Mr._Graybeard
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2011
- Messages
- 2,978
As a history buff I see parallels between the times we live in today and the decades after the Civil War. Back then the country had nearly inconceivable potential for expansion on many fronts. The growth rate in productivity was so great, though, that it pushed the country into an extended period of deflation that reached to the 20th century. There were just too many bushels of wheat, tons of coal and man-hours on the market chasing too few available dollars.
Politically the effect can be seen in the rise of the Greenback Party and the free-silver movement. Socially, it's notable that some of the most celebrated individuals of the period were gunmen.
In our globally integrated economy, the dot-com boom sent the economy soaring, just like the Civil War did in the northern states. The Internet connected the world like the railroads opened up the West. And the modernization of economies in China, India, and Korea have flooded the world economy with cheap labor like the waves of European immigration (and slave emancipation) fed the labor market in 19th-century America.
If the pattern fits, and history repeats itself, we may be in for some "interesting times."
Politically the effect can be seen in the rise of the Greenback Party and the free-silver movement. Socially, it's notable that some of the most celebrated individuals of the period were gunmen.
In our globally integrated economy, the dot-com boom sent the economy soaring, just like the Civil War did in the northern states. The Internet connected the world like the railroads opened up the West. And the modernization of economies in China, India, and Korea have flooded the world economy with cheap labor like the waves of European immigration (and slave emancipation) fed the labor market in 19th-century America.
If the pattern fits, and history repeats itself, we may be in for some "interesting times."