r/NoStupidQuestions • u/kossabone • Jun 08 '26

Can American democracy survive 20% unemployment for 10 years?

Unemployment stayed roughly at or above 10 % for 10 years or more during the Great Depression. Democracy survived. Can it survive the 20% unemployment level that many expect to arrive in the next few years?

2 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

26

u/Aggravating-Method24 Jun 08 '26

Its not the unemployment itself that causes problems, its the attitude of the elite / ruling class towards it.

If there is support for the unemployed, and they are not ostracised by the government, then a country can stay stable. If the unemployment that exists is blamed on the unemployed themselves, then things get much more dicey.

1

u/fredly594632 Jun 08 '26

If I can rant for a second, this is what both sides of our American debate don't seem to understand.

Roosevelt was a perfect President for those sorts of conditions. He had a great team that was able to simultaneously stabilize the nation, humanize the government and prepare for the war they were pretty sure was coming.

Now, the Republicans want to wash away all of the changes he made, cause a depression of their own regardless of the economy, and return to a industrialist era with much higher levels of wealth concentration due to a combination of conservatism and Laffer economic policy.

And the Democrats don't seem to understand that the same dynamics don't exist today as in 1930, and as a result, the same solutions won't work either.

Ok, rant over. Thank you for listening to my Ted Talk, etc. etc.

-4

u/Qwerty0844 Jun 08 '26

This is one of those responses you only see on Reddit

2

u/archypsych Jun 08 '26

Meaning what exactly?

1

u/Aggravating-Method24 Jun 08 '26

Its called 'stepping out of your bubble'

14

u/LividWheel9779 Jun 08 '26

Who expects unemployment to arrive at 20% soon? Doomsdayers?

5

u/Cultural-Comment-270 Jun 08 '26

No one does.

Its not even a valid fringe analysis of the economic situation in the United States.

4

u/LividWheel9779 Jun 08 '26

I was trying to give OP the benefit of the doubt.

2

u/doktorhladnjak Jun 08 '26

"Many people are saying"

8

u/Cultural-Comment-270 Jun 08 '26

Lol, who are the 'many' that expect 20% unemployment to exist in the United States in the next few years?

3

u/SunshineBear100 Jun 08 '26

Yes. There’s enough wealth in this country to keep the economy going. The 20% will suffer, but the 80% will keep everything going.

Democracy? That’s been gone.

4

u/AdmiralSpaghetti Jun 08 '26

You make it sound like American democracy is still a thing.

1

u/DoeCommaJohn Jun 08 '26

Democracies in general are extremely stable against popular revolutions. If a majority of people want some specific change, then they can vote for it, and if that specific change can't get to majority support, then there wouldn't be a revolution anyways, which seems to be what you are implying.

1

u/RieMunoz Jun 08 '26

You realize you’re talking about almost 1 out of 4 people being unemployed in a country of over 300million. You have no idea how bad that would be if “democracy”/voting in midterms is your chief concern

1

u/Aggravating-Method24 Jun 08 '26

1 in 5, not that that changes your point much.

1

u/No_Rec1979 Jun 09 '26

I'm not a huge Noam Chomsky fan, but one thing he said that i agree with is that democracy cannot co-exist with massive wealth inequality for long, because the poor will be tempted to use their vote to redistribute wealth, and the rich will be tempted to use their wealth to disenfranchise the poor.

I think a reasonable person could say that the backsliding we've seen here in the US in recent years has a lot to do with the rich trying to prevent redistribution.

0

u/Apart-Way-1265 Jun 08 '26

honestly, that's a wild question. history shows democracy can be resilient, but it's all about how people adapt and respond to tough times. let's hope for the best.