It's All TOO Real...
Everywhere you go, anything you read, and most everything you watch is tinged with SOMETHING about our economy.
And I suppose that, for the most part, it's all a tad "entertaining" (because that's what drives TOO MANY of us anyway these days, isn't it?), so we could consider this another form of "reality TV".
In some ways, the current economic state in this nation could be considered "AMERICA'S BIGGEST LOSER" (that would be the American taxpayer, naturally). In other ways, it's like "SURVIVOR" (for us as well as the politicos who want to keep their cushy jobs), and and in still other aspects, it's like "AMERICAN IDOL" (with all those nasty-ass people who "think" they have talent...like talent to change the economy for the better in record time).
Well, to be honest, it's going to take more than some hackneyed version of something I find loathsome to convince me that we're going to be out of the woods any time soon (as a nation).
Personally, many of us Americans will never get lost IN those woods, due to the fact that we refuse to be swayed by socialist rhetoric, help for the masses (who would serve themselves better by helping THEMSELVES FIRST), and an even longer list of entitlements, when all we really need to do is pay the hell attention to HISTORY.
America today can't compare itself to the America of the 1930s, or even the 1950s.
We got out of our Great Depression NOT JUST by creating jobs, or by JUST giving handouts all over the place, but by basically GOING TO WAR.
It was World War II that steeled our resolve as a manufacturing giant, providing resource to our allies. It was our industrially-based infrastructure that fueled the engine of war, producing vast quantities of materiel so we could WIN the fight against global fascism.
In the 1950s, we were STILL an industrial giant, but we had usurpers to our "throne" waiting in the wings, and we pretty much let them into our court , welcoming them with open arms.
Since then, we've seen so much of OUR way of life erode away like a levy in Louisiana.
We've seen ALL the factories that won wars past close forever. We've seen jobs that USED to be the specific domain of THIS nation, winding up scattered like seeds to the four winds of the globe, only to be "re-invented" in foreign sweat shops that pay their workers less per MONTH than our workers made per WEEK!
We've seen our federal trade deficit grow exponentially,while our GDP (Gross Domestic Product) declined in like manner.
We owe MORE money to more nations, and we import MORE products FROM those nations, all for the sake of "globalization".
Granted,the "New Technological Revolution" has provided everyone with damn near instant everything from telecommunications, to information exchange, to music, to video media...and then some.
And even with ALL of this (and more) we continue to lose jobs overseas or to Mexico. To what end?
Mexico is replete with corruption. The government, although it runs the LARGEST SILVER MINE in the world, and is the THIRD largest producer of the oil American consumes, is being taken over by drug cartels, who only want to push their "product", and will stop at NOTHING to ensure that, even it means wholesale killing in their nation as well as along our borders, while their own citizens live in relative poverty (REAL poverty too, and not what the poverty claimed by too many paying the system here).
So you can see that the America of TODAY is nothing like the America from the 1930s OR even the 1950s.
And that's the GOOD news.
The BAD news is that many nations that we owe TONS of money to aren't doing as well financially either, and when THAT bubble bursts, things WILL get interesting.
Now many of us WILL weather this economic storm, and we won't have to be rich-asses to do it, either.
We'll make it by NOT falling into the time-worn aspect of "keeping up with the Joneses". Too many times, people bite off a lot more (financially) than they could ever hope to chew, just so they can convince themselves that they can live a lot better. And maybe they hocked their lives in the process. That is a recipe for disaster. Live within your means, was the phrase my Dad always used. Nothing used to piss him off more than "seeing people with champagne tastes owning a beer pocketbook".
You treat every day as the gift is it, never taking it for granted, and living NOT like it's the LAST day you'll ever see, but rather the FIRST. You take it AS IT COMES, and never try to foresee, predict, or lull yourself into a false sense of security.
Life is hard enough, and the last thing you really WANT to do is make it harder, right?
You can take it EASY with life, and yet NOT take life EASY....if you get my drift.
You can be a player OR a spectator...that choice is yours.
But if you choose to play, learn ALL the rules, know the penalties, expect to get hurt or suffer setbacks, and always play to win.
Just make sure your "victory" is something you CAN achieve (no matter how insignificant to others), and not some pipe dream (you couldn't possibly hope to get in several lifetimes).
It's not hard to do, but it WILL challenge you. With time, you will get better as the "game" progresses.
And you will find that it makes "loving the game" that much easier.

Be safe, think smart, and make good decisions.