I think a recession is just what the country needs.
Domestic policy as far as I am concerned creates a vicious circle of never ending wasting of money on people who are only guilty of addiction, recreational use, or distribution of narcotics for profit. Well the funny thing is that illegality of the original drugs themselves makes them all the more valuable and all the more reason for dealers to get people hooked on what they sell. People get addicted to things all the time by accident. The people who sell it are there both to sustain the market and create new ones (by making the drugs readily available to get addicted to). What then happens if you take away the market by making drugs legal? At first some will be intrigued and maybe try some of them but even if they then do get addicted they would not feel they would need to hide it as much and would make it much easier to treat. If there is no value then people would lose interest in selling it. This by logical thought reduces the sales by a lot more than any war would. I’m not pretending that I can sum up all consequences of this but look at countries such as Amsterdam or better yet go visit them and you realize what idiots we must seem like to them. The real issue is that we are paying for this. Every single person in prison and every search and seizure related to drugs is paid for by the taxes from your paycheck. If one of your cousins is in prison for being caught with marijuana well look around cause every person with a job pays for it. Wouldn’t you rather see your money go to something more use full such as paying our teachers more or investing in our neighborhoods by building parks or maybe even paying off our debts to other countries.
Another thing that interests me about America is that we are being brainwashed into compulsive consumption. I have a friend who about every other week gets the next model of his phone. Not because he needs it or his phone is broke but simply just because. The funniest part is that every time he does this there is only small difference in what he had and what he now has. So I asked him why he does this and the hilarious thing was the blank expression on his face when he couldn’t tell me why. Personally that simple thing was a wake up call for me. Now every time I buy something I ask myself three questions. Do I actually need this item? How long will I actually use this item? Is it worth what I am paying for it? Lately, I have buying a lot less since this little routine. The other part of the problem is that were mostly encouraged to buy for ourselves to impress those around us. The only time I ever see commercials related to buying other people things is either a holiday or in addition to buying something for you.
All things considered and the problem with the US economy is not really that we don’t have enough money to go around it’s just that money we do have is for the most part wasted on interest, unnecessary items, and a drug war ourselves.
With the economy today, everything is going down the gutter .We got troops in Iraq dieing for no reason, we got drug addiction everywhere, and most people are thinking what is the latest in fashion, what wrong with this picture.This country has lost its community driven goals and more "what do i get out of it " agenda. The domestic policy as far as I'm concerned helps a little bit , but I feel over half the people who enforce this policy as users or sellers themselves.I feel the war on drugs we will never win. The funny thing is what if we legalized all drugs would there be more or less crime , deaths , domestic violence. especially in poor areas.With drugs being illegal it gives an edge to it, people know, there breaking the law, but when they feel they can get away with it, then thats more of a reason to do it.You see on the news somebody gets arrested for selling or using. But you know somebody right around the corner doing the same stuff and gettiing away with it. What pisses me off is my tax dollars are keeping them in prison. Everybody is paying for B.S. Instead of our taxes going somewhere we it can be productive, it goes to an winless war. What is the government doing about this, it seems that D.A.R.E. and cops roaming the high schools is just a cover up to act like they are taking a part in this war on drugs scandal,thats a drop in the bucket compared to whats happenig in our cities, will we ever win this war, probably not.
Why is our economy in such a mess? It's the choices we made. I mean who cares that our own country is failing. Lets all donate money to other third world countries that really need our money! Why do we do this? Why do we continue to just waste our money on retarded things? The war on drugs is no exception. Wasting millions of dollars on trying to find drug dealers. Overpopulating our prisons
to accommodate these petty offenses. I mean look how casual it is for drugs to be in our life. Almost every movie that comes out nowadays has some kind of drug reference. It has become the norm. Yet we continue to waste our tax dollars in keeping these prisoners that may have had a minor marijuana offense. Going to war with another country just to show that we can kick ass and we're not some pansy state. Wasting most of our resources just for this hopeless fight. Don't they know we're hurting our future generations by giving them this large debt. It's stupid. Even the businesses that are in trouble and need a bailout. It's their damn fault they got in the mess. Taking stupid risks to satisfy their greed. Did they not learn anything from the Great Depression? And the people that are accepting these loans. What the hell is the matter with you? If you can't pay it, then don't apply for it. It just seems like most Americans are being consumed by greed. Their priorities aren't straight. They only want whats best for them and not as a country. I mean everyone is greedy in some way. People go to school to get a job and make money and start a family. It's the American dream. So who can we blame. The banks? The leadership? The people? Wars? We can play the blame game over and over again. Until we change our choices and priorities, We will be in for an endless cycle of greed.
