We are in a Depression. Read on.

[Colonel Flagg]

The 70's was the worst. Worse than the internet bubble, worse than the first few years of the Reagan Years (where deficit spending became a cottage industry for the gonvernment), and, yes, Coolinator, worse than the house of derivative paper cards that drove the financial houses to their bailout.

Can you even comprehend 21% inflation? People were getting 15% raises and losing money. People were getting 12% interest in their savings accounts and they were losing money. People were getting laid off in droves - my father among them. There was rationing, there was a wage-price freeze. Look it up if you don't believe me - I lived through those times.

Those years sucked worse from an economic standpoint than anything you've experienced in your lifetime.

But it wasn't a depression.

That would be even worse.

[Pentegarn]

Sadly he doesn't get that. People like him are fear-mongers who make the stupid think that it is worse than it actually is.

Trust me, if it were a depression, I would still be looking for work, and furthermore drifting to do so. The fact that I found work and didn't have to migrate to another town to do so puts lie to Coolinators whole house of cards theory. The fact that I was able to eat, internet, live under a roof on savings, and in fact pay all my bills (internet and cable included, things that depression era folks would call me rich for being able to pay I might add) disproves the depression bullshit even more so

In other words, I am living proof that Coolie is full of shit.

I am however quite concerned that people like him exist. That there are people living in the times we live in, where food is abundant, luxury is exponentially more available than it was in the 20s and 30s, and even in our worst times 90% of eligible workers make some form of income while the other 10% get money from the govegivernment, that think we are in a depression makes me fear for our collective IQ. Maybe Idiocracy is more of a sign of things to come rather than a silly movie?

Could you imagine Coolie in an actual depression? He would kill himself inside of a week tops. He lacks the coping mechanism to deal with real crisis. That this thread exists is proof of that.