Everywhere I look I see people struggling, working two or three jobs, trying to buy a home or maybe even losing their home, barely able to afford filling up at the pump, cutting back on groceries, and even staying home more often to save money.
I can relate to this group of people, especially when I’m sitting quietly at my second job (which happens to be a university library). It’s in those quiet moments when it hits me how bad the economy really is.
Usually I tune out, but lately I’ve picked up on peoples’ conversations around me. I listen to their frustrations about how hard it is to make it these days. These people range in age from millenials to baby boomers and from entry level to well established professionals.
I hear them talking about how they are cutting corners by walking instead of driving to the nearby store or how they are not buying certain grocery items. And now instead of going to the theater, they’re renting movies. I thought I was alone in my struggles, but now I see the economic slowdown affecting pretty much everyone.
For instance, the university is being handed some major budget cuts this year. In response, the school is disbanding programs, merging departments, freezing vacant positions and considering lay offs. There’s talk about changing the basic five day work week into a 10 hour, four day work week to save on electricity, and the school may also trim the number of students accepted for admission to further lower costs.
I remember when I started college almost seven years ago, there was a paper shortage. We had to print out our syllabus from home because the university couldn’t afford the paper. I thought how odd; but now I see something even more alarming happening, and it may get a whole lot worse. I know for a fact we are in a recession, even though we may not have hit the technical definition for one.
I am growing more concerned each day as I see more and more people affected by this economic downturn. Obviously I don’t have the answers to how to end it or what it’s going to take to turn things around. But I’d sure like to know how long it’s going to take for the conversations I’ve been overhearing to change for the better.
Comments
I am feeling the pain of the recession. I often think where is all my money going to? I am optimistic that the economy will get better in 2009.
5/11/08
Although we are all feeling the squeeze, so far this is not anything like the period 1929-1940. However, having lived through that period (I was 7 years old in 1929 and remember going to bed hungry many nights) I am starting to see some disturbing similarities. I believe Florida will suffer worse than the rest of the country. Selling houses to people that do not have 20% of the price as a down payment, and who do not earn in one week the amount of the monthly payments (including taxes), is dooming then into foreclosure. Many many years ago people in Holland and the rest of Europe fell in love with Tulips. The price kept going up and people now started to buy them as investments. The rest of the story is history. Tulipomania! In 1929 a Wall Street genius (at the moment I can’t remember his name) was having his shoes shined. The shoe sine boy told him he had just bought some stock. He knew the game was over, there were no people left to buy, therefore by definition the market would crash. He told his staff to start selling in small amounts and slowly to give opportunity for the, {shall we call them the shoe shine buyers?} to buy at the top. He became a billionaire, every one else lost all their money, and many of them committed suicide. How sad.
Frank