Future Generations in Crisis-
The Great Depression 2 and the Fall of Western Economies.

At age 35 I can look back 10 or 15 years when the opportunity to get cheap,easy credit was available, yet I and many others did not take that opportunity to get a mortgage, thinking that
the future was not that important, and that I had years ahead of me before I should strive
for a relatively well-paid job, buy a house and possibly start a family.

Today the world is in a freefall of recession, a freefall with no parachute- thus there is no
guarantee of a safe landing... Twenty or thirty years ago people could purchase a house
on their relatively low wage, knowing that industry was booming, and jobs were increasing.
Now we see industry pulled away from Western countries and moving to the Asian side.
Western economies are now at serious risk of freefalling into depression, and it looks like
within a decade or so that many millions of young people will be faced with lack of work,
and have little chance of buying a new house. Credit is not being made available as it was
to past generations, and house prices have risen far too much out of proportion of wages.

Like many others I am faced with much fewer job opportunities and millions of young people
have yet to face this reality. Small businesses are fast becoming a thing of the past.
The high street shopping is being replaced by import companies which sell imported goods
on the internet. Obtaining credit for starting a small business is more difficult to get, and
let's face the truth- if you start a small business you are in competition with online sales
which are often much cheaper. And then there is the problem with banks today.
Very few banks will give you much interest on your savings. Your wages will gain little
interest, and your small business profits won't generate much interest in a bank.

The bank bailouts which Governments supported with taxpayers money will cost future
generations more in taxes, and so the value of wages will decrease, making it more difficult
for young people to build up savings (and due to lack of bank interest on their savings).

So how can young people be reached to make them see just how much of a struggle life
will be for them when they decide to strive for their own jobs, and keep wagse coming in?
It is difficult to get young people to study finance and economics even at a basic level.
It is only when people have taken the big steps of getting employment and a house,
and then they lose their jobs and their house that they become the victim of the world
in recession, the victim of industry moving overseas and victims of lack-of-credit.

Credit and mortgages are relly a relatively new thing in terms of years...
Within 50 short years the growth of industry fueled the credit and mortagage markets
because so many jobs were created, and the demand for housing boomed.
The World is really teetering on the edge of not just a financial depession, but also
industry ,small business and housing depression, which is something that hasn't
happened since the Great Depression of the early 1900's.

While countries blame ech other for debt crisis, and batter each other for a few billion,
the truth is the situation may not get better for Western countries as industry disappears.
Industry creates the bulk of jobs, and small businesses and the shops which past
generations grew up with support a large proportion of wage earners. Just how long can
Western countries sustain the people in terms of unemployment benefit/ pension benefits?

Western economies seem to be shrinking slowly at present, yet we may wake up one
morning to see the next stock market or currency crash that totally wipes out remaining
industry and small businesses, with banks unable to pay out cash to customers,
benefits money cut off and Government-run soup kitchens the only food outlets
available in many Western countries, because the supermarkets will be boarded up,
their shelves empty. When you look at how the country of Zimbabwe ended up, you can
gauge the outcome in Western countries. Zimbabwe existed on loans which kept their
economy running. When sanctions were placed on Zimbabwe, the supermarkets literally
were emptied of stock, and millions of people left the country in despair.

The same would happen in Western countries when industry closes down, small business
and shops close, and GDP of a country falls sharply. Many of the poorest areas struggling
to keep shops open today will be the first to close, and soup kitchens will be noticeable
from the hundreds of people queing up for their daily food. People would lose homes and cars-
valuable belongings would be sold to pay for a few days of food, people would be living in tents
in the nearby park adjacent to where their houses once were.

The only people left relatively secure would be those who inherit houses, and families would
once again have to support their own because young people will get caught up in the future
depression which many Western countries will face. In reality we should be stomping up to
our Government buildings, and demanding loudly that Government prevent the sales of industry
to overseas, because the day draws nearer when young people will be in the freefall of a much
deeper and more serious recession, a depression of the Western economies that will be equal
to the Great Depression. The Great Depression 2. The fall of Western economies.

Maybe I am lucky to not have strived to buy a house, because the odds are stacked against me,
the jobs are being lost in great numbers, and I may have been one of those who lost my job,
my wages and my house, like the millions of others in this situation today. So the next time you
see the big bankers take millions in bonuses, remember that they are taking that money from you.
They are taking it for themselves, and the Governments won't come to save you or stop the banks
from profiteering from your loss. Again, we should be stomping up to our Government's doors,
and asking why they allow our industry to close down, why won't they secure jobs for the future
generations, and why let the rich, corrupt , greedy bankers and investment groups take it all.

People are asleep, and getting young people to learn basic finance and economics is impossible
in a culture of reckless spending on luxuries and pursuit of foolish personal desires and ignorance.

Russell S Wyllie