The United States intent on the war on drugs has been to reduce the illegal drug trade to curb supply and reduce the demand of the substances that have been considered harmful to the public, according to the U.S government. Furthermore, this causing the United States to spend billions of dollars fighting war on drugs which has guided the economy to additional poverty, as well as an exceeding amount of crime. The efforts of the U.S government have been diligent for years, with out any progress.
Dozens of people have been killed by law enforcement and the DEA with out even being convicted of a crime. Therefore, it has caused the children of those individuals to become victims of the war on drugs, due to the loss of their parents. These children for the most part usually end up seeking the assistance of government funding due to the lack of the absence of their parents. There seems to also be an excess amount of money being issued to fund these government agencies to conduct these pointless raids.
It is only obvious to compare the war on drugs to the time of prohibition. During the time of prohibition the crime rate increased about 66% as well as the prison population increased causing government funding to decrease drastically.
Television propaganda efforts are one of the main focus points in our current time. We are spending additional money on propaganda rather than using it for children’s education? Since we are a consumer based nation companies tend to outsource. Therefore, causing fewer jobs for our citizens as well as other immoral and economical issues.
At this point it’s rather clear that the war on drugs has ultimately failed, the question is when this war will seize to end. There are bigger fish to fry in the United States. It is time to modify our government with more socialism views and allow the use of soft drugs, at least for medical purposes. There are worse drugs that are now being prescribed by our doctors.
Ana D.
Whenever you step outside, you can see the effects of the desperation of the American people. As people drive in their gas-guzzling SUV’s on our cracked streets, children are going to their overcrowded schools. They are trying to get there without being hassled by somebody asking them for money on the street and without being offered to buy drugs. A lot of these problems came from neglect to our communities, which eventually lead to the community becoming apathetic of what it was becoming. Then we have our brothers, sisters, parents, friends and other people we love fighting in a war that is doing nothing for us. On top of all of that, we are facing a recession that threatens the majority of the country. When did we become so careless and let ourselves slip into the place they are now?
Domestic policy is leading money away from what our country really needs financial support on. We have tons of money funding task forces that focus on convicting drug offenders. The funny thing is that they have to use their entire budget in order to receive the same amount next year. What that forces them to do is to make bogus busts, rather than let that money slip through their fingers. This makes us lose money that we could have used for the education of our next generation. While these people are convicted of drug offences, they learn even more when they are doing time. This makes them smarter, and helps them avoid being busted when they get back out; which causes more people in our community to buy and use drugs. Because of this, the people in the community feel like they can not do anything about their problems, which makes them ignore what is going on. While people use more and more drugs, they lose money that they had to buy groceries, or diapers, or something that was necessary to support their families. This makes those people lose their order of priorities, and eventually hurts the community’s economy. It is a cycle that can be broken, but it takes a lot of work and effort from everybody.
When people do not have money for what they need, they turn to an escape. That escape can be alcohol, drugs, or even sometimes death. During the Depression, many people took their own lives because they could not get by anymore. What we need is for our domestic policy to evolve with the times. At this point, we need any help that we can get. People that can not find that help need to support their families, so they have to do something. They see how the drug dealers in their neighborhood always have money, so they give it a shot. A lot of people do make money that way, but it comes with a cost. They cause their own community to suffer from their gain, making their community a haven for drug addicts and criminals. Then some other person sees how criminals and drug dealers are fine with money, they get into it also. Instead of trying to treat our drug addicts and rehabilitate them, we throw them in prison and are introduced into other drugs. All it does is make them worse, and make them think only about scoring some drugs. We spend tons of money doing this every year, and we are approaching it the wrong way. Our people deserve the chance of rehabilitation instead of labeling them criminals and throwing them into our already crowded prisons. They should be offered the chance to attend rehab, and make themselves a productive member of society. But this is not the case, our money goes into building more prisons to hold them. After a while, this will become a bigger problem than we can handle, and it will dig us into an even deeper hole than we are in now.
