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As Congress and the new president debate proposals
to help secure the nation’s economic future, people
must still make changes to cope with the current financial
situation.
“The economy affects everyone,” Phil Conrad
’09 said. “It just means that I have to start
saving money and being more conservative with how I
spend it.”
Having that financial conscience does not mean that
people must abandon their current lifestyle in order
to save money, but rather have a greater awareness of
how their spending will affect them in the future.
“I think a lot of people will have to spend money
more carefully,” Tucker Gaegauf ’10 said.
“Personally I will usually research something before
I buy it,” Gaegauf said.
In a nation that is at sometimes consumed with spending,
cutting back may prove to be a difficult task.
“America has been so consumer-oriented that people
will have trouble saying ‘I might not be able to
buy this,’ ” Gaegauf said.
The domino effect
The economy runs on the domino effect; banks lend out
money to their customers, but they also must give money
to the suppliers that sell goods and services to those
customers. When the banks are reluctant to give out loans,
those suppliers cannot buy what they need to run their
businesses. The suppliers then lose money and are forced
to let employees go.
“In the first nine months of 2008, 750,000 people
lost their jobs,” CNN senior business correspondent
Ali Velshi said on the Oprah Winfrey Show. “In
September alone, an incredible 159,000 jobs were lost.”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment
rate in Michigan stands at 8.5 percent, the highest
out of any state in the country.
Impact on our lives
“This next month, average rates on some private student
loans will spike from ten to eleven percent to as high
as thirteen to fourteen percent,” publisher of FinAid.org
Mark Kantrowitz said to the Grand Rapids Press.
These relatively small numbers yield big long-term
consequences for future college students. An extra $60
a month would be added to a $30,000 loan debt.
Another source for the economic turmoil is the mortgage
crisis.
Currently there are 13 home foreclosures in East Grand
Rapids, a large number for a small community.
“I am really surprised that there are so many,”
Natalie Welsh ’10 said.
Coping with changes
While students understand that the country is in a fragile
economic state, the specifics of the government's plans
remain somewhat unclear.
Economy teacher Janice Yates feels that this is such
an important topic that she often breaks away from traditional
lessons to keep students informed.
“We stop our book work to discuss it daily,”
Economy teacher Janice Yates said.
While the economy is naturally a topic of interest
for Social Studies classes, students who don’t
take those courses are left to research the topic themselves,
a task that few accomplish.
“I don’t think that a majority of kids are
knowledgeable about it,” Conrad said.
Some students say that changes may not even be necessary.
“As a district, I don’t think that we will
be as affected as other districts who may not have the
funds in place that we do,” Peter Stultz ’09
said.
Although East Grand Rapids may appear financially secure,
residents are feeling the effects of an unstable economy.
“I think we are worried about our parent’s
jobs,” Welsh said.
The economy is constantly undergoing changes that make
it difficult for even the most informed financial gurus
to predict the nation’s future. Only time will
tell if the adjustments that students make will protect
them against future economic hardships.
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This [teen] is an immigrant from Mexico, and he works long hours at a local farm milking dairy cows, five hours per milking, twice a day.
