This Is Not the Great Depression x 2

Take this into account before we all start tossing our cookies and thinking the world is crumbling into another Great Depression and the U.S. is going to fall apart, or that life is ever so hard right now:

1930s
Population: Roughly 123,000,000 (census was taken in 1930, so there will have been growth)
Unemployment Rates: In 1930 it was 3.7% and climbed by 1933 to 24.9%

2000s
Population: Roughly 300,000,000 (give or take a few million for growth)
Unemployment Rates: In 2000 it was roughly at 4.0% and climbed to a current 6.1% in 2008. That’s a measly 2.1% jump in eight years in comparison to a 21.2% jump in three years during the Great Depression. And we’ve been in a relative recession since Bush took office in 2000, if you look at the figures. Is it possible that unemployment might climb to record proportions? Yes, but it’s also possible that Galactus will descend from the sky and consume the Earth, but not as a big supernatural cloud like they had in that Fantastic Four movie, but as his big, pinkish self with the funny hat and all that. Or maybe some other giant celestial being will descend upon us, like that one planet with the mouth (Ego I think).

So, stop your bitching. We are nowhere near the panic point. When unemployment jumps over 10.0%, then start worrying, but until that happens, stop throwing a fit about how bad life is right now. We have nothing to bitch about as a collective entity. The people in the Great Depression had something to bitch about. We at least have minimum wage. They basically were allowed to breathe in exchange for work in horrible conditions, etc. Consider yourselves blessed that we live in the America we have now. Yes, get pissed at the President, get pissed about things changing, etc., but stop talking like this is the Great Depression, because it’s not and it makes all of you look like idiots. Do you have food in your belly? What about hot water? How about clean water? Plumbing? A roof over your head? Do your kids get to go to school? Do you have a car? If not, do you have a bike? If not that, is not having a car or bike a personal choice because you can get to work/school via other means? If you said yes to any of those questions, tuck your tail firmly between your legs and find something reasonable to bitch about, like how your President is violating your rights or how almost nothing has been done to help stifle the current recession and how there shouldn’t even be a recession remotely visual enough for people to be upset about. Or maybe just get upset that our President is a moron and that another moron is running for office and hired a religious wacko who has about as much political experience as Gumby. Plenty of things to bitch about.

Thank you.

P.S.: And before anyone goes, “Oh you’re all secure with your college money and blah blah blah,” it should be noted that I will be over $21,000 in debt to the government when I graduate with my BA. So, I have a good reason to be concerned about the economy and jobs too, because I have to deal with the conditions when I get my degree. I just don’t have concerns that I won’t find a job, just that I won’t find the job I want. There are plenty of jobs out there, but they are jobs that people don’t want to fall back on and I respect that. I don’t want to work at Taco Bell either, not after all this damned college work. And I know those of you who had careers or have careers and are worried about losing them don’t want to go from such a good spot to the living hell of customer service.