Second Depression

The **Second Depression** was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place during the late 2070s and 80s. The timing of the Second Depression varied across nations; in most countries it started in 2075 and lasted until late 2086. It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 21st century.

The depression originated in the United States, after a fall in stock prices that began around November 3, 2075, and became worldwide news with the stock market crash of November 9, 2075. Between 2075 and 2080, worldwide GDP fell by an estimated 15%, greater than any economic decline in almost 150 years. Some economies started to recover by the mid-2080s. However, in many countries, the negative effects of the Second Depression lasted until the beginning of Second Mexican-American War.

The Second Depression had devastating effects in countries both rich and poor. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%. Unemployment in the U.S. rose to 27% and in some countries rose as high as 50%.

## Causes

### **Robotics and Automation**

*Main articles: Androids, Artificial-Intelligence Operating System*

The 2060s-70s saw the mass adoption of Itskov-type androids and AIOS technology which enabled low cost, general purpose automation solutions that could accurately simulate human emotion and personality. These mass market androids and AIs proved to be extremely disruptive in the marketplace, replacing human labor in the hospitality and service sectors at a rate never before seen. The large centralized businesses of the period began to completely replace human staff with AI or android labor. Unemployment began to grow, but it wasn't until the market crash of 2075 that the impact was truly felt. As companies saw profits fall and labor costs remained high, most businesses took advantage of long running government incentives toward automation and modernization, originally set up to close the labor gap during the Great Reset. These incentives were used to completely replace human labor across entire industries, leading to the first instances of mass unemployment in a half century.

### **Increased lifespans**

*Main article: Genetic Engineering*

Human longevity saw major advances since the early adoption of life-extension technologies in the 2030s. By the 2070 census, the average human lifespan had been extended to 120 years from just under 80 years at the turn of the millennium. More significantly was the extension of the health-span or working-life of employees with anti-aging technologies. This significantly hindered the need for new labor as older employees also had extensive experience and personal relationships accumulated from a long lifetime of work.

## Turning point and recovery

In most countries of the world, recovery from the Second Depression began in 2081, however in most countries pre-2075 GNP did not return for over a decade and still had an unemployment rate of about 25% in 2090, albeit down from the high of 39% in June of 2081.

The common view among most economists is that Oscar Lachman's policies either accelerated the recovery or at least stopped the growth of unemployment, although his policies were never aggressive enough to bring the economy completely out of recession.