12.17.2008

Obstinate Denial

A couple of weeks ago I saw a sign that read, “We hear there is a recession. We have decided not to participate.” The sign was simply a piece of paper that was tacked to the wall in a historically Republican barbecue restaurant in North Georgia. From the font and border around the paper, it I assumed that the sign had been there since the recession in the beginning of the 90’s. The restaurant was the type of institution that tacked anything slightly political to the wall. In this case the sign is able to have a timely status once again.

That single piece of paper posted on the wall really got me thinking. It is impossible to listen to the news without hearing reports about how poorly the economy is doing, but it seems that many folks don’t want to participate in this latest trend. For being a country so vulnerable to crazes and trends, we are slow to pick this up. Maybe we need a good celebrity host to get us involved.

There are countless reports of consumer spending being down, but holiday traffic is just as chaotic as ever, and I have seen mall parking lots at nearly full capacity. I went to the mall yesterday to see those who are being obstinate towards the recession. I am sure some who were at the mall could argue that less money was spent than normal because of the extreme sales stores were having. At the end of the day, does buying something on sale mean that we have given into the recession?

A few weeks ago I listened to a radio broadcast about the Depression after the crash in 1929. I figured it could give me some insight about what life could be like in the coming months. For the record, I would not recommend listening to a lot of stories of the Great Depression in a single sitting. While listening to interviews with folks who reminisced about the 1930’s, I frantically searched for jobs online. I applied for three jobs within minutes of hearing the end of the broadcast. When I wasn’t scouring job sites for open positions I was wondering if what people experienced in the 1930’s could be possible today.

I believe our economic infrastructure is capable of collapse – everyday it seems to be sucker-punched by the fall of some industry. But I am not sure that we are the same country that survived the Great Depression. One of the men on the radio program commented that today’s generation will not allow themselves to experience a depression. He made the comment that his generation was not afraid of dying for something, but this generation is not afraid of killing for something. Poignant. I am not sure if the man believed that the present generation is a group of violent anarchists, but either way his statement revealed that the generation that lived through the Great Depression observes a difference in this generation’s resilience and coping skills. Maybe the generation of the 1930’s views this generation as insubordinate to economic downturns.

I don’t know much about the luxury vices of the early 1930’s, but I find it hard to believe that must-haves of the 1930’s were comparable to ‘necessary’ electronics and treats of today. We are a country that sits with $4 coffee drinks to discuss how hard of economic times we are experiencing. I have repeatedly been unable to find a table at Starbucks lately. The other day I was fortunate enough to sit at a small table. I listened to the man flanked by all of his cutting-edge electronics next to me talk about the hard times our nation is experiencing. Between comments the man took sips of his large designer coffee. Did folks in the 1930’s continue to indulge in the small things for a while? Or, are we now a nation that does not know how to scale back? Either we don’t know how to scale back or we are choosing to not to participate in the recession.

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