Watching George W. Bush fumble through the first part of his presidency, those of us who lived through earlier times cannot but compare the similarity of his efforts to those of Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. Coolidge inherited the presidency when Warren G. Harding died in 1923. There was, like there has been now, a period of prosperity and Coolidge’s governing was marked with reduction of government spending and, of course, a tax cut for the wealthy.
Then, 1928 was a year of great prosperity and Hoover was elected in a landslide. His programs ran similar to Coolidge’s by enriching the wealthy, and there was no consideration that more and more of the working stiffs problems were starting to envelop them. Wages didn’t keep up with the increased prosperity of the wealthy and prices rose, dragging more and more people into a downward cycle.
There were no safety nets. The stock market crashed in the fall of 1929. Just like that, there were more and more people dumped into extreme poverty, with the government in the hands of people who, up to now, had a gold spoon in their mouth. They now found there was nothing to eat in it.
Homes, most with mortgages on them, went up for sale. Everywhere you looked there were signs that read, “Home for Sale” or “Apartment for Rent.”
Many found that their homes were taken from them by finance companies and sold for less than the poor devils had in them.
There is a lesson to be learned here. Mr. Bush with his tax cut for the wealthy is leading us down a road we have already been on. Only you can keep it from happening again.
Snohomish
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