It kind of makes you think, what would it have been like if I had lived back then? Would I have lost everything? But then again, after reading stories like this, you would say to yourself, 'I am smart enough to know that I need to get my money out of the bank right away,' or you may say, 'I would have invested a lot smarter if I lived back then.'
It is hard to say... People don't really realize these things when they come up. For example, the recession. People don't really realize that it was basically a glimpse of what happened in the 1930's. We essentially lived through our own little depression. The only difference was, this time, we were a little more prepared for it. I understand that this is irrelevant but think about it...No one, especially in our little suburb, saw the recession coming. No one did anything. The only difference between now and then was that we all had financial security. Arther Robertson said, "Everybody in those days expected the sun to shine forever" (Robertson 101). I believe this is one of the most significant passages in this Stud's Terkel interview for many reasons. I think that this quote really defines the time period. I say this because I feel like everyone felt like the celebration essentially never stopped after WWI. Everything was just happy, people were drinking, no one really cared, they had this sense of individualism, women got their rights. But no one really payed attention to the economy. It was like a balloon. They just kept on filling the balloon until one day, October 29, 1929, the balloon just exploded and there was nothing anyone could do. Oscar Heline, a farmer, explained how the farmers in the south had ultimately pay the grocery stores to sell their produce. He says, "If you wanted to sell 'em (bushels of corn), you had to bring in three cents." In other words, you had to pay the grocery store in order to "sell" the corn. Another problem was the deportation of Mexican Immigrants. Deportation became such a threat to these people that even the excuse of an "anchor-baby" wouldn't have been tolerated.
So respond to this... Would you have seen this coming?
Ross, a common question to ask would be: would this have happened to me? And like you said, we could say 'I would have invested a lot smarter if i lived back then.' But nobody, not even the people who knew the stock market like the back of their hand, saw the crash coming. When people had a lot of money, they would invest it. Everyone knew that there was plenty of money in the stock market and it would be smart to invest. This is showed when Roberston is talking with Jesse Livermore and Livermore says, "'Young man, What's the use of having ten million if you can't have big money?'" Everybody want more and more money and they were putting all of it in the stock market. I agree with you when you say everyone was careless because life at the time was perfect and everybody was making money. I thinkg the hardest question to answer, following up on your qustion of 'would I have lost everything?' is if you didn't lose everything, what would you have done with your money? would you risk your money by giving it to your friends who are in desparate need? Would you only look out for yourself?
ReplyDeleteI really like your idea of trying to think about what we would have done if we lived back then. Like you said, I want to believe that I would have been smart enough, but I do not think I actually would have been. Although I do not think that no one saw this current recession coming or the Great Depression. There were plenty of indicatiors nad people just ignored them by being overly optimistic. I think Arthur Robertson actually exemplified a story of someone who predicted the Depression.
ReplyDeleteYou make a really good point and I agree with you. The question should be 'would I lose everything?' But what I was saying was we look at the situation today and I know that people probably think to themselves that they would have avoided this and we would have done something to try and stop it. But knowing the resources and services the people had back then, what more could people have done? What changes could have been made if we "went back in time?" I understand that we need to realize that it was unavoidable but it's just curious to think about.
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