Do we have another Great Depression on the horizon?

 

Do we have another Great Depression on the horizon?

When I look at history and the varying financial crisis that have caused hardship on our citizens, I can pinpoint three that stand out. Over the span of 1866-1897 we saw the Progressive Age, also known as the Gilded Age or First Industrial Revolution which resulted in the Great Panic of 1893. Then we had the Technology Era or most affectionately known as the Roaring Twenties (1920s) that sparked the stock market crash of 1929. The crash of 1929 catapulted us into the Great Depression. Then we have today’s financial crisis that my Wall Street contacts are now predicting another depression is on its way, unfortunately, many on Capitol Hill and other so-called analysis’s claim this is not happening, or don’t want to recognize the signs as a serious problem looming over our financial future.

Now let’s look at each to see if history is repeating itself or is it that my contacts on Wall Street are drinking way too much after work to truly analysis the situation correctly. I  believe history is repeating itself and our elected officials just don’t want to accept the financial truth because they are the newly created Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Aster, Mellon, Morgan, and Carnegie of our time.

During the Progressive or Gilded Age we had industrialists becoming millionaires because they created what we know as Trusts to cover their underhanded activities and hide the fact that they were making money on the working class just as the nobility in England were capitalizing on certain industries and trade during the 1700 and 1800’s. Individuals such as Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, Vanderbilt, Aster, Mellon and Rogers collectively created the Railroad Trust, Steel Industry Trust, Meatpacking Trust, Farming Trust, Manufacturing Trust, and the Financial Trust. These men created such an elite status that mansions were built throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn and along the Hudson River causing such a elite status that today’s wannabee millionaires aspire to be just like them. Rob the poor to become rich, build a big house, buy fancy cars and jet set all over the world. Sound familiar?

As a result of the money hungry attitude of the men mentioned above, the Industrial Revolution was introduced. The era between 1866-1897 introduced mechanization of many industries. Skilled labor that once drove the American economy was forced out of style and the introduction of machines that produced more products for sale faster than any skilled labor could produce became the new fashion in how to conduct business in this country. This type of attitude left thousands without jobs and being a creative individual was a thing of the past. At the same time, the Railroad Trust created a complex system that took control of time and travel due to a bureaucratic role of management that introduced nepotism and the mindset of how to conduct business would forever change how people were hired in this country.

The industrial revolution also introduced an increase in how many patents were filed each year. Many creative individuals ensured that their concept and designs were protected and over the course of a thirty-year period, over 500,000 patents were filed and issued. Thomas Edison had received over 1093 patents for his phonograph, his light bulb, motion picture camera and many more. Morgan and Vanderbilt helped Edison set up the Edison Electric Light Company that would later change its name due to a merger with the General Electric Company in 1892.

The Gilded Age created many social movements such as the Woman’s Suffrage Movement, the religious Temperance League was created to bring morality back into the United States. The birth of the Socialist Utopia movement was also born during this time with the introduction of Karl Marx and other socialists of the 20^th century.  This same ideology was reborn in 2008 when Barack Obama was elected as the President of the United States.

By the 1870s workers who were lucky enough to have jobs in mechanized plants were being worked long hard hours each day and they were fed up. Introduction of the unions that promoted strikes and violent protests to gain better hours and wages from the elite of America. There were two major strikes in America, the workers strike 1870 and the railroad workers strike of 1877, By 1886 the strikes produced violent attacks on a few properties owned by members of the Railroad Conglomerate under the Railroad Trust and life as we know it changed forever.

While the voices of those within the Trusts were creating monopolies and treated their employees like crap, they were also the ones who were creating the unions to further take advantage of employees and destroying the American Dream. Unions required employees to pay dues to be members, even if they didn’t want to become members. Unions then caused strikes because they wanted to raise membership dues and they knew they had to raise the wages in order to gain those higher dues. After all, Unions controlled the markets within their conglomerate whereby causing price wars that would eventually cause more damage to the economy within the country.

The Unions took control of the voting system within our country and manipulated various elections since 1870 when the political machine supported candidates who agreed to do their bidding while in office. It was called Patronage and it goes on even in today’s elections with supporters paying huge sums of money to a candidate’s coffers to ensure election bid is successful and encourages their Union Members to vote for their hand-picked candidates because they’ve agreed to give them what the Union wants on their behalf in return. If the candidate didn’t agree to the terms of the Union bosses, they’d be blackballed by the entire industrial elite and destroyed in the media.