We have lost sight of what is really important to us. We buy our fancy clothes, our 20 inch rims, and our giant televisions. What is it all for? Is it to make us feel accepted by other people? Do people use drugs in order to escape their problems or to fit into the crowd? Why is it that our country is building more and more prisons, but our roads are still in horrible conditions and our schools are still overcrowded? We have lost the way we used to think, and we have changed because of the people we look up to. Celebrities drive their SUV’s or their twelve-cylinder cars, so we want them also. We see people watching America Idol on their 72 inch televisions, and our 42 inch is suddenly not enough. We have turned ourselves into a society obsessed with consumption and having everything we own be huge. The only way we can crawl out of the mess we are in now is to start living by our old values, the ones that kept us satisfied with what we had and didn’t have to commit crimes to get what we wanted. That way, instead of building prisons, we could build schools or even parks to keep kids away from drugs. For now, we have to live with what we produced. We will probably have to wait for something big to happen in order to snap us out of this demented way of thinking.
Christian Hernandez
Group Dynamics
Mrs.C
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few month there is no denying that the U.S. economy is in a horrible state right now. Politicians will tell you that despite what you see on the news we are in good shape but there not fooling anyone. Many people are going around and blaming the government for letting all this happen but the only one to blame is us the American people.We are the ones to blame because of the simple fact that the majority of the American people are only concerned with them self’s. We just worry about satisfying our own needs and nothing else. No one should really blame the government because of the simple fact that we were the ones that appointed them to office and a lot of Americans should not be complying because most of them did not vote so they really don’t have a say in this. Although I am not saying that the U.S. government is not completely free of blame, they have had a good chunk too do with this problem. For one they go around spending our tax dollar on useless policies that don’t help much, for instance the war on drugs there is something we could do with out. The U.S. spends billions of dollars each year on this supposed war on drugs with very little results. They arrest hundreds of people and put them in jail for petty crimes such as the possession of marijuana in very small amounts. They spend even more tax money on the trialling and jailing these people. The government is not all to blame unless we start to finally care about our communities and our government and who gets elected nothing will ever.
Essay on
The Cause of Great Depression
1. Stock Market Crash of 1929
Many believe erroneously that the stock market crash that occurred on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929 is one and the same with the Great Depression. In fact, it was one of the major causes that led to the Great Depression. Two months after the original crash in October, stockholders had lost more than $40 billion dollars. Even though the stock market began to regain some of its losses, by the end of 1930, it just was not enough and America truly entered what is called the Great Depression.
2. Bank Failures
Throughout the 1930s over 9,000 banks failed. Bank deposits were uninsured and thus as banks failed people simply lost their savings. Surviving banks, unsure of the economic situation and concerned for their own survival, stopped being as willing to create new loans. This exasperated the situation leading to less and less expenditures.
3. Reduction in Purchasing Across the Board
With the stock market crash and the fears of further economic woes, individuals from all classes stopped purchasing items. This then led to a reduction in the number of items produced and thus a reduction in the workforce. As people lost their jobs, they were unable to keep up with paying for items they had bought through installment plans and their items were repossessed. More and more inventory began to accumulate. The unemployment rate rose above 25%, which meant, of course, even less spending to help alleviate the economic situation.
4. Drought Conditions
While not a direct cause of the Great Depression, the drought that occurred in the Mississippi Valley in 1930 was of such proportions that many could not even pay their taxes or other debts and had to sell their farms for no profit to themselves.
Andreina
It appears that the worst of this mini-bear market might be behind us, at least for a while. The major stock indices seem to have made a bottom, and aggressive action by the Federal Reserve appears to have stabilized the credit markets, at least to an extent. The extreme fear that had so thoroughly paralyzed the credit markets now has begun to thaw as confidence slowly returns to the system. The problem is we soon may feel like the dog that finally caught the car. What now?
