Congratulations, Terry (Letter, Nov. 8), on your elation over Obama’s winning the election. Hopefully you will be happy as events unfold after Jan. 20. Maybe you like higher income taxes, or maybe you don’t pay income taxes now. You must like higher prices, since high taxes is what businesses will pay and pass on to you.

How about fewer choices, since some businesses will likely die because of new government policies. Maybe you want more people on welfare; that is likely, too. You may be unconcerned with the stock market’s nose dive and haven’t noticed bank failures. Unless you have a home mortgage, you may not notice all those loans that failed.

Do you know what a depression is? You may have a chance to find out. An earlier one started with bank failures and stock market crash. Many people lost jobs. As things got worse, we elected a new president. Sound familiar yet? Incoming President Roosevelt created several programs to put people to work, but it didn’t change things. My dad worked for $1 a day part of that time and it was common for men to come by the house offering to work at anything just for a little cash or for food.

Our family was lucky because eventually my dad got a permanent job. But that was about 1937 or so and the stock market crash was in 1929! In fact, the Great Depression really didn’t end until 1939 or later. The beginning of World War II finally ended the depression, because that’s when industry began to gear up to build ships and armament for the British. Then in 1941 with the bombing of Pearl Harbor the United States entered the war, and four years later we were a world power.

If you really listened to what Obama says he will do as president, you know he plans to expand welfare, expand other government programs, create new programs and raise taxes on most people, particularly on businesses, to pay for all of that. That sounds very much like what Roosevelt did in the 1930s, and it won’t work now either. It is industry and opportunities for good paying jobs that end depressions, not government programs. Welcome to the real world, Terry.

Anita W. Johnston

Oak Harbo