This just in: The Great Depression

          From out of the blue, a random thought about history:

          The last time the United States faced an economic challenge as threatening as the one we are trying to fight our way out of now was during The Great Depression of the 1930s.

You might have heard about it. If you’re old enough to remember (which your loyal blogger is not), The Great Depression was in all the newspapers. It is mentioned in many history books now. It was a key era in the development of the type of society we enjoy today.

It would take more space than we have here to recap all the events which led to The Great Depression, but suffice is to say many of the causes of the financial failures way back then closely resemble the causes of the mess we are dealing with now.

In other words, we haven’t learned anything since then.

The difference between then and now, in terms of finding a way out of trouble, is largely the circumstance and attitudes of the workforce society currently offers to businesses and corporations.

Franklin D. Roosevelt inherited a faltering business climate when he went into office for his first term as President of the United States. Roosevelt used the federal government to generate jobs through infrastructure improvement. The Federal government created the Tennessee Valley Authority and other similar organizations that provided work.

Americans, mostly American men, rushed to join the crews building whatever project they could get to. These men figured they would learn on the job what they needed to know about the task at hand.

When the Second World War suddenly yanked the United States into the conflict, many, many Americans still were not working. A huge workforce of technically competent, emotionally willing men were ready and able to go to work in factories that suddenly became productive parts of the war effort.

And the same broken economy made joining the military more attractive. While Your Loyal Blogger readily grants the point that most of the American military was raised through the draft, never has government-provided clothing, shoes and food been more attractive.

It has been written many times that the war brought America out of The Great Depression, but the greater truth is that The Great Depression probably made it possible for America to lead the effort to fight off the tyrannical nations with dreams of world dominance.

Today’s America is populated by a different mindset. We expect the Federal government to provide us with everything we need now. From Unemployment Insurance to Welfare, Americans have several ways to put food on the table without actually working for it. Many will refuse to work at jobs they feel are below the level they should accept, based upon their former stations in business. Somehow not working is better than working.

It isn’t likely today that a former executive would be willing to travel across the country in search of work on infrastructure-improvement projects.

Do you remember the old Jerry Reed song When You’re Hot, You’re Hot? At the end, the lyrics ask the judge, who has just jailed the singer to 90 days in jail, “Who’s gonna collect my Welfare? Pay for my Cadillac?” the song goes.

The song was written decades ago, but it holds true today and that might make a statement about why this country has struggled to work its way out of the worst economic situation since The Great Depression.

Maybe the problem is that we just don’t want to work.

Thanks for reading.