Causes Of Economic Depression

Our current cultural and economic condition is the fog clouding our vision rising from an era with no well defined ideology. It is perhaps best classified as a period of materialism.
Spiritual, moral, and ethical values have been devalued and the vacuum filled by materialism.
An example is our proclivity for brand name shopping. There was a day when regardless of a person’s socio-economic status they could find fulfillment in spiritual values. They were somebody not because of who they were or what they had but by whose they were. People were gratified because of their spiritual value and values.
Today this same sense of fulfillment and gratification is found in not just shopping but shopping for name brands. A sense of worth is only found for some in the brand name they wear.
We have been described as spending money we don’t have on things we don’t need to impress people we don’t like.
The economic quagmire we are eye ball deep in has existed in America before. Even a global economic depression has existed. There is a period in our history known as the “great depression.” Interestingly there was economic depression in Europe at the same time but it was called “the depression.” There is a reason ours is called “great” and theirs not.
We were rocking along very much like Europe suffering a 10 percent unemployment rate. Then the government was led by President Roosevelt to get involved. Many today think Roosevelt got us out of the depression. Actually he deepened it. He doled out money and instituted government work projects. Unemployment responded to government intervention by rising to 20 percent.
I would hope the same thing that got the nation out of that depression won’t be today’s cure. World War II ended that depression.
In a more recent time America was gripped by another depression. Actually since World War I there have been several.
In a recent time the economy faltered and the stock market went into eclipse. America’s president at the time knew the government needed to act to insure a recovery. The action was to do nothing other than let the free market work its way out. To do that rather than the government getting more involved they got less involved by reduced taxes. That economic recovery is often referred to by the name of the president who advocated such an approach to economic recovery, “Reagan Economics.”
With taxes reduced more businesses could buy new equipment and that revitalized a large segment of the economy. The increased purchase of equipment resulted in more people being hired to build it. This principle rippled through the economy.
Many economists know these two scenarios and which works. More are speaking out against our current government following the Roosevelt model.
We can’t control what our government does. We can do what many have been reminded by our current dilemma to do. That is, reestablish the basis of our personal fulfillment by returning to our former ethical, moral, and spiritual values. To once more return to loving people and using things rather than loving things and using people.