Friday, February 22, 2008

Depression and Bush go hand in hand

If I had to come up with one word to define Bush's legacy, I'd have to go with "depression." I can hardly pick up a newspaper anymore without reading about new levels of this and new levels of that not seen since the Great Depression. Consider this startling statistic in today's NY Times.
Not since the Depression has a larger share of Americans owed more on their homes than they are worth. With the collapse of the housing boom, nearly 8.8 million homeowners, or 10.3 percent of the total, are underwater.
Houses have been more than shelter for many Americans, they've also been piggybanks. People used home equity loans to pay for college tuition, home improvements, etc., and now they're stuck owing more in loans than their houses are worth. They can always turn to their savings to help out though, right? Maybe, but savings are at their lowest rate since the Great Depression.

Well, at least people can still depend on hard work to get ahead - or not. Inequality has risen to heights not seen since before the Great Depression.

Work no longer guarantees financial security. Consider what Rep. Charles Rangel recently said:
"Millions of families are left out because of their stagnant wages and the erosion of their retirement benefits," Rangel said. "The share of pretax income going to the top 1 percent of households is at the highest level since 1929." The stock market crash of 1929 preceded the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"We know what happened in 1929; we don't want to go back there, but there is something wrong with the picture if we find so many people going into poverty," Rangel added.
I've always heard that suicides skyrocketed during the depression, which makes this news all the more disturbing.
An analysis of U.S. death rates by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the suicide rate among 45- to 54-year-olds rose nearly 20 percent from 1999 to 2004, more than all age groups.
This talk of depression isn't all bad though. Eli Lilly & Co recently announced their fourth-quarter profit was up, in part due to revenue from sales of Cymbalta, a drug used to treat depression.

Yep, when history books get written, Bush and depression will definitely be mentioned on the same page.

Update: One more: Ohio Job Losses Worst Since Great Depression

4 comments:

Larry said...

Of all the different types of depression that has come from the imperialism of George W Bush, the one which is most severe and the cause of all the others is the coming Great Bush Depression.

From this there is no sedative and there is no cure.

Anonymous said...

I know when I think about the Bush legacy, I gets depressed.

Kathy said...

Gentlemen, take cheer in the fact that Bush will be out of office soon and Republicans have lost favor in most American's eyes. (In the absence of that, I find a glass of wine helps from time to time!)

Anonymous said...

Depression is a commonplace event in modern times, taking on many different forms, including physical, sexual, emotional, and verbal abuse, occurring in many different contexts.

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Dual Diagnosis Info: Dual Diagnosis