WBRepo-Ship of Thieves-Remember the Magic Pt 11

[BubbaGrump]

And I meant to answer this quite a few pages back.....

Debra (SCOTTISHWEE) yes I was born in 1961. Were you too???

 

[BubbaGrump]

V and I were discussing these very tough times for our country. We asked eachother how the country actually got out of the "Great Depression". I must not have been paying attention that day in school(whats new), and can't remember the answer. I know the stuation isnt quite the same now as it was then, but can someone please edgumicate me????

 

[iankh]

Ian, this is almost the cutest baby picture EVER!!!

Actually, you don't look much different now!

Thank you. I still have the shoes (Stride-Rite of course)

 

[iankh]

Ian, the pictures are great. You were a cute baby!!!

On the graduation one, is all your hair that length, being the era that it was, or did you have the long Jewish side locks?

No, it was the era and that was my hair. All the way around.

 

[granmaz]

Ian, hope you didn't mind me asking.

 

[iankh]

After I posted about the baby shoes, I had to go see if Stride Rite, were still in business, they are! That company must be about 1000 years old. I think Mary Todd Lincoln's mother bought her first pair of baby shoes from Stride Rite.

In my day, they were heathy orthopedic type shoes. I remember that in the first grade, each shoe weighed about 150 pounds each, and I think in place of leather soles they had planks of wood.

I think my mother had to start putting my shoes on me the night before, to allow enough time to get me laced into them. My father assured us that we would have good feet and good posture, even if it would kill us.

 

[iankh]

Ian, hope you didn't mind me asking.

Not at all. It just took me a minute to understand.

My parents were not orthodox, all of my aunts and uncles were (and still are). But my family is "modern orthodox," while the men all wear yarmulkas (skull caps), no one in my family ever wore payot (side-locks).

 

[nskjerven]

Not only is Stride-Rite in business but they make great age appropriate shoes for little girls. I was always able to find Molly a pair of patten leather flat black there. Everywhere else seemed to think that 8-9 year old girls should have heals, but not this mama....

Willie never liked their shoes either btw...

 

[EllaEnchanted]

V and I were discussing these very tough times for our country. We asked eachother how the country actually got out of the "Great Depression". I must not have been paying attention that day in school(whats new), and can't remember the answer. I know the stuation isnt quite the same now as it was then, but can someone please edgumicate me????

I did a google search and found this:

A Slow Recovery Begins in the United States
The U.S. economy hit bottom in mid-1932. With the approach of elections in 1932, Hoover vetoed what he saw as wild, emotionally inspired pork barrel legislation that Congress had sent to him. He claimed that he favored carefully planned measures aimed at long-term development rather than "quick fixes."

Hoover lost the presidency to the Governor of New York, Franklin Roosevelt, Hoover winning 15.8 million votes to Roosevelt's 22.8 million. The Democratic Party became the majority party in the House of Representatives and in the Senate by huge margins. Despite the Depression, the Communist Party candidate, William Z. Foster, won only 0.26 percent of the vote - 102,785 votes - indicating where the Communist movement in the United States was going nowhere. The Socialist Party candidate, Norman Thomas, won nines times that amount - close to 2 percent of the vote.

Hoover left office saying there was nothing more "we can do." And when Roosevelt took office he was not sure what he would do but he was determined to do something. Roosevelt had little understanding of economics, but he grabbed some slogans that appealed to him - such as "the greatest good for the greatest number." He began by pursuing a balanced budget, as in his days as governor of New York. He cut federal salaries and veterans' aid. On the other hand, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was demanding government action in regulating competition, and the Roosevelt administration pondered the benefits of more regulations on business and a greater partnership with business.

In his first one hundred days in office, Roosevelt was responding to crises more than he was laying plans for economic construction. First he ended the run on the banks, bringing a return of confidence in banking. In a "fireside chat" he told citizens that it was safer to put money in the bank than to keep it under one's mattress. He invoked the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 in order to suspend the export of gold and silver. By law, banks and individuals were now required to deliver their gold to Federal Reserve banks in return for currency. Then his advisors talked him into attempting to stimulate the economy by increasing the money supply. This included putting three billion more dollars into circulation and taking the dollar off the gold standard.

During these first one hundred days, Roosevelt decided to help the distressed farmers. Hoover had tried to help farmers by buying their surpluses, which had encouraged over-production and resulted in ruinous low prices for farmers. Instead of this and letting bankruptcies run their course, Roosevelt chose to limit the production of certain crops and to give relief to farmers who were in immediate danger of losing their homes.

Eager to fight what they perceived to be economic crisis, Democrats in Congress proposed a "share the work" bill designed to create a thirty-hour work-week and to inspire employers to hire more workers. Manufacturers opposed the bill, and Roosevelt joined in the opposition. Then, consulting with big business, Roosevelt created the National Industrial Recovery Act (the NRA) - a move intended to get more money into the hands of average working people. Industrialists supported the idea of high wages, believing that high wages encouraged people to stay on the job longer and to improve their job skills. The National Industrial Recovery Act enacted into law fixed minimum wages and maximum hours and the abolition of child labor in many industries. It gave labor unions the right of representatives of their choice in bargaining with employers, and it obliged businesses to open their books to government inspectors.

