People keep saying that the economy is improving.  Something along the lines of ”Thank goodness, we avoided depression era occurrences like bread lines and apple carts.”  Well according to the Detroit News, this morning at Cobo Hall in the City of Detroit, they handed out applications for government assistance and several thousand people showed up.   I wish the media and our society acknowledged that there is more to the health of our economy then the stock market and bank balance sheets.

Here is an excerpt:

Detroit Police 2nd Deputy Chief John Roach said 150 officers on the scene have gotten a handle on the situation. “There was some pushing and shoving, and some people have fainted,” Roach said. “Given the fact that we have 15,000 people down there, I’m surprised things have been as orderly as they are.”

Roach said he helped a woman who suffered back spasms from waiting in line into his car. Then he went into Cobo and got her an application and drove her to her car.

It was difficult to estimate the crowd because lines snaked all through the convention center and outside along the building and down the parking ramp along Cobo Arena to the river. One police officer estimated the crowd at 50,000.

More than 25,000 applications were snapped up in less than three hours Tuesday at Neighborhood City Halls.