Austerity America?

Thank you for the link. The book does indeed sound interesting. Did you get a chance to watch "The Last Enemy" on PBS? Nosey Parker to the extreme (wouldn't want to say "in extremis"!). I'm re-reading "1984" and "Brave New World" this month. "Austerity Britain" sounds like a nice book to complement them.

It's nice to think that in hard economic times people will pull together and do what they can for each other. But "social cohesion" isn't the only possibility. Let me sour the mood a bit with an alternate vision.

When the farm credit crisis hit full steam in the mid-1980's, the economies of towns all through the Great Plains collapsed. There were counties where male unemployment reached 40-50%. Populations shrank as people fled for the cities to find work. Small businesses went under because the local farmers couldn't afford their products and services. Oil states like Oklahoma and Texas got a double-hit as oil fell below $15 a barrel.

There was no "pulling together" beyond the occasional rare gesture. Alcoholism went way up. So did crime. Fights broke out anywhere young males congregated. My family of six crowded into a tiny house with no telephone or air conditioning (a big deal in Texas). We sometimes went up to a month without electricity because it was unaffordable. It was much much worse for many others. Many, like me, eventually left.

Cities don't always get off the hook either. Read up on Detroit. It has been in serious decline for two decades, yet you don't find much in the way of civic virtue and community groups who have been able to slow that decline.

My point is that the character and experience of the people involved matter. The people who suffered through the 1980's farm collapse and the 1990's disintegration of Detroit were not the same post-WWII generation that dealt with Austerity Britain. They were largely post-modern. More specifically, they were post-Me Decade. I understand the need for hope in the face of hard times. But you need to consider the possibility that life will get much worse, and that the people around you will not handle it well. Then you'll have to just muddle through. We all will.

Lord, save us from "do-gooders," especially those with state power. This is going to be the failing of an Obama government if he tries to govern from the left, or allows himself to be unduly influenced by the goo-goo ideologues in his own party. I hope he reads this book and takes it as a warning.

My point is that the character and experience of the people involved matter...you need to consider the possibility that life will get much worse, and that the people around you will not handle it well

Exactly. The same sort of principal applies to whether we will be able to feed ourselves when agri-business has collapsed. Sure, they had Victory Gardens during WWII, but these grew out of a culture that still had an idea of how to grow food. Likewise, the solidarity that got them through the hard times of war was rooted in a collective memory of previous deprivations.

Any austerity, if there will actually be any, will only be for those who lack the ability to find a way to make money off the situation.

You've repeatedly made this point elsewhere. I should warn you though, selling used cars aren't going to be the way for you to 'make that big pile of money' anymore.