Speaking of the media during this same timeframe the elite resorted to what is now known as Yellow Journalism. Every candidate who didn’t stand with the Unions or the elite would receive negative reporting on their issues, and personal character assassination attempts that would destroy them in the eyes of their potential constituents. Sound familiar? Well, it should because it happened even in today’s elections, in fact, it happens more often in other industries too. Propaganda wheel inflicted fear and unrest with their so-called sentimental stories which ultimately were taken as fact, but were actually lack in true facts. We know it today as entertainment news about a person, like the rags of the Enquirer, or Daily Mail, The Gazette, The Sun, the Star, National Inquiry, and many more. Unfortunately, even though these rags have been sued for libel, no one has won a case against them for the dirty lies they tell about individuals who became targets of such propaganda.

Woodrow Wilson was another one of those elitist progressive individuals who believed that the elite were superior to the average citizen of this country. He believed that the government should control the lives of it’s citizens for their own good. Oh doesn’t that sound familiar if you know Saul Alinsky’s teachings and words, that was one of his favorite sayings. Wilson caused more of a financial problem due to increasing the tax burden on society from 7% that was enacted in 1913 to 70% in 1917. The increase in taxes created the roaring twenties, however, only the wealthy would party.

Industrialist moguls became even richer during the early 1920s with the inventions of the This timeframe also created the movie industry, radio industry and General Motors Corporation. 

Women gained the right to vote which meant they were able to disregard their values and virtue by raising their skirts, get married and use their husbands money to help put them in debt by buying more and more on time with high interest payments. When the crash of 1929 came, it destroyed many within the elite wealthy and the great depression was born and lasted well into the 1940s. Those who had lots of money were forced to give up their lifestyle and live on the streets begging for food and shelter. It wasn’t until President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal act that brought about the temporary solutions of social programs which were a band-aid to the problem, but have been exploited over the years by greedy politicians for their own professional gain. Little bit of trivia here. While FDR wasn’t a socialist, his wife Eleanor was a socialist sympathizer for sure.

Throw in this pandemic situation and we as a nation are headed for doomsday for sure. Small businesses which are the backbone of this country are falling to the wayside because they can’t compete with the likes of Amazon or Walmart who have taken control of the online ordering market. Local taxes aren’t being paid by the small business owner for rental or sales which will cause a problem for the local revenue needed to cover infrastructure improvements and payments for police, fire, EMS and other safety programs such as social services etc. Those who can work now can’t find work to sustain their family financially, and those who can’t work find themselves begging for food stamps or Medicare, only to lose those benefits once they get social security payments when they turn 62. Plus, they’re forced to buy supplemental health insurance at a rate of $400 per month that is deducted from their social security check before they even get that payment each month.

So, if we look back on history and the indicators that perpetuated the financial destruction of our country twice, we can see the same indicators happening again.  Those within Washington need to stop playing Russian roulette with the lives of the American People and start being more observant to the signs before us, or maybe instead of erasing history they need to start learning from history and stop playing politics. Those who have been in politics over 3 terms need to leave Washington for good and allow the tree of liberty to be shaken so it can prosper once again. One way they can do this faster is to cut out all the special interest group paybacks, the union deals they’ve gotten us into and stop spending the revenue they receive from taxpayers to pay off their friends’ special contracts they’ve promised them. Or better yet, stop putting our money into their own pockets. It would help the starving citizens of this country if they think or the senior citizens of this country and take care of them before they think of killing them off, since many of them helped put them in office at some point.

So when you  go to the polls next week, please be mindful of who you are voting for. If the candidate you plan to vote for has been in office more than 3 terms, consider shaking the tree of liberty and vote for another candidate. Let’s clean up Washington DC for good and send a clear message to those who do get the job, stop with the pork, stop with the kickbacks, and most importantly start taking care of Americans’ before you take care of anyone else on this planet. It’s one thing to help others, but if we can’t take care of our own, how can we take care of others. Our financial future is imperative to secure before we secure someone else’s country’s future.

 

Author Elizabeth Kilbride is a former political operative, author, scriptwriter, historian, journalist. business professional, and creative artist, and life coach consultant. Ms. Kilbride holds a Masters in Criminology and a BS in Business Management who stepped out of the loop for a while, but who is now back with a powerful opinion and voice in the direction of this country and our economy. As a life coach, she is available to counsel individuals to enjoy their dreams and a better life. Ms. Kilbride loves to travel, photograph her surroundings and is also a gourmet cook who loves to garden and preserve food for the winter months.