Culture without the great recession

Well, i'm sure more insightful minds than my own can answer the question better, but i'll give it a shot. First and foremost, Bernie Sanders probably doesn't end up with the following he now has. Generally speaking, the "far-left" would probably be blunted, at least on economic issues, meaning that Occupy Wall Street either wouldn't have happened, or wouldn't have been as big a deal. Although, unless you butterfly away the policies that caused the recession, I think this all still happens at some point. It's just a matter of when, not if.
 
Taking that this happens at face value, a large number of movies and TV shows wouldn’t exist. Margin Call, The Big Short, Hung, etc. wouldn’t be made. If Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme doesn’t get revealed by the credit crunch, that has a whole new interesting set of effects.
 
-A lot less angry and jaded people in the US for one, which means a more general optimistic culture (both in terms of major production as well as the more informal media productions).
-Assuming no major economic downturn in the rest of the world (for the most part), globalization doesn't become a dirty word for so many. General sense of optimism in greater trade retained. A lot less xenophobic/fearmongering media works produced (so probably no Homefront or remake of Red Dawn, or at least they wouldn't be as popular or critically acclaimed as OTL)
-Given the escapism nature of entertainment in times of economic downturn. The Entertainment industry overall would be getting a smaller slice of a larger pie.
-The reboot of Star Trek probably wouldn't be as dark as OTL (but most likely still action packed, that's the general trend regardless of the economy)
-People continue to be ignorant of how the economy works (oh wait, that's same as OTL)... People are optimistically ignorant instead of cynically ignorant.
 
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Id assume we'd have far less severe partisan politics. I dont see Trump being elected, let alone running.

We'd probably see Jeb run more succesfully in 2016 or 2020
 
-The reboot of Star Trek probably wouldn't be as dark as OTL (but most likely still action packed, that's the general trend regardless of the economy)

The first of the JJ Abrams reboot Star Trek movies was already produced before the recession really kicked in, so I doubt that would be impacted any. I remember watching the first major preview of it in 2008 when I went to see Quantum of Solace.

Speaking of which, no economc downturn, you would probably see Daniel Craig's third James Bond film, Skyfall, or whatever it would end up being called, being filmed and released in 2010 or 2011, instead of having to wait all the way until 2012.

As far as smaller shows, Stargate SG-1 in the year or so before the recession, released two direct to DVD films that did fairly well for what they amounted to. Before the recession and financial troubles with MGM, there where plans for at least one additional direct to DVD film for SG-1, and at least one film planned for Stargate: Atlantis, both of which where ultimately casualties of the recession.

As far as broader issues. A lot of older folks ended up loosing all or significant portions of their retirement savings and 401K savings when the stock market crashed. This resulted in a lot of people that should have been retiring either not retiring and staying in their jobs longer, or for those that lost jobs, they still actively sought after employment opportunities. This ended up with a fair number of younger people, those that had just turned 18 and graduated high school, or those that where recent college graduates, suddenly having to compete with a lot of older workers that found themselves not financially ready or able to retire. I've seen and felt it myself even to today with a lot of older people leaving the workforce, at a lot of younger people such as myself that graduated around the time of the recession really not being able to get any sort of serious career going.
 
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