In Bad Times

Two observations about economic Bad Times.  The first is that for a lot of employers, bad times are good times.  When it comes to paying workers very little, and other forms of exploitation, they can get away with almost anything without worrying too much that either employees or government will object.  Maybe a union would, which is another reason that employers would like to destroy them all.  But employers can get around unions pretty easily, by employing part-time and freelance labor not covered by union contracts, and who don't get benefits.

This freedom to do what they want when people with any kind of job are afraid to lose it can easily lead to sadism in the workplace, as well as virtual slavery.  Especially since it cuts costs and adds to profits.  Even when employers must hire to replace workers who can't take it anymore, they get to cut more corners.  They are able to discriminate according to age, race, gender, or just arbitrarily in order to winnow down the pool and cut recruitment costs, and nobody is likely to do much about it.

On a more macro level,  Bad Times add a lot of loose emotion and power to the usual projections, denial etc. with more pressure from the unconscious, as anxieties, fears, resentments,etc. bubble up.  So you get violence, as in England now (although there are other factors involved.)  Or you get politics that's violently split.  That was clearly the situation in the Great Depression era.  There was a lot of support and agitation for real socialism and communism, on local and state levels as well as national.  FDR was to the right of all that, but he wasn't far enough to the right to satisfy a lot of other people.  American fascism was on the rise, especially among the corporate and monied elite.  Some were openly pro-Hitler and anti-Semitic.  There is even evidence of a high level conspiracy to stage a coup against President Roosevelt and take over the U.S. government, which involved a direct ancestor to the current Bushes.  So in Bad Times, a President doesn't have to be black to be hated by the Rabid Right.  And the extremes we're experiencing now aren't unprecedented.