Sunday, November 30, 2008

Recession Chic

Five Thanksgiving meals later, I'm at the end of my vacation and five pounds heavier. I promise you I ate lightly, had small pieces of pie, little or no seconds. I exercised. But it is what it is. I will gain weight unless I eat celery. Just celery. But you didn't stop by to read about my weight loss/gain woes. What I intended to talk about was the economic "crisis". Really. I'm not kidding. So if you want to go check out CakeWrecks or something fun, exit now.

Still here? Cool. So I've been trying to figure out how our family should react to the "crisis". I keep putting it in quotes because Oklahoma hasn't really experienced much in the way of an economic downturn. No glut of foreclosed homes. The unemployment rate went up this month, but it's still lower than it was this time last year. Food prices are higher. But that's about the extent of the crisis in my neighborhood.

It doesn't hurt to prepare, though. What do people do to prepare for an economic crisis? Cut spending, stop using credit cards, pay off debt, live below their means. Become a recessionista, trying to look good while spending little on clothes. Wait. We already do that. All of it. We pretty much live like an economic crisis is around every corner. I really can't think of anything we should change in response to this economic crisis. So that's good, right? We were cool even before recession-proof living became recession chic.

What I really want to do is be forced to prepare for economic plenti-tude-ness. Wouldn't you rather be reading headlines about the coming economic prosperity? Dire warnings about how to deal with sudden wealth? Reading daily headlines about another food bank closing, layoffs at the Goodwill Thrift store, cities putting moratoriums on new building until the glut of empty houses, abandoned in the rush to upgrade, can be given away. Sounds like fun. Or an OPEC member nation.

2 comments:

Shari said...

I'm tellin' ya! Wouldn't it be great to have to decide what to do with the extra mill? Or 100K? Or 50 grand?

At this point, I think one thousand dollars with no name on it would be peachy keen!

Extreme Educators said...

Forget a thousand dollars, I see a quarter on the sidewalk and think it's a sign that my luck is looking up!... Though a random thousand dollars would be like winning the lottery.