The Economy, Are You Afraid Yet?

A year and a month ago, I posted the following, and here we are over a year later, having fear over the economy and other things dominate our news and our thinking. Call me foolish, but sometimes I wonder which came first, the economic problems, or fear leading to even deeper economic problems. We do have serious problems, don't mean to make light, I have a son out of work struggling to find a job, and a husband who has changed jobs a few times in the past 4 years. Because people are afraid to spend money, people stopped buying cars, so Detroit has pretty much shut down. People stopped buying homes, so the real estate market has been slow. Just two examples of how the domino affect is being felt in many areas.

So far, we've been able to pay our bills...but live on a tight budget. We haven't overwhelmed ourselves in debt by having to buy every new thing or piece of new technology that is out there. We didn't give up our small comfortable home for the massive homes that are on the market today, that real estate agents and mortgage companies convinced buyers they could afford...only to be foreclosed on during the past couple of years. We live frugally, carefully, from paycheck to paycheck. The jobs seem to pay less, but our bills are still being paid, and we are still eating, more than we should most of the time. No one is giving us government handouts so far, except for a short period of unemplyment checks. We don't have everything we want, but feel blessed that we have everything that we need, and do what we can to help others who do not.

That is this year, here's what I was thinking last year, something I wrote in September '08:

Are you afraid yet? No? Not yet? Well there must be something wrong with
you then, keep listening to the news, you'll get there eventually. I get tired
of hearing the fear put forth in the news day after day, yes, I'm concerned, but
it isn't going to solve a single thing to live in panic mode.

Please don't think we're untouched by the challenges to our economy, my husband had to leave a company that he worked for for 30 years because of cutbacks after the 9/11 tragedy [one thing lead to another after that, I believe, leading to where we are today]. He then went on to another company that realized that it didn't
need the skills he had after all, then moved on to another job that needed him
only for a time...something he didn't realize fully when he first started. So
what does that mean? He's getting ready for yet another job search.

Be sure to listen VERY closely to the candidates and their running mates as they speak to the issue of the economy.