is this the worst period in our history?

[slow99]

Finincially,the late 70's- early 80's were worse....13% inflation, interest rates hit 21%, unemployment was 10%...gold hit $850 and gas was $1.60 a gallon - if you adjust for 32 years of inflation those prices are higher than now.

Chrysler & Lockheed got government bailouts, the Savings & Loan Crisis where 25% of all US S&L's went out of business, not to mention bank bailouts .....and I remember talk of monetary collapse - as in in the US dollar.

True, but we weren't staring a $40 trillion wave of entitlements directly in the face then.

[Sean88gt]

I would say that now is a function of how soft we have become. If the recession dips again and goes into a depression I would say that our fate hangs on how hard we can become.

The political system needs a mega-reset with people that don't give a rat's ass about reelection and are driven by the prosperity of the people in this nation, all people, that will ultimately benefit the country. The amount of people that do not pay tax needs to drop from 48% to under 5% (counting retards and over 75 farts). If you are able, you work. If you work, you pay.

[Cannonball996]

I think in terms of the markets, we are seeing a lot of panic selling for no real reason, businesses have capital and credit, earnings have been steady. I think the market is oversold in many aspects, its just a question of when will the panic stop.

when you look at other aspects of society, particularly the middle and working class, in the last few decades the cost of living has gone up, but wages have not. jobs are few and far between, and to often are these people forced to change careers.

another problem that we have not seen before in our society is the massive number of recent college grads who are unable to find work in their fields. where is this going to lead our country?

is this the worst period in american history, I think at least for the middle class it is.

[BP]

I don't understand being blindly loyal to anything, especially a fucking POLITICAL PARTY. Seeing dumbass bumper stickers like "Texas Democrat" or "Republicans are the coolest dudes ever" makes me want to punch babies.

You have to put your faith in something. I don't really like either of the two major parties and the Libertarian and Tea Party groups are full of kooks. Still though the 3 stooges that were running the country (Obama, Reid and Pelosi) got us into this mess, I sure as hell don't want to give them a chance to make it worse. Voting for anyone other than a GOP candidate is doing just that though.

I'd absolutely love to see Michelle Bachman and Ron Paul on the same ticket running as GOP candidates. Of the current crop of presidential candidates they seem to be the only ones willing to take the steps necessary to get us back on the right track. Everyone else is going to go wherever the money is.

[juiceweezl]

Also the time after the civil war was probably the worst time in our history.

Times today aren't even close to our worst. There's no question that the Civil War was the worst time in US history. While we have lots of bickering inside our borders now, it's nothing like when we lost so many lives at our own hands.

[Denny]

By far, not the worst, but has all the elements in place to make it the worst.