What if this economic downturn occurred in the 80s

Started by crazy canuck, March 26, 2009, 02:41:06 PM

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crazy canuck

I heard a news piece about workers in France kidnapping/threatening their bosses.  It got me musing about the lack of communist/socialist rhetoric from the left in Canada during this economic downturn.  During the short lived crash of 89 I remember calls that capitalism was at an end and various communist groups were eagerly awaiting their time in the sun.

But now those groups are all but gone.  Economists talk about how capitalism will have be done differently (usually referring to more regulation of some sort) but nobody is really calling for a whole new system to take its place.  There is no one left to do that  - the communists are all gone.

But what if this had happened 20-25 years ago or perhaps more to the point what if there were still active organized communists still around.

Darth Wagtaros

More violence and more threats of war by the disintegrating Red Bloc.
PDH!

Caliga

We would have burned our DeLoreans for firewood? :)
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The Brain

:bleeding:

Probably the Dino cavalry created in the beginning of Reagan's third term would come into play.
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Malthus

If this recession had occurred in the '80s ... I certainly wouldn't have chosen "anthropology" as a major.  :lol:
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

Weatherman

Quote from: Malthus on March 26, 2009, 03:03:54 PM
If this recession had occurred in the '80s ... I certainly wouldn't have chosen "anthropology" as a major.  :lol:

Basket weaving then? You would've been able to get a job at Longaberger.  :P

Savonarola

It's hard to say; could we get Tim to make some maps for us first?  That usually helps bring alt-history to life.   :)
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Caliga

Well, that didn't take long.  Let's just cut to the chase:

1.  [insert name here] is worse than Hitler.
2.  North > South.
3.  Lettuce is stupid.
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garbon

What if I had happened in the 80s?  Oh, I did. ^_^
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Admiral Yi

The US didn't have active organized communists 25 years ago and I think Europe still does.  Might be a Canada-specific observation.  Either way there wouldn't be much difference.  As long as a broad consensus exists in favor of private ownership of the means of production a minority, no matter how well organized, is going to impose its will.

Martinus

Quote from: garbon on March 26, 2009, 03:31:51 PM
What if I had happened in the 80s?  Oh, I did. ^_^
After that, I don't think the world could have coped with another calamity, such as the recession.

Admiral Yi


garbon

Quote from: Martinus on March 26, 2009, 04:38:46 PM
After that, I don't think the world could have coped with another calamity, such as the recession.

Just over 4 years later, the Berlin Wall fell. :cheers:
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Razgovory

I thought there was a major recession in the 1980's.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

Tonitrus

Quote from: Razgovory on March 26, 2009, 05:06:16 PM
I thought there was a major recession in the 1980's.

Me too, the one that a charismatic new president came in and "fixed", with a subsequent massive increase in the federal debt.

Oh wait.....