UK media campaigning for the Dems or playing an april fool's joke:
Tuesday, 01 April 2008
Have Your Say: The Great Depression
Today The Independent reports on startling new statistics from the USA that show 28 million Americans relying on food stamps to survive. but will Britain escape the worst of the credit crunch? Or will America's experience be replicated over here. Tell us what you think.
Posted at 01:07 AM in Have Your Say | Permalink
Comments
The Great Depression? You people are silly.
Posted by: No1Dad | Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 01:11 AM
What genius economist working at the Independent declares that the U.S. is in a depression? Give me a break. We haven't even had a quarter with negative GNP growth, so how does one declare even a recession today?
The U.S. is the most resilient economy in the world. We clearly have challenges, but the U.S. economy certainly has the ability to recover a lot faster than many other economies.
When a low-level journalist or headline writer makes such a ludicrous declaration, it feeds the frenzy. Be more judicious and more educated. Talk to an economist and get the facts before you report such garbage.
Posted by: John Adams | Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 01:23 AM
The U.S. Unemployment Rate stands at 4.8%. The U.K. Unemployment Rate stands at 5.2%. If the U.S. is headed for a Depression, then the U.K. must be ready to sink into the ocean. The Independent has been preaching America's economic death in earnest for the last several months. Are they jealous, is it just wishful thinking or do they lack the appropriate level of education about economics.
Posted by: Evans | Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 01:23 AM
Agreed, I know wild headlines sell papers, but that is embarassing. 28 million people are less than 10 percent of the populace and that percentage is roughly what it has been at (food-stamp) wise for the last 30 years. The economy could be better as a whole, but unemployment and inflation remain low and manageable and outside of creeping oil prices and declining home equity, we are really not in that bad a shape. Very silly article indeed. I think the Independant has gone from subtle bias to brazen, unchecked paranoia and propaganda. Terribly lazy. -- Carlos Nashville, TN
Posted by: CarlosCastrillolikesLiverpoolFC | Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 01:23 AM
Just because 28 million people are taking the food stamps doesn't mean they would starve to death otherwise. The people who are getting foreclosed on are people who borrowed too much money. In a sane credit market, these people never would have been allowed to borrow that much money. These are people who actually have interest only or even NEGATIVE interest loans! Like a credit card- unless you pay extra, your balance keeps going up.
I know people who lived in the depression- to compare a minor downturn in GROWTH to a depression is really offensive.
Posted by: get some perspective | Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 01:27 AM
half of these folks do not need food stamps, there is nothing worse than to see one of these welfare momma's hit the EBT button at the check out and see them loading the groceries into a NEW BMW or BENZ. The other half are illegals getting around the system. There should be a time limit to these hand outs. There are those who need this type of program, but we need better oversight.
Posted by: Joe Cool | Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 01:27 AM
Really? You call an increase of 5% in food stamp usage an economic crisis? I highly doubt it. The mere fact that the Independent's economic outlook for the US has one small economic factor is, how to put it, laughable. Let's also rave from the rooftops that an increase of 1 deg. Fahrenheit in world average temperatures is an out and out catastrophe. Oh, wait, already there. A depression, give me a break. How myopic do you really have to be in order to concoct a story as brazen and unabashed as this one?
Posted by: texas214 | Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 01:28 AM
I like how the gentleman in the front of the line (queue) in the photograph is wearing an iPod. At least our poor can listen to thousands of MP3s while waiting for a handout.
Posted by: AAA | Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 01:28 AM
Well....it must be an election year. Calling this a repeat of the 1929 Great Depression is really creative. Get out the vote...whatever it takes.
Posted by: March ofthe Lemmings | Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 01:32 AM
Thanks for buying our MacBook Air laptops and iPod touches. It might just feed a few of us starving Americans!
Posted by: Carlos Lozano | Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 01:34 AM
This is hilarious. It's as if the Euro's are desperate to paint a desperate picture for Americans. Nothing like having an entire continent bought and paid for by the democrat national committee.
Posted by: stalban | Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 01:35 AM
I see this was posted on April 1st. Is this supposed to be some sort of sick April Fools joke? The only one's looking the part of the fools are the persons allowing this to be published. What rubbish.
