the Great Depression came into being
And so did a lot of other issues with it - like a second world war. War is always great for the economy of some, at the cost of many - but the conditions needed to go to war generally is many suffering and willing to follow the leader.
ww3 is likely, unless we as the economic majority and powerhouse choose another path and start relying on ourselves, instead of governments to act for us.
Imagine for a moment that everyone's wealth was in a cryptocurrency and they had the choice to use it as they wish - if the government said "we want to go to war", how many will directly donate?
If the people had to actually Pay for the war out of their own pockets, and it was made clear to them that they are the ones funding the War at the behest of their Government, then I think the likely-hood of war would decrease a lot. But then again, the War Bonds, that were issued to pay for one of the wars, were pretty much bought by people who understood what they were paying for, but most of those bonds were bought by those that would profit from the war.
Yep, knowing that the taxpayers would be the ones to stack on the profits later.