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If a Great Depression happened again, would people still stand together like they did during the penny auctions? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 week ago by Yezzey@lemmy.ca to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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During the Great Depression, when banks foreclosed on farms, neighbors often showed up at the auctions together.

They’d bid only a few cents, and return the land to the family that lost it. Sometimes a noose hung nearby as a warning to outsiders not to profit from someone else’s ruin.

It was rough, but it worked, communities protected each other when the system wouldn’t.

If a collapse like that happened today, do you think people would still stand together or has that kind of solidarity disappeared? Could it happen again?

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[–] hodgepodgin@lemmy.zip 15 points 1 week ago (3 children)

well it probably doesn’t matter, since corporations are the ones buying it all up and you really can’t intimidate those soulless bastards

[–] Yezzey@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago

If a community decides the opposite it doesn't matter.

[–] BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

They may not have a soul, but they do have a pulse

[–] thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

That was my initial thought as well, but after reading the other comment about how a community essentially sacked a house after the "wrong person" bought it...

The only thing that intimidates soulless corps is the threat of losing money. If it becomes clear to them that whatever they buy at auction will be burned to the ground, they probably won't be very eager to keep buying.