Fire!

So the other day, I was pondering the economic crisis, and I was reminded of an interesting question that has been cooking in the back of my mind since sometime last year. What state would our economy be in right now if a year ago, no one would have come on the television freaking out about an economic downturn like it was the end of the world? Now, I'm not trying to say that there was no economic crisis before this happened; I understand that the threat was very real. There was a very legitimate cause for concern in the mortgage crises all over the country and the questionable lending practices that have been going on for the last ten or twenty years. However, I really think that the worst possible thing that we could have done about it was leak that little tidbit to the press, however dishonest that may have been. Once the first hint that we had a crisis on our hands hit the airwaves, people began to do what people do best: panic and act like dumb animals, on a huge scale.

Now we have sunk into an economic rut that pulls us down farther every time we try to get ourselves. Every time the market begins to rebound, we get some quarterly report from some company that no one buys anything from anyway that might be a little down and everyone screams and howls about how the market is going down the toilet. It's disgusting.

Here's something that my dad told me that I'll never forget: "The only recession that matters is when you lose your job." Until that happens, we need to ignore all of the numbers and figures that come across the newsdesk and keep supporting the economy with the buying power that we still have.

And to the thousands who have recently found themselves unemployed, you have my deepest sympathies. Feel free to scream and howl about the economy all you want, but know that at the end of the day, all the screaming and howling in the world isn't going to get your job back. The way to save this economy lies not in news reports, government bailouts, or tax cuts. We need to change the way that we live our lives at a universally personal level. We need to change our spending habits, learn how to balance our finances, learn to live within our means, and get away from this "Me Generation" attitude.