You are also missing this, without which the current drop would look a lot more like the crash in 29, possibly worse. Had the Federal Reserve not propped up all the failing banks they would all have most likely declared bankruptcy within a month. Where do you think the dow would be had that happened?
Here is a list of DJIA companies that would now likely be bankrupt had the government not interviened:BOA,Citigroup,GM,JPMorgan Chase
That is over 10% of the companies in the DJIA that would now be bankrupt, in the span of a few months.
The difference between now and 1929 is not the scale of the drop, but the magnitude of the governments intervention in the market.
Old programmers never die, they just hit account block limit.