What actually is a recession, anyway? What actually happens?
Does it mean that there is a lot less work to be done?
As a child, I lived through the so-called GREAT depression-- 1930-1939. Check out
http://www.bellisland.net The history of the times and how we were attacked, by submarines, during WW 2 is interesting.
THERE WAS NO LACK OF WORK, JUST LACK OF CASH--AND THE BRAINS TO CREATE A BETTER SYSTEM THAN THE ONE INVENTED BY THE BANKS.
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As I recall, it was hard work living in an iron-ore mining town in the 1930's. I also recall my father telling me: When he first went to work in the iron-ore mines on Bell Island, he earned the big sum of 10¢ an hour--a dollar a day. Miners had to live in hovel-like shacks.
It is recorded that the first miners' strike was on August 24, 1896. 180 workers struck for 12¢ an hour. That strike failed to get results. In 1900, another strike resulted in miners 11¢ per hour. WOW! In 1936, it was 32¢, but often there was only three day work per week.
WAR IS NOT ALWAYS BAD FOR EVERYONE, EH?
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BTW, WW 2 was good for the Bell Island miners and their families. It brought the miners full employment. But keep in mind, because of mining accidents, it was safer to go to war than work in the mines. And though miners helped win the war they did not get any kind of post-war aid as veterans did to help them get a better education.
Not long after the war, in 1947, I earned 58¢ an hour, which helped me get my start on a university education.
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When the King family was not busy working in the mines there were busy growing things, catching fish, mending shoes and boots, building boats, cutting each others hair and the like. In 1937-1938 we even built the first house we owned. And I am proud to say that that year I did my share, and the house we built is still in the King family.
The point I make here is this:
There was no lack of supply and demand; no lack of work to be done. What was lacking was the imagination to create a better money system.
The real problem was--and, for many, still is: there was not enough cash to encourage, and compensate, people to work for each other and to buy things which had to be imported. Things like imported goods, luxury foods, cars, clothing, bicycles, sports equipment, and the like, were only for the few well-to-do.
BTW, using
http://www.viatrade.ca a group and others like it, a group of us are developing systems which will help people do more than talk about it.
