Perspective

By L. Jim Tuck

February 1, 2024

Back to the Roaring Twenties?

In the 1920s the United States experienced extreme social changes as the country moved away from being an agrarian economy to an industrialized nation. People moved off the farms into factories to work and the cities grew dramatically. More people lived in cities than on the farms. The Roaring Twenties, as it was dubbed, from 1920-29, saw the gross national product (GNP) explode by 40 percent. The affluence of the twenties brought the new jazz age with musicians like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington out of New Orleans. There was drinking in excess, and dancing, and a raucous party spirit that spread to cities across the country. It all came crashing down with the dramatic fall of the stock market and the resulting Great Depression in 1929. The Great Depression brought years of hardship worldwide. Are we on the cusp of an even greater depression and replay of the Roaring Twenties?

Perspective

There are some who believe the U.S. economy is on the verge of collapse and some who believe the
economy is just fine. If you listen to those who say everything is fine, it is usually because it is in their political interest to paint as rosy of a picture of the economy as statistically possible. However, the National Debt Clock says the United States debt is $ 34.152 trillion and climbing. According to 2022 statistics, the United States must pay $476 billion in interest alone on this massive debt, and that figure grew by 35% from 2021. Back on August 11, 2020, it was calculated that the national debt per citizen equaled $80, 274 per person, and of course, that is now an outdated figure. That means based on that figure for a family of four the debt owed would be over $ 320,000.

By September 2008, the United States experienced a housing bubble that burst in the real estate market
which resulted in a 20% decline in housing prices and the ensuing economic recession. People had their home equities wiped out and millions of people lost jobs. Many businesses went bankrupt. That led to loan delinquencies and foreclosures and a great recession. Forbes.com states in a featured article, “How Long Did the Great Recession Last in 2008?” “The recession lasted 18 months and was officially over by June 2009. However, the effects on the overall economy were felt for much longer. The unemployment rate did not return to pre-recession levels until 2014, and it took until 2016 for median household incomes to recover.”

Are we in a similar time when housing prices have skyrocketed and many Americans have overbought and are struggling with heavy debts? In the event of massive job losses and falling wages, higher prices for fuel, food, and the cost of living, many could face losing their homes in another great recession.
Many variables exist in the economic world which can threaten the way of life people have grown accustomed to living. The world economy, which is so interconnected, makes it easier for the problems of some nations to wash up on the shores of other nations. For example, The Telegraph published an interesting article: “China’s economy is about to implode. We will all feel the aftershocks.” The article states: “Evergrande, the embattled Chinese real estate giant with debts of $300 billion, has just been ordered to liquidate by a court in Hong Kong.” The article goes on to say, “The collapse of the property and construction bubble has weakened domestic economic confidence, deepening the unemployment crisis and posing major challenges to local government budgets. These domestic concerns have led to the current implosion of the Chinese stock market. In turn this has compelled foreign investors to take a more realistic position on China risk than believing the golden goose fables still being peddled by Beijing…”

How this will impact the economies of the West remains to be seen, but considering the staggering national debt of the United States and other factors, such as, the politics in the country and the world, we should be concerned. On top of all that, there is the war in the Mideast which threatens to widen into WWIII. Beside that conflict, there is the Ukraine-Russia war, Taiwan and China, and the North Korean issues. If the real estate market and the stock market collapsed and banks failed, the U.S. could fall into a greater depression than we can imagine. We could see all we have known in the United States and other affluent nations of modern Israel disappear overnight. Gone will be the super markets down the street, and it will be much more difficult to find food to eat.

When it happens, we will wish our predecessors had never left the farms where people could grow their own food. We will then realize all of our materialism and wealth contributed to our downfall. God blessed our nations and prosper us because of Abraham’s faithfulness, but we desired the material things more than God. The Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil (I Timothy 6:10).
Are the economies of the West set to collapse? End-time prophecy shows modern Israel will be decimated in the future. Ezekiel 6:1-6 warns the nations of modern Israel, “Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ‘Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, and say, “O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains, to the hills, to the ravines, and to the valleys: ‘Indeed I, even I, will bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places. Then your altars shall be desolate, your incense altars shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain men before your idols. And I will lay the corpses of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones all around your altars. In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate, so that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, your idols may be broken and made to cease, your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.’”

Consider what Ezekiel 7:19 says about this horrendous time: “They will throw their silver into the streets,
and their gold will be like refuse; Their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD; They will not satisfy their souls, nor fill their stomachs, because it became their stumbling block of iniquity.” Gold, silver, and money will not matter in the time ahead; they won’t fill the stomach. In this time of terrible trial, the value of precious metals and other material things will be like garbage to be thrown away. In the world tomorrow during the millennial reign of Jesus Christ, we will have affluence without the greed and fixation on money and material things which exists in this evil world today. Life won’t be based on getting, but people giving and sharing with others so all can prosper. Wars will cease and peace will last for 1000 years and on into eternity!

This is my Perspective for this week. Have a great Sabbath and nice weekend!