In May 1933, a government agency called the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was created to oversee development in a depressed 640,000 square-mile area in the Tennessee Valley. There, sharecroppers and tenant farmers were malnourished; and soils were exhausted, eroded and polluted with chemical wastes. Trees had been cut and vegetation destroyed. Many in the area could not afford electrical power. The TVA planned to provide the area with electrical power that was publicly owned. Republicans in Congress took up the fight of two power companies in the area, describing their position as a fight for free enterprise against socialism. The Republicans were out-voted, and the TVA project proceeded as planned, its electrical power to uplift the area, to improve flood control and to reduce soil erosion. The TVA provided phosphate fertilizers that were to revive soil in the Tennessee Valley.

The appearance that something more was being done produced more confidence, and in the three months of Roosevelt's administration - between the first of April and the end of June - the price of stocks almost doubled. Wages also rose. Big business and the Democrats favored lower tariffs, and this helped move the world toward higher levels of trade.

In December 1933, the Roosevelt Administration repealed Prohibition. But now came the dust storms across the Dakotas, Oklahoma, Kansas and nearby states, blowing away topsoil. From decades before, these lands had been broken up by plowing. In the place of prairie grasses, wheat had been grown. With the economic depression, the demand for wheat had dropped, and the price that farmers were getting for their wheat had fallen to about one-fourth what it had been. At that price farmers could not afford to grow wheat. Their fields dried up and were left unused, and winds began blowing away topsoil. Whole houses were buried in dust, and ruined small farmers began migrating to California, lured by growers there who were in search of cheap labor for harvesting their crops.

The U.S. economy was recovering, but slowly. Roosevelt's strategy of increasing wages had created a disincentive to hire more workers, especially by smaller businesses. People in small businesses were complaining that the National Industrial Recovery Act favored big business. Growers in California, meanwhile, remained ungoverned by minimum wage laws, and, with an abundant supply of labor bidding down wages, they were paying their migrant work force as little as fifty cents a day.

Meanwhile, some conservatives were complaining that Roosevelt was taking the U.S. down the road to Communism, while American Communists were opposing reform in favor of revolution and charging that Roosevelt was taking the nation toward fascism.

By 1935, unemployment in the United States had fallen from its high around 25 percent down to around 17 percent, more than three times Sweden's and still a long way from its 1929 level of 3.2 percent. While Sweden's industrial production had risen 50 percent above its 1929 level, industrial production in the United States was 25 percent lower than its 1929 level.

In 2008, Amity Shlaes would write about the Great Depression from a conservative/libertairan perspective and would describe Roosevelt's National Recovery Administration codes as "forcing businesses to pay an above-market minimum wage." She wrote that the greater power that was given to labor unions would contribute to higher wages that would "hurt corporate profits and therefore hiring" and keep unemployment higher into the later 1930s. [note]

"The Krugman Recipe for Depression," by Amity Shlaes, The Wall Street Journal, November 29, 2008.
The greater power to labor unions came on July 5,1935 with the signing into law of the Wagner-Connery Act. It established a federal agency, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which had the power to investigate and decide unfair labor practice issues and to conduct elections in which workers could decide whether they wanted union representation. It would be the view of liberal economists that workers would benefit not only from better working conditions but also that higher wages would improve the economy by creating greater purchasing power.

In 1935, Roosevelt, meanwhile, was still pursuing fiscal conservatism. There was nothing in the U.S. like the big emergency spending in Sweden and the quick recovery that brought revenues to pay back the deficit. Eventually economic recovery would come to the United States with government purchases for war production, and the end to high unemployment would come with another form of government spending - payment for the widespread induction of men into military service.


Books

The Forgotten Man: a New History of the Great Depression, by Amity Shlaes, 2007

America's Greatest Depression, by Lester V. Chandler, 1970.

Democracies in Crisis: Public Policy Responses to the Great Depression,
by Kim Quaile Hill, 1988.

Lessons from the Great Depression, by Peter Temin, MIT Press, 1989.

Economics and World History, by Paul Bainoch, University of Chicago Press, 1993.
(From the crash of 1929 to 1990 - 170 pages.)

to the top | 1901-World War II | Latin America and Economic Depression

Copyright © 1998-2005 by Frank E. Smitha. All rights reserved.

address of this article: http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch15wd.html



Looks like it was a combination of a lot of things that Roosevelt enacted when he became president. I asked John because he's a history buff and he said basically Roosevelt created jobs at the bottom of the workforce....laborers who built roads and bridges, etc. Then everybody at the bottom could get a job and it trickled upwards and the more they made, the more they spent.

People have to have jobs to go to. Then houses to live in and food and clothing. Those are the basic staples of life and keeps our economy going. Right now we have seen a lot of greed at the top....wall streeters and bankers are paying the top executives enormous salaries and bonuses despite their job performance and the little guy in the mailroom is getting laid off.

