'Depression' is the word used to describe how the working classes get soaked. Austrian-born economist Joseph Schumpeter as quoted in Robert Heilbronner's "The Worldly Philosophers" regaled his Harvard students in the mid-1930s
Chentleman, you are vorried about the depression. You should not be. For capitalism, a depression is a good cold douche. [By which he meant shower.]
Scrooge put it even more bluntly:
"Are there no workhouses? Are there no prisons...then let them die and decrease the surplus population." —Scrooge
There have been fears that the US economy was perched to jump off into a 1930s-style depression. Thanks to Schumpeter, many have said that a recession or a depression may not be such a bad thing. That depends, of course, upon whether or not you have enough reserves to ride out a recession. It has been argued that the international 'banking establishment' manufactures recessions/depressions to give investors a chance to pick up bargain stocks or entire businesses. But --is this a good thing as Schumpeter implied?
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