Which Recession Was Worse?

chops018 · 05-06-2014 06:35PM #1

Sorry if there is already a thread on this. I did a quick search and I couldn't find one.

Just wondering what people think is the worse recession, the 1980's-early 90's or the 2000's to now?

It does seem things are picking up, albeit it slowly.

Anyway, to those who lived through both, what one do yee think is worse?

Hootanany · 05-06-2014 06:38PM

1932 im only getting over it now.

keith16 · 05-06-2014 06:39PM

1879 hands down. Potatoes wouldn't even grow, let alone the economy. Well, the export market was doing ok. Actually, aren't exports also doing great this time around?

Hootanany · 05-06-2014 06:41PM

1849 tut

cml387 · 05-06-2014 06:43PM

Obviously the eighties.
Not only did we have no money, we also had to go around in courduroy trousers and parka's.

Sir Arthur Daley · 05-06-2014 06:43PM

The great one.

chops018 · 05-06-2014 06:43PM

keith16 wrote: »

1879 hands down. Potatoes wouldn't even grow, let alone the economy. Well, the export market was doing ok. Actually, aren't exports also doing great this time around?

Very good.

And tell me, please, from your personal experiences of this era, was it hard for you to get work back then?

cml387 · 05-06-2014 06:47PM

And we also had a recession in the 1970's, the 1950's the 1930's.Add the 1990's and the 2010's that every 20 years.

By gum I think I've stumbled on something.

Menas · 05-06-2014 07:14PM

The 80s was much worse.
Living standards for the poor and unemployed were much worse than now. Emigration was higher (I think). People just could not afford the things that are now taken for granted.
And the weather was brutal.

RobertKK · 05-06-2014 07:19PM

chops018 wrote: »

Sorry if there is already a thread on this. I did a quick search and I couldn't find one.

Just wondering what people think is the worse recession, the 1980's-early 90's or the 2000's to now?

It does seem things are picking up, albeit it slowly.

Anyway, to those who lived through both, what one do yee think is worse?

I think in general the current one is worse as people didn't have as much debt back in the 1980's.

vicwatson · 05-06-2014 07:20PM

This 1

Sir Osis of Liver. · 05-06-2014 07:29PM

This one.
In the 80's people were just skint,this time around people are skint but up to their tits in debt aswell.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 05-06-2014 07:34PM

The 1980s were worse by far. Firstly we went from having very little to having nothing. We had no boom before it , so had no reserves whatsoever to fall back on. Inflation was high and interest rates were through the roof. It went on longer as well. Unemployment was higher than at present and there was no minimum wage. That was an era I certainly do not want to see again and will certainly never forget.

cml387 · 05-06-2014 07:37PM

Kyra Thousands Business wrote: »

The 1980s were worse by far. Firstly we went from having very little to having nothing. We had no boom before it , so had no reserves whatsoever to fall back on. Inflation was high and interest rates were through the roof. It went on longer as well. Unemployment was higher than at present and there was no minimum wage. That was an era I certainly do not want to see again and will certainly never forget.

Also the Troubles were festering on, one atrocity following another. Anne Lovatt. The abortion referendum. It was a depressing time.

frozenfrozen · 05-06-2014 07:38PM

This is my first one, probably rate it about a 6/10, but that number is artificially inflated because I loaned out too many 10/10 votes

Chucken · 05-06-2014 07:38PM

Sir Osis of Liver. wrote: »

This one.
In the 80's people were just skint,this time around people are skint but up to their tits in debt aswell.

And the reason people weren't in debt was because they didn't buy what they couldn't afford.

Sir Osis of Liver. · 05-06-2014 07:41PM

Chucken wrote: »

And the reason people weren't in debt was because they didn't buy what they couldn't afford.

Whats done is done.
Back then the credit wasn't available or being pushed on people.

Chucken · 05-06-2014 07:45PM

Sir Osis of Liver. wrote: »

Whats done is done.
Back then the credit wasn't available or being pushed on people.

I bought my house in 1983 at the grand old age of 19. We had the common sense not to spend more than we could afford to pay back. I remember the bank manager asking if we needed extra to buy furniture and we said no. We got 2nd hand stuff and were delighted with it.

I'll never understand people blaming others for "pushing" money at them

cml387 · 05-06-2014 07:46PM

Sir Osis of Liver. wrote: »

Whats done is done.
Back then the credit wasn't available or being pushed on people.

Rod Liddle (ex BBC Today editor, Spectator columnist and generally grumpy git) has a book out that,among its many splenetic points, alleges that the generation that became adults in the eighties (me) are responsble for the mess we're currently in because we were the first to benefit from credit cards and term loans to get stuff we couldn't afford

The Backwards Man · 05-06-2014 07:47PM

I'd rather be a kid now than going back to being a kid in the 80s

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 05-06-2014 07:48PM

Chucken wrote: »

And the reason people weren't in debt was because they didn't buy what they couldn't afford.

And the recession came off a period when nobody would give the average Joe credit anyway. Hence we had nothing, I see people every day who are up to their tonsils in debt and suffering from this recession but they still have mobile phones, cars, internet, sky TV, etc but in the 80s a phone in the house was a luxury. As was a car, central heating, or many other items considered must haves today. I saw my kids sleeping under piles of overcoats in winter to keep warm, ice on the inside of the bedroom windows in the morning and having to walk or cycle everywhere because we were broke.

I know, I know, tell that to the kids today....blah blah...we lived in a paper bag in the middle m
of a sceptic tank...blah.

But unfortunately that was the reality of it - and I was lucky enough to have a job!

cml387 · 05-06-2014 07:50PM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

I'd rather be a kid now than going back to being a kid in the 80s

Another thing is that, at least from 1980 to 1986, there seemed to be a real chance that we'd all be either vaporised, die of of radiation poisoning or survive in a post industrial dystopian nightmare.

Anonamoose · 05-06-2014 07:51PM

Was there a recession.... I hadn't noticed...

Chucken · 05-06-2014 07:52PM

cml387 wrote: »

Another thing is that, at least from 1980 to 1986, there seemed to be a real chance that we'd all be either vaporised, die of of radiation poisoning or survive in a post industrial dystopian nightmare.

I was working in Shannon around that time and I remember being genuinely frightened that it would be one of the 1st places to get kaboomed if it happened.:(

Frank Lee Midere · 05-06-2014 07:52PM

There was in fact no recession ( bar a year) in the 80's

AndonHandon · 05-06-2014 07:52PM

Recession is a state of mind.

Frank Lee Midere · 05-06-2014 07:53PM

AndonHandon wrote: »

Recession is a state of mind.

That and two quarters of negative growth in GDP.

Anonamoose · 05-06-2014 07:53PM

I've made a killing selling water meters.....

Sir Osis of Liver. · 05-06-2014 07:55PM

AndonHandon wrote: »

Recession is a state of mind.

A recession is when you loose your job.

A depression is when I loose mine.

porsche959 · 05-06-2014 07:55PM

Frank Lee Midere wrote: »

There was in fact no recession ( bar a year) in the 80's

Strangely enough....that's true. Technically GNP grew in all but 1 year.

porsche959 · 05-06-2014 07:56PM

cml387 wrote: »

Obviously the eighties.
Not only did we have no money, we also had to go around in courduroy trousers and parka's.

Great music though! Like Stock Aitken and Waterman!

Which Recession Was Worse?

Comments