In times like this, during a lull in the storm, it is fair to ask: How did we get in to this mess? The root of a credit crisis is a lack of liquidity. But what does that actually mean? Where does the liquidity “go” during a crisis?
In the bank runs of the 1800s and early 1900s, the mechanics were fairly simple. For any number of reasons, real or imagined, depositors would lose faith in a bank and they would demand their money back. Of course, banks only keep a small fraction of customer deposits on hand, and they loan out the rest. When demand for deposited funds exceeds the cash on hand, the bank is forced to call in loans, and the borrowers have to scramble to find other sources of funding. Otherwise, they have to liquidate their assets in order to pay back their debts. The result is a downward spiral of fear and panic and, typically, a severe recession.
The Federal Reserve’s discount window was created to prevent these types of bank runs. Banks had the ability to take short-term borrowings from the Fed in order to satisfy immediate liquidity needs. In other words, The Fed can act like a giant pawn shop, offering emergency loans as needed. And like a pawn shop might take your watch as a security deposit, the Fed takes high-quality bonds from the borrowing bank’s portfolio as collateral for the loan.
So what went wrong in 2007? Why do we appear to be suffering from a crisis of confidence? Where did the liquidity go?
Paul McCulley, managing director of Pimco, the world’s largest bond management firm, recently said, “Liquidity is not a fixed pool of money but, rather, a state of mind and, in particular, a state of mind regarding risk. The greater the risk appetite, the greater the liquidity, and vice versa.”
Speculative booms generally end in deflationary busts, and the epicenter of the speculation typically endures a long period of contraction and stagnation as the excesses of the boom are slowly absorbed and worked off. In the case of the current mortgage crisis, a speculative house of cards was built around a single premise: That home prices always would rise, thus making mortgage lending (even subprime, ARMs, “no doc,” etc.) a near riskless business. Clearly, that has turned out not to be the case.
The United States of America is in a recession, banks are going bankrupt, unemployment is rising, many people are losing their homes, and as time goes by our nation is going more and more into debt, and we ask ourselves how did we get into this mess?
Life in the United States is about making money and spending it, and yeah sure there is nothing wrong with that to a certain point. Many people buy stuff that they don’t really need, a lot of times its just to impress and to be part of a society that thrives on the thought that having the best stuff makes them cool and more popular. But yet most of the times whatever it is that they buy are not even theirs. They are still paying for it because of that wonderful plastic fantastic credit card they used to purchase their stuff. Debt is one of the reasons this country is in trouble, get whatever you are buying and pay way more for it later. Credit and loans is what bit banks in the butt, “sure give out loans to people that won’t be able to pay it back, “$500.000? Sure here you go”. They thought they were making so much money by selling the high priced homes, but never thought of what if? And now people cannot afford the payments of their devaluated homes and give it back to the banks. Banks and we the people in part are at fault for the financial crisis. Banks for being greedy and irresponsible and for giving out all those loans and tricking people with their shady contracts, and us the people for getting loans and not reading the fine print. We need to stop this vicious cycle of compulsive spending and think of others than just ourselves. We also need to stop being so complacent and see the big picture. Many people are satisfied with what they have and go on with their daily routine, work hard and come home, and do not get involved in politics and so are ignorant of what is happening with the government and how the tax dollar, that is taken out of every check they get, is being used.
Another problem that adds to the economical crisis is our Governments irresponsible way of using our tax dollar. Right now our country cannot be donating money to foreign countries, we need all those millions here, also millions of dollars are spent on the war in Iraq and for what? it has done nothing but to make Iraq worst than what it was before, and the smoking gun? Well they never found it. Money for education and health is being taken away, but yet other programs like the war on drugs is still up and running, money is not taken away from that and you ask yourself why? Too many people are benefiting from this and it is the reason jails are being overpopulated, one inmate equals so much money for that institution or jail. The war on drugs was implemented years ago and to this date the problem is still there. Billions of dollars have been spent on this program, and the problem does not seem to be diminishing, thousands of people are in jail because of this, and sure some of the people deserve it but a lot of cases seem so insignificant that it is ridiculous that they are convicted so heavily. Everywhere you go, in movies, television, all types of media, you will always hear or see some type of drug being mentioned. If they really were fighting drugs you would think media would be the first place they would say, “ Hey you can’t be showing that to the public”, but no there is too much money involved in this everyone benefits, it sells. There are bigger more serious crimes out in the streets that the government needs to look at. The war on drugs has failed, whoever is in charge of this needs to look it over and try to find the reasons that so much people are doing drugs, and approach the problem from a different angle.
