I re-read my post from yesterday and depressed myself. Today I sifted through the rubble to find some good things which have come from the misery of the past five years. There is some good news, but it is all anecdotal. I can't prove that any of these good things have come to pass, but it seems so to me.
Young people, and in fact many older people, have relearned the value of the dollar. I imagine that Starbuck's is selling fewer $5.00 coffees and more $3.00 coffees. Many people are foregoing any coffee at all other than what they make at home.
Far less money has been spent on consumer goods that none of us really need in order to live a good life. We may desire large SUV's, designer jeans at $200 each, massive flat screen television sets, access to 200 channels of HD programming, and five bedroom homes with spas and swimming pools located in an upscale neighborhoods.
I might have included smart phones and computers. I didn't because cell phones and computers have become necessities over the course of the last decade.
Families have been forced to reduce the amount of money and time that they spend eating out, picking up carryout or eating fast food. We have been compelled to eat at home, preferably with our wife and children setting around a dinner table discussing things of substance.
The nation has finally given appropriate homage to the men and women who serve our country at home and in foreign wars. Most of us treat these soldiers, airmen, marines, sailors and coast guard personnel with the high degree of respect that they deserve.
Most of us are more charitable than we were at the beginning of the decade because more of us know what it feels like to be out of work, on unemployment, watching the balance sheet of our savings or retirement accounts sink lower and lower.
It seems to me that family discussion, interaction and cooperation in trying to forge a living for the family has improved dramatically. We are not as much a ME First society as we were a decade ago.
These are all good things.
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