The Decline and Fall of America! (yawn)

Well it looks like hard times have come again once more, but it helps to keep a sense of perspective on these things. It may be bad, but we'll get through it; we always have in the past. People have been predicting the fall of the United States ever since the rise of the United States. Here's a list of some things people thought would ruin the country. I have categorized them loosely by the last four generations of my own family, starting with the most recent. Some of the concerns listed were serious and some were laughable, I'll let you decide which were which.

First Generation (Me, Mine)

1. Communism
   
2. Capitalism


3. Japan and Saudi Arabia


4. Iraq and Iran


5. Nicaragua and Grenada


6. The "Asian Tigers" and "The Pacific Rim"


7. Immigration


8. 911


9. Bush, Clinton, Reagan, Carter, Nixon, LBJ, JFK


10. Global Warming


11. Computers


12. Rap


13. The United Nations


14. Drugs


15. Television

Second generation (My Parents)

1. Communism


2. Capitalism


3. Nazism


4. Radio


5. Immigration


6. Fluoridated Drinking Water


7. Drugs


8. Secular Humanism


9. Civil Rights, Feminism, Hippies, AIM, etc.


10. Overpopulation


11. The Great Depression


12. Huey Long


13. FDR


14. The League of Nations


15. Rock and Roll

Third Generation (My Grandparents)

1. Communism


2. Capitalism


3. Labor Unions


4. The Kaiser


5. Cuba


6. The Gold Standard


7. William Jennings Bryan


8. Charles Darwin


9. Immigration


10. Alcohol


11. Moving Pictures


12. Jazz


13. The Panic of 1907, 1893


14. Herbert Hoover


15. Suffragettes
    

Fourth Generation (My Great-Grandparents)

1. Communism (First Red Scare? 1848!)


2. Capitalism


3. Rum


4. Romanism


5. Rebellion


6. Sitting Bull


7. Immigration


8. Mexico


9. Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, James K. Polk


10. Charles Darwin


11. Railroads


12. Novels


13. The Panic of 1884, of 1875, of 1857, and of 1837.


14. Reconstruction


15. The Tariff

Fifth Generation (Bonus!)

1. The British
2. Witches
3. Immigration
4. Pontiac, Tecumseh, Cornstalk, Osceola
5. Aaron Burr

Barrington Boardman wrote, in "Flappers, Bootleggers, "Typhoid Mary" and the Bomb: An Anecdotal History of the U.S. from 1923-1945," about a man who reacted to the stock market crash of 1929 with something like the following, "Well it doesn't mean we have to take to the trees and throw coconuts at one another." My sentiments exactly.