RUSH: I mentioned to you last week that I had a story about how what we are living through right now is actually worse than the Great Depression and why nobody knows.

I went back to my archives, and I got that story, and I have it here. Open borders, bigger government, free college for everybody. How many people already have free college by virtue of having their student loans forgiven or what have you? Everything these people have tried has not worked, so they want to try even more of it. “Bigger welfare state. Get rid of the guns, no oil, no banks.” Really? That’s what the Democrats in the sixties were talking about when they were protesting Democrat Party convention in Chicago.

This is so old, it’s predictable; I don’t even have to wait for these people to say it in a debate. You know what they’re gonna be. Trump, Carson, Fiorina, where are they today? I am serious. Where are they nuking this stuff? Well, they’re running in opposition to it. (interruption) That’s why I’m asking. They’re running for president. Their points last night put their agenda forward. Are you telling me you’re not gonna spend any time obliterating it?

Jim Quinn, The Burning Platform blog. We find everything here, folks. “Why This Feels Like a Depression for Most People.” You read this, and you can figure out why the Millennials are weird or strange or feel that way, because they have come of age in a depression that nobody will call that. Now, none of this in this story is new to those of you who have been regularly listening to this program. But it is well thought out and presented here. I found at the Zero Hedge blog.

“Everyone has seen the pictures of the unemployed waiting in soup lines during the Great Depression.” Wait. Should we make that assumption? Do you think everybody has seen those pictures? You have, so you think everybody else has. Yeah, I’ve seen ’em. You know those old black-and-whites with men standing in soup lines with hardly any clothes, and it’s freezing cold. All these black and white still shots. Some film. You’ve seen it, right?

“Everyone has seen the pictures of … the Great Depression. When you try to tell a propaganda believing, willfully ignorant, mainstream media watching, math challenged consumer we are in the midst of a Greater Depression, they act as if youÂ’ve lost your mind. They will immediately bluster about the 5.1% unemployment rate…” A depression? What are you talking about! See the unemployment rate? It’s 5.1%.

They’ll tell you about “record corporate profits, and stock market near all-time highs. The cognitive dissonance of these people is only exceeded by their inability to understand basic mathematical concepts” involved. “The reason you don’t see huge lines of people waiting in soup lines during this Greater Depression is” why? Let me just ask you, and let me give you a number. Do you know what the number…? At the peak of the Depression, at the height, do you know what the number of unemployed were?

Now, granted, the population of the country was less than it is today. There were 12.8 million Americans unemployed during the Great Depression. These were the men pictured in those soup lines. Today, there are 46 million Americans unemployed, and 94 million not working. Now, these 46 million people, these are the counted unemployed. This is the U-3 number. The counted unemployed represent 14% of the population. There are 23 million households on food stamps. There are 123 million households in America and 23 million of them are on food stamps. Therefore 19% of all households in America require food stamp assistance to survive.

In 1933, there were approximately 126 million Americans living in 30 million households. The government did not keep official unemployment records ’til 1940, but the Department of Labor estimated 12.8 million people were unemployed during the worst year of the Depression, or 24.9% of the labor force. We have the lowest labor force participation rate since 1977 in the country today. Sixty-two percent of the labor force is working; 38% not working. I’m gonna stop with the numbers ’cause numbers get confusing to keep track of when you’re hearing them and you don’t have them in front of you to look at. But why do you not see any soup lines?

What’s the difference between 1933 and today? Well, obviously, 1933, there were no food stamps. In 1933 there was no welfare. In 1933 there were no welfare debit cards. In 1933, if you were out of work, you didn’t eat. You had to stand in the soup line and depend on charity. In 2015, you can be among the 94 million not working and have a roof over your head, have a cell phone, a car, your home is probably air-conditioned, and you’re eating as much as you want.

Twelve million unemployed people standing in soup lines gave us these horrible pictures of the Great Depression. Today, the numbers of people out of work dwarf even when you factor the population difference. Far more people are not working today than during the Great Depression. We are $18 trillion in debt today, too. We are paying people not to work. We are paying people comfortably not to work. This is why I keep making the point, 94 million Americans not working but they’re all eating. It does matter. “What, do you want people to starve?” No, that’s not the point. Don’t get sidetracked here.

If you can eat and have a house and a big screen and a cell phone without working, who in the world is paying for it? Back during the Great Depression, if you couldn’t pay for it, you didn’t have it. And that’s why parents and grandparents of yours who lived during the Great Depression are so scared that another one would happen. That’s why they’re so hell-bent on everybody going to college and getting an education, because that was the key to not being fired. That was the key to having a job so that you could eat.

My parents and grandparents could not imagine being paid not to work by the government. They feared it. They thought it would be disastrous. So here comes the Democrat Party last night promising even more for people that don’t work, can’t work, are not qualified to work, not very skilled. They become the champions. They become the number one constituency group for the Democrat Party. They and their rich donors.