Famine killed 7 million people in USA
Apparently, according to Russian researcher Boris Borisov, famine during the Great Depression in 1931 – 1932 in America killed over 7 million Americans.
The researcher, Boris Borisov, in his article titled “The American Famine” estimated the victims of the financial crisis in the US at over seven million people. The researcher also directly compared the US events of 1932-1933 with Holodomor, or Famine, in the USSR during 1932-1933.
In the article, Borisov used the official data of the US Census Bureau. Having revised the number of the US population, birth and date rates, immigration and emigration, the researcher came to conclusion that the United States lost over seven million people during the famine of 1932-1933.
“According to the US statistics, the US lost not less than 8 million 553 thousand people from 1931 to 1940. Afterwards, population growth indices change twice instantly exactly between 1930-1931: the indices drop and stay on the same level for ten years. There can no explanation to this phenomenon found in the extensive text of the report by the US Department of Commerce “Statistical Abstract of the United States,” the author wrote. Famine killed 7 million people in USA
I’ve never seen published data on how many people died in the Great Depresssion. All the news clips I’ve seen and read, including the movie, “The Grapes of Wrath” never state how bad it was.
Wikipedia apparently deleted the article and a quick search on Google did not turn it up either.
I would guess that another famine here would kill many more people then this. Our oil dependency and widely distributed and highly increased population base, city density, loss of knowledge and loss of farmland, topsoil, drought, etc., would make this much worse (including multiple climate change effects, it’s now flooding here for example).
Nobody knows what the number might be and it depends on whose estimate you are inclined to believe, but mine is in the range of 200,000,000+ from all the effects leading to (unnatural) death combined.
I DO recall reading that ‘people were forced to eat weeds!’. Well, yeah, we’ve discussed that here in terms of Orlov’s comparison between the US and Russia, that Russians got by the collapse of the Soviet Union in part by having a history of doing that.
Fern
I think shame accompanies starvation, especially in this country. Perhaps the starvation hit the poor and elderly hardest. Wasn’t social security in direct response to the deaths of our old during the depression? We are not that decent now, today we would not do it.
It has become very hard to believe any historical account. They are written by the winners and survivors, and those who suffer and die needlessly seem easily rationalized away. Our current culture is absolutely indifferent to suffering and death.
Witness Katrina, gone from the news cycle. Who died in Katrina? The old and the poor. And they got blamed for not getting out of town. Nobody gave a damn, and nobody gives a damn now in any useful way. My daughter is working in the 9th ward and she says it is still a third world country there.
Somehow we have sworn we will never have another post Katrina failure, but we have used this resolve as a pretext for continued neglect in Katrina’s aftermath. We have already swept Katrina under our cultural rug — mission accomplished, we will do better. How can we be so shallow, and so completely mad? I think this is why we don’t remember starvation during the Depression. I believe all history is revisionist, and rationalizes away suffering through glossing and omission.
What’s coming fast is really the “big dance”. According to my understanding we already have $5 gasoline coming based on $130 oil in a few weeks, and that’s only the beginning. Time for the REALLY big dance. Tha tha, tha, tha that’s all folks!!
MD
We who write and sell software have these dilemmas…..
Fern
We finished the entire area of head lettuce, dry clay soil that it was in and all. Owner commented that we lasted longer than any of the other workers who had been doing hoeing.
Ironically, I don’t even WANT much more lettuce – they give more than our family can use. But that’s one of the crops that many of the others want. And I’ll do anything that helps keep the local farm afloat.
Still, I wish I had enough work gloves to keep some in the car!
Fern
Conventional work gloves are always so huge with giant floppy fingers and most women have hands that feel lost in these glove.
I try to buy every pair of dress gloves I see at thrift shops and those long ones are nice too as they can reach nearly to your elbows in case you’ve got a sun overdose.
Now, when thrift shops are a thing of the past and gloves are all torn and useless, wonder what some of us will do? I’ve tried to make gloves many times and the end result is always totally pathetic.