the Great Depression

Will we ever learn?

 

Dear Gentle reader,

When I started this study it was because of the plight of the people in America who most have never had to suffer deprivation of a lifestyle that many have never experienced before. My parents and perhaps yours have seen the "Great Depression" of the 1920-30 where men, women and Children went to bed hungry and lived under bridges and would work for food.

The Great Depression of 1929-33 was the most severe economic crisis of modern times. Millions of people lost their jobs, and many farmers and businesses were bankrupted. Industrialized nations and those supplying primary products (food and raw materials) were all affected in one way or another. In Germany the United States industrial output fell by about 50 per cent, and between 25 and 33 per cent of the industrial labour force was unemployed.

The Depression was eventually to cause a complete turn-around in economic theory and government policy. In the 1920s governments and business people largely believed, as they had since the 19th century, that prosperity resulted from the least possible government intervention in the domestic economy, from open international relations with little trade discrimination, and from currencies that were fixed in value and readily convertible. Few people would continue to believe this in the 1930s.

THE MAIN AREAS OF DEPRESSION

The US economy had experienced rapid economic growth and financial excess in the late 1920s, and initially the economic downturn was seen as simply part of the boom-bust-boom cycle. Unexpectedly, however, output continued to fall for three and a half years, by which time half of the population was in desperate circumstances (map1). It also became clear that there had been serious over-production in agriculture, leading to falling prices and a rising debt among farmers. At the same time there was a major banking crisis, including the "Wall Street Crash" in October 1929. The situation was aggravated by serious policy mistakes of the Federal Reserve Board, which led to a fall in money supply and further contraction of the economy.

So Gentle reader, we find ourselves in somewhat in the same position (although not as bad as Job found Himself Suffering And yet some years before 1726-1516 B. C. We were provided information that today we can use if we’re able in the midst of our discomfort we are able to learn ‘life’s lessons’.

Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof,

That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof?

Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born? or because the number of thy days is great? Job Chapter 38:19-21

Suddenly the profound but pathetic dialogue is brought to a climax by the interposition of God speaking out of a whirlwind. Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Verses 1-4. The storm had spread itself across the sky even as Elihu had been speaking and eventually had silenced him. The 5 men are now struck dumb with awe as that voice "like the sound many waters" breaks upon them from the whirling air.

Now think for a moment Gentle reader, if this poem-drama was genuinely historical or only fictional it is at this point it becomes critical. Either it is really God Himself speaking or it is only God impersonatedly and prentendly. If the former, then it is alive with vital significance. If merely the latter, then all we have to do is to admire the imaginative genius of the human composer or else feel anger at his irreverence in thus "pretending to be God!"

This is why I want you to think deeply about the first study about the Book of Job to settle in your mind whether it is really and fully true or a fictional elaboration around some mere nucleus of Fact. For if (the Greek preposition if [and it is true] it is true. Then there is a lesson for not only Job but us all to learn. And what does the voice say to you and me as well as our old friend Job? To be continued....

 Denis