Nick Ehle

The media has been pushing a steady thematic stream of news comparing our current recession to the Great Depression, but until today I have found the evidence to be less than compelling. I had assumed that we would not have the bread lines, tent cities, and Hoovervilles that came into existence in the 1930s. The social welfare safety nets put into place partially as a result of this poverty and hardship should save us from a similar fate.

An article I stumbled onto yesterday from Hacker News has completely shocked me. There are tent cities sprouting up across the country and rapidly growing in size. This issue has been profiled on local news stations and also recently was profiled by Oprah. Right now, the tent city residents appear to be blue collar workers that were living paycheck to paycheck until they lost their jobs, but I predict that we’ll see more white collar workers being forced onto the streets as well as job prospects dry up and unemployment benefits run out.

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