The Great Depression would have been just another recession...

[acptulsa]

...were it not for the fact that the Dust Bowl Days had begun. The Breadbasket of the World is, in many ways, the real wealth of this superpower nation.

Today the Breadbasket of the World, after years of family farmers being battered by the traders, trying to convert itself into the new source of our energy needs. As a result, it is no longer focused exclusively on feeding us.

So, as a result, does this recession have a real chance of being the next Great Depression because the Breadbasket of the World is, if not in a Dust Bowl, at least distracted from being the real wealth of this superpower nation?

 

[ARealConservative]

I don't agree with your beginning premise.

I believe the depression became the depression we know because of poorly thought out market intervention.

 

[acptulsa]

I don't agree with your beginning premise.

I believe the depression became the depression we know because of poorly thought out market intervention.

I agree wholeheartedly. But, that had happened before--and often. I believe the only reason our economy didn't bounce back is because the major source of our wealth had literally dried up.

 

[ARealConservative]

I agree wholeheartedly. But, that had happened before--and often. I believe the only reason our economy didn't bounce back is because the major source of our wealth had literally dried up.

One of the mechanisms of the new deal was to increase farm wages. The solution was to destroy large quantities of food causing demand to shoot up, and prices to shoot up.

You want to blame the dust bowl but our own government was a bigger cause of food shortages and it was totally by design.

 

[acptulsa]

One of the mechanisms of the new deal was to increase farm wages. The solution was to destroy large quantities of food causing demand to shoot up, and prices to shoot up.

You want to blame the dust bowl but our own government was a bigger cause of food shortages and it was totally by design.

You must confess it would certainly explain why it took a whole unprecedented decade for our economy to recover!

 

[ARealConservative]

You must confess it would certainly explain why it took a whole unprecedented decade for our economy to recover!

We are lucky to ever of recovered considering the amount of central planning we were doing at the time.

The only thing that fixed our unemployment was adding 11 million people to our armed forces - mostly by conscription. 22% of our pre-war labor force joined the military.

 

[acptulsa]

Yes indeed. Actually, I'm really glad you chipped in. My explanation covered why it went as deep as it did, but really didn't cover why it went on as long as it did. Yours does--especially since I know from local history that the government did other stupid things (like bulldozing many acres) that exasperated the problem further still.

 

[ARealConservative]

Yes indeed. Actually, I'm really glad you chipped in. My explanation covered why it went as deep as it did, but really didn't cover why it went on as long as it did. Yours does--especially since I know from local history that the government did other stupid things (like bulldozing many acres) that exasperated the problem further still.

I think the dust bowl is an excuse government apologists like to use to cover for their own short comings.

The period around WW1 became a boom for farmers. Global trade really took off, and with WW1 really harming farming operations in Europe, America couldn't keep up with the growing demand.

The simple truth is we had too many farmers in the 1930's and a government that wouldn't allow a free market to correct this simple truth.

So you see why I have a hard time blaming the dust bowl? We had too much agricultural products - an agricultural bubble was created and needed popped. Drought or no drought, times would be tough for farmers because there were too many of them.

 

[acptulsa]

You make valid points. I really think the Great Depression was just another induced recession to benefit the short sellers, but it got way, way out of hand. I'm looking for the difference that they hadn't accounted for.

The Dust Bowl was real enough, and very serious. Part of the reason for this is that farmers were indeed too plentiful, too agressive, and too ignorant about rotating crops. This combined with a drought to create a very real disaster. I know--I've heard the firsthand stories about the nightmare conditions that came of it.

I'm firmly convinced our breadbasket is the major source of our superpower wealth. I know we have minerals and energy and human resources that come from freedom, but without full stomachs none of that amounts to all that much. So, I'm thinking the drought was a major reason the '29 crash (which started out a normal enough correction) went so deep. A major part of our economic support was failing, and the foolish intervention you cite kept it going.

If so, we need to learn from this history and be very careful how much farmland we absolutely commit to growing biofuel.

Just a thought.

 

[ItsTime]

with out world banks funding Hitler there would not have been war in Europe.

 

[ARealConservative]

with out world banks funding Hitler there would not have been war in Europe.

by world banks, I assume you mean central banks?

I disagree with this as well.

 

[ARealConservative]

I'm firmly convinced our breadbasket is the major source of our superpower wealth.

I don't see why.

The nature of goods and services we supply isn't all that important IMO, only that we had the ability to adapt to market changes and keep waste out (ie government programs and the taxes to pay for them)

The climate of early American history is why we became a super power. It happened faster then it should though because the prior powers were wasting so much resources fighting with each other and adopting central planning sooner then we did.