At the beginning of 1929, real estate investment in the United States plummeted, and on October 29, ** collapsed, middle-aged men who cared about the economy realized that the economic crisis had eruptedBut most people stubbornly believe that with hard work everything will be fine.
Throughout the twenties, Americans enjoyed true happiness. From 1920 to 1929, U.S. manufacturing efficiency increased by 40 percent, annual automobile production increased from 2.23 million to 5.36 million, and GDP increased by 421%, while the level of resident wages increased by 189%。
Although this achievement is not as good as the "Chinese miracle" at the beginning of the 21st century, it can be regarded as a great achievement that can be ranked among the top few in human history; More importantly, throughout the 20s, the rapid development of the American manufacturing industry, the real sense of achievement of ordinary people is far greater than the data on paper.
Throughout the 20s, credit in the United States developed rapidly, and people have long been accustomed to borrowing money to get by, from buying a house to daily consumption。As the breadwinner of the family, the men firmly believe that this small amount of money will be easily repaid in the future.
As the middle class is unanimously optimistic about the future, the US assets** are soaring. The Dow Jones index soared from 1924 onwards and more than doubled by the end of 1927.
Adventurous men have entered the market, and the leverage ratio at that time was generally increased to 10 times, that is, with 10% margin and 90% borrowing to buy**, many people even borrowed that 10% of the margin.
This is especially true of real estate, although the specific data is difficult to know, but at that time, 90% of the income of each city was in real estate - I believe that when you see this number, you will naturally understand the general situation of real estate in the United States in the 20s.
In 1929, when the United States experienced a double crit of real estate contraction and a crash, the economic outlook was already very unoptimistic.
Who was the most devastating of the Great Depression? The middle-aged man in his thirties and forties silently raised his hands.
Their elders had experienced the First World War and understood that turmoil was the main theme of the world, and they were often more cautious; Their children were still in school, and the welfare of education in the United States was quite good at that time, and they could completely ignore what was going on outside the window; Many of their wives are full-time wives, because one person can support the whole family by working for ten years, and women are not needed to come out to work, and middle-aged women have long lost their ability to work.
But for middle-aged men in their thirties and forties, the situation is too bad.
Their house and car were bought with loans, their ** was increased by ten times leverage, their card balance was less than three digits, and their wives and children were counting on them to support ......
And the companies they once prided themselves on providing stable, well-paid, decent jobs have collapsed.
The Great Depression, which began in 1929, is used in many history books as a mere commentary on the causes of World War II; But in reality, the sins of ordinary people during the Great Depression were far more brutal in the United States than in the war.
You can't sleep peacefully, you will wake up at 2:00 p.m., when you sleep, nightmares may appear, worries and fears will come, fear of something wrong with the children and family, and sometimes you will cry alone. ”
In the book "The Great Depression", the American writer Bernanke presents us with the classic mentality of middle-aged men of that era.
In 1932, the year known as "the end of the mountain", the unemployment rate soared all the way to 25%.More than 2 million Americans had their assets wiped out and could only wander around, and the once decent and dashing urban elite began to live on handouts.
Bank presidents knock on doors in the middle of the night to beg, well-known writers huddle in the early morning crowds of people waiting in line to receive bread, and factory owners feed ......their families by picking up rotten fruits and vegetables
Fortunately, after Roosevelt came to power, the former farmers, engineers, and pastors began to move bricks to the reservoir site in California, and such opportunities sometimes had to be fought for.
American men who once boasted of being the pride of the sky have now been reduced to this, which has hurt their self-esteem enormously, and many have become alcoholics and violent criminals, completely losing themselves in the Great Depression.
1.5 million middle-aged men have been forced to abandon their families, and many of their wives and children have been reduced to beggars.
In 1933, after Roosevelt came to power, he introduced New Deal measures centered on "relief, reconstruction, and reform", in which "relief" was put in the first place.
The Great Depression gave middle-aged people an eternal warning: don't be carried away by false prosperity, and don't use the harvest of the times to calculate your life.
In human history, the ** era is always fleeting, but the chicken feathers left by the ** era are protracted.
The average length of a person's life is seventy or eighty years, and the maximum length of a country's life in a specific historical period is one or twenty years; In a person's life, the probability of encountering the ** era is very low, and the probability of encountering the ** era in youth is even more rare.
If you do, it's not necessarily a good thing.
If a person encounters the ** era in his youth and quickly accumulates wealth by increasing leverage, and encounters a great depression in middle age, then it is very likely that his life will be filled with a sense of sadness that fireworks are easy to cool.
Because the survival rules of the ** era are not universal, when the era stops, and then use these rules to set it, the result is to lose a lot of chicken feathers.
To put it more bluntly, yes**The times have completely distorted the three views of some people, and they can no longer get along with the world normally.
Today is different from the past, we have enough ways to avoid the tragedy of the Great Depression in the United States from repeating in China, and there are enough reasons to believe that the era of China's first world will not end here, and our generation still has the opportunity to adjust itself, reduce debt, control desires, and correct mentality.
In this way, when unforeseen extreme situations occur, at least a small blessing can be maintained for the family.
At that time, we may find out that Xiao Xing is the real skill.