Posted by: MichigaNative | Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 01:36 AM
Mr. Usborne's article on the US economy states, "And the next monthly job numbers, to be released this Friday, are likely to show 50,000 more jobs were lost nationwide in March, and the unemployment rate is up to perhaps 5 per cent."
The UK Government reported in March that the unemployment in Britain remained at 5.2%. Stephen Timms, Minister of State for Employment commented, "Once again this is a strong set of figures. There have never been more people in work in the UK."
Posted by: Mike | Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 01:36 AM
Mr. Wee Wee sez you go girl and vote Barrack Hussein Obama! Under his loving command we will be free to eat as we please. When President Obama grabs the scepter of power we will all experience a eurphoric release from the pressures of how hard it has become.
Posted by: Mr. Wee Wee | Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 01:37 AM
Dear Sir, Madam, or Bloke,
Please revive the much-admired British trait for understatement of which us Yanks are so fond. Even when suffering a slight case of the flu the U.S. economy outperforms 99% of economies around the globe.
By the end of 2008 you will be reporting on the great recovery of the U.S. economy.
Posted by: Chris | Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 01:37 AM
I'm sorry, but look at the photo and you'll see that most of the people in this "food stamp" line are minorities or illegals that would be in this line anyway. Why? Because most of them don't want to work and look for any way they can to get a free hand-out in this country.....which we gladly do.....as well as hand outs to the rest of the world, including the UK!
Hey David, if things are so bad in USA, why don't you pack up your skinny, bad-tooth, social medicine ass and go home where things are so much better!
Posted by: JPaul | Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 01:39 AM
I will laugh about this headline for the rest of my life. I gotta get a copy so I can have it in the future and pull it out for a good laugh with my friends.
Things are so bad in the USA I booked a 3 1/2 week holiday/guided tour of China. Man we got it rough.
Posted by: TheIndependentIsComedy | Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 01:39 AM
It all depends upon what you mean by "poor". The average "poor" person in the US has all sorts of amenities that are comparable to an average middle class person in Europe -- our "poor" have cars of their own, they are able to eat relatively good food, send their kids off to school, have warm clothing to protect against the winter, have color TVs, listen to music on their Ipods.......I could go on and on. Are we hitting some turbulence? Surely. But is this a depression? That's a ridiculous stretch of your journalist's stinking imagination. One would expect more responsible journalism from your newspaper but apparently that's not the case. Relax folks. A lot of these "poor" (not the ones that are truly in need of some help) are just plain lazy and irresponsible people looking to take the easy way out. By the way, why does the Govt want to get more efficient in handing payouts and woefully backward in other issues (protecting our borders, for eg? Fiscal responsibility, anyone?) Sheesh.
Posted by: Josh | Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 01:42 AM
Wow, for a moment there, I was feeling so very sorry for that poor, impoverished country.
Then, I realized it is my country, the good ole USA. Ya'll need to fly across the pond and visit more often, it appears. Either that, or someone has gone daft at your paper.....
Posted by: MomZac | Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 01:43 AM
Now lets be nice. If you lived in one of those British apartments eating boiled organ meat with a bad tooth ache you would be a little edgy as well.
Posted by: Chuck U. Farley | Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 01:45 AM
Depression based on food stamp usage? Puh-leese.
If you brits could see how the food stamp program is continually expanded and whored to every person imaginable, you would see how flimsy the premise really is.
America's "poor" typically have a better standard of living than the average French. Multiple televisions, cars, etc...
Posted by: Puh-leese | Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 01:47 AM
I just read your article about the 'food stamp phenomenon' here in the United States. I have to admit the item is an 'attention-getter'. It also is rather exaggerated and alarmist. In fact, it might even be a thinly disguised diversionary tactic primarily for the consumption of your local readers who are already well aware of the sorry economic, polictical and spiritual state of their own country. There was an almost gleeful tone to the writing and the implicit presumption that Great Britain could remain unscathed by the current economic downturn here in the U.S. In our modern global economy, that is delusional, at best. My advice to you Brits is to pray for us both and buy American. It's the best way I know to be constructive and, by eschewing Chinese products, to also avoid lead poisoning.
Posted by: Alan J. Polasky | Tuesday, 01 April 2008 at 01:48 AM |
