OUR TOUGH ECONOMY: OK, I ADMIT IT, IT SCARES ME

I don't know about you but I'm really getting scared.  Although we've gone from a two-wage-earner family to one student and one consultant whose income is unpredictable, that's not the issue.  It's the sense of vulnerability that just won't quit.  I wake up and see overseas markets sinking each day and knowing that ours will follow, listen to layoff numbers of a size that I don't think I've imagined, much less seen before, remember the hard time all my high school classmates went through during the big steel strikes, and worry.

Bill Clinton used to talk all the time about Americans who "work hard and play by the rules."  Well guess who's getting hosed now?  A good friend of mine, a widow, has lost 50% of her 401K and she's in her early 60s so there isn't all that much time to recoup before she starts to need it.  For many, medical expenses as they aged were supposed to be cushioned by savings; now each expense is a real economic violation.  Friends in service businesses like dog walking, the guy who cuts my hair and relies on mall walk-in business that's not appearing, all the small, non-urgent elements that are the underpinnings of an economy -- they're rickety and that's scary.  Forget about the auto industry - that's almost too big to get your head around.  But a young mother running a pet care business so she has more time for her family, a deli owner, a home childcare center, an occupational therapist or piano teacher or online yarn entrepreneur -- a new college grad with no job prospects, an independent consultant like me -- we're vulnerable.

My anger at George Bush and the past eight years has grown geometrically in the midst of all this.  Remember the ant and the grasshopper?  Well Bush, who ran as a sturdy, sensible ant, has squandered all the reserve that might have helped us weather parts of this crisis.  He's put us so far in debt that we are a bad example and object of rage, disappointment and distrust.  In yet another element of the disdain in which we're held, our profligate, self-indulgent conduct of both war and economic policy has left us in tatters with not nearly enough resources to take care of ourselves without enormous pain and sacrifice.  I've been out of work.  I've been in debt. We've climbed back from two separate crises, one of our own making, one not, and moved ourselves to a place where we have a little equilibrium.  That's a vulnerable asset, and we're going to have to struggle to protect it.  But we're so much luckier than others.

If you're trying to get out of the heady debt so many Americans were seduced into, there's no room for a layoff or slowdown.  If you need a job to keep your Green Card, if you need holiday work to pay for SATs and college applications, if you're retired and fear for your savings, if you need summer jobs to stay off the streets, if your kids need extra educational intervention, this mess is going to land on you.  And that's only if it doesn't get so bad that the photo at the top of this post is a reality once again.

Clearly I'm not the only one thinking about the Great Depression.  This TIME cover, which will certainly be a classic, evokes a famous photo of FDR in its picture of President-Elect Obama.  "The New New Deal" it says.  Hoping, pleading almost, that the inspiring, calm and competent Roosevelt will be channeled in this new President, along with a great portion of Abraham Lincoln.   Clearly, the evocation of presidential icons from both parties reflects the comprehension of the scope and magnitude of the issues we face - and the urgency surrounding them.  Just as clearly, I'm not the only one who's worried.  AND I keep adding to this as news breaks - now the Dow is below 8,000.  I think I just need to shut up and post.

Comments

[maryan]

i kno

[morrison]

It's somewhat comforting to know I am not the only middle ager who is feeling this angst. Here's my slant on the economy and what it has been doing to me:
http://alldoorsconsidered.blogspot.com/2008/11/financial-intervention-economy-is.html

Do I really need to see a shrink? Or should I tough it out?

[Cathy Severson]

Yes, it's scary, but our going crazy doesn't help. Your friend who lost 50% of her 401K only lost it if she cashes it in. Now, it's all on paper.

Playing by the rules-I had a major ah-ha moment years ago when I was watching a PBS show about Appalachia. These people came the this country, ended up coal mining, working as hard as they knew how to work. It's the biggest myth we live by. It's not that you can't work hard, play by the rules and succeed, but there is no guarantee.

I remember listening to Joe the Plummer when he said, "If I work hard as a plummer, why should I give all my money to the government so the can give to someone who doesn't work as hard." There are a lot of people that are working every bit as hard as Joe the Plummer and barely getting by.

I want us to give our new president support and help. Give him a chance. This isn't static and it isn't forever.

[Andrea J. Stenberg]

Yes these are turbulent economic times - certainly the worst I've seen in my adult years. But I don't think we're going to see the kind of poverty we saw during the Depression. For one thing, most developed nations now have some sort of social safety net. Second, the kind of world-wide collaboration we're seeing in dealing with the banking crisis and the automakers is unprecedented. Governments are not just going to sit idly by and see what happens.

Yes, if you're nearing retirement - or are already there - you need to make some adjustments. But for most of us who were doing okay before this mess happened, will be okay after.

What we need to do now is keep on our respective leaders to work through this crisis and to implement solutions that will prevent it from happening again.