do you think another depression is possible?

Question

I heard an prediction of the future economy and how it will go into a depression at around the year 2010. Their reasoning was that the massive number of Senior citizens from the baby boom will start to retire and it will significantly lower consumption because of the fact that senior citizens do not spend much money due to their fixed income thus reducing our GDP. This (according to these people) will cause a chain reaction to reduce spending and increase savings thus leading us into a depression. What do you think?

Answer 1

We can get into a depression but I don't think war babies will be the drag on the economy to cause that.

What if

All foreign countries refused to sell us goods and services. What if they all took there money and investments out of our economy.

There goes Walmart - no inventory - their gone

The auto industry - we would have about 10% of a a GM or Ford flopping down the street.

We would be left with computer technicians with no computers

We would have many unemployed service sector people with no skills seeking work

Our government will loose its tax base and we would leave are country to be taken over by Mexico

Answer 2

I think a depression is possible, but not to the extent of the "Great Depression". Yes, we have the solvency of social security, which is scheduled to go bust in 2040, but we have the Hispanic population growing at a feverish pace. These folks will be the young who will make up for the lost spending by seniors. Sure the first generation Hispanics will be of low income due to low skills, but a little money spent by a lot of folks, makes a big difference. This group of workers will educate their children and we will be one generation away from another batch of educated youth. I am not hispanic myself, but I see these people as having a valuable role in our future. If we could convince the current youth to stop listening to rap and watching stupid crap on TV, they could gain enormous skills and add to GDP thru technological advancements in areas that the China, India, and Japan have yet to master. We will fall behind if we don't step up to the plate. Population wise, we can not compete with their labor pool. But our labor pool can be more productive thru education and competition.

Answer 3

Another depression is always possible. In fact, it is likely inevitable. We just got over one, in fact, regardless of the government's attempts to play it down. We have had a number of them. It is just a part of economics. Whether or not one will happen in 2010? Who knows? If these things were as easy to predict as some people think, they'd be easy to prepare for and prevent.

Answer 4

I have been predicting the same thing. Not only due to baby boomers retiring, but the loss of our industrial strength, out sourcing of most all jobs and poor government leadership.