Road to Depression likely to be derailed

Do you know anyone who has jumped out of a window because of the downturn in the stock market?
Have you heard of anyone ‘ or thousands of anyones ‘ having to move out of their home and into a tent or to a city of tents?
Have 13 million people lost their jobs in the past year?
Silly questions, perhaps, but they have to be asked in order to make a point.
In the late ’20s and early ’30s, the Great Depression hit America. From an economic standpoint, there’s not been a darker time in our nation’s history. Millions upon millions of Americans became unemployed. Home building between 1929 and 1932 dropped anywhere from 65 to 80 percent, depending on whose figures you use. Production dropped, the stock market fell through the floor and a severe drought baked the Midwest. People were forced out of their homes, so many lived in Hoover-villes (tent cities).
Ask anyone who lived through it and they’ll tell you, compared to the Depression, our economy today is strong as an ox.
Jeno Paulucci, the man behind the Jeno’s frozen food empire, was spotlighted earlier this year on Fox News. During his segment, Paulucci offered a comparison between today’s economy and that of the Depression.
‘My God, it is so different. People today ‘ the other day, in Orlando, they had 74,000 people at the Wrestlemania or whatever they call it. And they paid all the way from $40 to $750 a ticket. It is just ludicrous,’ Paulucci said.
When asked if people today were soft, Paulucci didn’t hold back: ‘Oh, yes, my gosh, you know, when everybody has got a cell phone. The cell phones run, what, $40 to $100 a month? They have got GPS now in order to help you go from point A to point B. You have got the computers. You have got Internet. People have gone soft. My God, come on. And, so, a little bit of straightening out and doing a little more budgeting based on the family, as well as our country, is very much in order.’
Paulucci pointed out that the gloom-and-doom media was partially to blame by saying what we’re going through today is close to a Depression, when most people in the media didn’t go through the Depression to begin with (they have nothing to compare it to).
So are we really headed for a Depression?
Well, if someone in Southern Indiana were to drive to Chicago, the preferred route would be to take I-65 North. But just because someone is driving north on I-65 doesn’t necessarily mean his or her destination is Chicago. There are lots of places to get off the interstate between here and there. It’s the same thing with our economy.
Technically, yes, things are sluggish and we may be headed toward a Depression (Chicago), but we’ll likely never make it.
For everyone’s sake, that’s a good thing.