Roosevelt put the little guy to work so that everyone had a job. It helped towards the economic recovery.

 

[scottishwee35]

Hello Everyone

I am here

And I meant to answer this quite a few pages back.....

Debra (SCOTTISHWEE) yes I was born in 1961. Were you too???

wow

look like I am older than you?? as my birthday is 23 Feb 1961!!!!

Scottishwee35

 

[EllaEnchanted]

Good day friends.

IT'S THE WEEKEND
Not sure what the plans are though.
I did 40 min on the wii fit this morning. Proud of that. Now catching up on here while I wait for bubba to get up.

WOOHOO!! Way to go V!! Good for you. I bet you feel great. Now keep it up.

 

[EllaEnchanted]

OK, I realized that I had more photos in iPhoto that I had scanned a few years ago,

So, if you have the stomach for old family photos, feast your eyes:





With my Zeyde (grandpa):

With my Bubbe (grandma):

The mandatory studio shot:

The studio shot with my brother and sister:

Kindergarten (top row, second from the left):

High School Graduation Picture:

Awesome pictures Ian....you haven't changed a bit.

 

[scottishwee35]

Hi

Olivia and I had a nice day today...

We got up 7 am and catch the buses to Glasgow as it was snowing. We thought it was not good idea but it was okay when we got in Glasgow.

Olivia went to Art Visual and she saw her friend there...

I went to meet my good friend then went to Battlefield for lunch with another 3 friends..

I was rushing to pick up Olivia but it seem far away and I got off wrong direction as end up long walking to pick her up...

I didn't realised that I got blister on my feet

After that we went back to meet my friends for wines and snack and catch up the news...

We missed the bus and wait another 15 mins , got back home safety...

I feel worn out now... (must be my aged)

Scottishwee35

 

[EllaEnchanted]

Why are you laying on your stomach?? The time might pass more quickly if you are on your back and can look around?? Have you tried a heating pad on your back...that will help to numb the pain??

The infected wounds are on the back of the calves and I can't put any pressure on them because it hurts too much. So I have to lay on my stomach to get flat. I have not tried a heating pad, but that's a very good idea. I will check it out. Thanks.

Maybe this will make you happy!!

www.bethanycam.com I want ot open the house so badly, but I know we still have lots of freezing weather in our forecast!!

Bethany beach always makes me happy. It's the place I consider home now and can't wait until John retires and we can move there premanently. Other than DCL and WDW.....it's my favorite little spot in the world.

 

[iankh]

Not only is Stride-Rite in business but they make great age appropriate shoes for little girls. I was always able to find Molly a pair of patten leather flat black there. Everywhere else seemed to think that 8-9 year old girls should have heals, but not this mama....

Willie never liked their shoes either btw...

Probably because he felt like you were strapping planks of wood to his feet.

 

[EllaEnchanted]

And every time I see that, I always wonder what the heck does it mean to be "myspaced"?

It means that the guy asked her out on her myspace page....either by message, IM or comments.....kind of like asking her out by email instead of a phone call or in person like the old fashioned way of doing things.

 

[iankh]

V and I were discussing these very tough times for our country. We asked eachother how the country actually got out of the "Great Depression". I must not have been paying attention that day in school(whats new), and can't remember the answer. I know the stuation isnt quite the same now as it was then, but can someone please edgumicate me????

The Great Depression was one of my favorite areas of history in school. I spent nearly a year studying it, the politics, etc.

There were really 2 part to the depression, 1933 to 1937, and 1937 to 1941.

There was quote a bit of job creation through the New Deal from about 1933 to late 1936. Basically, economic stimulus. Roosevelt's idea was to spend the country out of the depression. In the latter part of 1936, the conservative had a bit more sway, and there was a cutback on the spending, which ironically brought on another wave of an economic slump. In some ways the second wave hit very hard.

Net net, WW II really pulled us completely out of that second cycle. Had there not been the war, the second wave of the depression might have ended later in about 1942.

 

[iankh]

Not only is Stride-Rite in business but they make great age appropriate shoes for little girls. I was always able to find Molly a pair of patten leather flat black there. Everywhere else seemed to think that 8-9 year old girls should have heals, but not this mama....

Willie never liked their shoes either btw...

OK, you got me thinking about something else, we've chatted on here before about it.

What gives with the way people are dressing kids these days?

 

[EllaEnchanted]

I'm up again for a bit. Just got the legs out of the tub. I was soaking them in Epsom salt and water per the doctor's request. He said that will draw the fluids out and dry them up. So I gave it a try to help them along some more. All I have to say is OUCH!!!! My legs are stinging in pain right now. It must be working.

I have to tell you, even the infections on both legs look so much better. Partially because the antibiotics are working and partially because the swelling has decreased and so has the leaking. It's all good.

 

[Tink rules]

Thanks Ian... Last night turned out to be a very bad night for me pain wise... I knew you'd keep an eye out for us... Thanks friend...

I'll be back later to chat...