What would a 21st Century Economic Depression look and feel like?

The Boston Globe has an interesting article discussing what a economic depression would look like in 2009. For most of us, we've only heard stories or seen pictures of the Great Depression. My father was born during the depression (1935) on a farm in Nebraska. His mother and father (my grandparents) were hit especially hard by the economic downturn of the 1930s and never really ever got over it. My grandparents house had a fully stocked kitchen because they never wanted to go hungry again. My grandmother would also stocked up on shoes, because she often went without shoes as a child and during other hard economic times and vowed to never go with out shoes again in her life. When my grandmother passed away earlier this year, my father found boxes upon boxes of brand new shoes through out her house. My father also tends to stock up on certain items, but not to the extent that my grandmother did.

Family stories and the Globe article got me wondering about how will Americans react if a true economic depression were to happen. Bennett suggests that while we might not see long soup lines or an people jumping from buildings, we will probably see an increase in lines at the ER, more people will stay home and watch tv (leading to a television boom), emptying suburbs, and people will shop more at Walmart and Target.

Prehaps the most interesting result of a 21st century economic depression would be the "desurburbanzation" of America. If home prices continue to sink, homeownership will become less appealing and individuals may find living in the city and better economic investment because commuting costs are cheaper and access to services would be greater. While this would benefit some cities, urban places like Detroit could just disappear.

While the numbers that will likely come out in the coming year regarding poverty, use of government programs such as food stamps, unemployment and so on, will provide further evidence of declining American economy, it will be interesting to see how generations of Americans who have never experienced a depression will react. Do we know how to tighten our belts and how to live with less? Will families take to gardening again and learn to live all together? Only time will tell.