The government needs to sort out their priorities and need to stop making so many bad decisions like the $750 billion dollar bail-out which in the end we the American people will have to pay. Many times human nature does not react to slow change and it seems that many people have not reacted to this, and it will be sad that by the time we do, it could already be too late. Bad times are coming and if we do not react soon the hole we have been digging for the past few years, will be so deep that it will be very hard to get out of, and yet again the great depression will be devastating this country.
Arasely
In today’s world we find ourselves wanting answers to all the questions being asked about our economic crisis. WE, THE PEOPLE, are the government. We help decide what goes on with our tax dollars, with our social security, our pension plans, our money. If its either by selecting a bank where we invest our money or a president/government to “properly” invest it for us, its us, the people who make it happen. Regardless of what might sound morally correct for the educated people of America it most definitely might not be for the less fortunate. All it takes is one wrong choice/decision for it to impact they way communities across the country think and live. You can agree with me as I say that this world has become more of a materialistic life style for many Americans and those that reside on its territory along with having money; both signifies importance in our modern world. Why? The lower class population sees no life without money, even with government facilities willing to help they end up as drug addicts and/or alcoholics. The middle class are as poor as they lower class but very much hate to believe its true. I mean really what the middle class people due is get in debt and remain in debt till they hit rock bottom, bankruptcy! Both classes don’t do any progress for themselves nor our economy. As for the rich, they only get richer! Most rich people live on the fast track, they don’t pay any mind to what there doing because they got it all. As they say money talks! But till some day they get needy, hopeless, depress, reckless and end up in bad habits, for example, drugs and alcohol. Those once rich, highly educated individuals end up living in the streets, like many on skid row. There’s three classes in our country and we all have some thing in common, generally speaking, drugs or alcohol has been in our lives once or twice, if not consumed by us then by someone very close to us. The point is that we decide whether regulate our spending as a whole and legalize drugs, like we have done for alcohol, then things might change for the better. Alcohol was legalized but still very much people have been dying cause of it, so what good might legalizing drugs do to our country? Maybe just taxing it. Our economy needs those taxes to rise up from this soon to be a sequel to the Great Depression about 79 years ago. Will we boost up with another major war? Our country owes millions dollars if not more to foreign counties, don’t you think they want it back? We can only wait and see what will come for our future as Americans.
As we all know, United States of America is going through an economic crisis. Increased in gasoline prices, credit card companies leading into bankruptcy and well-established banks and commercial banks as well, increased in unemployment, and we have the housing market crisis. Why is our economy in such a financial mess? Well, look around you; people are spending too much money on stupid things. Why can’t people just donate to churches or make an investment so that they could a profit for themselves instead they keep building prisons to keep prisoners who has small offenses. The other day my friend was driving back to work from his lunch break, he passed the pedestrian crosswalk by a couple feet and he didn’t turn his signal light on a controlled left green arrow and he got pulled over because of that. They could be building more schools so that children will have a good future instead of ending selling drugs on the streets. People who are in charge of these things should make the right decisions so that it may boost up our economy.
Talking about war on drugs - marijuana, crack or cocaine, ecstasy, though it’s bad and illegal. People still buy them no matter how much the price is. Especially marijuana, it could be used for medicinal purposes but it’s illegal because it has been proven that it may cause short-term problems with memory and learning and distortions of your senses. People still buy and smoke marijuana even though they know its illegal and they know that they are going to jail if they’re caught with it. Why not legalize marijuana? People will buy marijuana and the government can make a lot of money with the tax paid on it. Just like tobacco or cigarettes, look how much money tobacco companies make, they make billions of dollars. If the government officials would make a wise decision and legalize marijuana, it might enhance our economy.
The government needs to think it clearly, sort out the top responsibilities first, and stop making bad decisions. The people may suffer from this. That’s why we all need to respond soon.
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