Lessons From the Recession

It is pretty clear now that our economy never did start to recover from the recession.  Despite positive outlooks, reality has set a different tone.  We have had very little growth in terms of jobs or cash flow, housing prices remain depressed or still sinking, and we have a dysfunctional government that is completely ineffective and useless.   There were a number of factors that led us here, but they all stem from money problems, whether it be the housing bust, over-extended debts on families, or insecure financial institutions.  So what lessons can we learn from this recession and take with us into the future.  Well, before we look at the lessons we can learn, we must first look at what it was like before the recession hit.  Before the recession, many families were already drifting apart, each member going their own way, not keeping in touch or simply disregarding his/her family.  (This is not universally representative, just seemingly a norm).  As families drifted apart, individuals began to rely solely on themselves for financial stability, often borrowing against assets to fund their lifestyles and accumulating debt at an alarming rate.  And where has this gotten us all.  No where really.  Those people who accumulated excessive debt have ended up isolated from their families with houses full of useless garbage or for that matter houses that they shouldn't be living in to begin with because they couldn't afford it.  In short, our society has become extremely materialistic over the past few decades and this materialism has eventually led to our demise.  By seeking to acquire the latest gadget or toy, we are willing to spend more time at work making money than we are at home spending time with our family.  In seeking to fill our houses with "stuff", we have forgotten our own families and how to spend time with them and appreciate who they are.

The biggest lesson that I think we could all learn from this recession is that money isn't everything.  The people who were not hard hit, still have their houses, and still struggle to provide for their families may say I am completely off the mark.  But try talking to those who lost everything; their houses, their jobs, their security blanket of "stuff" and see where the quest for money and material possessions got them.  Most of them now are probably partly reliant upon their families for support and if not, it is most likely because they pushed them away and now have nowhere to turn to.  By focusing our efforts solely on money, we take away time and effort that could accumulate vast reserves of family resources.  Yes, we all need money to live, there is no doubt about it, but there are still many of us who work longer than we need to in order to sustain our current lifestyle and avoid giving up any of the luxuries we may have.  There may not be many luxuries left to have, but I guarantee that most of us have at least one luxury in our life that we could eliminate and possibly save money in doing so.  It is simply a matter of whether we are willing to give that up for more time with our family. 

 There is a friend of one of my friends who recently got married about 4 months ago.  This young man has a well paying job that requires many hours of work.  In addition to that, because he works so hard, he is up for a promotion but feels that he must put in even more work in order to secure that promotion which means he will be making even more money in the future.  Yet with all his efforts focused on his work, meaning 60+ hours a week, he has almost completely neglected his new wife who now feels lonely and is questioning why she got married in the first place.  She is even considering a divorce because as it is, she rarely sees her husband.  So is this promotion really worth it if it will separate the two of them and leave him with nothing but more work to do?  Just because he gets the promotion does he think that he will be able to work less hours afterwards?  Usually, when you get a promotion, it is because of the quality of work that you do and the amount of time you spend in the office.  If you slack off after you get a promotion, you most likely will not be keeping the increase in salary or the promotion itself.  So maybe it is worth it sometimes to pass up that promotion in order to maintain a shred of sanity or more importantly, family unity. 

Trust me, as much as I write about working less and giving up the luxuries, I struggle with it as well.  There are times when I will work 12-14 hour days for weeks straight before I realize what I am doing and back off.  Luckily, I am self employed and work only as much as I need to.  If I don't work, I don't make money, but there is no one to fire me or take away my pay.  For someone in a corporate environment it may be more difficult to cut back, especially if they have been putting in 60 hour work weeks.  If they all of a sudden stop working as much, management will probably not be happy.  It is a vicious circle, but in order to keep our heads above water, maintain sanity and overall health, we must look at what is really important and focus on that.  The economy will eventually recover, it is just a matter of time.  We would all do well to focus more of our time on stabilizing family bonds and worrying less about money.  I know its not easy, it never is.  Consumerism and a focus on money has been ingrained into our consciousness to such an extent that it is almost impossible to get rid of it.  Yet if we can manage to at least balance it out with family time, then I think we can go a long way to maintaining family unity.  Today, look at where you are in life.  Do you spend enough time with your family?  Do you work to much?  The only thing that really matters in life is those we spend our lives with, so focus on them and everything will turn out just fine.