>we might not be able to weather a depression in our time. The last one was weathered by people who were born in the nineteenth century and had seen depression before. The country was largely rural, the supply chains were more localized

This is exactly the point I've been making for decades. I've tried in vain to inform people that the Great Depression should be a major wakeup call for today, you *cannot depend* on "the system" for much of anything, much less *everything*.

And now the COVID-19 ordeal has proven that out in a very relatively *light* way. I mean, we were panicking over toilet paper, hand gel, alcohol, paper towels, stuff like that, and it even got tough to get certain food items for a while, people were going nuts but this whole thing was pretty danged mild compared to the potentials.

"The system" has now become incredibly complex, and with greater complexity comes more potential points of failure. It's now a *global* system, which also means that that failure can come from *anywhere*, triggering a domino effect. So, at some point, something or another is going to trigger collapse, it's just inevitable, there are so many potential causes that one or more of them is bound to happen.

Now, getting back to your point that I quoted, not only were supply chains more localized, but in fact most, here in the rural areas at least, were self sufficient to a significant degree. Essentially *everyone* had their own gardens at the very least, and usually some chickens, a milk cow, often some hogs, a mule, etc. My Dad's family were poor country folk and had those things. The only things needed to be bought were staples like flour, salt, sugar, etc.

These days, essentially "everyone" is entirely dependent on store bought goods for *everything*, and lacks the knowledge to take care of themselves without that availability. Couple that with the sheer population growth since the Depression...the more people there are that are suddenly without, the more desperation and chaos there will be. And also consider the fact that...*people are meat*.

No matter what ever happens with presidents, nothing will stop any of this because the population will never again agree to do what it would take to repair the overall situation. People have no interest in making sacrifices, or willfully altering lifestyle to any significant degree. We won't be seeing the majority reverting to the needed levels of self sufficiency until the situation forces it on those who survive the aftermath.

A hard rain's a-gonna fall, it's just a matter of when, and what the specific initial trigger will wind up being. If it's not some sort of market issue, it'll be a worse pandemic or environmental catastrophe, and the very few who are in any way "prepared" will quickly be overwhelmed and depleted by the masses who are far, far from it.