Today’s stock market plunge gave me a lot of hope. I’ve been waiting for a front-row seat at this show for at least two years, when CNN started playing up the fear on a particularly tasty level.
The following is a quick list I jotted down today as I thought about what good things could come out of another Great Depression, if the Government does what it should do and leaves the economy alone. It’s a little idealist, at times tongue-in-cheek, but not altogether farfetched, I think you’ll agree.
On October 1 2008, the Government is still deadlocked on a bailout bill for Wall Street. The American economy collapses into a serious depression. As a result:
1. Businesses change their hours and expectations of their employees. They start conserving energy and allowing people to telecommute more often. This allows fathers and mothers to spend more time with their children, and takes millions of cars off the road, putting less strain on the infrastructure, transportation systems, the environment, and emergency services.
2. Households remove extraneous expenditures, such as cable television. As a result, families start spending more time together. Crime decreases in the next generation.
3. Gas prices rise beyond affordability, in the long term causing extended families to choose to live nearer each other. Since they can no longer afford assisted living facilities, the elderly are forced to rely on their families, who take them in in their later years. This results in increased health and longer life among those elderly who do not suffer from debilitating health conditions. (In future generations, effect #7 ensures fewer health complications among the elderly.)
4. Americans finally start pursuing alternative energies in a meaningful and serious fashion, creating millions of new jobs. The Big Three car companies all but abandon combustible engine vehicles and bring back the electric car, revitalizing their revenues, creating thousands of new jobs, and removing millions of gas-burning cars from the road. (See also #10.)
5. Entertainment expenditures of all sorts plummet, causing the populace to seek cheaper forms of amusement, such as outdoor play, camping, hiking, sports, and fishing. This in turn helps families form stronger bonds, and brings more of the population into rural, rather than urban, areas, because the lower cost of living there. (See also #3.)
6. As a result of spending less time with iPods, the Internet, movies, and television, mental and physical health increase across the country. The number of obese children decreases dramatically, as well as those on Ritalin and with juvenile diabetes. The drug industry takes a big hit when sales of antidepressants drop to record lows, and loses a chunk of its hold on Government.
7. Families who have moved into rural areas begin growing their own vegetables in order to save money. Americans’ health improves.
8. More young people are forced to take after-school and weekend jobs in low-paying positions to help support their families. This bolsters their confidence, gains them experience in the work force and pride in their work–and means that Americans now want and take the jobs that in the recent past were relegated only to illegal immigrants.
9. Americans become distrustful of large, global banks and start putting their money into smaller local and regional banks. This mentality helps grow small businesses across the country, and stunts the formation of gigantic financial institutions such as AIG that can, alone, threaten the economy’s stability.
10. Transportation of humans and cargo by train increases greatly, helping stem global warming.