So who is prepared for a long recovery?

There are those here on DU that think that once Obama gets in, all things will suddenly spring eternal. That just hope and promises of help will be the shot in the arm that the country needs to get back on it's feet and start running again.

I don't.

Having had parents that lived through the depression and a father that taught me that the government moves at a glacial pace, I am of the firm belief, that although Obama will do a lot of good, the good that he does will take time for it to go into full effect. 1 year? 2 years? 3, 4, 5 years?

Do you have the will to get there? To be patient? To not live as we have been taught to? To expect it everything now?

We are living through a devastated economy. Not just from the last 8 miserable years, but from over 30 years of this bullshit known as "trickle down" economics aka supply side economics or popularly known as, "deficit spending".

Layer by layer, our countries fiscal responsibility to it's people has been slowly peeled away. We are in debt up to our eyeballs, we have a vastly devalued dollar, we are experiencing rising unemployment without an end in sight, the financial industry is in ruins, the manufacturing base is weak or almost non existent, the building sector is through the floor, the massive gap between the have-even-mores and the have-even-less increases daily, the retail industry is nothing short of a dying man willing to cut off his limbs to maybe save his life, bankruptcy, foreclosures, etc...

Now, seeing what we are against, do you have what it takes to tough out a long deep recession/depression? Do you have the people skills, the survival skills, the ability to make something from nothing?

How does the concept of not eating for a day or two sit with you?

Can you tell your children, "no"? Can you tell yourself, "no"? Can you do without?

Prior to the booming post war era, the previous booming era was the 20's. People bought on margin and lived a life based on nothing but a wish. Then it all vanished. However, as good as times were before the crash, people back then still had hard lives.

The specter of these problems mentioned above and their possible effects on all of us, does haunt us all in the backs of our minds, especially if you have a family.

Now, given those problems, are you willing to do what it takes? Are you willing to take that total crap job, by an asshole owner to put food on the table? Are you willing to suck up your pride to keep mind and body together for your families sake?

We are walking down a path filled with an empty horizon. Good things exist out there, but be aware, between us and those good times will be many a valley.

However, until we get to those good times again, whatever and whenever they may be, the road will be long, it will be difficult and at times, we will be out right pissed off at Obama, but given the landscape we now find ourselves in, there is no easy path, and certainly no quick fix.

30+ years of damage has to be slowly and carefully undone. Until that time when, it is repaired, if ever completely, we as a nation, have to suck it up.

Hard times are coming, but so much good can come out of it if you are wanting to be a willing participant.

So as the new year sparks tomorrow night, I will be drinking a cup of cheer for us all. We will need it. 2009 will be certainly a year to remember.

Starting right about now.

because at last people have finally figured out there is a problem and some of them have even figured out who is responsible for it.

One thing I've learned very well in my life is how to be poor. I do it very well.

Dammit, I just didn't want to do it again so soon.

...because, in that case, the initial crash occurred in October 1929, but FDR didn't take over until March of 1933 -- three and-a-half years later. In that time, Hoover continued to solve matters through conservative economics, and made things much, much worse. Had the Roosevelt administration been able to start implementing their plans five months after the crash (as the Obama administration will have a chance to do), the Great Depression would likely only be remembered as a severe recession.

No, I don't think the economy will turn around overnight on 1/21/09, but we won't have a four-year collapse between the first crash and the first steps to turn it around this time.

what I was comparing is how people lived not the cause and effect.

Sigh.

You start off by claiming that the Great Depression "proves" that it will take a long time for the recovery to begin. I point out that there's a huuuuuge difference between the time recovery plans were even instituted then and now (three-and-a-half years versus five months), and so you try to change the subject?

Please. There's a difference between logical analysis and near-gleeful doomsaying. It doesn't take too much to realize that you're into the second rather than the first.

go argue your brand of inanity else where. I mean honestly, does it really matter?

good lord you're exhausting. as a result, you are now blocked.

and if you honestly want to argue semantics. the mess we are in is more like the panic of 1873.

feel self righteous now?

man oh man. what a fucking kill joy.

Then they stole it and here we are.

I'm expecting Obama's entire first term to make Bill's first two look like nothing was wrong.

...say hello to President Palin on 1/20/13. :-(

He is not going to make wizardry happen effortlessly. We have to be ready to fight for progress.

The adults will first have to assess the damage that the Bu$h children have done to the economy (so many secrets, so much hidden, so many lies!). Then a very long recovery might be engineered if, indeed, Obama has the smartest people in the room working for him and if, indeed, he is allowed to even try to fix the economy. I feel that any real recovery will take longer than my remaining years, and I am only 60 (closer to 61).

I don't think there will be a "recovery."

This is not a cyclical down cycle. This is a paradigm shift.

in the end, we will be nothing like the beginning.

anything original on DU. Too many people thinking too fast.

I'm with you totally. We've got to stop thinking about "recovery". I don't believe we're ever again going to see a lot of things that we used to consider a central part of our lives.

McMansions are only one example. I wonder if people will have time or money for video games, home theaters, iPods, IPhones, etc. Food items will probably change, too. Local food means a fairly narrow choice. No grapes from Chile in the winter, no arugula for our salads. The Horror!

I think there's a deadly side to this, too. Medical care... already nothing to brag about... has to suffer when hi-tech medicine declines. No more CAT scans for a headache.

Maybe an upside... maybe we won't be able to afford the military adventures that seem to drive this country.

Almost word for word.

"Recovery" is a really bad idea.
We need to completely revamp the whole kit and kaboodle.
Otherwise, the whole thing will just happen again in another generation, or sooner.
Global Corporate Free-Market Capitalism does not work, and will never work.
It needs to be replaced by something else.

During the 2000 election, I told many people that it was a choice between "Global Corporate Socialism" and "Global Corporate Fascism" and that "Global Corporate Fascism" was going to win because fascists steal things, like elections. If "Global Corporate Socialism" had won, we would not be in quite the dire straights we are in now, but eventually the bubble would still burst.

Basically, and my line has long been - "Global Corporate Free-Market Capitalism might be a great way to move products and services, but it makes for a lousy state religion." We need to get capitalism back in the business of running business and out of the business of governing. I do not want the merchants running the government. They do not know how to and are not interested in governing. They need to be regulated and they will never regulate themselves. We need something else...

Personally, I'm rooting for "Commonism."

And, the recovery won't be a return to "the good old" days when we were an economic superpower.

We've just seen the tip of the iceberg that we're headed for.

If I don't take a trip to Disneyworld and don't get an Bluray HDTV, life is still fine. I'll eat tasty home-cooked meals and take walks around the neighborhood with friends, visit with family. Life is fine.

But if I lose my job, home, and eventually unemployment benefits, if all my plans and hopes have to go to the wayside so I can even make ends meet for a little while today, that really sucks. If I take a crap job and then when the economy recovers I am stuck with it while employers ignore my education and hire younger people who don't have the taint of the crap job, then it's a double whammy.

In this long recovery, some will be in the first group, some will be in the second. The more we can as a nation suck it up - and the more we can deal with being in the first group - the fewer of us will have to be in the second.

There can be no recovery until:

1. We end tax breaks for Offshoring

2. End NAFTA

3. Start Universal Health Care

4. Break our slavery bondage to Saudi Oil (however you want to do this is fine)

I see some clear opportunities, driven by need as well, but it will take TIME... and yes money... in the trillions of dollars